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2002 Vintage

May 22 & 23, 2004: We bottled 254 cases!  All went very well.  Huge thanks to all that helped.  I will post spec sheets & more pictures soon.  NEW LABEL ART!  We have reserved October 16, 2004 for our 2002 vintage wine release dinner at the Wenatchee Golf & Country Club.  Please drop us an email if you would like to be sent an invitation.   

December 2003:  Racked and tasted from all barrels.  Color is excellent on all varieties.  The wine is very drinkable now, and you could tell subtle differences between types of barrels.  I am very pleased with how things are progressing.  This might be the best wine I have made yet!

Summer 2003:  Topped several times during the summer and the wine continues to show great promise..

March 2003:  Topped and tasted from all barrels and the 2002 is really doing well.  Will rack later this summer.

January 2003:  Topped all barrels and tasted from a few.    Although still very young, the wine shows great promise, especially the Cab.

November 2002:  All wine completed M/L and have been racked and moved into the cooler storage area.    This is the earliest all wine has finished with M/L.  Color looks excellent, and tastings are in line for very nice finished product.

October 11, 2002: The 2002 crush and press is now over.  Everything went relatively smooth.  Thank you very much to those who helped; it couldn't have been done without you.  During this crush and press there was plenty of discussion on buying some new equipment!
Here are the numbers:
Merlot-                                 1.875 tons-    
Syrah-                                   0.875 tons-   
Cabernet Sauvignon-     6.450 tons-     
Total                                      9.200 tons-  

September 2002:
9/24/02-  Here are a couple of shots from Riverbend taken on 9/24/02.  With me in the pictures is Gus Heinicke who oversees the vineyard/orchard operation at Riverbend.  As you can see the grape clusters are lined up very nicely.  These vines are 3 years old.

9/23/02-  Merlot sugar started at 24%, this morning is was down to 11.6% and things are progressing right on schedule.  The Merlot color is excellent.  Hope to press into barrels on 9/25/02.  Also on 9/25 we hope to crush the Syrah.  The Cab is estimated to be harvested on 9/28.  More later.
9/18/02-  We crushed 2 tons of Merlot.  The grapes are wonderful!  Here's a picture of a lug of grapes being dumped into the crusher/stemmer.  The crushed grapes then fall into the fermentor.
 

August 2002:
The 2002 harvest is not too far way!

Here are Gus and myself admiring the 2002 crop of Merlot at Riverbend Orchard/Vineyard.

Here are a couple more shots of the Riverbend grapes taken on 8/21/02.  Still a ways off from harvest, but looking very nice.