Final fruit of the season arrived on King Estate’s crush pad on Oct. 26, six weeks and one day after harvest officially began with a celebratory toast on Sept. 13. First fruit was from King Estate’s own vineyard for the first time in recent memory; last fruit was 11.5 tons of Cabernet Sauvignon from Bacchus and Weinbau vineyards in Washington state.
“This is probably the smoothest harvest it has been my privilege to be part of,” says COO/Winemaker Brent Stone. “That doesn’t happen by accident and it doesn’t happen alone. Thank you doesn’t begin to capture the gratitude we all feel for what we’ve accomplished together.”
King Estate Celebrates a Successful Harvest
Total tonnage in this vintage was 4,220, 0.5% higher than projections. Final numbers showed 1,235 tons of red wine grapes and 2,985 tons of white wine grapes. Not surprisingly, Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris were dominant, with 1,191 and 2,627 tons respectively.
Night shift ended on Oct. 23. Now attention turns to tending the wines in tank and barrel as we look forward to the eventual release of wines from this successful 2023 vintage.
King Estate Harvest by the Numbers
King Estate Data Entry Specialist Eduardo Tapia captures statistics from each harvest; here’s how 2023 breaks down:
4,220 tons total
1,746 from King Estate vineyards (King Estate and Pfeiffer)
2,474 tons from 52 other vineyards
1,235 tons red fruit (30%)
2,985 tons of white fruit (70%)
15 varietals
How much is 4,220 tons?
Equal to the weight of 712 African elephants
Enough to fill nearly 6 Olympic-sized swimming pools
Behind the scenes, the harvest generated:
2,505 work orders
443 weigh tickets
416 fruit samples analyzed in our lab
