“How did harvest go this year?”

At Pressley Vineyards, we get this question annually, this was our 6th harvest for Pressley Vineyards, we can hardly believe that we are already six years into this passion project and the pride and satisfaction that comes with completing another season never gets old.

The Timing

Harvest arrived earlier than normal this year. We harvested our 6th vintage of Pressley Vineyard’s Pinot Noir for Rose on August 5th, our plane touched down from our family vacation to Mexico and Charlie headed directly for the vineyard. We were grateful that we put so much effort into prepping for harvest prior to our trip to ensure a smooth start to harvest. You can learn about our harvest prep routine on our blog post for August! Our second vintage of estate grown Albarino was harvested the second week of August, and our Pinot Noir was harvested a quick three weeks later, making this the third year in a row that we completed harvest prior to Labor Day.

One of our favorite things about each harvest is there are never two harvests that are the same. Each year brings something new for us to learn from with its own unique set of challenges. This year was no different and our biggest challenge this year was scheduling the crew and getting our fruit off in the timing window that we want. Making the call for harvest happens fast, sometimes as quickly as the day before and is determined by the amount of brix (sugar content) that we harvest at. Each of our varieties is harvested at a different brix and the brix can change quickly, especially when warm days are in the forecast. With the season arriving early, and many warm days this summer, our grapes were ready to pick quickly as were many of our fellow vintners grapes were.  Luckily, we were able to make it all happen but it definitely took some juggling.

What’s Next!

With the completion of harvest, we are now focusing on post-harvest management. This will include bringing the sheep back into the vineyard to clean up the vineyard floor in preparation for winter. We will also irrigate to refill the soil profile, we will apply fertilizer to the vines and plant our cover crop to set into motion a conducive growing environment for our 2023 crop! The vines will now prepare to go into dormancy until bud break beings in the spring!

Have questions about Harvest 2022, feel free to ask any questions. We love hearing from you! You can email us directly here!

Cheers,

B&C