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HARVEST 2009
‘PICTURE PERFECT’ – WELL NEARLY
 When grapes ripen perfectly to match our winemaking philosophy of “good keen acidy, low alcohol levels, gobs of fresh and delicious fruit, and refined with nice balance” you know your winemaker is a happy camper.
The earlier harvested fruit was the champion and will meet all of the above high expectations and more. Both our Estate Grown ‘Grandview Vineyard’ and the Dry Creek ‘Stetson Greene’ Sauvignon Blancs are going to be absolutely world class, and deliciously different in their own way.
The ‘Nagasawa Vineyard’ Chardonnay yielded what perhaps was the best fruit I have worked with. Teeny tiny little bunches, brilliant acidity, with an alcohol potential perhaps below 13% - I’ve been fine tuning this program for a couple of years now, and I know this will be my finest Chardonnay so far.
2009 Pinot Noirs from the Russian River Valley will be talked about for many years to come. A classic - loaded with a fabulous array of soft red fruits, nice acid backbone, deep color and some pretty decent tannin too.
Rockpile Vineyard embraced the cooler summer and is still fermenting as I write, deep brooding fruits, black in color with very pretty aro matics.
The Estate reds, ‘The Posse’ & our ‘Hoenselaars Zinfandel’ dodged a few bullets with the rain, and it was a bit nerve racking for a while; but the survey says ‘Delicious’ - super dark, super concentrated and very intense.
I have found some rather special late harvest SB out there, so I just persuaded the powers to add it in and now we’ll be making a fantastic 2009 ‘sticky’ for you too.
Cheers!
Dan Barwick
Winemaker
Paradise Ridge Winery
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