(Wines&Vines) - A sudden drop in temperatures means fall is taking hold in much of the Northwest as growers press on with harvest of the 2016 wine grape crop. 

July broke the 14-month series of record-setting temperatures both domestically as well as globally, and early fears of late-season drought conditions setting in have been dampened by precipitation that’s dropped between 90% and 150% of normal rainfall from southern Oregon to the northern Rockies.

“The estate is entirely dry farmed. We saw some stress by the end of last year, whereas this year the canopies are a lot more lush and green,” Ray Nuclo, director of viticulture at King Estate Winery south of Eugene, Ore., told Wines & Vines last week. “It was a lot less stressful of a year, just due to soil moisture.”