What a difference a vintage makes. Last year, smoke from the CZU and Monterey fires gave most wineries in the Summit Road area cause for worry, but this year it looks like a big, clean, juicy crop.
Burrell School Vineyards and Winery led the way with a pinot noir pick early this month. Large, ripe clusters from the mostly south- and west-facing mountain ridgetop had just the right amount of heat to ripen them before the big warmup that usually occurs over Labor Day weekend.
“All the pinot noir has been harvested, about seven tons,” said Burrell CFO Elena Moulton, daughter of winemaker Dave Moulton. “Next up is cabernet from the Pichon Vineyards (above Lexington Reservoir), followed by estate chardonnay.”
At the top of the mountain at 2,600 feet, Loma Prieta Winery’s early September harvest was its estate Pinotage, which came in a full month earlier than in 2019.
“We harvested 12 tons of perfect fruit,” said Andrew Brenkwitz, who spent 20 years at Byington Winery on Bear Creek Road before moving on to consult at Loma Prieta earlier this year. “This is my first time picking and making Pinotage, so I’m pretty excited.”
Owner and winemaker Dan Lokteff said Wrights Station Vineyard and Winery picked its pinot noir over Labor Day weekend.
“Yields were a bit up over last year,” he added.
He expects Wrights’ cabernet and zinfandel to be about two weeks out, then he has to work in his estate chardonnay and his Cinsault rose.
Just up the road from Wrights Station is Wilder Vines, the vineyard home of Chris Wilder, longtime executive director of Santa Clara Valley Medical Foundation, who suffered a stroke in March of this year and is recovering at home. His wife Kate said she and a group of friends and coworkers harvested their pinot noir on Labor Day and trucked the fruit over to Burrell School Vineyards for processing.
“Chris really wanted to help pick, but we couldn’t get his wheelchair safely up to the vineyard,” she added. “We’ll certainly be toasting when he is walking again.”
This year marks the 23rd harvest for Ryan Beauregard in Bonny Doon, who lost his entire crop least year due to the unrelenting smoke and ash of the CZU fire. This is their 76th harvest from the Beauregard Ranch, a property that was originally planted in the 1880s by the Queistorff family.
“It’s amazing to think that grapes have been harvested from this land for 135 years,” Beauregard said. “We may have lost all our crop last year, but we are going to do our best to make the finest wine ever from this vintage.
Beauregard recently released its 2020 “Lost Weekend,” a blend of zinfandel and Carignane that was brought in right before the CZU fire broke out. Safely under a tarp during the entire firestorm, the wine is indeed a miracle.