December to February
Dormancy
The vines rest. Winter storms sometimes bury the trellis rows in snow, and our crew prunes each cane back by hand to set up the crop for the coming year.
Pruning every vine, every winter
March and April
Bud break
Our site breaks bud late. In most years that timing lets the first tender shoots slip past the early spring frosts that catch lower vineyards. From the air in late April the rows still read as bare wood against the spring grass.
Late bud break protects the young shoots
May and June
Flowering
Tiny flower clusters open along every shoot. Grapevines pollinate themselves, so a warm, calm stretch of weather now decides how much fruit the year will carry.
Bloom sets the size of the crop
June and July
Fruit set
Hard green berries swell under a full summer canopy. Drip irrigation feeds each vine through the dry foothill months, powered in part by our own solar array. By July the rows stand shoulder high and the grass between them has gone gold.
Drip irrigation on every row
August
Veraison
The berries soften and turn, one at a time, from green through rose to deep purple. Sugar climbs and acid falls as each cluster wears a patchwork of color for a few weeks.
Color arrives berry by berry
September and October
Harvest
We pick when the fruit is ready, not when the calendar says. A little more hang time can reward us with better structure and character, though an early fall frost can close the season overnight. Then the canopy turns gold and red across the hillside.
23.5 to 26 °Brix at our first harvest in 2003
