Harvest Update

The final harvest of grapes at Amigoni Vineyards will be this weekend on Saturday October 18th. There are only 3 rows of Cabernet Sauvignon and one row each of Petit Verdot and Mourvedre. This year was a bumper crop for the reds with a total of 3.5 Tons of Cabernet Franc, 2 Tons of Cabernet Sauvignon, 1/3 ton of Petit Verdot, 1/3 Ton of Mourvedre. The whites yielded 3.5 tons of Chardonnay and .5 Tons of Viognier. Yes, these grapes, a little over 10 Tons, were all grown in Missouri!

Many of you ask, how many barrels does a ton of grapes make? The answer is a little over two 60 gallon barrels. However, with the topping of the barrels during the aging process and the racking of the barrels, it turns out to be 2 barrels per ton. Each barrel yields approximately 25 cases of wine or 300 bottles. So we are excited to have about 20 barrels of Missouri vinifera wine.

This year was really different than past years. Not counting the near total loss due to the Easter freeze of last year, this year was cooler and wetter. The spring was cool, resulting in a bloom that was two weeks late. Normally we have bud break around April 15th, and a month later we have bloom. This year the bloom wasn't until the end of May. This cool weather continued through the summer, and July and August were not as hot as usual. Then September came and so did Gustav. In the middle of September, Gustav dumped 5 inches of rain on the Amigoni Vineyard in Centerview, Missouri. Just before the rage of Gustav, we picked the Chardonnay in the rain. In a normal year we would begin picking the reds the third week in September. This year we started the last week of September with Cabernet Franc in the warmest part of the vineyard, the To Kati bloc. The clone of Cabernet Franc in this section is the Loire clone #214. This clone ripens earlier than other Cabernet Franc clones. We left the other blocs to hang until October. So we learned a lot from this vintage. We finally completely fended off the birds with the use propane cannons and netting. Also, we know we can still have a wonderful vintage in a cooler year with longer hang times.

So you ask, how are the red wines going to fare? The Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc are really complex, bold and rich tasting. The Cab Franc has a lot of violet texture and the fruit is very intense blackberry flavor. I believe the longer hang time and moderate temperatures allowed the grapes to gather more complexity. The great thing about this vintage is that we will have the ability to make some blends of Cab Franc, Cab Sauvignon with little bits of Petit Verdot or Mourvedre.
I want to thank the volunteers that helped with harvest:
Hoyt Ogilvie, John Poston, Natalie Jones, Pat Hennessey,Joe Dingwerth, Chris Newman, Mark Lea, Brad and Alex Stubbendieck, David and Matt Egger, and photographers Mark Lea and Tom Brink

We will announce the release of our new Cabernet Franc 2007 wine in a few weeks. Stay tuned.

Michael Amigoni

1600 Genessee, Suite 160
Kansas City, MO 64102
888-984-WINE
inlandseawinery@gmail.com