Hello Everyone and Happy Summer 2017!
As we enter into one of the most intense heat waves that I have seen, I thought that it would be a good time to sit in a nice cool office and send out a quick update on all that is going on at Devium.
The 2017 growing season, which started out cool and wet, has taken a decidedly warmer turn in the months of June & July. We are now trending slightly ahead of average, but way behind the recent hot years of 2013-2015. I have attached the most up to date Growing Degree Day (GDD) graph for the Yakima Valley from the WSU site. GDD’s are not a perfect gauge of the growing season but do provide a nice snapshot, especially when looking to compare across vintages.
Currently, based on the projections, it looks like the Devium French Creek blocks should be picked the last week of September through the first week of October. This would put us somewhere around 10-14 days behind the last two vintages. I am very excited to see what that little bit of extra hang time will bring to the wine this year.
Additionally, 2017 will be the inaugural vintage of the Devium Celilo Vineyard Sparkling Chardonnay. Celilo Vineyard, located in the Columbia Gorge AVA, was established in 1972. The Columbia Gorge is an extremely cool growing region for Washington and is ideally suited to making the kind of racy, energy filled sparkling wine that I love. So mark your calendar now for February of 2020 and the first release of Devium sparkling…
The next release email will go out on Halloween day and will consist of the 2016 French Creek Mourvèdre “Sans Soufre”. What started out as an experiment in making a wine without the addition of SO2 has turned into something special that I hope will grace many of your holiday tables this winter. The wine is light, fresh, lively and immensely drinkable; yet has a sneaky complexity and texture that holds your interest. It is stylistically very dissimilar from anything coming out of Walla Walla (and Washington?) and just loads of fun. I can’t wait to share it.
Lastly, due to a paperwork mix up with a retailer, 3 cases of the 2015 French Creek Red (previously sold out) have become available. If you are interested in purchasing any of this remaining stash, please email me at keith@deviumwine.com and I will take care of you. The 2015 continues to open up and evolve. It is still so young and can be a little ornery, but I do recommend that everyone with multiple bottles in their cellar pull one, decant it for several hours, and give it a try with a nice meal. It is a very food friendly, elegant glass of wine after it has received the proper amount of air.
As always, if anyone has any questions, or if you are planning a trip to Walla Walla. Please drop me a note at keith@deviumwine.com. I always love to chat, and I always love visitors.
Thank you all so much for your continued interest and support.
Cheers,
Keith