California Vintage 2020
Yet again California and Oregon’s vintage news is sadly tarnished by devastating wildfires in this year. While in 2019 they occurred in mid to late October, in 2020 they raged through August and September which, unfortunately for the wine, was more significant, with many acres of vineyards left unpicked as the smoke damage was so bad.
Ultimately this year will be one where we need to buy very carefully, those regions which were unaffected by the fires made great wines, but inevitably there will be some mediocre, smoke tainted wines on the market from this vintage, although looking at the volumes made, it does look like many wineries have chosen to bottle less in 2020, picking the eyes from parcels available.
