The 2023 Harvest season for Aurora Cellars has officially come to an end. We pressed a lot of fruit this vintage and wanted to share the vintage report.  We caught up with Vineyard Manager Nick Florip to see how the season finished out.

A major highlight from this season is that the harvest was picking heavily across all varieties. Florip explains that there were about 18 acres of grapes that had their first harvest this year – including our Estate Chardonnay. Most of our varieties saw much heavier yields this year than in 2022. Last year, the region experienced a six-week stretch of no rain and high temps in the middle of the season, which caused our vineyard crew to pay extra attention to the young vines.

As is to be expected, there are always surprises in every harvest.  Some of the challenges we faced were caused by mechanical problems with some of the machines used in the vineyards.  With twice the amount of fruit to harvest, this left our harvest crew working more than expected to hand harvest more of the crop.

Now that the season is complete, Florip will sit down with our Head Winemaker, Drew Perry, and co-owner Sam Simpson to reflect on the season and review the numbers. During the meeting, the group will discuss fruit yields, weed control, pruning and tying styles for the upcoming year.  They will do a deep analysis or what went well and what can be improved for the 2024 season.

Aurora Cellars’ harvest wrapped up on November 2, 2023. With the white and rose wines in fermentation, our production crew will be focusing on the reds until they press the juice off of its skins and begin fermentation before Thanksgiving.

The below photos were taken by Mae Stier Photography. They captured the harvest of our Blaufränkisch vines and the pressing of red wines in our cellar. Click on image to enlarge it.