Walla Walla Valley Wines Have Great Year Pt 1

Walla Walla Valley Wines Have Great Year Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. On paper, an extremely wet fall, followed by a colder than average winter, a cool spring and a long, hot summer could have been tough on the 2017 Walla Walla Valley wine grapes ...

JASON MAGNAGHI ... "For the most part, it seemed like everybody was on top of things and I didn't hear of any real train wrecks this year, but once it got hot and we shut the vines down, it was kind of smooth sailing from then on. It cooled off at harvest and so everything was able to get it when we wanted to and didn't have any problems. So, once we got through the winter and the spring it was a pretty good deal. But, yeah, it was definitely a challenging beginning to the season last year."

Viticulturalist, Jason Magnaghi, with Figgins Family Estates, says everything ran like clockwork ...

JASON MAGNAGHI ... "We were able to get everything at physiological ripeness with the flavor profile we wanted with the numbers that we wanted. Yeah, we didn't have to pick anything early or later than we wanted to because we didn't have tank space. It was a really, it was one of the most uniform harvest that I can remember."

Magnaghi says they've had a pretty good run ...

JASON MAGNAGHI ... "Just looking forward to the release of the '15's and '16's that are coming out any time now and waiting on development of the '17's. But, yeah, we're really excited about the new wines that are going to be released here in the next several months. The '15's and '16's are phenomenal as well."

Magnaghi says 2017, with high acids, looks to be a vintage with excellent aging potential.

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