North Coast: Winemakers pleased with quality, size of early 2013 harvest

(NBBJ) - Early to start, the 2013 North Coast winegrape season is heading toward largely an early finish this month and is sizing up to be above the average for the past several years, in some cases rivaling last year’s record crop.

Picking is into the home stretch in Sonoma, Napa and Lake counties, though in a pause in Mendocino County, according to growers. Two back-to-back big harvests are prompting a number of winemakers to consider viticultural plans to recharge grape vitality as vines show signs of deficiencies in nutrients such as potassium.

Based on the number of days this season warm enough to spur vine activity — called degree-days — the tally through September at Trefethen Vineyards’ main ranch in the Oak Knoll winegrowing region of central Napa Valley has been cumulatively warmer than the pace through October in the past six years, according to Jon Ruel, president of the winery and the board of the Napa Valley Grapegrowers trade group.

That would suggest the season is a month ahead of what’s typical, but development of phenolics and other quality aspects of the grapes suggests the season is two weeks ahead, he said. Trefethen started picking chardonnay in early September for the first time in several years and is well into picking cabernet sauvignon, Napa Valley’s dominant variety.