The winter of 2016 / 2017 was the wettest in many years, causing the Napa River to reach flood levels and some vineyards to become temporary lakes. By the time of bud break in the early Spring, some parts of Napa Valley had reached over 50″ of rain. The Spring of 2017 was beautiful and moderate followed by a freak hail storm in mid-June which caused some damage to mostly mountain vineyards. Veraison was about a week late, but an exceptionally hot August quickened the ripening curve.
During the last week of August some areas reached as high as 115F. Another heat spike came during the first week of September, which kicked the Cabernet harvest into gear for most of the early ripening sites. The evening of October 8th was one of the windiest, driest on record resulting in unprecedented wildfires that raged in the hills and into the fringes of the valley floor. Thankfully, all of Vineyard 29’s estate blocks had been harvested already.
