Journal | November 11, 2025

Raisined grapes

Late Harvest

Last week, after a long pause, we finally picked Petit Manseng.  It was a late harvest. The wine will be Late Harvest. This is so simple that it is confusing. Late Harvest is an official federal designation that has no guidelines. But you can count on the wine being sweet, concentrated and delicious.

At Linden we have been producing late harvest wines since the early 1990s. Vidal used to be our principle grape, but climate change advanced its ripening to the point where it could no longer hang long enough on the vine. More and more it would lose freshness and integrity. Grapes for late harvest wines need to retain a very high acidity to balance out the sweetness. When a grape ripens too early under warm conditions there won’t be enough acidity for a late harvest style.

Enter Petit Manseng. We first planted Petit Manseng at Hardscrabble in 2002. The grapes have a high natural sugar content, piercing acidity and thick skins making them rot resistant. Petit Manseng originates from a small obscure corner of France in the foothills of the Pyrenees called Jurançon. The landscape and climate are similar to Linden. In Jurançon the growers use a technique called passerillage to achieve the concentration and flavor profile needed to make a sweet wine. Harvest is purposely delayed while the grapes are allowed to shrivel on the vines. By the time they are picked they have very little juice and can be more like raisins than grapes. At Linden we follow Jurançon’s lead, especially in cooler, later vintages.

As with most dessert wine production, the risks and yield losses don’t make economic sense, especially given that current market trends do not favor sweet wines. But the “stickies” are some of the most complex, age worthy and satisfying wines made.  So when the conditions are favorable we can’t resist.

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Linden Vineyards / Learn More / Latest at Linden | Hardscrabble Journal: November 11. 2025