Paso harvest 2024 – quality high, quantity low

While harvest 2024 got off to a slow start, it was all about quality versus quantity. In all fairness, though, this report was filed before the heat spike in early October.

“So far we’re really happy with the fruit we’re getting in from our former estate; we’re familiar with that fruit,” Carl Bowker told me when I met him at the grand opening of Caliza Winery at his new location on Peachy Canyon Road. Bowker was referring to his former estate on Anderson Road that was acquired by Constellation Brands earlier this summer.    

“Part of our negotiations was that we were able to retain some of the fruit for ourselves on a four-year contract,” Bowker commented. “It was important for me that we could assure our customer base that our fruit and the wines remain the same for a period of time.” Plans include replanting half of the 10-acre vineyard on his new location (formerly Asuncion Ridge winery) and new plantings on his 65-acre home ranch.

While grape quality is excellent, yields are low. “But yields per ton are pretty high. We might be getting less fruit than we anticipate but we’re getting good returns on the amount of fruit we are getting.”

At the end of September, all whites were in and some Syrah said Bowker. A brief cool spell allowed more hang time for red grapes.  “As a winemaker I say as long as we can hang out there, the better it’s going to be. We’re not in a rush.”

Reflecting on quality versus quantity, Steve Gleason concurred. “Production will be down 50%, That’s what I’m seeing across the board. It’s a tough year for growers. Definitely not a volume year.”

The quality, however, looks good said the co-owner/winemaker of Four Lanterns Winery. “I was punching down Syrah a couple of hours ago. It looks gorgeous, smells wonderful, great quality.”

Strong frost in spring after bud break causing buds to freeze resulted in lower yields in Gleason’s westside vineyards. “Another thing that got us pretty bad is we had a spike in the squirrel population, eating grapes.” It’s a problem all over Paso that his fellow winemakers experienced, he noted. How much did he lose to the hungry squirrels? “Depends on the block,” Gleason replied, citing Viognier as the victim. 

 “We’re not going to pick Viognier this year, we got over 10 tons last year and will get zero this year,” he informed. “That’s the most dramatic.” A few dribs and drabs were picked to co-ferment with Syrah. “Other than that, everything is coming in at 50% normal yields.”

While many growers rushed out to pick during an early heat spike in September, Gleason did not. “I tend to wait through it. I’ve seen, for example, our Cabernet in the middle of that heat spike at 23.5 Brix. It’s re-hydrated since then,” he commented in the third week of September. 

At McPrice Myers Wines, associate winemaker Adrian Perez declares the 2204 vintage shows much potential.” In an email exchange he further noted that fruit ripeness is generous and acids more in check from years past. “Not as sharp as we’ve seen,” 

.After two consecutive years of above-average rain, the vines with their ample canopies weathered the heat well, offering good uniformity in fruit quality. As for yields at McPrice, it’s above average on the Westside, but below average on the Eastside.

Over on the Eastside, Sherrie Holzer, the winemaker at Rava Winery, was happy with the 2024 harvest for Rava’s sparkling wines. “Acids were higher than usual, which worked out to our benefit.” For sparkling wine grapes, she noted, there is often a short picking window when the flavors shift from “green” to “ripe” while crossing fingers that the acid doesn’t drop out during that window.

“We were able to let the grapes hang a little longer this year to get the riper flavors, without compromising the acidity that we need for the sparkling base.”

 Matt Glunz, co-owner/winemaker of Glunz Family Winery & Cellars, was happy with the initial fruit picked by the third week of September. “We just harvested Zinfandel, Cabernet Franc, a newer planting of Cabernet Sauvignon from our estate and we are very pleased,” he said in an email exchange.  

The summer heat reduced the acidity in the vineyards a bit with the cooler September proving beneficial. “It is allowing us to bring the grapes in when we think they’re ready instead of mother nature making the decision for us.” Surprisingly, his vineyard did not experience the Labor Day weekend heat spike

“It was more of a bump,” he mused. About a third of the way through harvest, Glunz was optimistic. “Can’t wait to see what the rest of this vintage brings. I think that we are looking at back-to-back remarkable vintages with 2023 and 2024.”  

I caught up with Scott Schramm at his Tin City tasting room. The co-owner/winemaker of CRUSH Vineyard was enjoying his fifth harvest from his Westside vineyards planted to Tannat, Tempranillo and Petite Sirah. It was end of September and he had harvested half of his five-acre vineyard.

”Petite Sirah was not enough this year to do a box so we are doing a co-ferment with Tempranillo,” said Schramm while offering a splash of his deliciously fragrant Rosé of Tempranillo.  

Schramm was letting Tannat hang for another couple of weeks. “The weather looks good. We’re getting 90-degree spikes, not 100 and prolonger heat.” As for quality, Schramm compared the last two harvests of Tempranillo. The 2023 “hang” was six weeks longer than this year’s. “Hang is where we get the color, but for this year’s color to be better than something that was hanging six weeks longer is impressive.”

From what I heard in the wine community, “impressive” sums up Paso’s 2024 harvest.

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