Exciting New Three Feathers Vintages in Celebration of the 2024 Growing Season
We will soon be presenting our exciting new Three Feathers Vintages that resulted from this beautiful year’s harvest. But first, it’s time to wrap up the 2024 season and summarize what happened during the year.
Oregon has two seasons; a wet season and a dry season. How much wet and how much dry are usually the critical elements in the vineyard. Without going month by month, I would say that we had normal rainfall in the winter and spring. On March 1st we had 8 inches of snow on the mountain and we were snowed in at home for several days. Snow is always a good thing as the water is released slowly into the ground and nourishes the vines.
We recorded the buds beginning to swell on April 15th (read our previous article Awaiting Bud break: The Promise of a Thriving Vineyard Season) and by April 25th, the first buds opened up and the 2024 vineyard growing season was on it’s way.
Dry Season and its Challenges
By early June, things started to dry out as we transitioned into the dry season. We had no rain for three months and temperatures were mostly normal except for a few days of hot weather. The interesting thing about all this is that the vines produced a lot of bloom and fruit set in the spring with the promise of an exceptional harvest in the fall. However, the dryness, especially without irrigation, can be an issue for certain clones of Pinot Noir. Plants were growing vigorously until the end of the season when certain blocks were showing stress.
It has been the fashion recently for vineyards to “dry farm”. I am sure the principle is to intensify the flavors of the grapes and produce better wine. In Europe no one irrigates (see recent article in Decanter about irrigation in a changing climate). Irrigation is also expensive to install. Usually, it is only used for the first few years to get the vines started and farmers can provide temporary water by hand for those years and save the money. At Three Feathers, our vineyard is fully irrigated so we have the flexibility to water if we need to.
Exciting New Three Feathers Vintages
Exactly five months after bud break we began to harvest, starting with the Precoce Pinot Noir on Sept 24th and the Pommard Block at Torio Vineyard. These grapes combined will be the basis for our ever Popular sparkling red: Pinot POP. As we have completely sold out of this wine, we hope to be bottling and releasing in February.
On Oct 9th we harvested the Pinot Gris for our own production as well. The grapes held well all that time and were luscious, so we anticipate a great vintage.
Stay tuned for announcements of the release of these two great wines for 2024.