Harvest concludes with Primitivo

We brought our last grapes of the 2018 harvest in today. Lodi appellation Certified Sustainable Primitivo. We bought these from Gregg Lewis of Lewis Vineyards, and I'm happy to be bringing his grapes in again - all of our 2014 grapes (our first vintage) were grown by Gregg. This vineyard is in the beautiful rolling hills of the Clements sub-appellation.

I've never made Primitivo before - how closely it is related to Zinfandel depends on whom you ask. I know this already: Zinfandel is normally the first harvested of red grapes, and this Primitivo is a pretty late grape. In our case this year, we harvested Zin first and Primitivo last. As this lot goes through fermentation and elevage, I'll have a better handle of how similar it is to Zin.

This has been a really good harvest for us. I'm particularly excited about blending possibilities - each varietal I bought this year was intented to be a part of a blend or two, given the historical success of blending the specific varietals we have this year. To summarize, it's been two old vine Zins, Syrah, Petite Sirah, and this Primitivo. And like last year's harvest, everything is from Certified Sustainable winegrapes. We'll be proud to display the logo on our labels.

Enjoy the pictures, and please come in to see us as we are always happy to show people how we make wine.

-Steve