Sonoma Valley's smoke-free early harvest

Even as the infamous California Four-Year Drought continues, and the specter of record rainfall in a dam-busting El Niño winter looms, Sonoma Valley wine lovers are focusing their concerns on what’s on the vine, when it’s coming off, and what the results will be.

Then there’s that smoky sky, lingering over the Valley from fires in Lake County and north.

The prognosis so far, according to local winemakers, is that while the smoke may not taint the product, the vintage might just be – wait for it – OK. Not great, not bad, but OK.

“In my estimation, 2015 will be a vintage with lower than average yield and more challenges to the winemaker,” said Robert Rex of Deerfield Ranch Winery in Kenwood, in his fifth decade of winemaking experience. He cites the early bloom, cool spring and slight but unexpected rainfall in summer as affecting the yield potential.

He’s less concerned about the smoke. “I think we are past the danger point,” he said in an email to the Index-Tribune. “The problem in 2008 was that the fires were in June. I remember weeks where it was so smoky that it reminded me of L.A. in the ‘50s, when you couldn’t take a deep breath without coughing.”

Ned Hill of La Prenda Vineyards Management also downplays the risk of smoke taint, the result of a series of June 2008 thunderstorms that sparked dozens of wildfires from Mendocino to the Oregon border. Many wineries in Mendocino and Lake counties produced wines, especially reds, with a distinctly smoky taint.

“The smoke is not any concern, it wasn’t around for long enough,” said Hill. He pointed out that the hottest days of the year – three straight days of temperatures flirting with the century mark – coincided with the smokiest days last weekend.

“I actually think it helped shield the grapes from any potential sunburn. It was hot but the direct rays of the sun weren’t as strong,” Hill emphasized.

David Cook, another vineyard manager who moonlights as Sonoma’s mayor, did concede that perhaps vineyards farther north might be affected by the smoke from as many as a dozen wildfires still burning as of this writing.

“I would imagine up in Lake County, they’re getting inundated,” said Cook. “Here in Sonoma Valley, we really won’t have an issue.”

Of greater concern is the reduced yield of this year’s harvest – down from 5 percent to 50 percent of normal, depending on the vineyard and varietal. Perhaps surprisingly, it’s not because of the drought. “We received almost normal rainfall in Sonoma Valley,” said Rex, adding that “grapes like drought. They are Mediterranean vines and used to low total rainfall and no rain in the summer.”

All three made it a point to mention that most of their vineyards are being dry-farmed, with no additional irrigation during most of their fruiting period.

“In general it’s been a very mild year,” said Rex. “If it had been a normal summer or a hot summer, we would have been picking grapes a month ago.”

Instead, the harvesting of still wine grapes – harvest for sparkling wine grapes started a couple weeks ago – has already gotten underway. “It’ll be the earliest we’ve ever done in my 20 years,” said Cook, anticipating his harvest of pinot and chardonnay this week.

Rex, both winemaker and vineyard manager at Deerfield Ranch, concurred. “It is an early harvest. We brought some pinot grigio in on Aug. 11, which is the earliest in my 42 year career.”

The reduced yield they project is due to the effects of “shatter,” also known as “coulure,” the uneven fertilization of grape clusters that takes place during a period of about a month in late spring.

A cool and foggy March, combined with some heavy winds and rains, prevented a good set of grapes, reducing the viable fruit on the vine. “The fruit is definitely light this year,” said Hill.

But he points out that this year’s light harvest is more in keeping with normal agricultural expectation, after two years of exceptionally robust yields. “The past couple years have been big harvests,” he said. “They were big years. Which we thought had become the new norm.”

La Prenda manages vineyards for several area wineries, including Ram’s Gate, Schug, Nicholson, Roche and into Bennett Valley. “It’s a ‘be careful what you wish for’ type of thing,” Hill said philosophically. “The wine industry as a whole doesn’t really need another big harvest, but on the one hand we all get paid on the quantity we produce. So if the numbers are going to be down we hope it’s the other guy. You can only take a light harvest for so many years until, frankly, you go broke.”

As the harvest teams scour the vineyards in the early morning hours, and the grapes come into the wineries for crush, concerns about the projected El Niño gnaw at the minds of everyone: “The last card to be played will be how soon the winter rains come,” said Rex. “If they come in force, before the last of the grapes are picked, the situation could be worse.”