California

The 2023 growing season in California brought to mind the band Wet Wet Wet, not least because of the heavy rainfall and an overall weather pattern that was more reminiscent of the 1980s and 1990s than modern times. The winter saw torrential downpours: the chronic drought was over. It stayed cool and damp in the spring. The vines got off to a slow start and never really caught up. The summer was mild. Intermittent rain was never far away, but the apocalyptic predictions around “Hurricane Hilary” and the “Atmospheric River” did not materialise. The harvest began in August and lasted right through until November. Most picking schedules were running between a week and a month later than in recent years. The best grapes show an ideal combination of steadily accumulated sugar balanced by retained acidity. With time, we should be able to enjoy (if we can afford them) some classic Californian wines. Perhaps the one rub is that there is something of a glut of black grapes in California and as a result a portion of the crop was left unpicked. Estimates of the total harvest are still a little tentative but the yields were almost definitely up on 2022 (which was frost affected) and in line with the five year average.