This note from Bob Morus, owner of Phelps Creek Winery on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge pretty well captures everything I've been hearing about what is sure to be a great vintage:
The amount of grapes we harvested this season was remarkable. Even though we reduced the crop load on the vine to a single cluster per vertical shoot, we ended up in several blocks with 40% more fruit than typical.
This phenomenon was witnessed across Oregon and the exact reasons will be analyzed and debated for some time. The fruitfulness of the vine is really dependent on the season before as well as the current growing season. Weather in the 2021 growing season determines the amount of “buds” along each cane. This in turn establishes the density of fruiting canes the following season. The current growing season impacts the size and health of the clusters. Overall, we saw many cluster of increased size even though we had cool weather, including snow in April which pushed the harvest two week behind the last several years.
Across the river (in Washington) on Underwood Mountain, vines which historically [have been weaker] celebrated the season and set more fruit than we’ve seen in 10 years of working those sites. We will have lots of Pinot Gris, Riesling and Gewürztraminer in 2022 of outstanding potential. For the first time in many years we anticipate introducing an “Unoaked” Chardonnay into the line up, given we ran out of barrels at the critical moment. Expect at least three different 2022 Chardonnays as part of our portfolio.