September 28, 2007

Rain is here, and beautiful weather

The rain here in the Willamette Valley began last night before I went to bed. Apparently it poured for a couple hours, with about half an inch in most areas by morning.

Today saw a mix of heavy showers and gorgeous sunny, sort of warm weather. By the afternoon down in the Ribbon Ridge district, vineyard soils looked perfectly dry. The sunset and moon rise were epic.

The winery I'm working at got many tons of Pinot Noir grapes from a vineyard west of Carlton, all ripe and very clean. More fruit comes in tomorrow before more rain is due to set in Sunday and beyond.

But so far, so good. And it strikes me. One third of the harvest is in where I'm working. Everything looks great so far. There's already a lot of wine being made this year from grapes picked under nearly perfect conditions. Let's not be hasty thinking that rain will make this a bad harvest.

More tomorrow after another day processing fruit and working in the cellar with everything that's in so far.

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