NEWS
2009 VINTAGE REPORT: We’ll have to reserve complete excitement until the wines from this year are ready for consumption, but just from a chemistry/picking/wine-by-the-numbers stand point this vintage could be the best in Sonoma this decade. A powerful march frost was worrisome, but only effected a small crop load. Very light rainfall in the winter led to a drought year that stressed the vines (hey-that’s a good thing!), and the summer was unusually long and cool. Grapes took a long time to ripen, up to a full month later than the previous two vintages, and that extra time on the vine gave the crop excellent tannins and developed fruit flavors. The cool weather and drought conditions resulted in ripe grapes with excellent acidity and low potential alcohol. The numbers on each vineyard were perfect. Our cabernet and merlot were the last to be harvested, and an intense rainfall in early October had us peering out the window and biting our nails for days. Despite our concerns that the water would effect the grapes’ acidity, they still ripened wonderfully afterward on Gundlach’s well drained soils, with intense tannins and just a slight amount of botrytris to show for it (which might even add an additional flavor profile in the wine). Like I said, we need to wait for the wines to be released to get completely excited, but this could be the vintage to watch for in California. It really reminded me of old world, mid-last century California growing conditions: the kind that resulted in exquisite, age-able, low alcohol wines of great finesse. That is the kind of wine Barber Cellars is all about, so this year was simply wonderful.
2008 VINTAGE REPORT: Any grower in Sonoma will tell you that 2008 was a tough year. A late frost which occurred right after bud break was particularly frustrating, and had some growers in the colder parts of northern California working around the clock for up to a month to protect their vulnerable vines from frost damage. It was the worst frost in 10 years, and up to 15% of Sonoma’s crop was lost. Thankfully none of our vines were affected, but securing the crop load we wanted was definitely nerve wracking. For the most part it was a picture perfect ripening season through august: temperatures were moderate, rain wasn’t going to fall, and sunlight was abundant. Two huge heat spikes of 100+ degree weather at the end of august and early september were problematic and harvest time was a day by day decision as sugars rose steadily due to extreme heat. It was another early harvest year, but cool temperatures between the heat spikes kept sugars from rising too high. The generally cool ripening season and early harvest time gave us grapes with excellent acidity, and our sauvignon blanc, sangiovese, and syrah grapes (for our new rose) were textbook perfection. Zinfandel throughout Sonoma saw a fair bit of shrivel and raisining due to the extreme heat spikes, although brix was nicely low and acidity higher than normal. This meant we had to be extra diligent on the sorting table during crush to pick out the shriveled grapes. All in all- it was a rollercoaster of a year, but thanks to the hard work of our growers and the crushing staff, 2008 will give Barber Cellars some great wines.
2007 VINTAGE REPORT: Extremely light rainfall and a hot summer made 2007 a strange but good vintage year. Grapes were ready to be picked early, and we harvested our sauvignon blanc at the end of august and our zinfandel in mid september, a full month earlier than normal! Light rainfall earlier in the year gave us grapes with huge acidity, and the quick ripening season gave us smaller than usual grapes and lower yields in the vineyards. The smaller grapes allowed greater juice to skin contact during maceration and powerful flavors. The result will be a sauvignon blanc with intense acidity and a big presence, and a zinfandel with good acidity and robust flavors that will be more dark violet than most years because of the smaller primitivo grapes.
