2015 Vintage Report : Oregon Scores A Vintage For The History Books

Click Here for Original Article by Harvey Steiman for Wine Spectator, 10/18/2015

In Oregon, both 2014 and 2015 were essentially dry-harvest vintages. In 2015, the earliest on record for many wineries, rainstorms rolled through at the end of August, moistened the parched, drought-hit soils, and refreshed the vines well before they neared ripeness. September was among the coolest on record. Vintners could pick at whatever they considered to be optimum ripeness. By Oct. 4, the wineries were done picking. Barrels were being filled, nearly a month earlier than usual, with ripe flavors, modest tannins, and real potential for finesse. There's no precedent for a vintage exactly like this in Oregon, but there is in Burgundy: 1959 in the Côte d'Or. A growing season which was early-flowering, warm and dry, with late-August rains, a cool September and early harvest. Those Burgundies were magnificent and long-lived. If Oregon's 2015 turns out as well, it could be the state's most extraordinary vintage.