Gloria Ferrer launches Sonoma Valley wine harvest
Sonoma Valley’s 2016 wine harvest has begun! Sonoma’s Gloria Ferrer Caves & Vineyards took the lead as the first producer to start harvesting in Sonoma Valley. Harvest began on Wednesday morning for the 2016 vintage.
Gloria Ferrer winemaker Steven Urberg shared the details of the harvest with the Sonoma Valley Sun: “We started picking Pinot Noir grapes for sparkling wine in the cool night air at 2:00 am. The grapes on our Home Ranch are ahead of those at our Circle Bar Ranch in terms of maturity, so we started picking in three blocks near the winery that reached the perfect balance of sugar and acid.”
Urberg cited last week’s hot weather for helping the grapes to ripen faster and also causing some dehydration of the vines. The team let the vineyards enjoy the cooler weather during the weekend before starting the harvest on Tuesday morning. They harvested 34 tons of grapes from the three blocks.
But the vineyard crew will take a pause thanks to the weather forecast shared Urberg, “with more cool weather in the forecast we expect the rest of the grapes to mature at a moderate pace allowing us to pick them at their optimum ripeness.”
This year’s harvest was five days behind the 2015 harvest, which started on July 29th, making it the earliest harvest in the sparkling wine house’s history. However, it’s still two weeks earlier than their original anticipated start date.
The grapes are looking great according to Urberg, “with our early spring and budbreak, these vines did get a full summer of warm sunshine to develop excellent character. The vines look great and the fruit tastes great, so we are looking forward to another excellent harvest.”
