Tom Scott Vineyard Newsletter - August 2015 - Barn Burner Cabernet Sauvignon
 When we sit down with friends in our home and pour a five vintage vertical of our Cabernet Sauvignon, Barn Burner, we explain that this vertical... from five years off the same 1200 vines is the truest expression of terroir they will ever experience. Terroir is the set of all environmental factors that affect a crops qualities; the age of the vines, the weather, the soil and the farming practices. Here at Tom Scott Vineyard, those variations are slight, not major. Our vines have aged; we now have a 15 year-old vineyard, our earlier vintages reflected a younger vineyard. Our soil has been in production for 15 years; prior to being planted in vines, the field had been pastureland leaving it rich in nutrients. Our farming practices have remained pretty consistent year to year, so that leaves the weather as the greatest variable.
While the Napa Valley is famous for its wonderful wines, it's also famous for its beautiful Mediterranean climate. Over the years, we've been able to point to the consistency of the weather, with only minor variations. That said, in 2010 we had a very cool growing season, April through October. We experienced more morning fogs and they lasted long into the day. As a result, the fruit matured slowly, without a lot of intense heat or heat spikes. We harvested our fruit November 3rd that year. Today when you sit down to enjoy a glass of 2010, you can taste the influence of the slow growing season, an added maturity and strength.
 In 2011 some growers lost portions of their crop due to botrytis. Botrytis is a fungus that attacks wet fruit. The prolonged rain that fell in late September through October caused many growers to harvest in the rain, greatly affecting the fruit's quality. Some people have been critical of the 2011 vintage, but we, as well as many of our friends, made beautiful wine that year. Our 2011 vintage tastes big, boisterous, and young with a great future!
The late rain of 2011 continued through December, and had a strong effect on the 2012 crop. Over the winter the vines greatly expanded their root systems and stored nutrients for the coming year. Despite the fact that 2012 was the first year of a severe drought, the vines took off and gave us a record crop. When you taste the 2012 vintage, you will taste a wine that harkens back to our 2004 vintage. The drought caused the big, healthy vines to be additionally water-stressed, which gave us a big complex wine, the "beautiful sister," as Lauren likes to call it.
 In 2013 we were faced with the second year of severe drought conditions. The vines still had the expanded root systems created in late 2011. Our crop was again large and the vines at first seemed generally unaffected by the lack of water, producing a large canopy and setting a large crop. But the drought caused another consequence beside the obvious lack of rain. The dry soil allowed the heat of the sun to penetrate deeper into the ground, and for the heat to be retained. We began seeing this heat effect on the vines in early June and for the first time we began applying water to the vineyard before veraison. We were seeing clear indications of water stress to the plants, before a crop was fully set. While bud break was in early April, which is usual in our vineyard, our harvest was the earliest we'd ever experienced. The heat retained in the soil created hotter than normal conditions. The vines responded by quickly building up sugars and by October 15th, we determined we needed to harvest the crop or risk dehydration of the berries.
Entering 2014 the entire wine industry here in the valley began talking about strategies for protecting our vines and crop. We were looking at a third year of no rain, and the lack of rain was creating heat. Here at TSV we determined we would water the vines just before bud break and then again at fruit set. Nature helped us out by giving us a little rain in early spring, and we followed up with water at fruit set. We again saw the effect of the very dry soil retaining heat, which caused the vineyard to be hotter than "normal." We again watered our vines in June in response to visual signs of stress. And we set a new record for early harvest, October 13th!
 2015 is showing us the cumulative effect of three severe drought years. Our vines are showing more damage then we've ever seen before. The three dry years have clearly weakened the vines, allowing them to become more venerable to problems, like measles and short shoot development. Our weather this year has been problematic. Our spring was a prolonged period of cool weather, cooler even than 2010. The cool days resulted in a very long drawn out bloom, extending weeks longer than in previous years. While we did get some rain, it fell during the critical time of fruit bloom and in some cases disrupted the set. We have more "shot berries" and "shatter" then we've ever seen. The weather then turned hot and we began watering, as the signs of vine stress are evident. Veraison became evident within days of last year's veraison, and we will soon look to thin our crop, so a lot of damaged or underdeveloped crop will be removed. We are confident that the fruit that we leave will mature into another beautiful vintage, but it may be smaller than the recent "normal" crops; it may be more reminiscent of pre-2012 harvests. We'll be interested to see when our fruit fully matures and when we elect to harvest. Will it be like the new recent normal or the old normal?
Sometimes we joke that in a place as beautiful and ideal as the Napa Valley it doesn't take much to create drama, and so far 2015 has been all about drama! In 2021 as we sit down to share a glass of 2015 Barn Burner, we'll have lots of stories!
In the meantime, we remain calm and carry on!
Thank you, to all our friends that have visited us this year, and thank you especially to all our friends that have sent us their friends! We've had a great time!
Cheers!
Tom and Lauren Scott
www.tomscottvineyard.com
www.tomscottvineyard.com/wineshop
info@tomscottvineyard.com
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