Right now we are in the middle of the pruning season when each vine must be pruned with special attention. This is not time for hackers! To me, pruning is an art.

 It is already February and all of the Italian variety vines have been pruned except Nebbiolo. We prune the Nebbiolo last because it breaks bud and comes out early and is very susceptible to frost. Late pruning delays the bud push. 

The grape crop is behind in our area and all over the state, around 15-25 days behind schedule. A very cool spring can be blamed. Our recent weather has been on the warmer side but not enough to catch up. Our Italian grapes are progressing well. 

I love baseball. I played catcher in school and my idol was the late Yogi Berra, whose famous saying was “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” And our 2015 crop is over!

About four days of harvest to go!  We have about 100 tons to pick, mostly Cabernet, Nebbiolo, Petit Verdot, and our small lot of Freisa.  This will be one of the earliest harvests I have experienced in the last 44 years for a variety of reasons, none of which are bad.  Our Harvest Party is planned to be right after harvest but this year, it will be four weeks later, which is also ok.  We have a great deal of time to get things ready for all of you attending.