Tuesday, December 16, 2008

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.... gonna be a 2009 harvest?


It's cold in the Puget Sound (we had a low of 16 the other day - it's "warming" up to 32 today). It's colder in WA Wine Country. Walla Walla is expecting low temps around 3 this evening. With temps plunging and staying well below freezing this week, and probably staying there into next week, will there even be grapes for a 2009 vintage in WA?????

Probably, but it depends on more than just low temps. Vines do harden against the cold. Weeks of gradually dropping temps followed by a couple days in the teens won't be nearly as disasterous as the winter of 2004 when temps dropped 30-35 degrees in a couple hours (nearly wiping out the Walla Walla crop)

The Wine Press Northwest has some interesting perspective. In any case, there probably will be less wine from the 2009 vintage. http://www.winepressnw.com/wineknows/story/2364.html

1 comment:

AZSynCPA said...

OK now, you must be thawed out...what's new for spring & summer BBQ season? It's 100 degrees here, we're ready to rock n' roll :-)