FRESNO, Calif. — A cool summer along the West Coast has made for a hurried harvest in the nation’s top winemaking regions as growers rush to beat the first frost. Vintners, however, are hopeful the late grapes will make great wine.
It’s a matter of simple science: Grapes become sweeter as they develop but they need sun and heat to do so. When the grapes are crushed and loaded into barrels, the sugar turns into alcohol during fermentation. With less exposure to sun and heat, the grapes will have less sugar and produce wines with less alcohol. But, vintners say, the wines should be beautifully balanced and full-flavored.
“We expect more understated wines from this vintage,” said Rob Sinskey, 51, who owns Robert Sinskey Vineyards in the Carneros region of Napa.
“High-alcohol wines are power wines. They’re showy in a wine tasting,” he continued. “We think these will be more elegant, floral, with beautiful aromatics and exotic overtones.”
Wines from France, Italy and Spain — the leading wine producing countries — have average alcohol levels of 12 to 13 percent. Most New World wines — from the U.S., Chile and Australia — tend to have slightly higher alcohol levels, about 14 to 15 percent.
But this year, the wines coming from California, Oregon and Washington will be different because the grapes took longer to ripen and won’t contain as much sugar as usual, said Doug Adams, a viticulture professor at University of California, Davis.
“A lot of winemakers were waiting for a year like this,” Adams said.
White wines from this year’s crop are expected to be ready in nine months to a year, while reds will take about two to four years, depending on type.
