2008 Growing Season at Sol Rouge Vineyard
It's the third leaf (the third growing season for the vines) at Sol Rouge. This year is the first year that we are suppose to get grapes from Sol Rouge Vineyard. The season started with very little rain in the Spring. With the winter being short of rain, it impacted many vineyard that rely on the winter rain to replenish ponds and water tables, but not here at Sol Rouge. Sol Rouge sits on the north edge of the Red Hills Appellation and is the only vineyard on the North Side of Benson Ridge, the ridge that separates Big Valley from the Mayacamas Mountains Range. Therefore, our wells sit on the Soda Bay Water table, so we had plenty of water for the season.
On top of the winter drought, farmers in the North Coast and across California experienced the worst frost recorded in recent history. In mid April for several days, temperatures fell to record low temperature with no rain and little wind -- perfect temperature for frost. How did the frost impact Sol Rouge? Fortunately, Sol Rouge sits on the side of Mt. Konocti and Benson Ridge and is a hillside vineyard. Frost, like water, runs down hill to the lowest elevations -- which favor Sol Rouge, but not it's neighbor's below. Still, with the severity of the frost, we did experience some frost damage to a small portion of the vineyard. No vines were permanently impacted, but we did lose a couple of weeks of growth as the secondary bud push happened. Overall, we were fortunate as many of our neighbors below in the valley lost 50%-70% of their crop.
2008 was a key decision year for Sol Rouge Vineyard. Do we push for a crop in 2008 or do we focus on vine growth and root establishment. We chose the latter. In order to insure strong vine establishment and good vine growth, we pruned back most of the vineyard to 2 buds and allowed the vines to focus on the roots while dropping most of the fruit that was produced. In the long-term, it means that our roots will go much deeper into the soil to provide more flavor and the unique "terrior" of Sol Rouge in the fruit, and subsequently in the wine we produce. The down side is that we went one more year without a harvest -- well, without much of a harvest as I will explain later.
The growing season was a good growing season overall. We had very mild weather with few heat spikes until the end of August -- then the heat kicked in. We received two big heat spikes: one at the end of August over Labor Day weekend and the other about a week later in early September. Unfortunately, several vineyard, especially those in hot areas like Big Valley or Dry Creek Valley, didn't get through the heat spikes, the sugar of the grapes spiked and the grapes had to be harvested. Fortunately, at Sol Rouge, nothing was impacted by the heat and the vines, and the little fruit we had, road out the heat spike and went into the fall season and achieved an extended hang time.
Although I mentioned that 2008 was a year without much of a harvest as Sol Rouge, we were able to get a small crop out of a few vines in the Mourvedre, Grenache, Syrah and Counoise blocks. The first fruit to come in at Sol Rouge was the Grenache, Mourvedre and Syrah. These varietals were harvested on September 21. We barely had enough for a bin in total, so we decided to co-ferment them together.
One month later, on October 25, we completed the harvest at Sol Rouge Vineyard with the picking of the Counoise from the Manzatina block. These grapes were fermented on their own and were later blended with the Grenache, Mourvedre, and Syrah from the McKinney block.
After harvest, we cut off the water to allow the vines to go into dormancy. We had a mild Fall, allowing the wood on the vines to harden and the plants to go dormant before the winter freeze. Overall, 2008 was good to Sol Rouge and we look forward to our first full harvest in 2009!
Sol Rouge Vineyard & Winery
http://www.solrouge.com
To follow Sol Rouge on Facebook, go to: http://www.facebook.com/people/Sol-Rouge/1144748370
To follow Sol Rouge on Twitter, go to: http://twitter.com/SolRouge
On top of the winter drought, farmers in the North Coast and across California experienced the worst frost recorded in recent history. In mid April for several days, temperatures fell to record low temperature with no rain and little wind -- perfect temperature for frost. How did the frost impact Sol Rouge? Fortunately, Sol Rouge sits on the side of Mt. Konocti and Benson Ridge and is a hillside vineyard. Frost, like water, runs down hill to the lowest elevations -- which favor Sol Rouge, but not it's neighbor's below. Still, with the severity of the frost, we did experience some frost damage to a small portion of the vineyard. No vines were permanently impacted, but we did lose a couple of weeks of growth as the secondary bud push happened. Overall, we were fortunate as many of our neighbors below in the valley lost 50%-70% of their crop.
2008 was a key decision year for Sol Rouge Vineyard. Do we push for a crop in 2008 or do we focus on vine growth and root establishment. We chose the latter. In order to insure strong vine establishment and good vine growth, we pruned back most of the vineyard to 2 buds and allowed the vines to focus on the roots while dropping most of the fruit that was produced. In the long-term, it means that our roots will go much deeper into the soil to provide more flavor and the unique "terrior" of Sol Rouge in the fruit, and subsequently in the wine we produce. The down side is that we went one more year without a harvest -- well, without much of a harvest as I will explain later.
The growing season was a good growing season overall. We had very mild weather with few heat spikes until the end of August -- then the heat kicked in. We received two big heat spikes: one at the end of August over Labor Day weekend and the other about a week later in early September. Unfortunately, several vineyard, especially those in hot areas like Big Valley or Dry Creek Valley, didn't get through the heat spikes, the sugar of the grapes spiked and the grapes had to be harvested. Fortunately, at Sol Rouge, nothing was impacted by the heat and the vines, and the little fruit we had, road out the heat spike and went into the fall season and achieved an extended hang time.
Although I mentioned that 2008 was a year without much of a harvest as Sol Rouge, we were able to get a small crop out of a few vines in the Mourvedre, Grenache, Syrah and Counoise blocks. The first fruit to come in at Sol Rouge was the Grenache, Mourvedre and Syrah. These varietals were harvested on September 21. We barely had enough for a bin in total, so we decided to co-ferment them together.
One month later, on October 25, we completed the harvest at Sol Rouge Vineyard with the picking of the Counoise from the Manzatina block. These grapes were fermented on their own and were later blended with the Grenache, Mourvedre, and Syrah from the McKinney block.
After harvest, we cut off the water to allow the vines to go into dormancy. We had a mild Fall, allowing the wood on the vines to harden and the plants to go dormant before the winter freeze. Overall, 2008 was good to Sol Rouge and we look forward to our first full harvest in 2009!
Sol Rouge Vineyard & Winery
http://www.solrouge.com
To follow Sol Rouge on Facebook, go to: http://www.facebook.com/people/Sol-Rouge/1144748370
To follow Sol Rouge on Twitter, go to: http://twitter.com/SolRouge
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