HARVEST REPORT 2020
The grape growing season this year was outstanding, until October when some heavy rains damaged some of our Pinot Noir crop. However, we came out of the 2020 Harvest with only a few dimples. Despite a late bud-break, we had a fairly hot July which helped us to catch up on the ripening front. August wasn’t as humid as July and verasion began on schedule with the Pinot Noir at the end of the first week of August. After Labor Day came and went, Cutchogue was still drenched in sunshine. We had 2-3 inches of rain less than a normal year. Dry and sunny conditions in September proved to be excellent conditions for grape ripening. Following warm days, the cooler nights helped to prevent mildew from damaging the fruit. The dry conditions and prevalent winds also dehydrated the fruit slightly, which in turn, concentrated sugars in the grapes. The Pinot Noir harvest began on the 14th of September and went until the 18th. Pinot Noir is picked first for a few reasons, the main being that it ripens the fastest as it has a very thin skin. Also, picking Pinot Noir while the sugars are balanced with the acids is important to the structure of the wine.
The rest of the reds; Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petit Verdot were left on the vines to ripen through the month of October. Our clones were hand-harvested separately, as with all of our fruit. These were all picked and fermented separately ending with about 23 Brix. We had some pretty crazy rain storms during the beginning of the month, but luckily very windy conditions followed, which dried out the fruit immediately, so they weren’t soaking wet for days on end. We brought in the remainder of the reds right before we were headed into a Nor’Eastern storm on the 27th of October, making the 26th of final day of Harvest.