This year marks Argyle’s 34th harvest in Oregon’s majestic Willamette Valley. Be sure to join us this season at the Tasting House to follow along with our harvest team with a visual representation of their progress in our gallery. While you’re visiting, enjoy special harvest-themed pours in our flights all throughout the season!
If you can’t make it out to Oregon wine country, check this page for regular updates from our winemaker Nate Klostermann, with additional insights from Vineyard Manager and Viticulturalist Geoff Hall. We’ll be posting information about harvest, including beautiful new photos from the vineyards — all so that we can bring Harvest 2021 to life for you!
“Harvest is my favorite time of year. It’s the culmination of an entire growing season brought to life and brings me great excitement to smell, taste, and work long days to make sure it all comes together at the right time.”
— Nate Klostermann, Argyle Winemaker
October 10th Harvest Recap — That’s a Wrap!
What a vintage! Harvest is fully wrapped and now the cellar work begins. And what does the winemaking team think of this vintage? Well, Nate is impressed, to say the least:
“Moderate yields and a dry summer, along with the cool down in September has led to great concentration, fresh fruit, solid structure, and vibrant acidity across the wines. We made a couple of big pushes to get the Pinot Noir in before the major rain events, but all-in-all was a very steady flow vintage. Incredibly hard work by our vineyard and cellar teams helped make this vintage one of the best I’ve seen in my time here!”
October 5th Harvest Recap — A Poem for 2021
I come to these hills to be alive again breathing rest into these weary bones.
The tendrils have slowly been unraveling, sweetly unfolding themselves to meet the sun.
My words are exhalations and my thoughts are the clover at my feet, the bees hunting for nectar, distant mountain peaks and yellow flowers the sit wild and unencumbered between neatly planted rows.
I’m aware of the dew clinging to my heels, how it traverses from soft green leaves to rest in the creases between my sock and ankle and shoe.
I’m aware of the tender roots beneath my feet, How they reach down to meet other roots and Speak to the soil together, how they gather rain
And become deep soul alchemist, working in the dark
To weave together new truths.
— PNCA Artist Renn Simmons, a winner of the 2021 Art of Sparkling Scholarship
October 1st Harvest Update — Closing Words from Geoff
“Like the creation of our perfect vineyard soils from ancient volcanos, we will rise from the cinder and smoke of 2020 to produce a masterpiece of a vintage! (After pulling 30 tons of Pinot Noir of the last few days, this is what low sleep and these beautiful mornings do to me!)”
— Geoff Hall, Argyle Winery Viticulturist
September 21st Harvest Update — Officially Autumn
Over the past few days —and after pulling 3 tons of Pinot Noir fruit from just Block 18 in the Lone Star Vineyard— our teams moved on to Block 31, 33, 36 and 37 at Knudsen Vineyard, and blocks 10 and 12 at Spirit Hill.
Different blocks of vines ripen at different times due to a variety of factors such as elevation, aspect, clonal selection and more. However, they are also picked at the precise level of ripeness desired by our winemaking team to guide the perfect expression of the vineyard site, and often at various ripeness levels to create layered complexity in the wines.
September 21st Harvest Update — After the Rains
Today we are back at it after a brief weather break! Our teams are picking Pinot Noir from the Lone Star Vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA. Our Pinot Noirs from this site typically have powerful dark fruit characteristics and firm tannins, making for elegant red wines with great potential for aging. And the view from the vineyard isn’t bad either!
September 15th Harvest Update — Pinot and More Pinot
Geoff sent us this beautiful photo from the vineyards this morning. We guess they weren’t kidding when they said it would be a Pinot Noir explosion this week!
As of this morning, all of our Sparkling grapes have been picked, and most of the Chardonnay is in as well, besides two small parcels hanging at Spirit Hill Vineyard. Lone Star and Knudsen Pinot Noir Vineyards are coming in strong and steady this week, and our teams are looking to pick a fair amount before the rains this weekend. Spirit Hill Pinot is holding strong due to it being a relatively cold and windy site, and we’ll begin bringing that in next week!
September 8th Harvest Update — Picking for Quality
“It’s a very early start to the Harvest 2021 season, which isn’t surprising given that its been a warm and dry year. Working steadily through Spirit Hill Vineyard now to finish out sparkling and will be in to still wine Pinot Noir by tomorrow at Lonestar Vineyard. The weather forecast looks stunning, which should set us up to pick when we want to for quality, and not because of a rain event. Overall, I am happy with the way harvest has started.”
— Geoff Hall, Director of Operations
September 7th Harvest Update — “A Pinot Noir Explosion”
Nate has some juicy details for us today! Here’s what you need to know:
“Early sparkling wines and chardonnays have beautiful flavors and great acidity. A nice mini-cool down in the last week of August allowed us to get Knudsen Vineyard sparkling grapes and Lonestar Vineyard Chardonnay off within a week! We’re waiting on Spirit Hill Vineyard sparkling grapes to round third base – should be ready through this upcoming weekend. Red wines are ripening nicely – it will be a Pinot Noir explosion starting next week!”
September 1st Harvest Update — A Sparkling Start
The Harvest 2021 pick begins with Sparkling wine. Our team harvested 7 tons of Pinot Meunier from block 1 of Knudsen Vineyard in the Dundee Hills AVA to kick things off. Following that, they moved to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in blocks 2 and 22 respectively. Some of these grapes will go into wines like our acclaimed Knudsen Brut sparkling wine. With cool, dry, and clear mornings and a warm growing season, we are excited about the fruit from this vintage!
August 31st Harvest Kickoff —Morning at Knudsen Vineyard
We’re very excited to have you follow along with us virtually this harvest season! After all, to quote our viticulturalist Geoff Hall: “Harvest 2021 is the exclamation point on the amazing work our people have done in the vineyard. The countless hours spent in the rows nurturing a block throughout the year, culminates in a single morning of frenzied picking. It’s crazy and uniquely gratifying at the same time.”
Today marked the first day of picking at Knudsen Vineyard, in the lovely and cool morning hours. Picking always begins early in the day, often in the dark, before the day warms up. This is primarily to ensure that the grapes are cool when they are delivered into the winery to better control the fermentation process. And it makes the most amazing back drop for a hard morning’s work!