The 2006 Harvest can be best summed up in one word: Wild Variability. OK, so it’s not just one word, it’s an entire vintage… Before we start with a description of the vintage, I‘d be remiss without the standard disclaimer: WARNING: intense wine-nerdiness on the horizon. Please proceed with caution, and if you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact us! Now, for 2006 in a nutshell: The year started with the dormant vines being pruned to a slightly higher bud count than last year due to poor bud fruitfulness caused by last year’s cool weather. Whether a bud primordial becomes a tendril or a cluster is determined in the previous year by the coolness of the weather in that vintage. 2005 was indeed a cool year, with a lot of rain during the critical Spring differentiation period.
Well, this year there was plenty of water in the soil and plenty of carbohydrates to go around for all clusters, so these kinds of carbo reduction strategies were greatly needed. Even more so after two weeks of intense heat in mid-summer, when vines that already had huge canopies were quickly outstripping their roots’ ability to supply water to luxurious growth. Folks who took the above steps to cut down on berry size also cut down on leaf surface area, and hence the requirement for more water during the hot spell. Result: better balanced vines able to beat the heat.
Veraison is the coloring-up and softening of the berries. What we are seeing now is that growers who were concerned with berry size are also reaping the benefits of early tannin ripeness. I will predict that those who did not do the work early in the vineyard as described above will also have to wait longer for tannin ripeness, requiring even more alcohol. We (meaning our growers) have done the hard work on berry size that also allows for earlier tannin ripeness, so I predict that Tandem will be able to pick at lower sugars than most other vintners. Be prepared for great acid balance at moderate alcohol levels, with a great deal of complexity supplied by wild yeast that are more selected this year for cool-climate characteristics. So there you have it – Tandem picks at lower sugars with more tannin finesse after having done the right things with our growers in the vineyard, once again living up to our label... All the best for harvest 2006! Vint with Honor, Greg La Follette &
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2006 pretty much followed 2005, with the Spring being very wet and very late (look out, bud primordial, for 2007!). This led to an abundance of vigor in the vineyard – and deep, shaded leaf canopy. This year, harnessing vine vigor was perhaps the most important it has been in recent memory, requiring a lot of viticultural sleight-of-hand by our growers. We asked many of our growers to practice pre-bloom leafing, in particular removing the leaf opposite and subtending (below) each developing cluster. When this is done correctly, the vine has a harder time setting berries and the resulting cluster architecture is much more open rather than tight and compact. The openness of the cluster of fruit continues if this “momentary carbohydrate deficiency” felt by the cluster continues into the two most important points of wine quality in the vineyard: the periods of berry cell division and berry cell expansion. If the cluster feels a lack of carbs or some other stress during these periods which follow right after flowering, there are both fewer and smaller cells in each berry, ergo smaller berries. Smaller berries = more skin surface area and more rich, layered extract from the juice.
In short, the growers who put their grapevines on an early diet did not see the huge berries and tight clusters followed by heat collapse that we saw in so many vineyards this year. There are other great payoffs to putting the vines on the above diet, and other tricks that we use to harness energy, but overall our growers are savvy to the conditions and we are seeing much better quality in those vineyards that have made the extra effort in the spring and partnered with the vines to arrive where we are now: veraison.