With the new vintage now aging in barrels and tanks, vintners have time to share their perspectives.

In a nutshell: The 2024 growing season included a cooler spring and just a couple of heat spikes, which again allowed grapes to ripen and mature at a leisurely pace.

Once winemakers were free of all but fermentations and punch-downs, I tracked down five for their retrospectives on the year. All agreed that another cool growth year would likely translate to a second year of stellar quality.

“Both vintages (2023 and 2024) were marked by a cold spring after a very wet winter. We saw a lot of cold, windy days in the springtime, which led to reduced flowering and shatter (when flowers don’t develop into grapes),” said Will Henry, owner with his wife, Kali Kopley, of Warner Henry Vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley.

With longtime fellow winemaker Lane Tanner, Henry produces Lumen Wines, which sources grapes from Warner Henry, the adjacent Wild King Vineyard and a handful of other sites.

Lumen’s annual case production now falls in the 2,000 to 3,000 range. The label is sourcing more than 80% of grapes from our own vineyards, “which is hugely rewarding,” Henry said.

I followed Henry for one year starting in March 2021 as he and Kopley first planted the five-acre Warner Henry. The site is named for Henry’s father, Warner, who died in 2020.

Looking back at 2023, Santa Maria was colder “without any extreme heat events during ripening,” Will Henry said. He and most Central Coast winemakers believe that year’s cool climate will translate to a stand-out vintage when it matures.

During 2024, “we did see some heat waves, which had an impact on quality — most notably one in mid-September, where temps in our vineyards hit 98 degrees,” Henry said.

“That heat spell pushed grapes toward ripening, whereas in 2023, we waited until mid-October to pick due to the complete lack of heat,” he said.

Indeed, the October just past ushered in an unseasonable heat wave, with triple-digit temperatures in some areas — and a number of temperature records broken, according to a report from the Ciatti Co. in mid-October.

The pinot noir and Italian varietal ruche at Warner Henry Vineyard have reached fourth “leaf” — four fall seasons in the ground. Henry termed his year four “very rewarding — a real education in how soil health affects everything. We have continued with organic and regenerative farming practices, and the results have been very positive.”

Regenerative farming focuses on soil health and the surrounding ecosystem. Henry’s made the practice his goal since the start, growing native plants alongside crops.

“Our vineyard doesn’t look like many of our neighbors’ vineyards: Theirs are neat and tidy with very little plant grown in between rows, while ours appear to be overcome with weeds,” Henry said. (He actually prefers the term “plants,” believing that “weeds” has a negative connotation.)

Henry “inherited” a neglected vineyard down the road from his home and Warner Henry. In 2021, he recalled, it yielded “incredible” grapes. Since then, he’s put two techniques to practice — lack of pruning and dry farming — on various blocks throughout the vineyard.

“This year, I chose the block with the least amount of vigor, that really seemed to be struggling the prior year, with low yields and stunted canopy growth,” he said. “So, we didn’t prune that block in the spring, and dry-farmed it all summer. The results were astounding.

“We pulled more than three tons an acre from that block, as compared to about 1.5 tons per acre on the neighboring blocks that were pruned. The clusters and berries were smaller, the fruit less juicy, and the quality significantly higher. We will certainly be doing more of this technique in years to come.”

Ernst Storm, winemaker/owner of Storm Wines, and winemaker for the Donnachadh Family Wines and Grimm’s Bluff labels, termed the season just finished a “relatively easy” one, weather and workload wise.

Unlike Henry, who mostly sources from estate vineyards, Storm buys grapes from various sites in the Sta. Rita Hills and Santa Maria Valley for his own label and manages vineyards for Donnachadh and Grimm’s Bluff.

Vineyards in the Sta. Rita Hills saw moderate weather that leaned toward cool with just one heat wave in early September, Storm recounted to me in early November. On the flip side, a few miles east in the Happy Canyon appellation, where Grimm’s Bluff wines are sourced, the temperatures averaged 85 degrees from July to October.

Overall, yields in 2024 were down for a second year, especially with pinot noir, he said.

Cooler weather overall triggered “weird” levels of acidity in grapes, Storm said, although physiological ripeness and sugar accumulation were within range.

For his own label, Storm produces about 4,000 cases annually, and about 3,500 for Donnachadh and 1,500 for Grimm’s Bluff.

He agreed with Henry that the recent spring’s cool, windy weather hampered the fruit set, but in the end, clusters ended measuring a good size.

Jessica Gasca, winemaker/owner of Story of Soil, brought in her final 2024 grapes close to the same day I spoke with Storm at his Los Olivos tasting room. Gasca produces wines for her label from her Buellton facility, and is nearing an annual case production of 3,000, she said.

Gasca characterized 2024 as “super cool with only one heat spike,” leading to slow ripening of grapes overall. To compare years, her final grape pick in 2023 was on Nov. 3, and this year, on Oct. 30 — not a stretch by any means.

Gasca finished her second year as a winemaker for Strange Family Vineyards, a label half the size of her own, she said.

When we spoke, Gasca had just days before she learned that she’d been included on a WineBusiness.com list of  “Leaders of the Industry.”

“I’m 100% shocked,” she said. “I’m very proud to be considered.”

With that honor close to her heart, Gasca had already turned her sights toward the foundation’s biennial gala to be held Nov. 8-9 at The Ritz-Carlton Bacara in Santa Barbara, where, as six-year president of the foundation, she would lead the weekend’s efforts toward raising funds to benefit those who support Santa Barbara County’s wine industry.

On Oct 24, I spoke with Samra Morris, winemaker for Alma Rosa Vineyards. At that time, she estimated that the winery’s final pick would come within two more weeks. Alma Rosa’s acreage totals 628, all hillsides, and the planted acres comprise 40, she said. The grapes include pinot noir, chardonnay, syrah and grenache.

Morris called the 2024 harvest “her favorite” since she arrived at Alma Rosa in 2019. This year saw early rain, another long, cool growing season, “fewer heat spikes and lots of foggy mornings to keep acids strong,” she said.

Pinot noir grapes were the first to ripen this round, but were harvested slowly over three to four weeks.

“The flavors and chemistry were there — there was no rush” to pick, she said.

Max Marshak, winemaker for Roblar and Refugio Ranch vineyards, supervised his last pick on Oct. 25 — cabernet franc from Roblar Winery, he said.

Marshak, who started at Gleason Family Vineyards in 2020 as lead winemaker, said he has since learned that Roblar is best suited to Bordeaux reds such as that cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, merlot and petite verdot.

Before he re-allocated most of the 21-acre site to those four grape varietals, the vineyard grew just merlot and sauvignon blanc.

He noted that the weather in 2024 mirrored that of 2023: consistently cool or cold, which once again should mean high-quality grapes, especially for white varietals, which benefit from aromatically balanced chemical notes that come with grapes that mature slowly.

The heat spike after Labor Day did “force the issue” with whites, meaning they “weren’t really ripe” but wouldn’t benefit from additional hang time left on the vines, Marshak said.

He estimated a “50%” (average) yield at the estate vineyards and those in the Sta. Rita Hills, where Roblar sources some grapes. Overall, “the reds were unscathed, because the heat got things moving (ripeness wise).”

From what he’s observed, the estates’ varieties look “outstanding,” quality and tannic-structure wise, Marshak said. Roblar’s current cabernet sauvignon crop is “some of the nicest fruit I’ve ever seen from the Roblar estate.”

Marshak harkened back to winter’s rains: “Because of (another) wet year overall, we saw strong green canopies, which protected fruit (clusters) via shading” as the growth season progressed, leaving berries’ sugar production stable.

“We’ve seen consistent ripeness” this year, he noted.

Together, Refugio and Roblar equal 10,000 cases each year, with Roblar pushing 7,000 and Refugio about 3,000, Marshak noted.