The Sonoma Table
Les Dames d’Escoffier Sonoma County
Newsletter September 2023
How Is The 2023 Wine Harvest Looking?
It’s September, one of my favorite months while living in Sonoma County…or Wine Country as it is penned. In September, the light changes and you notice that in the mornings and evenings. The hum of summer shifts, you see flocks of birds migrating and you start to smell grapes. You can’t place them but you can be driving down the road and suddenly a strong waft of fermented grapes overcomes your senses. This year, I noticed the shift in light was there, the hum disappeared and the birds were migrating but there was a delay in the aroma. We are just now, mid-month, starting to witness grape trucks on the road, their beds topped with bins filled to the brim with bunches of grapes. White grape varieties are starting to appear at crush pads while red grapes are still weeks away. Winemakers are starting to disappear from social gatherings, their trucks rumbling down the road at pre-dawn hours and you’ll most likely not hear or see them until the end of harvest.
On Labor Day Weekend, a handful of our Sonoma Dames got to host Dame Betsy McAtee from the Birmingham Chapter. Betsy was here visiting Sonoma with her daughter Ella. Betsy, like so many visitors, was excited to be here in September, at the beginning of this year’s harvest. While she was here, most of the wineries she visited were still just beginning their preparations but she was excited nonetheless because of the finished products that she would eventually get to enjoy.
While I am deep in the wine industry working alongside my father on our wine brand and now the tasting room, my work really begins with the release of new vintages and greeting excited visitors to the area. I spend my time sharing a bit of romance about the vineyard, the farmer and the grapes that are growing in the region. To prepare, I usually reach out to my colleagues to learn their perspectives on each harvest and glean from their knowledge to better educate the public.
While working on this article, we thought it would be great to learn about this year’s harvest from the point of view of our fellow Dames in the industry.
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Dame Virginie Boone, Wine Writer
Though the wine industry has every reason to be nervous until grapes are actually in the cellar door, this year has been slow and steady and more of a return to normal than all the years I can remember since 2017. If anything, a lot of winemakers are getting restless, wondering what to do with their time, grateful that they got to enjoy a Labor Day weekend for once, but also realizing they’ll probably be working well into Halloween and possibly beyond.
Well-above-average winter rains are partly to thank, which refilled reservoirs and lakes to full capacity and resupplied aquifers. But the wet, cool weather persisted well into late March, delaying bud-break by several weeks in most places. A cooler-than-normal spring also slowed things down. And so far even now into September, we’ve been free of extreme heat events. It’s been a pretty great growing season all in all I think across the board, with a little bit of shatter in cooler, coastal sites from what I’m hearing, but the wines should be gorgeous. I’ve heard some liken the vintage to 2013.
Dame Serena Lourie, Owner and winemaker
Cartograph Wines
The 2023 season is an odd one so far. Spring was very cool and wet in Sonoma County and all of Northern California for that matter. With a late start to the season and then cold weather that stretched the bloom period out dramatically we have grapes that are not in sync so success this year will require that we drop a significant portion of our crop to make sure we get everything ripe at the same time in each vineyard. While we are predicting a medium-sized crop, we are excited that in the past few weeks with solid warm temps, ripening is finally happening. With the extra time to prepare for harvest, we’ve got everything REALLY clean in the winery and we’re making frequent vineyard visits to keep our eyes on things.
Talking with other growers and winemakers we see this same pattern of late and uneven fruit so we’re expecting a very condensed harvest which means we’re not going to see a typical pattern where early ripeners like Pinot noir and Chardonnay come in first followed by some of the bigger reds and varieties that can tolerate more heat. We share winery space with other brands so we’re looking at some crunch times with tanks full up while fruit is still coming in the doors. Every year has different challenges but we are feeling optimistic about the grapes that are farther along and showing great flavor.
Dame Susan Idell, Owner
Idell Vineyards
Luscious Chardonnay grapes from the Michael Mara Vineyard at Idell Family Vineyards, Sonoma Coast AVA, are ready to be picked and crushed for sparkling. Yummm…..bubbles! It looks like it will be a great harvest and the buzz is definitely heating up. We expect a frenzy of activity in the next few weeks with the Chardonnay and welcome the trucks with bins stacked high.
Dame Kelly Ferris, Owner
Comstock Winery
'Show patience’…this is our mantra in kicking off the 2023 vintage. We are just finishing up our first week of September, and we still have not brought in a single grape for processing. This time last year we were about half way through harvest.
Why do you ask? Well, we had a perfectly wet winter (which pushed us out of our drought), and a cooler than average spring (which delayed bud break and slowed growth), and a very mild summer (I can’t remember a summer with less triple digit temps). All this played into a slower growing season.
Not to worry though, we have been visiting our vineyards, and all is well. The berries are colored up (through veraison) and on their way to a slow but inevitable ripening. If all goes according to plan (based on the samples we are analyzing) we will kick off harvest next week with Sauvignon Blanc.
I am sure it has been said a million times this 2023 harvest: “Good things come to those who wait." Well, we are showing patience, and looking forward to another great vintage.
Dame Betsy Nachbaur, Owner
Acorn Winery
As of September 7, 2023, the start of our Alegría Vineyards 34th harvest is probably 10-14 days away. Berries are ripening slowly (which is good), but the seeds are green, and the flavors are still developing.
Located at the northern end of the Russian River Valley, the cold wet spring delayed bud break, bloom, and consequently harvest. Our 1st pick will be the 3rd harvest of our white field blends: Alvarhino & Grüner Veltliner, followed by our field blend Heritage Vines Zinfandel (vines planted in 1890), Sangiovese, Syrah, and finally Cab Franc.
Above, you see Bill Nachbaur (Alegría Vineyards) and Melissa Moholt-Siebert (Ancient Oak Cellars) checking Grüner Veltliner seed and cluster.
Dame Maisie Lyman, Winemaker & Writer
Benchmark Wine Group
I'm easily found wandering between neatly organized rows of dusty bottles that span much of the globe and history. My haunting of Benchmark Wine Group's warehouse, where I oversee the wine buying program, might seem to contradict my Appalachian roots. But hear me out.
The opioid crisis and crack epidemic obliterated my childhood community. I survived largely unscathed by hunkering down in gardens and libraries, determined to grow and garden my way out. College and a career later, I recovered from the Great Recession under the amused gaze of restaurant veterans who happily decanted global philosophy with roots in dirt and spoke to my red clay dusted soul.
It was, pardon the pun, my first taste of a professional society which joined soil science, agriculture, land development, history, antiquity, gastronomy, and economics. I was hooked. My career continues to focus on the global nature of viniculture while my personal passion lies in supporting the people and communities who make their living between budburst and bottles.
The mad dash among our smaller producers kicked off with Semillon out of Esmeralda Vineyard in Calaveras County a couple weeks ago. Healthy, clean bunches that made the most of the fraught growing season. Given the high acidity fruit coming in from the warm easterly AVAs, our friends here in Sonoma and Napa should enjoy a more traditional harvest season - probably a week to two later than has become conventional. And I'm looking forward to the sparkling wine production this year. The cool damp season with its long slow maturation is primed for early ripening, high acid grapes and traditional method sparkling producers.
And just for kicks, let’s see what a couple of us are up to across the pond!
Dame Lisa Stavropoulos, Owner, Educator
Greek Grape Wine Tours
Meanwhile over in Greece....Dame Lisa Stavropoulos is leading another group of wine enthusiasts on one of her Greek Grape Wine Tours. She chimes in from across the pond. "According to my winemakers, yields will be down across all the regions, the north, south and on the islands, including Santorini and Crete due to the extreme heat waves in July and August.
Sustained high temperatures during these months inhibit berry growth and ripening. In addition to the heat, Santorini experienced a hail storm in June so harvest could be down anywhere from 30%-50%. Despite these setbacks, the fruit that does come in is looking very good."
Contributor Jennifer Burke,
Wine, Food, and Cheese Tours in Switzerland at EdibleSwitzerland.com
Most of the wineries in Switzerland are small and family-owned. I live near Lavaux where they have been growing and making wine since 2 AD. Some winemakers here are the 17th generation of wine growers and winemakers. Valais has almost 5000 hectares of vineyards and is the largest wine-growing region in Switzerland. Valais grows 50 wine grape varieties.
It's a bit early for harvest here but I reached out to my sister-in-law Rita
where her husband (my husband’s brother) is the winemaker for our family
vineyards in Valais (Cave Caprice du Temps). Here, she harvests Cornalin.
And yes, those are the Swiss Alps in the background.
Our family winery grows 14 different varieties and makes 17 different
wines. Swiss native varieties include Fendant (Chasselas), Petite Arvine,
Humagne Blanc, Cornalin, and Humagne Rouge as well as more common
varieties such as Pinot Noir and Merlot.
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Thank you to Dames for taking the time to share with us what Harvest 2023 means to you. I wish you much success and can’t wait to celebrate with you this winter!
—Written by Dame Doralice Handal
Member Spotlight
Dame Mary Calo, Board Member, Event Chair
Dame Mary Calo joined Les Dames Sonoma in December 2020 to share her experiences and mentor other women. She hopes to “Empower women in a male-dominated industry. My experience is vast and I hope to help others.”
Currently, Mary is a key account manager at Straus Family Creamery managing five large distributors and all retail accounts West of the Mississippi including the grocery giant, Costco. She handles all promotions, sales, marketing and new product innovations for this sustainable family-owned company. Straus Family Creamery provides for the twelve Family Farms located throughout Sonoma and Marin Counties. I think Straus does an excellent job in diversifying their product offerings!
Mary did not have a typical path to where she is now and it has been a diverse path. Going back to school later in life and graduating in 2007 with a BA in Ecological Economics, Community Building and Sustainability, helped further her career within the speciality food industry, which started 30 years ago in 1997 at Whole Foods in Texas. At the time, the little-known Austin-based natural foods store had only six stores. The company had not thought of a future where it would one day be known worldwide and eventually acquired by Amazon. (Amazon went public in 1997). How time has changed!
Since that solid beginning, Mary has worked as a sales representative for a high-end speciality cheese and meat importer and has been a broker for other speciality food and cheese companies. . At one point she managed a sales team of eleven for a small regional distributor where they advanced the business of local cheese makers and brought in new items for distribution in Northern California. Before the Straus Creamery job, Mary was the Director of Sales for a family-owned Italian prosciutto company that unfortunately did not weather the pandemic.
Mary loves collaborating with amazing talented women. She loves the energy around supporting and empowering women as well as being empowered and supported within the community. Right from the start, Mary became involved with the chapter. She joined the events committee and in 2022 was nominated for the Co-chair role for the committee. Mary oversees the various events and projects that are part of our chapter and encourages all of our members to become involved with the planning, creation and execution of events that will boost morale, raise funds and grow our chapter. This spring, Mary was asked to join the board of directors. There, she is able to contribute her years of experience as a team member and counsel as our chapter grows.
Mary is happy in her current role and living with her partner in a home they purchased in Petaluma in 2011. “We LOVE Sonoma County. We have our family nearby and many friends since I graduated from Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa,” says Mary. “We are SPOILED with the access to specialty food, wine, cheese, etc. And love the great outdoors which we take advantage of regularly.”
—Written by Dame Barbara Barrielle
Upcoming Events & Reminders
October 5-8th: LDEI Annual Conference, Louisville KY
October 9th: LDEI-SF 2nd Annual DEI in the Food and Wine Industry Celebration and Education Luncheon
October 17th: Member Meeting, Hamel Winery 5:30pm
November 9th: Julia’s Table, The Saint, St Helena 5:00pm
“A party without cake is really just a meeting.”
Upcoming Events & Reminders
Julia’s Table: June 8th, 5pm-7pm, Jackson’s Bar & Oven, Santa Rosa
Member Meeting: July 18, Dry Creek Peach, Healdsburg
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"You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces—just good food from fresh ingredients." --Julia Child
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