“The 2024 growing season began with bud break at our Flânerie Vineyard in early June, followed by a brief rain. Bud break at our La Belle Promenade Vineyard (LBP) occurred a little after mid-June. We had an excellent fruit set, with the rain event fortunately missing bud break at both sites. The following months brought good sun and heat accumulation, interspersed with light rain, which promoted nutrient mobility in the soil and kept the vines healthy during some heat events. Although high disease pressure was reported throughout the valley, our Director of Vineyards, Jaime Cantu, implemented a careful and effective spray program.

In early September, we paused harvest preparations to bottle most of our 2023 vintage. Once the wines were in bottle and shipped off-site for storage, we began cleaning tanks, hoses, sorting equipment, the press, and floors. Our first vineyard visits with the interns focused on teaching them fruit sampling and familiarizing them with the areas and blocks of our two sites. The crew seemed to enjoy the vineyard, though it involved a bit more walking than they anticipated. Our sites are steep in some areas! Sunscreen and wide-brim hats were essential on those days!

In an unexpected turn, our first ready-to-harvest fruit wasn’t for sparkling wine. Instead, it was some young vine Chardonnay from LBP. Young vines often ripen earlier than neighboring older vines, and I’m eager to see the character that these new Chardonnay blocks will bring. The Flânerie Chardonnay also ripened early, taking on an intriguing personality as the vines reach their sixth leaf. This wine has a noticeably different texture from the LBP Chardonnay, so I’ve been treating it slightly differently in the cellar to highlight the unique quality of this Ribbon Ridge site.