Lia's Vineyard

2008 Harvest Report

2008 will probably go down as one of the most bizarre vintages in Oregon history. Vintners often get carried away early in the growing season as their natural (and necessary) optimism causes them to declare a great vintage before the fruit has been harvested. This optimism can be dashed by rains and/or cold weather that arrive too soon and prevent grapes from achieving optimal ripeness.

2008 was the opposite. The growing season started late, with bud break on Cinco de Mayo (a bit over 2 weeks late) and the slow start carried into bloom which we called on July 4th (at least 2 weeks late). As the summer rains fell, growers were seriously talking about cancelling the vintage, cutting our losses by avoiding the expense of tending the vines for the rest

of the year. But, the innate optimism kicked in and and we figured we'd get at least some fruit - if only a few mediocre tons.

Then the weather improved a bit and we dropped a lot of fruit on the vineyard floor to help what remained on the vine to ripen in a compressed growing season.

And then October came. Temperatures were in the high 60s and low 70s several days during the month. We had beautiful sunny days and only a couple showers. A true Indian summer. The grapes got perfectly ripe - not just sugar levels, but flavors as well. The fruit was as tasty as we can remember.

Yields were way down, and we lost a lot of sleep worrying about birds, the weather, and how low yields which - due to tonnage adjustment clauses in some of our contracts - meant we weren't going to come close to covering costs on the season. But now that the grapes are picked and the wines are in barrel we can't wait to taste the finished product.