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Harvest 2007

'Pretty fantastic' grape harvest underway

By GUY KOVNER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT August 21, 2007

Warm, sunny days and cool nights are creating a perfect non-storm as the North Coast's $1 billion grape harvest gets rolling this week with growers and vintners extolling the small, clean and dry grape clusters that characterize the 2007 crop.

"Pretty fantastic," said Keith Horn, vineyard manager at Geyserville's Clos du Bois, where truckloads of sauvignon blanc grapes arrived Monday.

Typically the first of the still wine varietals to be picked, sauvignon blanc started coming in last week and heralds a crush expected to get hectic by the middle of September and wrap up in October, ideally before the rain begins.

Acknowledging that the harvest overall was only 1 percent complete, Clos du Bois winemaker Erik Olsen said the incoming sauvignon blanc "has everything I think we need."

Fog-free days in the 80s ripen wine grapes, cool nights in the 40s to 50s enhance their flavor — exactly what the National Weather Service forecasts for the next 10 days.

"We're in a climate sweet spot," said wine broker Brian Clements, a former grape buyer for Gallo. "I'm excited about it."

When grape growers, a taciturn lot, find nothing to grumble about it's an unusual season, said Nick Frey, president of the Sonoma County Wine Grape Commission. The current conditions, he said, are "fairly close to ideal."

Experts are predicting a smaller than average harvest, which is also good news because it typically means well-developed grapes and good prices.

The North Coast's record harvest of 2005 overwhelmed the industry, dropping prices and clogging the system with a surplus of wine that is just now clearing out.