I think it's safe to say that 2010 was a wildly unpredictable season, full of curves and surprises. Although this was my tenth harvest working in the winery, it was my only my second year working daily in the vineyard as a "growing winemaker".

One of the events that laid the ground work for this year's harvest was the 12 inches of rain we received at the ranch on October 13th of 2009. Not only did this deluge cause some erosion in the vineyards, but it also contributed more than one quarter of our annual rainfall and gave all the plants a head start on the next season. I was overseas in Australia learning new winemaking techniques, so I had to rely on photos to see how lusciously green the countryside was this past spring.

Time to get the irrigation back up and running

This weekend's weather forecast shows the first 3 digit highs of the year for Paso Robles.  When we turn on the irrigation for the first time in each block we have to make sure that there are no blow outs, and that our pump (which supplies water from our lake up to two 10,000 gallon tanks that gravity feed the vineyard) is working as expected.  It's almost always easier said than done.