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Spring 2008 has been an interesting one.  First, it was an extraordinarily dry spring, keeping us on our toes earlier than usual in terms of irrigation.  Second, we were affected, albeit manageably, by a spring frost that wreaked havoc in some vineyards across northern California and caused some bud loss in about 20% of our early-emerging barbera vines.  The remarkably resilient vines have erased most traces of the damage, and we would expect only a minimal reduction in barbera crop as a result.  Third, the generally seasonable if not slightly cool weather has been punctuated by early previews of mid-summer heat, most recently a brutal heatwave in mid-May that tested the resolve of grapevine and farmer alike.

As of early June, both the barbera (first) and the primitivo (a little later) had set fruit, so we’re about at that time when shoot growth slows, and the vines concentrate on developing their fruit.  The vines seem to be in excellent balance this year, with shorter shoots than we are accustomed to seeing.  We have begun watering the barbera proactively, and have practically dry-farmed the primitivo, the latter not having shown any water stress as yet.  However, more high heat is on the way, and more frequent irrigation will likely be needed.  Meanwhile, weeds are under better control than we have ever managed at Shaker Ridge, in part from learning from our previous mistakes, and in part probably due to the dry spring, which taxes shallow-rooted weeds more than deep-rooted grapevines.

We have a number of exciting development to report on previous vintages.   The second commercial wine to be made from Shaker Ridge grapes, and the first to be entered in a commercial wine competition–the 2006 Primitivo from Obscurity Cellars of Fair Play, CA–just won a silver medal in the 2008 El Dorado County Fair.  This delicious wine is set to be released for sale at a late July coming-out party for several Obscurity Cellar wines over in Fair Play.  In addition, in the home winemaker division of the El Dorado County Fair wine competition, an estate effort we call “John’s Revival” in honor of a winemaking mentor who didn’t let us give up on this wine, earned our first-ever gold medal.  This was particularly flattering since the apparently tough judges for the homewinemaker division only awarded 5 gold medals in the entire competition.  Meanwhile, our 2006 estate barbera wine, which we call “Three Brothers” in honor of the family effort involved in harvesting the grapes that went into it, earned a silver medal in the same competition. 

We are looking forward to even better things to come, including the 2008 vintage!

We just completed an intense 8-day period in which we harvested all of the primitivo and barbera previously reserved for clients. This followed and partly overlapped with a run of blistering hot days with temperatures in the upper 90’s to mid-100’s. While hardly unseasonable, the intense heat following what was a fairly mild Foothills summer caught our vines a little off-guard and sent sugars a little north of where we’d like them. Nevertheless, we got the crop in in time, were within our 2-ton/acre target, and the quality appeared to be good.

We thank our clients for their interest and support and hope the grapes produce some flavorful wines for them. We were excited to receive a few samples of wines made from last year’s vintage at Shaker Ridge, as such simple pleasures are the real payoff for us.

Remaining in the field are small quantities of our first crop of port varietal grapes for our home winemaking, and about 0.75 tons of primitivo that is suitable for late harvest or port-style wine. Speaking of the latter, we are very pleased to announce that the first commercial wine ever made from our grapes will debut on October 27 & 28 at an Obscurity Cellars event held at Oakstone Winery in Fair Play, CA. Winemaker John Smith at Obscurity made a delightful single-varietal port-style wine from some late harvest primitivo grapes, and bottled this as a vineyard-designate wine in 375-mL bottles. At the request of Obscurity, the bottles feature our Shaker Ridge logo. As only 1 barrel was made, quantities are very limited.