2020.. What a Year
Posted by Delmas in Co-Ferment, Delmas, Grape Harvest, Grenache, MHT (Mini-Head-Trained), Production Steps, Rhône, SJR Vineyard, Terroir, The Rocks District
As apocalypses go, I guess it could be a lot worse…
This year has provided a great deal of challenges, but also an immense amount of ingenuity and new ideas to battle with the new reality we all face.
SJR rode through this season with little to no major issues (knock on wood this continues), and the vines have progressed to a state of near perfect ripeness. We will be harvesting in the next few weeks, and will be playing with picking at two different times for our co-ferment in order to allow ourselves more blending options.
With all of our wines being made solely from SJR fruit, it is time to expand our blending ability!
For the first time Delmas will be taking back our Grenache, and making a Field Blend wine. It was important for Team Delmas to let the Grenache get to its optimum level of maturity before producing it for ourselves. The French (of course) would say that in it’s 14th leaf we are about 6 years too early! But we feel as though we have come to an understanding with our little “sumo wrestler” vines. We are very excited to be able to present you with our newest bottling (release 2022).
The MHT is performing beautifully, and true to form has ripened the fruit evenly. The heat we began seeing in late June staggered out Veraison a bit, but no sunburn occurred on our fair little berries. Another miracle of the MHT!
Viognier is first up on the Harvest docket… Watch out World! Delmas will be making 4 wines this year! Stepping into the big time.
-Peddler (Magnums), Syrah (co-ferment), Viognier (Coindreu style), Grenache (Field Blend)-