Chardonnay fermenting on lees in concrete egg

Harvest is in full swing and I wanted to give everyone an update of how things are looking for us here at Sleight of Hand Cellars. We started bringing in grapes in early September, with Chardonnay coming in from French Creek Vineyards on Sept. 2nd. Shortly after, we brought in our first Merlot of the season from Red Mtn. Vineyard. Everything was looking like it was going to be another tremendous harvest season in E. WA. And then, the wildfire smoke began to pour into the state.

Micro Ferments to check for '“smoke taint”

Starting on Friday, Sept.11, and lasting all the way through the next Friday, Eastern WA was blanketed in a thick coat of smoke that was blowing in off the Pacific Ocean, comprised of smoke from both the N. California fires as well as the fires in Oregon. That left the entire Washington wine industry on edge, as we had no idea what impact that this smoke would eventually have on our wines. Because of the fires in both wine regions, the labs were backed up 4-6 weeks to get analysis for what is known as "smoke taint". So we had to improvise up here in WA. In short, the only way for a winery to determine if the grapes have been effected by smoke taint is to ferment some small batches. The smoke is not identifiable on the grapes, you have to ferment them in order to release the smoke compounds (if there are any). We brought in several different lots from vineyards across the Columbia Valley, and thankfully, we did not see any smoke taint in the wines. Our theory is that the smoke was old enough that the heavier compounds fell out early, and what we were dealing with was less potent that what our neighbors in OR and CA are dealing with.

Merlot clusters from Blue Mountain Vineyard

Regardless, we continued to bring in fruit once the smoke lifted, and all indications are that the grapes are healthy, and the quality is HIGH! As of today we have 75+ tons in the door, with another 40+ tons to go. One observation that I have seen is that crop yields are down this year in most blocks. Our Red Mtn. Merlot, for example, picked out at just 2.2 tons per acre (normally in the. 3.5-4 ton range). That trend continued in most of our red wine blocks. Our Ziggy Stardust block of Syrah yielded some killer fruit this year, as did our Estate block at Stoney Vine. The Funk Syrah is just finishing fermentation and has tremendous weight and texture. Our Red Mtn. Cabernet has some of the most beautiful red fruit purity that I can remember from that block. Our Estate Merlot from our Binaural Block in Walla Walla is a dark and brooding wine, very serious, with incredibly youthful tannin structure. We just brought in our Cabernet Sauvignon from the same block this morning and it tasting amazing right off the vine.

So by all indications, this will be a fantastic harvest for us at Sleight of Hand. We hope it finishes out the same way! Below are some harvest pics for you all to enjoy! Cheers!!!

Trey

Keith cleaning the press after a day of harvest.

Harvest 2020 Update!