At the start of June, the Syrah and Petite Sirah crop growing in the Almond Hill Vineyard near Paso Robles, Calif., was looking the best of any the vineyard has produced in the past four years. Grower Dennis Van Westerhuyzen credits much of that to the rains the vines have received following the previous four abnormally dry seasons.
Since last summer, when an unusual mid-July storm dropped almost 3 inches of rain over a several-day period, he’s measured a total of 12.5 inches of rainfall. That’s just about 1.5 inches shy of normal for the period, he reports.
“The rain has helped this year’s crop tremendously,” he says. “Also, unlike the last three years, we had very little wind shatter during pollination. The clusters are back to near-normal size and look really nice.”
Located at the site of a former hillside almond orchard on the west side of the Paso Robles appellation, Van Westerhuyzen and his wife, Nicole Cavier, planted the vineyard’s first vines, 2.5 acres of Syrah, in 2000. Four years later, they planted four more acres of Syrah plus an acre of Petite Sirah.
Although they postponed retirement longer than originally intended as they developed the property, the vineyard now provides a fulfilling vocation for Dennis, after a career in the aerospace industry, and for Nicole, who formerly owned a screen printing business.
Their choice of grape varieties reflects their wine preferences. “We wanted to be able to make the kind of wine we like to drink, even if we couldn’t sell all the crop,” Van Westerhuyzen says.
Finding a home for their grapes hasn’t been a problem, however. In fact, they sold their first crop, in 2002, to a boutique winery next door.
“We believe great wines begin in the vineyard,” Van Westerhuyzen says. “So, we spend countless hours priming the vines to bear only a low yield of concentrated fruit.”
He figures their vineyard’s quadrilateral trellis system is capable of producing a 7- to 8-ton-per-acre crop. However, after veraison, he and his wife thin the clusters to just two per shoot to limit production to about 3 tons per acre. Typically, they keep the primary cluster, the one closest to the cordon, and the next largest, and clip off the rest. Prior to that, though, they thin the shoots to better adjust the canopy to the crop load. The number of shoots removed varies from spur to spur. Sometimes that’s as many as five.
“We want to leave two shoots per spur, and select the best ones with next year in mind.” Van Westerhuyzen says. “This produces extremely high quality fruit. The going price for Syrah grapes in this area is around $1,500 a ton. We’re able to sell ours for around $2,500 a ton.”
Also attesting to the quality of the grapes are several awards the vineyard’s estate wines have earned. They include a gold medal for their 2008 Syrah at the Sunset International Wine Competition, a gold medal and best of class for their 2009 Petite Sirah in the California Mid-State Central Coast Wine Competition and a silver medal for both the 2010 Petite Sirah and 2010 Syrah at the 2010 New York Finger Lakes International Wine Competition.