Grape harvest yields abundant high quality fruit
Grape harvest
The 2012 California wine grape harvest yielded generous amounts of high quality fruit, and winemakers across the state are describing this year’s vintage as “excellent,” “outstanding” and “ideal.” “The 2012 vintage will offer consumers in our growing national and international markets fantastic choices,” said Robert P. (Bobby) Koch, President and CEO of Wine Institute. “The California winegrape harvest is estimated at 3.7 million tons, up from 3.3 million tons in 2011.”
“Mother Nature smiled upon the California wine harvest this year with a bountiful crop of amazing quality,” said Kathleen Heitz, President of Heitz Wine Cellars. “The diversity and depth of talented winemakers throughout the state promise some exciting and vibrant wines from the stellar 2012 vintage.”
Jason Diefenderfer. Source: Hope Family Wines
Paso Robles had more heat, and the crop level was not quite as abundant as in the North Coast, but we had similarly high quality fruit. “Overall, we’re excited about the 2012 harvest in Paso Robles,” said Jason Diefenderfer, Winemaker at Hope Family Wines. “Verasion was just ahead of schedule and was rather quick, so we’ve had great hang time. We experienced about three weeks of extreme heat in late August and early September, which didn’t raise the Brix levels as quickly as one would expect. It was good for the vines to catch up. Flavor-wise, the grapes are really showing great which should lead to round and robust flavors. The slight rain in mid-October didn’t do too much, as it cleared out and warmed up quickly. As our flavors continue to mature, it’s looking like this could be one of the better vintages we’ve had in the last 10 years.”
Source: Wine Institute, PRNewswire.
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