September 2, 2020
First day of picking at Knudsen and Lone Star Vineyards. Starting with Chardonnay for sparkling wine!
August 14, 2020, by Geoff Hall, Argyle Viticulturist
The vines are working their way through veraison this week and will continue to do so for next 2 weeks. As usual Lonestar is ahead while Spirit Hill is just now starting to show signs of color.
We finished out crop estimates and the yield looks to be historically light (Rollin said it looks like 1988-1990). We had significant rain during bloom and the temperatures were much lower than the last few years. Because of this, the vines ‘think’ that the entire year will be cool and wet, therefore they should not try to ripen too much fruit. So they ‘self thin’ and shed a significant amount of flowers/berries off. The results is that the clusters weight less than half of what they weighed last year simply because they kept less berries per cluster.
So with yields low, temperatures warm, we should be in for a tight harvest as almost everything will ripen at once. But have not fear! The vineyard and winery are up to the task!
