The 2023 harvest’s general early outlook was for a pretty good vintage, although spotty rain was a concern. As always, there are variations, and in the end, it’s about conditions at each vineyard.
According to Vineyard Manager Bill Tonkins of Veritas Vineyards, 2023 has been “outstanding! We had a very dry start to the year, which put us in marginal drought conditions and helped give us a good fruit set and control vine vigor. Then in July and early August, we had a good dose of rain that has carried us through the ripening period. The temperatures have also been slightly cooler than normal, but this is perfect for acid retention. Hot sunny days and cool nights.” His assessment of the vintage is similar: “Buy Virginia futures now. Numbers talk and the sugar and acids numbers are just perfect…It is up to the winemakers now.” According to Jim Law of Linden Vineyards in Northern Virginia, “the dry summer of vintage 2023 gave us ripe, concentrated grapes…with a vintage like this making big bruiser wines is easy.”
“If there’s one word to describe the 2023 growing season in the Shenandoah Valley, it’s ‘dry,’” said Jeannette Smith of Vinesmith Consulting. “The weather in May and June was cool and dry. July and August were hot and dry. The cool, dry conditions in the spring caused a significant delay in vine growth and fruit development and, consequently, harvest began about two weeks later than normal. As of mid-September, most vineyards in the Valley had harvested early ripening white varieties like Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc and some red varieties for sparkling wine. Thanks to dry conditions, disease pressure has been very low and fruit is coming in quite clean. Unirrigated vineyards are seeing low yields, in part due to lack of water in the fruit. Overall, quality is looking good with lovely varietal flavor development.”
““If there’s one word to describe the 2023 growing season in the Shenandoah Valley, it’s ‘dry’…the weather in May and June was cool and dry. July and August were hot and dry.”
When we spoke with Janine Aquino of Aquino Baron consulting, she reported that, “In the Shenandoah Valley it was super dry with drought or near-drought conditions for most of the season with a late start to the growing season and fruit set. That made phenomenal grapes. Grapevines must suffer to produce quality. The clients I work with reported high concentrations of sugar, and they were bringing in perfect clusters of clean fruit—really pretty grapes with few issues. I have heard this from all over the state, the 2023 year is just an exceptional vintage.”
Northern Neck’s Ingleside Vineyards had a slightly more erratic vintage. “The 2023 season on the Northern Neck has been a crazy one,” proprietor Doug Flemer said. “We started out with a mild spring, thus no frost problems, and continued with normal rainfall levels until late July/August. Everything was looking good until the high temperatures and rainfall hit in mid-August! We harvested our Pinot Grigio and Albariño in very good shape with good quality. However, the next few varieties—Chardonnay, Merlot and Sangiovese—were hampered by late thunderstorms and high heat and humidity…overall, it was a mixed season for this area. We still have hopes for a good red varietal season, especially our Petit Verdot which is a flagship red for us.”
One source shared some difficult news from the southern Piedmont, which of course is still a large region, so it always comes down to specific sites. “This harvest was, I think, the most challenging of all our years,” they said. “We lost over a ton of our fruit to raccoons, fox, groundhogs and probably possum. We set out all kinds of traps but caught nothing. Two of our night picks got poured on with torrential rains. Production ended up about half of last year’s, but quality looks good at least.”
Taking the big, localized rain showers into account, 2023 still looks like a good vintage, and depending on the site, it could be a classic vintage especially for the reds, like 2017, 2019 or 2021.
The biggest concern so far with the 2023 vintage for growers is an unusual grape glut: tons of grapes without buyers. One source explains “In Virginia, it was mainly a glut of hybrids until last year. Last year, previously coveted vinifera varieties—Petit Manseng, Viognier, etc. without buyers—was long; this year, it’s crazy. I, personally, know of about 500 tons of beautiful fruit that has no home.”
This is part of an international trend, the global decline of wine consumption. As Forbes reported, Australian wineries alone are sitting on more than a quarter of a billion cases of wine without a market, while in June the EU gave France about $172 million to destroy nearly 80 million gallons of wine by way of distilling into industrial alcohol.
Alas, this year the trend has caught up with Virginia. Fortunately, fair Virginia’s lovely countryside will continue to attract visitors to its many wineries, most of whom sell most of their wine on the premises or through direct shipping.
RICHARD LEAHY Richard Leahy is an author and wine professional based in Charlottesville. His book “Beyond Jefferson’s Vines”, the definitive book on Virginia wine, is available on Amazon in a revised third edition (2020). He started Adventure Wine Tours in September 2022, offering custom, curated tours of Virginia wineries, at adventurewine.tours.
R. L. JOHNSON is our Co-Publisher and Creative Director. Bethke studied at the prestigious ArtCenter College of Design and began her career as a professional photographer in Los Angeles. She moved into graphic design and art direction when she relocated to Charlottesville in 1994. As our company’s co-founder and visionary, she enjoys all aspects of storytelling.
you might like
