Harvest Report

 

An Extraordinary Vintage

The 2023 harvest for Domaine Roy proved to be one for the record books. Favorable weather and a near-perfect growing season led to bountiful, high-quality grapes with optimal phenolic ripeness and intense fruit flavors.

Our intern Riccardo drives the tractor between rows of Pinot Noir at our Dundee Hills Iron Filbert Vineyard.

While it was a warm and dry year, the vine canopies and clusters remained healthy during harvest, allowing us to pick based on when the grapes would yield the best quality wines. Our interns traveled from Italy and Australia to help us this year and helped get us ready for our first day of harvest on September 5th.

Our Assistant Winemaker Brandon harvests a few clusters of Pinot Noir at our Dundee Hills Estate.

We began picking Chardonnay, which showed vibrant acidity and concentrated flavors. Our Rosé came in on September 11th, and we started bringing in the Pinot Noir a day later. Rains arrived towards the end of the month, which had us pause for a few days before picking the last fruit on September 28th.

Our team marvels at perfect clusters of organically farmed Pinot Noir from our estate vineyards.

By then, we were already seeing the stunning style of this vintage. The reds are rich, deep, and dense in color, texture, and structure. The whites contain many aromatic layers of deep fruit and minerality. We officially wrapped up the harvest by pressing and barreling down our last Pinot Noir on October 25th.

Our Winemaker and his son help sort Pinot Noir on the sorting line.

We anticipate the wines to exhibit a beautiful balance between fruit, acidity, and tannins, with remarkable aging potential while being approachable in their youth. With the successful 2023 harvest, the Willamette Valley continues to solidify its reputation as one of the world's premier wine regions. Wine enthusiasts and critics should eagerly await the release of these exceptional wines, which are expected to further enhance the valleys standing in the global wine industry.

Cheers!

Jared, Brandon, and Steve

 
Hospitality Roy