Dear Friends,
Another
vintage has been harvested! On October 28th we picked our Cabernet Sauvignon,
Cab Franc and Petit Verdot grapes, and on October 9th a crew of friends
helped us pick our Merlots. So, vintage 2009 is now in the hands of
our winemaker, Bill Ballentine. A year’s work in the field that
won’t be introduced to the world until it’s a “world
class wine” in October 2012!
We’ve
had lots of visitors this year, touring the vineyard and tasting
our wine and quite often we’re asked if 2009 is going to be a “good
vintage.” Of course we tell them that every year at Tom Scott
Vineyard is a “good vintage” and we’re not being cute,
just truthful. Good or bad vintages are usually the result of fruit
ripeness, and two things; the weather and when the fruit is picked
usually determine fruit ripeness. The weather in the Napa Valley
is ideal for growing wine grapes, better than almost anywhere in
the world. And the weather is consistently good year to year; we
don’t
experience rainy, overcast, cool summers. The average daytime temperature
during the growing season is 80°. While temperatures vary
daily from year to year, the overall picture looks very similar. Temperatures
begin a gradual increase in April, May and June with hot days following
in July, August into September and cooling beginning in October
and November. Most of our rainfall is during the winter months
when the vines are dormant.
 So,
based on the weather, every year should be a good year, but fruit ripeness
is also affected by the timing of harvest. We let our fruit hang until
we’ve determined it is absolutely ripe. We don’t
just look at the sugar content of our fruit, but we consider
the softness of the skins, the darkness of the seeds and of course the
taste. Our only consideration in the harvesting of our fruit is its ripeness.
Not all vineyards have the luxury of letting the fruit “hang,” they
may have other factors such as tank availability or crew scheduling
that results in the fruit being picked early. These factors can
affect the quality of their vintage.
Here we have the luxury of handcrafting our wine, all of our decisions
are driven by our desire to produce the finest quality fruit. We
believe that great wine begins with great fruit, and we are committed
to making a great wine.
Thank
you to everyone that helped us celebrate the release of our 2006 Barn Burner at our Release Party. It was wonderful seeing old and new friends
together under a full harvest moon. Those of you that haven’t yet
experienced our 2006 Barn Burner are in for a treat; the maturity and
balance of the vineyard combined with our great weather and late harvest
have produced a spectacular vintage… again!
So,
this Thanksgiving raise a glass of Barn Burner with us and share
a toast to family, friends and of course, love… we
are truly thankful.
 Tom and Lauren Scott
www.tomscottvineyard.com
www.tomscottvineyard.com/store
info@tomscottvineyard.com
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