After a year of records, it seemed we were back in a more traditional weather pattern to start 2022 with snow on Christmas and New Year’s, but that was the end of our “regular” year. January saw no precipitation and many clear days making it one of the driest we’ve seen. The vines awakened early with the first wooly buds appearing in March. It looked to be another early year, but then the wettest April in Oregon history arrived, followed by the 5th wettest May and a June with only a handful of sunny days. Flowering did not start until the last week of June and suddenly we began talking about a repeat of 2011. What a difference a week makes. Like a switch had been flipped, July produced the greatest number of 90F+ days in history with a hot August as well and now it looked like a repeat of 2009. The heat continued with October setting a record for the greatest number of 80F+ days. So what do you get when you combine a record late start with record heat? Apparently, a beautiful crop with plenty of acidity combined with ripe fruit flavors. White grapes were harvested from September 22-26 and the Pinot was brought in October 2nd. We waited until the last possible moment to harvest the Syrah and Tempranillo, allowing the warm Second Summer days to work their magic. The Syrah and Tempranillo were harvested Oct 19, just before the rains set in for good.