' Ken Brown - 2023 Harvest

2023 Harvest

With a wet and cold winter, replenishing groundwater reserves and flushing out built up salts from the soil, this gave vines an auspicious start to the growing season with a generally later budbreak than has been typical. A cold and windy spring finally opened to a mild sunny California summer with gentle heat and cold nights. Though Labor Day heat spike generally materialize around the start of September, none did in 2023. We were left with a mild autumn with cool nights and warm breezy afternoons giving us ideal ripening conditions. It’s early to tell, but it seems to be an ideal vintage with brisk acidity and modest sugar development. The most exciting part is the advanced phenolic maturity evidenced by high levels of ripe tannins as well as impressive color coupled with expressive aromatics. It’s early to say, but this vintage looks to be one with capacity to age long-term in the cellar.

September 22, 2023: 3.2 tons Rio Vista Block 7A (667); 1.7 tons Peake Ranch Block 25B (667)
The first fruit of vintage and one of the latest starts ever of harvest in recent memory. Long hangtime and a cool summer has allowed for ample phenolic maturity at relatively low sugar-development with superb acid retention. As is normal, Rio Vista Block 7A starts our harvest along with Peake 25B.

September 28, 2023: 1.8 tons Rio Vista Block 2 (115)
We harvested Block 2 with excellent flavor development and acidity to be whole-cluster direct-pressed for our 2023 Rosé of Pinot Noir.

September 29, 2023:1.8 tons Fiddlestix Block 6D (667); 1.6 tons Rancho La Viña Block 12 (115)
We move to the center of Santa Rosa Road to perform an initial pick of both Fiddlestix and Rancho La Viña vineyard, preceding a mild heat spell over the weekend.

October 3, 2023: 1.8 tons Fiddlestix Block 6D (667); 1.2 tons Fiddlestix Block 5C (Pommard); 1.6 tons Rancho La Viña Block 12 (115)
A second harvest of both Fiddlestix and Rancho La Viña allowed us to capture different ripeness levels in this languorous vintage. Though the mild weekend heat hardly moved sugar-ripeness, the color and aromatics had clearly progressed since the initial pick. We also chose to pick-out Fiddlestix, bringing in our other block 5C clone 4 which is situated further west from our 667 plantings, though still on a north-facing clay slope studded with decomposed shale.

October 4, 2023: 1.1 tons Vineyard Francesca Block 1A (115); 1.7 tons Vineyard Francesca Block 3A (667); 1.7 tons Vineyard Francesca Block 02 (72); 1.9 tons Rio Vista Block 18 (4-CH); 1.6 tons Rio Vista Block 8B (4-PN)
Our largest day of harvest, bringing in the entirety of Vineyard Francesca as well as Rio Vista clone 4 Chardonnay and Pommard (also clone 4) Pinot Noir. Vineyard Francesca displayed extremely small yields in all blocks of the high-density plantings on this our westernmost vineyard.
Both Chardonnays were whole bunch pressed and the Pinot Noir’s destemmed and left to cold soak for 3-4 days.

October 5, 2023: 1.8 tons Peake Ranch Block 14E (115)
Peake Ranch was harvested and hand-sorted to obtain optimal fruit ripeness and health in the fermenter bins. The steep north-facing slope concludes our harvesting of the eastern side of the Sta. Rita Hills.

October 7, 2023: 1.2 tons Radian Block 31 (Wente)
A harvest of the steep west-facing slope of Wente clone Chardonnay was brought in at very low yields. As always, the Chardonnay will be gently whole bunch pressed, settled, and fermented in French oak barrels.

October 9, 2023: 2.5 tons Sanford & Benedict Block 4D (943); 1.5 tons Radian Block 40 (115); 1.5 tons Radian Block 41 (667)
Wrapping up our Pinot Noir harvest for the year was our two Radian blocks from the steep shale and granite Radian soils as well as what may be one of our latest harvests of Block 4D at Sanford & Benedict. Both gave respectable yields as well as superb physiological ripeness a testament to this uniquely wonderful vintage.

November 6, 2023: 2.7 tons John Sebastiano Block 18C (470)
Concluding harvest nearly a month after our final Pinot Noir harvest, Syrah continued the weather trend with mild mornings, warm afternoons, and cool nights giving us an incredible Syrah from the west-facing slope on the far eastern edge of the Sta. Rita Hills AVA.