2012 Extended Tirage Knudsen Vineyard Brut

Vintage Notes

2012 Vintage. Bloom and fruit-set traveled from normal to
well below normal. Cold weather and some negative effects
from hail drove yields generally down. But, that can be a
GOOD thing as smaller clusters and good dry weather leads
to ripe fruit. The key challenge to the successful farmer this
year was the fact that the period of July through October
was the driest since record keeping began in the late 1800’s.
Potential desiccation was further exacerbated by very dry,
east winds coming out of Eastern Oregon & Washington’s
high desert. This wind period was the longest in memory
in Argyle’s 27 years of Oregon winemaking. Vines already
starved for moisture will not fare well under these late fall
conditions. For us, a balanced crop and belief in the weather
forecast, caused us to give our vines a nice drink of water just
before the east wind event. This allows the vines to continue
to photosynthesize and for the berries to stay plump and
fruity. At Argyle, we were allowed to pick fruit under lovely
fall sunshine at a leisurely pace with perfectly ‘dialed-in’
maturity, excellent ripeness & fresh natural acidity.