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Hot Summer Nights. August temperatures here in Sonoma Valley were,
for the most part, perfect for grape growing. Early June got a bit
too hot and a little grape sunburn was damaging, but, all told,
we've made out pretty well. Our Syrah grapes have "set"
and "Versasion" is pretty much complete. (For those of
you who don't farm grapes and/or don't speak French, this means
that the grapes are turning color ... in red varietals from a dusty
green to a beautiful deep red / purple.) And it means that harvest
is just around the corner.
Yep, August has been the "get-ready-for-harvest" month
all over our Valley. You can almost feel the pre-harvest electricity
in the air. We're no exception .... Last year's 1999 harvest happened
on September 30 and the locals seem to feel that the Valley in general
is about two weeks ahead of schedule ... so we think harvest will
happen sometime around September 15. That means every day is busy
putting all the pieces in place in anticipation of that one very
busy and very long day.... Super cleaning of picking bins, pumps,
hoses, tanks, barrels, and the rest of the winery equipment; the
tuning up of the ATV and tractor; finding space for the new French
barrels and barrel racks; and trying to locate our new 5000 pound
scale coming from Florida ... (it's on the interstate somewhere
around Kansas and hasn't found its way to GlenLyon yet.)
Above all, just trying to think of all the possible problems and
try to trouble shoot them before they become catastrophies. Last
year's catastrophy, for instance, was the fact that our brand-spanking-new-stainless-steel-zillion-dollar-German
de-stemmer/crusher decided to go kaput the very morning of harvest.
I even pleaded with it (in German), but we couldn't get it back
on line. So Suzy and Squire and a couple of friends (who from now
on have decided to vacation every September) had to hand de-stem
literally tons of grapes. It was not a happy moment here at GlenLyon.
As Suzy says: "Squire was definitely cranky ...."
Scheduled for September 29, hopefully right after the 2000 Syrah
harvest, we're bottling our 1999 Syrah. Our Winemaker Exemplar,
Chris Loxton, says it's had enough time on oak and we're all very
excited about the new wine. The barrel samples indicate that it
may be the best wine yet produced at GlenLyon! Scrumptious, sumptuous,
loaded with fruit and wonderfully balanced. My mouth is watering
as I type .... The release date will be, most likely, around the
end of February after its had some time to rest in the bottle.
The 1998 Syrah sold out in the first three weeks and we're sorry
that we had to turn away so many Syrah lovers. The 1999 is a little
larger release, but the supply (again) is extremely limited. For
those of you in The Clan or on our list ... when you receive your
order form, send it back right away. If you're looking at our website
for the first time and would like to get on our Clan Mailing List,
you can do so via this website.
Here's wishing for continued warm weather, no equipment breakdown
and very few Yellow-Jackets during harvest (ouch!)
More after harvest ....
Squire
Fridell
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