Vines and vintages, weather and rain
We have written many times about the preferences of winemakers and growers alike, which simply put are that a long slow dry and warm growing season is always better than any year involving cold and wet. We talk to our winery and farming friends regularly, and this opinion is about as close to universal as you can get. We thank all our contacts in ‘the business” for their regular updates and opinions. We need only look back over the last 20 vintages in the western US to get a clear sense of why this preference is so uniform.
The four worst years for grape growing were 1998, 2000, 2010, and 2011. 1998 was a severe “El Niño” year, with hard steady rain in the northern appellations of California as late as Memorial Day weekend. This cool and rain-shortened year produced a small crop beset with problems, so even though there was not much wine made, much of it went wanting for buyers.
2000 similarly was cold and wet, with rain coming quickly in the fall and crashing the harvest party also caused by “El Niño.” While there were bright spots, most wines were unremarkable.
2010 was the coldest year in 50 growing years in California, leaving winemakers and growers holding on for dear life through an extended harvest. With some exceptions like Zinfandel, most varietals were ultimately picked but the results were spotty. Despite hand wringing by the wine press (including me), there were some really great wines that came out of the vintage, and others — well, not so much.
2011 was beset by a late and cool spring delaying bud break, only to come up on a heat spike at harvest followed by heavy rains in September and very cool temperatures. The best growers and wineries fortunately had the capital to take drastic measures and preserve a very small and low quality crop. Others who were not as well funded lost much of their production for the year.
One other note. 2015, while a high quality year as far as the fruit goes, was a small vintage for many appellations. Rain late into the spring and caused shatter at bud break and during the set. This is when the crop is quite vulnerable, when the bunches of grapes are being formed. The damage resulted in a small harvest, but of good quality.
Like last year the much talked about “drought” for the wine industry is more fiction than truth. In 2015, rains arrived in January in wine country and filled the reservoirs for the growing season, and enhanced levels when the aforementioned spring rains showed up. This year, “El Niño” delivered plenty of rain and snow pack to both Northern California and the Northwest to make for a good and more relaxed vintage, notwithstanding other challenges that may show up.
While Southern California received less rain than the northern parts of the state, less grape stock comes from there. The concentrations of vineyards are from the Central Coast northward, where plenty of rain fell for the crop. We get frequent questions about rainfall amounts and the effect on the wine industry. Our sense from talking to all our contacts in wine countries — both in the Northwest and California — is that, at least for grape growers, the discussion is a bit overblown. As we have written before, they know how to deal with the frequent droughts, and they will always take dry conditions over wet ones.
One other note on the wines we are trying from 2015, so far all we have tried in whites and dry rosés have been fabulous! While in some cases it does appear that fewer bottles of our favorites were made, the quality of the wines did not suffer a bit. We will continue to update wine consumers here and in our blog on all we try — and any supply constraints — as more of the wines from 2015 become available. Email us here at the shop, or stop by with specific questions and we will do our best to get first-hand answers direct from the vineyards and crush pads.
If there is a topic you would like to read about or if you have questions on wine, you can email George@thedinnerpartyshop.com, or make suggestions by contacting the Healthy Community section at the Coeur d’Alene Press.
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George Balling is co-owner (with his wife Mary Lancaster) of the dinner party, a wine and table top décor shop located by Costco in Coeur d’Alene. George worked as a judge in many wine competitions, and his articles are published around the country. You can learn more about the dinner party at www.thedinnerpartyshop.com. Be sure and check out our weekly blog at www.thedinnerpartyshop.com/home/blog-2 You can get all of these articles as well as other great wine tips by friending us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/#!/dinnerpartyshop.