Peter Ficklin Madera County vintner
We started on time in late August/early September, and then there was this lull. The weather held nicely, and everybody was waiting for that last bit of ripeness to occur. My concern at the time was that everything was going to ripen at once and we were going to get totally slammed. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, but it was the latest harvest we’ve ever experienced in our history of making ports. It was a perfect storm of great quality for the 2023 crush. We finished crush- ing grapes two days before Thanksgiving. Typically, we finish in mid-October. We got some of the white Portuguese grape varieties that we use to make some of our white ports. The crops were big and of great quality. Even after Thanksgiving, I was getting calls from growers who had grapes that they had not been able to sell. I wish I could have taken more, but we don’t have the volume of tank space it would have required. After Thanksgiving and through Christmas, we were busy shipping wines across the country. Allied Grape Growers stated there’s an overabundance of some of the red wine varieties and that grapes need to come out, so I’m seeing some valley vineyards getting pruned. For the vineyards that haven’t yet been pruned, it may be that it is due to a shortage of labor or growers plan to take out those vines and replant. We are in good shape with the port varieties. We’re pleased to have a couple of growers willing to replant with some Portuguese varieties so that we’ll have additional tonnage. We are now getting the new wines racked, which means getting them clarified and in the barrel. We are doing a limited bottling of a rosé port for Valentine’s Day. We always talk about getting your loved one a dozen rosés. We are also getting the 2023 wines put to bed and getting our club wines ready for an April release.
Photo/Tomas Ovalle
February 7, 2024 Ag Alert 5
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