2023

January 23, 2025 | by Radio-Coteau

The 2023 growing season was unique in its lengthy duration. We experienced a cold and wet winter, which extended into springtime. A seemingly endless loop of atmospheric rivers hit the Sonoma Coast, and we even experienced a light snowfall on the Estate in late February. A delayed bud break in latter March was initiated by sporadic levels of warm weather.

The vines slowly continued to progress as the weather stayed relatively cool. We started to see flowering in June, and the cover crops flourished from the heavy winter rains. The warmer weather finally arrived in July, and as a result, the gradual ambient heat buildup moderated the ripening fruit process.

Pinot Noir from the Alberigi vineyard was the first fruit for Radio-Coteau, harvested on September 22nd. This is over a month later than the same vineyard’s harvest date in 2022. Once picking began, we had a consistent flow of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay into the cellar through early October. The late season varieties of Syrah and Zinfandel ripened with the October heat, and our last pick wasn’t until Halloween, our latest pick in recent years.

The 2023 vintage was primarily memorable for the length of the growing season. Even with the extended hang time, physiological ripeness, natural preservation of acidity, and moderate sugar levels were observed. We included more whole cluster in our reds in 2023 as the stems were fully mature and lignified. With smaller yields, the wines from the 2023 vintage have a heightened concentrated quality that will allow for complexity to continue with bottle age.

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