After a long, cool rainy spring and early summer, the last week in June and the first half of July provided the first really excellent weather of the season, with no rain for 3 weeks -- enough time to dry out the soil and impose the water stress on the vines that helps to ensure excellent ripening --but only on well-drained soils with low water-holding capacity like we have at Black Ankle.  Water stress is critical at this time of year because it helps to keep the berries small, which leads to a better skin-to-juice ratio and more concentrated, flavorful wines.  In hindsight, this critical dry period was the key to our success in 2009, both by reducing the berry size and in turn reducing the crop size so that the vines had less fruit to ripen. 

The second half of July again turned rainy, and the weather never really warmed up to typical July temperatures. 

August brought more rain and finally a few hot (>90F) days, with veraison proceeding normally in early August.  September was cooler than normal and was the first month of the year in which we got less than our historical average rainfall, although not by much. 

The whites (and Pinot Noir) were harvested from early to mid-September, with quality extremely high and quantity slightly lower than normal crop levels.  The reds were ripening slowly, a very good omen (as long as they eventually do get ripe!).  The first two weeks of October gave us some misty days but not much actual rain, and the ripening proceeded nicely with the Merlot picked in nice weather.  October 15th brought a storm which dropped 4” of rain (the monthly average for October) over 4 days, and we quickly picked the nicely-ripened Syrah after the rain and before it had time to soak up significant amounts of water.  The weather for the rest of the month was uneventful as we picked the Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, whose slow ripening promises wonderful wines with layers of nuanced flavors.