2005 Harvest Update

After spending time chatting with Eastern Washington winemakers over the past several weeks the word on the 2005 harvest appears to be good. Of course we really won’t know the final verdict until everything is in the bottle and we start drinking the wines in another two to three years. But overall, everyone appears to be pleased with the quality of this years harvest.

The key to 2005 was a combination of warm days, cool evenings and minimal amounts of rain in the critical months of September and October. This scenario is one of the reasons why Washington continues to produce wines that rival those of other premiere grape growing regions from around the world.

I think Casey McClellan, winemaker for Walla Walla’s Seven Hils Winery sums it up nicely when he says, “Look for the 2005 wines as they are released; they will be worth waiting for and worth collecting for your cellar to enjoy in years to come.”