Under German wine law, the most prized late harvest wines are trockenbeerenauslese (literally: dried berry selected) where the berries are so dehydrated from botrytis that the must weight is over 150 Oechsle, the sugar content roughly equivalent in the US to about 35° Brix. We're delighted that nature delivered us such a prize in 2014. The last time we were so fortunate was in 2004 and, given recent weather patterns. We suspect that the combined effects of prolonged drought and early harvests diminishes the likelihood of nature producing these luscious Anderson Valley gems very often. Cluster select wines present a couple of winemaking challenges over dry table wines. First, the press regimes are prolonged so that all the available juice is extracted from dehydrated raisins. Second, when grape juice contains almost 40% sugar, yeasts have a difficult time getting going; the fermentation is languid and we have to gently nudge it on; we had one cluster select fermentation that took eight nail-biting months. Since whole berries weigh more than dehydrated raisins, the vineyard produces much fewer tons per acre. At the winery, yield is reduced once again, since raisins don't contain much juice.

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