2021 Harvest Report
December 7th, 2021 – written by Paul and Shannon Brock.
You may have already heard that 2021 was a challenging vintage. It rained throughout the growing season and continued raining during harvest. Many of the rainstorms were torrential and accompanied by flash flood warnings. The rain was so frequent that it was hard to find dry days to harvest on. There was rot in some varieties that needed to be removed. The long hours required for sorting and processing made it an exhausting vintage for winemakers.
“2021 was a winemakers’ vintage. A lot of love and sweat went into these wines,” according to Max Murphy, our assistant winemaker/vineyard manager.
“It was challenging, but the fruit was ripe and the flavors were good,” said Paul Brock, co-owner/winemaker/vineyard manager. “Our 2021 wines will be of excellent quality.”
The quantity of fruit was high, which is great news for those of you inconvenienced by some of our wines being sold out the past year or so. Our little wine cellar is packed to the brim. Acids were relatively low thanks to the warm temperatures during the growing season. Sugar was also lower than normal, resulting in lower alcohol in the finished wines. In an average year, our wines range from 11 to 13.5% alcohol. In 2021, the range will be about 9-12%. You will notice a bit more delicacy in the wines and they will be very quaffable.
Our biointensive viticulture practices were successful again. We find the vines to be much more resilient when grown this way and therefore were able to withstand the excessive rainfall. Our estate fruit was cleaner and riper than others in the region. We are sure you will taste the difference and look forward to sharing the new releases from 2021 with you in the coming months.
