2024 Harvest

Start date, September 5, 2024

Despite the ample winter rains clearing salts from the soil and replenishing ground water we are seeing generally low yields due to cold and windy weather at bud initiation about 16 months prior to this year’s harvest. The yields are the farther west we move in the Sta. Rita Hills, more exposed to the late-spring ocean winds and cooler evening temperatures. While the low yields are difficult for our growers, quality remains high with advanced phenolic maturity with moderate sugar development, a result of the long, cool spring and summer. This is comparable to 2023. Unlike the previous vintage, this mellow start to ripening, was interrupted by a five-day post Labor Day heat event which raised temperatures into the nineties in the Sta. Rita Hills, and pushed some blocks to harvest ripeness.
While the heat has kept us busy with a steady stream of Pinot Noir, it has not shared the same frenetic pace of the heat dome of 2022. So far, we have been able to perform long 3 to 4 day cold soaks, which have led to healthy native fermentations proceeding at a moderate pace.

September 5, 2024: 4.5 tons Rio Vista Block 7A (667)
Starting off with Rio Vista, at the eastern end of the valley, this historically makes the base of the SRH pinot blend. Quality is so good in recent years it has merited its own single-vineyard bottling. Yields are moderate and slightly lower than previous years with the smallest berries we’ve seen at Rio Vista in recent history. We’re trialing a small amount of whole-cluster on this lot to see if we can retain some additional freshness with the use of a portion of stem-inclusion.

September 6, 2024: 2.2 tons Sanford & Benedict Block 4D (943); 1.1 tons Rio Vista Block 2 (115)
Our S&B block sits just below the old barn at the top of Sanford & Benedict vineyard. Extremely small yields and the 943 clone’s propensity to healthy sugar production pushed harvest of this vineyard farther forward than is typical for this vineyard. Despite the earlier than typical harvest date, quality remains amongst the highest we have seen from this block. High amounts of color and acidity while maintaining great phenolic maturity, even more than is typical from this small-berried clone.
We also harvested fruit from Rio Vista for use in our direct-to-press Pinot Noir Rosé. We source from a small block of 115 clone Pinot Noir which is slow to advance in sugar production, making it ideal for lower alcohol rosé production. Fruit was gently pressed, settled, and fermented cool in stainless barrels with cultured rosé yeast to maximize floral and bright red fruit aromas.

September 7, 2024: 0.9 tons Rancho La Viña Block 12 (115)
Rancho La Viña has been a favorite in recent years as the vines advance in age. Unfortunately, we saw the lowest yields from our 1.2-acre block, a result of the low fruit set. Color, tannin maturity, with great acid retention are among the best we’ve seen from this block, as result of the vintage as well as the care the vineyard manager, Erik Mallea, has put into farming these nearly twenty-year-old vines.

September 8, 2024: 2.7 tons Fiddlestix Block 6D (667)
Our north-facing section of 667 at Fiddlestix continues the trend of high acid retention and ample phenolic maturity and color development. The last block brought in during the short heat event, Fiddlestix, showed little signs of dehydration with small, ripe clusters of healthy Pinot Noir harvested in the cool pre-dawn hours.

September 10, 2024: 1.9 tons Peake Ranch Block 11B (Calera); 0.8 tons Peake Ranch Block 25B (667); 1.8 tons Rio Vista Block 14 (Calera)
Peake Ranch and our last fruit at Rio Vista came in as the last remnants of the heat spell.
Peake Ranch Block 11B is a steep west-facing slope planted to the heritage Calera clone of Pinot Noir. Block 25B is planted to Dijon clone 667 and opens to the western evening sun. Both blocks ripened moderate to low yields, and some of the smallest clusters we have seen from this site.
Rio Vista Block 14 is also planted to the heritage Calera clone, a steep, sandy south-west facing slope over the Santa Ynez River. Due to the efforts of vineyard manager Ivan Belfy to manage soil structure and nutrients we saw a moderate yield of very healthy Pinot Noir with even ripening, moderate berry size, and thick skins resulting in good color seen during cold soak.

What’s left? El Jabali Chardonnay (Wente, 76); Rio Vista Chardonnay (4); Radian Chardonnay (95); Radian Pinot Noir (115, 667); John Sebastiano Pinot Noir (Pommard); John Sebastiano Syrah (470)
Cool weather the week of September 16th will likely push the next picks to the end of the month as fruit sugars have retreated as vines recover and take up ground water. Acid retention remains ideal with the cool temperatures and will result in additional phenolic and flavor development for the remaining fruit.

September 25, 2024: 1.6 tons John Sebastiano Block 20A (Pommard)
We needed to wait for additional heat to continue harvesting.
John Sebastiano Block 20A is a gentle west facing slope planted to Pommard clone 4, it’s mid-slope and is less exposed to the wind when compared with other blocks at John Sebastiano and this year it carried modest yields and small berries. The fruit was hand sorted to ensure optimal ripeness and fruit health for grapes making it into the fermenter.

September 26, 2024: 1.0 tons El Jabali Block 4B (72); 1.2 tons El Jabali Block 5 (76)
Our blocks from El Jabali are planted to a north-facing slope of heavy clay soils. They took their time to ripen but held their leaves and acidity well. The blocks were hand-harvested, like all our fruit, and gently whole-bunch pressed together with the idea that clone 76 from block 5 provides acidity while the tiny berries of clone 72 (a virus-treated Wente clone) gave sugar ripeness, phenolic structure, and the ripe yellow orchard and citrus fruit aromatics Wente clone is known for.

October 2, 2024: 0.6 tons Radian Block 40 (115); 0.9 tons Radian Block 41 (667)
We saw some of our lowest yields ever at our Radian blocks, all in all only 1.5 tons from the steep, south-facing slope composed of granite and shale. Overall vine health looked better than previous years with good shoot vigor and even although – if not low – amounts of fruit set.

October 24, 2024: 2.6 tons John Sebastiano Block 18C (470)
A cool end to vintage, John Sebastiano Syrah took considerable time to achieve appropriate phenolic and aromatic ripeness to harvest. Luckily the west-facing slope has excellent air-drainage thus avoiding any late spring frosts and resulting damage to the canopy. The harvest on the 24th marked the end of our harvesting for the 2024 season.
As of now, the lot is scheduled to be pressed November the 11th and put to barrel the following day concluding the 2024 harvest season.