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2006 Vintage

September 2007.  Sorry to not have any updates.  The 2006 vintage has come along very nicely.  Recently racked it all and tasted through most of the barrels.  I am very pleased with how things are progressing.  Another great vintage.  (We have had so many great vintages in a row, I know I must be sounding like a broken record.)

The 2006 growing season was overall excellent.  I know this must be sounding like a broken record, but this must be one of the reasons the Mattawa area is recognized as a premium producing region: the weather conditions are typically very good for grape growing; this year was no exception.
We had some rain during the first part of June that was not good for the cherries, but did not effect grape quality.  Otherwise the summer days were full of sunshine and great growing conditions.  We did have a few days of wet weather during our grape harvest, but this was very minimal rain and only enough to be a nuisance and delay harvest a few days with no apparent effect on quality.  Our State did encounter near record lows during Halloween (after our harvest was complete) and then record rains shortly after, so for those growers who did not have their grapes harvested there could be quality issues.

10/19/06:  Cabernet Franc harvest.  Wow.  I do not recall the colors and smells from Cab Franc being so intense.  Hopefully this will make for some incredible wine.  (Snuck away to ND with Dad, Dave and Willie for some pheasant hunting, Karen did the punch downs.)

10/9/06:  Picked the Cabernet Sauvignon.  Here to the yields per acre were normal.  Berries and clusters are great.  Now have all fermentors full (Cab Sav & Syrah).

10/5/06:  Picked the Syrah.  Yield per acre was much more normal.  Juice looks great.

9/27/06:  Picked the Merlot and were surprised how short of estimate the final tonnage was.  Reality is the clusters and berry size were small, resulting in just over 3 tons per acre.  The flavors were/are outstanding.  Fermentation has started, and the color is already fantastic on day 2..  

Syrah will be next, those numbers should come in close to estimate.  Clusters and berry size are much more normal.

9/06/06:  Mike, Gus, and Brian in the Merlot block-

Same day:  the syrah grapes