Harvest Report
HARVEST IS COMPLETE
Our growing year, as always, is a bit differnt every time. This year we started great with good moisture but not too much followed by intense dryness. This caused our grapes to be behind their normal growth development by about 2 weeks. The lack of water slowed down the growing. By fall the water returned, allowing our grapes to mature. Cayuga had the best chemical structure this year than we have ever had. It was clean and good brix levels which will produce a bigger wine that we have had in the past. Look out for this gem in the spring. We had 3 pickings of this grape at different times. Picking #1 was for our Sparkling Winchester Rose which has a champagne grape call Pinot Menieur in it. We grow limited Chardonnay and Pinot Noir but we did incorporate this in the wine. We are the only grower in Virginia that has Pinot Menieur in the ground and had been added to Sparkling Winchester Rose. This wine, while we have to wait 3 years for it, should be supberb!! Picking #2 was a lovely clean harvest with 21 brix. We were very excited to see this wine reach this brix level as our canopy can tank on this varietal very quickly. Picking #3 we were trying to get a botrytised wine, but our weather was not conducive to go forward. It's a very delicate balance between allowing disease to influence wines in a special way, and the more likely outcome, that they pick up a grey mold. As a grower, we have to make that call and this year was not the year to try this at our farm. Having said that, this grape gave us almost 23 brix and we will be making a lovely big white wine with this crop.
La Crescent and Maraquette are so young, but we allowed "some" fruit to develope. We are making a wine mix that will be unique and one of a kind. This will be for our club members only as it will be limited. Look for La Crescent and Maraquette to be their own wine in 2023.
Below is a list of our new wines coming with various release dates. Not all of them will be had in 2022 but the ones that we are developing will be worth the wait.
A peak at our wine for 2022
Port Style 2021 (The Hunt) 5 year Release 2026
Marquette/La Crescent/Arandell (Amusant Estate Reserve 2021) Wine club Only (Red Wine) Fall 2022 Release
Tous Les Jours 2021 (White Wine) Spring 2022 Release
Brix 21 Estate 2021 (White Wine) Spring 2022 Release
Pinot Menieur, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cayuga (Sparkling Winchester Rose Estate 2021) 3 year release (Sparkling Wine) 2024 Release
Arandell/Tannat Blend (Mach 2 2021) (Red Wine) Fall 2022 Release
Tannat 2021 (L'Audacieux 2021) (Red Wine) Fall 2022 Release
Arandell (Arandell Estate 2021) (Red Wine) Fall 2022 Release
The Bloom 2021 (Rose) Spring 2022 Release
CabFranc 2021 (Red Wine) Fall 2022 Release
Cayuga (Sparkling Winchester 2020) We may release some of this wine for 2022 otherwise 2023 release.
Our White wines will be available in the Spring unless otherwise noted and the Reds will be released in the Fall 2022