Spring Snow

Brick House and Winery in the foggy distance

March 27, 2023

I’m late! I’m Late..for a very important date!

The snows of a long, cool winter in the Willamette valley rolled right past the equinox and well into spring. 

On the cusp of April, the vines were still sleeping.  We pruned late, betting that the cold would delay their awakening,  hoping to avoid an early bud break and a situation in which the green tissue of the swollen buds is exposed to freezing temperature.  The dreaded ‘late frost.’ 

So far, so good.  While a lot can change in the course of a Willamette Valley summer it appears we are on course for another late harvest in the fall.  

I love late harvests the most!  They seem to produce the most thrilling wines.  I recall 2011s, 2008s and the vaunted 1999s …and in that list I would include the 2022 Pinot Noirs now resting in barrel in our cellar.  

Harvested in mid-October, the 2022’s are some of the most promising barrels in my 30+ years of making wine from the Brick House vines.  Such good things to come…

Could we be so fortunate as to have another long, late dry harvest in 2023? It may be asking too much from the wine gods…but there are some signs they might just bestow us with another special gift this fall. 

In this spring of 2023, we’re late…but it’s a good thing.  Come fall, we might just pull White Rabbit out of the proverbial hat.