What's going on now at Drava Wines?

After many bottling delays, we finally got our 2022 reds and 2023 white bottled. We continue the tradition of making a different white wine every harvest, and the current vintage will be Gruner Veltliner. The reds are our second Petite Sirah. This time the Petite came from a vineyard on West Woodbridge Road. We made our second Wegat Vineyard Zinfandel, though this one is quite different than the 2018 vintage we previous made. It came in around 30 degrees brix and fermented out to a whopping 16 % alcohol. Very ripe, analytically dry but there may be a viscous sensation of perceived sweetness. And a new varietal for us - the Nicolini Vineyard Old Vine Carignane. It's a gorgeous vineyard on West Lane between Lodi and Stockton. Head-trained and widely spaced, when I took a look in the vineyard before harvest I knew we'd come out with a wonderful wine. It has all sorts of interesting, funky Southern Rhone notes.

So now that we finally bottled right before harvest, we have room for the 2024 vintage about to start in a week or so. But not much room - we made a lot of wine in the 2023 harvest that's all finished and blended but needing another 8 or so months of barrel age before bottling. Those barrels are taking up a lot of space so this harvest will be about a half of the previous year. So far we have lined up Albarino and an Old Vine Zinfandel vineyard in Clements, our first time working with either of these vineyards. I'd like to get a third lot in but I'm still working on that.

We had a super hot July, I think the hottest month ever here. However that came before veraison set in, so it won't effect the grapes much if at all. August started hot but for the last two weeks we've been mostly below average, with the last two days not even breaking 80 degrees. It's looking like the timing of harvest will be average, after last year's late harvest, and the previous year (2022) being early.

That's it for now. Come by and try the new wines, and it won't be long before I start offering some barrel tastings of the 2023 reds. See you soon!

-Steve