I spent nearly three and half weeks in Napa Valley this year. Temperatures were already un-seasonally cool in April, which delayed bud break at a number of properties I visited. A few weeks later, in mid-May, it was even more unseasonably cool. Maturation continued at a snail’s pace throughout the cold summer. A rainstorm on October 10 caused quite a bit of worry, as sugars dropped. I arrived on the 12th to find winemakers and oenologists very nervous. All but the Bordeaux-trained winemakers, that is.
