Butterdragon Harvest 2006

Yesterday, at 7 AM about 40 guys from Barbour Vineyards began picking the 7 acres at Butterdragon. Temperatures were in the mid 40’s and by the time they were done at 11 AM, it was around 60 degrees. I LOVE it when the grapes come in cool.
The fruit looked and tasted great though there was evidence of a bit more dehydration than we saw at Baconbrook on Saturday. Tonnage reflected this as we kept a total of 9.3 tons of Cab and a little under 1 ton of Merlot. This will mean production of 2006 Butterdragon will probably fall around average (~600 cases) rather than like the big harvest of 2005. This is fine with me. Crush went off without a hitch. With the small amount of Merlot, we were able to do a bin fermentation rather than putting it in a tank with the Cab. I like doing it this way. Although we’ve always ultimately blended in Butterdragon’s Merlot, I like having separate lots as long as possible so we can track individual elements and make final blending decisions. You can’t take it out once it’s in. By 3 PM, we were ready to clean up and go home.
Always a relief to get another vintage into the barn.
PS. I’ll post some pictures from both harvests soon.