A Very Good, Long Year for Pinot Noir

We are thrilled to announce harvest 2023 for Calligraphy! We picked beautiful Pinot Noir from Bootlegger’s Hill Vineyard on Thursday morning October 12 under clear skies. 

We started early in the morning with crews picking under headlamps and flood lights. We are so thankful for a superb and clean pick with our grower partner Charlie Chenoweth. After all of the grapes were picked, we transported them to Balletto winery where our winemaker Megan Baccitich and the Balletto custom crush crew lightly crushed and de-stemmed the grapes before they went into the open-top fermentation tanks to start their soak. Pinot Noir is in the tank and we couldn’t be more excited to share this vintage with you in a few years.

“Pinot Noir loves a long, even, slow, growing season and 2023 provided ideal conditions for fully ripened flavors and aromas. I believe 2023 will be remembered as a truly exceptional vintage,” Megan said.

A warm end to last week helped push the grapes to perfect ripeness. Cooler weather set in on Sunday and a beautifully cool and foggy morning yielded to a sunny afternoon as we washed picking bins and made final arrangements for harvest on Wednesday.

The season started off with record rains across many areas of California, including flooding in the Russian River Valley area and spring rains that delayed pruning and bud break in some cases. Spring

set occurred under normal conditions and allowed for potentially good yields. Veraison, the period when grapes turn from green to purple and start producing and building sugar, began in late July and progressed slowly, taking longer than usual into August. After veraison, it’s typically 60 days to harvest.

All around the vineyards and winery, there are crews at work picking grapes and the smell of fermenting grapes permeates the air. Harvest is such a special time. 

We look forward to sharing more about this beautiful batch of barely born wines with you!