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While 2005 had some challenges, it will certainly be regarded as a very good vintage and one with the structure to give it exceptional aging potential. But all around the Northwest, winemakers' faces really light up when they start talking about 2006. It looks like we have another stellar year coming up and the whole wine world seems to be buzzing with excitement. Oregon Wine Merchants' Boris Wiedenfeld spoke with some of Oregon's and Washington's most respected winemakers: Lynn Penner-Ash (Penner-Ash), Russ Raney (Evesham Wood, Oregon), Ray Walsh (Capitello / Meriwether, Oregon), Eric Dunham (Dunham Cellars, Washington), Ron Bunnell (Bunell, Washington), David Hook (Chateau Lorane, Oregon), and Marc Girardet (Girardet, Oregon).
Lynn Penner-Ash: The 2006 wines are really developing nicely in the barrel. They have density along with tannin making what I like to refer to as fruit coated tannins. We are very excited to have both great fruit and great structure from one vintage.
Ron Bunnell: We have some very exciting wines in the house from 2006. It’s hard to say at this point whether it will be better than 2005, because that was such an incredible year, but it is safe to say there is outstanding quality in 2006 Syrah and other Rhône varieties.
Eric Dunham: We have had a string of amazing vintages in Washington State, and none better than 2006 for us.
Marc Girardet: The 2006 vintage is looking superb for me - with some of the whites already bottled and tasting the reds in barrel, I can say this vintage has great levels of elegance and finesse, along with a nice fruit forward quality that makes the wines very charming. They will drink great while young and will also have aging potential on the reds.
David Hook: Overall I think the 2006 vintage is the best i.e. most consistent since I’ve been here (1998) we have good depth of flavour in all our wines and without the very high alcohols of 2003/04. The consistently fine weather through September produced grapes of high quality which is particularly noticeable in our reds at this early stage.
Russ Raney: Despite the high degree of ripeness in the vintage, I don't consider it to be quite as balanced and complex as either 2004 or 2005. The wines have plenty of depth and richness but. like the 2003's, they also have slightly excessive alcohol contents and low fruit acid levels.
Ray Walsh: 2006 was a warm vintage season. Wines may show ripe / rich characters, however this heat can also (result in) difficulties of low acid and high alcohol wines. A great vintage for some of the cooler Oregon vineyard sites.
Lynn Penner-Ash: 2006 was an interesting year in that it rained on some sites at bloom so we weren’t anticipating much crop from those sites, but fortunately we were wrong and all our sites even in the Dundee Hills produced a bountiful crop. The clusters were a bit larger than normal which meant our tonnages were higher than we anticipated which sent us scrambling for fermentation tanks (thank you Dick Shea) and new barrels. We were very surprised by the quantities we saw coming off some sites even after multiple thinning passes were made – but now we are thankful to have a full cellar of great wine.
Ron Bunnell: There were some heat spikes during the summer, but they occurred at times which did not seem to detrimentally affect the grapes. The weather during the harvest season was nice and even, with mostly 80 degree days, which is perfect for ripening.
Eric Dunham: It was a fairly mild growing season with a few perfect heat spikes. We had a little rain at the end which just rinsed the dust off before harvesting….perfect
Marc Girardet: I think a light fruit set contributed to good flavor levels, and the gradually cooling fall weather really allowed for proper hang time which developed a lot of complexity and retained great aromatics in the wines. In short, this looks to go down as a benchmark vintage of the decade.
David Hook: As we source from such a wide area it is difficult to comment on individual growing periods other than to say there were no periods of weather that set the grapes back and September was dryer than previous years give less disease pressure producing clean ripe grapes.
Russ Raney: The degree heating days for our estate and other Eola area vineyards we buy fruit from were just below that of 2003 - i.e very dry and warm in the late season.
Ray Walsh: What a year... 2006 gave us a wonderful spring, followed by a lovely, warm summer. This provided a low frost risk in the spring, and a perfect fruit set and crop levels. As the hot summer continued, it produced optimum ripening conditions. However, as the fall weather with cooler nights approached, the days reamined hot and dry and the grape sugars continued to rise while waiting of roptimum falvors.
Lynn Penner-Ash: After two very low yield years we are extremely happy to actually have used our winery to its capacity and filled our barrels with such fabulous wine.
Ron Bunnell: The growers I work with are experts at controlling crop levels, so the yields are generally similar year to year. Cluster weight can be a significant uncontrollable factor, but we haven’t had any unusually variation in cluster weights in 2004-2006.
Eric Dunham: We had slightly lower yields but nothing significant.
Marc Girardet: The yields were down a little from '05 (which was up a lot from '04), making for good levels of concentration.
David Hook: Per acre yields were up a little with Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris and similar with other varietals.
Russ Raney: Generally quite a bit higher - and therein lies part of the reason for lower acids.
Ray Walsh: Much better!!!
Lynn Penner-Ash: We really only focus on Pinot Noir so overall it did quite well. The Syrah and viognier from Southern Oregon were nicely ripened and we even managed to bring in a few tons of some White Riesling that is very varietal and quite dry.
Ron Bunnell: As you know, our focus is Syrah, which has done very well in every vintage in Washington since I started working here in 1999. It is a real star in WA and that is why we specialize in Syrah.
Eric Dunham: Cabernet Sauvignon had a really long time to hang, making it attain great maturity..
David Hook: We were happy with everything we got. Pinot Noir and Gris did exceptionally well.
Russ Raney: Overall I'd say that our pinot gris and gewurz followed by pinot noir.
Ray Walsh: Riesling, Viognier, Pinot Noir.
Lynn Penner-Ash: In ten total days (or so it seemed) as most of the fruit came in at once. We started slowly, saw a rain storm come through and then a heat wave so we started picking after the fruit dried out and we never stopped.
Ron Bunnell: Our harvest runs from about the third week of September through the last week in October. Since we take grapes from Wahluke Slope, Yakima Valley and Horse Heaven Hills, the harvest is quite protracted.
Eric Dunham: We harvest Sept till late November…
David Hook: Harvest started 15 September and we got the last grapes 26 October, with the 28th of September to 16th October being our busiest period.
Russ Raney: We started picking in our estate vineyard (Le Puits Sec) on Sept. 22 and were finished by the 29th.
Ray Walsh: September 29th, October 2nd and 6th.
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