Winter in the Vineyard | Starting the 2020 Season

February is here once again and we are starting work on the 2020 Vineyard Season. The temperatures have been above freezing most of the winter. We have had moderate precipitation until January when rains came in earnest and temporarily flooded the area. I would say overall the rain is adequate to keep everyone from worries about drought this summer.

We started pruning at Torio Vineyard on January 29. The plants look strong there and in many cases the vines completely fill the wire forecasting abundance for the coming year. I feel gratified that our work last year looks to be paying off. Grape vines store nutrients for the next season in the summer and fall of the previous year so it takes a year or two to turn plants around.

Workers arrived before dawn so that they could begin at first light – 7:30 AM here on the mountain. I was charmed to see, at lunch, that one man had a gas fired tortilla cooker to make his hot lunch in the pouring rain that they worked in all day. These skilled workers determine the outcome of the season and are much appreciated.

The smaller plants of Pinot Noir; Precoce , Dijon 115, and Pinot Gris that were planted in 2014 – 2015, should be producing a harvest this year and I look forward to the resulting wines.

We are currently working on labels for our 2018 Reserve 667 and 2019 Blanc de Noirs that are scheduled to be bottled in April. We will be barrel tasting soon and also tasting the 2019 Pinot Noir. Stay tuned for the results.