From the late start this spring to the late finish this fall, this year’s grape growing season has been “a real nail-biter,” said Danuta Pfeiffer, who, with her husband Robin, owns Pfeiffer Vineyards in Junction City.

“Your income, everything you’ve worked for, your big expectations for harvest,” are all on the line, she said.

Harvest is “an emotional, gut-wrenching, nerve-wracking time, and you’re trying to pull out the best you can from year to year.”

Taking advantage of a sun break this weekend, workers spread out in Pfeiffer’s 70-acre vineyard on Sunday, picking pinot gris, muscat and chardonnay grapes. On Monday, they pressed the white grapes, beginning the months-long process of turning grapes into wine.

“We decided it was important enough to pick it now before any more rains came in because the weather is not going to improve, and we’re not going to get any more heat,” she said. “So it would be like betting on Mother Nature to change her ways, and I don’t think she’s going to do that.”

The Pfeiffers are hoping the rain lets up and things dry out before workers return to the vineyards Wednesday or Thursday to harvest pinot noir, she said.

Despite the wet weather and other challenges, 2011 could turn out to be a very good year for wine, Pfeiffer and other Willamette Valley winemakers said.

“I think there won’t be a lot of it, but I think it still can be an awfully good vintage,” she said.

“I’ve seen some of the best vintages be these extended harvest periods,” said Ed King, owner of King Estate, which is southwest of Eugene on Territorial Road.

Researchers at Oregon State University agree.

“Often the most challenging weather conditions produce some of the finest wines,” said Steve Renquist, an OSU Extension horticulturist who works with the wine industry in the Umpqua region.

“In cool years similar to this in the past, the wines have developed delicate, crisp flavors because they’ve retained some of the acid in the fruit,” he said.

Last year also was a short season, and winemakers say they’re impressed with the wines it delivered.