What will a delayed harvest taste like? Here’s what winemakers in Sonoma, Mendocino counties say

In this unusual harvest of 2023, with the grape pick lagging nearly a month behind last year, how will the wine taste in the glass when the bottlings are released?

A clue may lie in 2019, another rainy year with cool temperatures. Many local winemakers are comparing this growing season to that of 2019 and hoping for similarly vibrant wines.

Already, the flavor of the grapes is promising, according to Kristen McMahan, winemaker of Goldeneye Winery in Anderson Valley.

“Similar to 2019, the cooler growing season is allowing us to pick grapes at the perfect time in their development,” McMahan said.

Nicole Hitchcock, winemaker of J Vineyards & Winery in Healdsburg, remembered the 2019 harvest as a favorable one.

“In 2019, we had a very successful, clean and consistent growing season and harvest that made for outstanding wines,” Hitchcock said.

The similarities between 2019 and 2023 might even portend a “banner” vintage this year, especially for pinot noir, she said.

The 2019 harvest resulted in very high-quality wines, observers said at the time. Bloomberg reported that the 2019 harvest was “near perfect” in Napa and Sonoma. And Wine Spectator, when it reviewed the 2019 vintage of California pinot noir, said it set a new benchmark for quality across all major regions.

This year, up to Sept. 30, Sonoma County saw 49 days with rain (and 28 total inches of rain), and 2019 was similarly a wet year, with 64 days with rain (and 38 total inches), according to measurements recorded at the Sonoma County Airport. Temperatures in harvest months were also similar: 65 degrees was the average temperature in September 2019, and 62 degrees was the average in September 2023. October 2019’s average temperature in Sonoma County was 59 degrees and, for the coming weeks at least, the forecast calls for similar temperatures.

Compared to most harvests in recent years, a cooler growing season in 2019, like that of 2023, led to bottlings with low alcohol, high acidity and vibrant fruit.

These five local winemakers — McMahan, Hitchcock, Anne Moller-Racke of Blue Farm, Theresa Heredia of Gary Farrell Winery and Justin Seidenfld of Rodney Strong Vineyards — all made wine in 2019 and are in the midst of their 2023 harvests now. Their excitement about their bottlings gives us an idea of what may lie ahead with this year’s vintage.

A caveat: You may be wondering about the effect of wildfires. For the sake of comparison, we chose bottlings that weren’t affected by the 2019 Kincade Fire, either because the grapes were harvested before the fire hit, the vineyards weren’t in the pathway of the smoke or for other reasons. The fire started on Oct. 23, 2019, and most, if not all, of these winemakers had wrapped up their harvests before then.

Kristen McMahan, winemaker of Anderson Valley’s Goldeneye Winery

Question: How are the 2019 and the 2023 growing seasons and vintages similar?

Answer: In terms of the overall weather, both 2019 and 2023 were cooler years in Anderson Valley, resulting in delayed bud break and a long, measured growing season. But that’s really where the similarities end.

Vintage 2019 started with a dry winter and a cool, wet spring, which led to bud break (swollen green buds signaling the first stage of the vine cycle) in the first week of April. We started harvesting our first grapes for sparkling wine on Aug. 22, and we began our pinot noir harvest on Sept. 4. Our last pick of the 2019 growing season was on Oct. 15.

In contrast, the 2023 vintage is really unlike anything we’ve experienced in recent memory. … We started picking our sparkling grapes on Sept. 8. A few still-wine pinot noir blocks were ready on Sept. 19, but we did not really get started until Sept. 27! As long as the weather holds, I anticipate finishing harvest by the end of October.

Q: How do you expect the 2023 vintage, due to its growing season, to show up in the glass once it’s uncorked?

A: We’re already seeing wonderful flavors in our grapes, which is fantastic. Similar to 2019, the cooler growing season is allowing us to pick grapes at the perfect time in their development. In terms of color, concentration and flavor, what we’re seeing so far is outstanding, and we’re very excited for the wines from this vintage. The one potential downside to the cool growing season is that it leaves us more susceptible to late-season weather, most notably rain. But if things stay relatively dry, the 2023 vintage looks to be exceptional.

Nicole Hitchcock, winemaker of Healdsburg’s J Vineyards & Winery

Question: How are the 2019 and the 2023 growing seasons and vintages similar?

Answer: There are many similarities between the 2019 and 2023 growing seasons in Russian River Valley, such as heavy winter rains, delayed bud break and later harvesting windows. However, 2023 has been more of a throwback to vintages long past, beginning with epic rainfall that brought the region out of a multiyear drought and continued with the coolest season that most in the local wine industry can remember.

This led to a harvest that began over two weeks later than in 2019 and nearly four weeks behind many other recent vintages. For context, in 2019, we finished our harvest on Oct. 16, whereas this year we are hoping to finish by the end of October. But it may go even beyond that.

Many of the risks that come along with a later harvest — weather events, cooler temperatures and vineyard pest and disease pressure — were cause for early concern this season as vintners anxiously monitored ripening trajectories. However, now that harvest is underway throughout Sonoma County, there is excitement and optimism for what may turn out to be a banner vintage.

Q: How do you expect the 2023 vintage, due to its growing season, to show up in the glass once it’s uncorked?

A: I expect that the 2023 vintage will show beautiful balance, vibrancy and impression of freshness due to the cooler-than-average growing season and moderate grape ripeness levels. Russian River Valley pinot noirs produced in 2023 will have a signature elegance, structural balance and nuanced intensity to the wines that is sure to set them apart from most vintages in recent memory.

Anne Moller-Racke, founder and winemaker of Sonoma’s Blue Farm

Question: How are the 2019 and the 2023 growing seasons and vintages similar?

Answer: In both 2023 and 2019, we had a wet winter with more-than-normal rainfall. That set up the season for healthy vegetative growth. … We completed our harvest by the end of September in 2019. Our Russian River chardonnay was our first pick in both vintages. In 2019, we picked on Sept. 14. In 2023, we didn’t pick until last Monday, (Sept. 25), with very similar chemistry.

Q: How do you expect the 2023 vintage, due to its growing season, to show up in the glass once its uncorked?

A: I have great hopes for 2023. During these last few weeks of waiting, my mind feared potential fires, excessive heat or rain. So far, we have been blessed with a wonderful fall that has allowed for beautiful flavor development. … I feel we’re sitting on a unique vintage for California — lower alcohol, but delicious flavors and liveliness.

Theresa Heredia, winemaker of Healdsburg’s Gary Farrell Winery

Question: How are the 2019 and the 2023 growing seasons and vintages similar?

Answer: It’s a decent comparison, actually. I think they are similar in that 2019 was a large pinot noir crop, but qualitatively it was a great vintage because even though there were a lot of clusters per vine, the berries were pretty small and concentrated. We got excellent extraction and flavor development during fermentation.

Vintage 2023 is looking similar in that there’s a good amount of fruit. We are coming in well above our targets in terms of tons, but the flavors are excellent. Again, the berries are small, so they are packed with flavor.

As for the tannin (grape vibrancy which comes from its skins) and fruit quality though, I believe these two vintages will be different. Vintage 2019 wines are more fruit-forward because it was a warmer growing season, and I believe the 2023 wines will be less fruity due to the cooler weather and lower sugars at harvest. So far, I am tasting fantastic tannin structure in the pinot noirs, whether picked at lower or moderate sugars (the longer the grapes are on the vine, the more sugar they have). We also got some extended hang time (the amount of time grapes are on the vines) in 2019, but this year we’re seeing cooler weather and even longer hang time.

I expect most of our grapes to hang for 110 to 120 days and, in some cases, we may see 130 days. That’s a really a nice thing to see. We haven’t had a really long, cool season in over a decade, so I’m excited.

The big difference between the two vintages is the very cool weather this year, and the delayed onset of grapevine development. ... In 2019, we started harvest on Aug. 26 and picked the last grapes on Sept. 28. This year we started on Sept. 5 and I believe we will likely receive our last grapes the third week of October. So this helps to paint the picture of the extended hang time.

Q: How do you expect the 2023 vintage, due to its growing season, to show up in the glass once it’s uncorked?

A: I think the 2023 wines will have more savory flavors, tremendous aromatics and beautifully firm tannins, which will make them great wines to age.

Justin Seidenfeld, senior vice president of winemaking and winegrowing of Healdsburg’s Rodney Strong Vineyards

Question: How are the 2019 and the 2023 growing seasons and vintages similar?

Answer: I would say the 2019 and 2023 are similar in the yields we have seen so far, which means the vines are happy. I also would note that neither harvest experienced any major heat spikes, which can affect how grapes ripen. Further than that remains to be seen, as we haven’t even picked the majority of fruit this year.

Q: How do you expect the 2023 vintage, due to its growing season, to show up in the glass once it’s uncorked?

A: I expect the 2023 vintage to be an exciting one when the wines make it into the bottle. The extended hang time has led to the development of flavors and beautiful balance in the fruit. I think the layers of complexity we will see will be something for the history books as these wines start to release.

You can reach Wine Writer Peg Melnik at 707-521-5310 or peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pegmelnik.