Mother Nature Throwdown. The 2009 Vintage Report.

No pretty spin here. Ron's comments are pretty devastating.

"We ended up with about 35% of a full crop and will likely have no first-label wines. All the wines are clean and sound. The whites in particular are coming around and should be a good fit for our value-driven second-label River Village Cellars. As always with a tough vintage, it's too soon to tell for the reds. Confronted by the realities of the 2009 vintage, a professional wine spinner might be tempted to represent this vintage as a difficult one, but nonetheless with some "great wines produced". Unfortunately said spinner (typically a marketing person for a winery, or a spokesperson for a wine trade organization) would be well advised to take early retirement! 2009 was quite simply the worst vintage I have ever witnessed or experienced as a grower. It is on a par with the dismal 1977 and 1984 vintages in Oregon. We did have a promising start to the vintage with moderate weather and we missed the spring frost which decimated vineyards in northern Ohio. Then in July, the weather turned cold and wet and stayed that way through October. Our crew did the best job of canopy management ever, but to no avail. Enormous disease pressure combined with the need for extended hang time meant that we ended up selectively picking everything to avoid rot. It some cases, picking cost more than the fruit was worth."

The good news is the 2008 reds in barrel, releasing September 2010, are the best vintage we ever had, and quantities are higher than 2007, which was lean due to the Easter frost, and consequently already sold out.

Because of the small amount of white wine, a substantial quantity may be sold at the winery on release date (Memorial Day 2010); we will do our best to allocate the amount remaining to our loyal wholesale customers. Currently, it looks like the winery will be closed this year on summer Saturdays, but watch the web site for details.

The reason our wines are known for their quality is anything that looks like this is dropped to the ground.

Your friendly wine blogger,

Nancy Bentley

Owner/Managing Partner, Kinkead Ridge Winery