There is nothing like natural rainfall to revitalize grapevines and we are receiving plenty this winter. The 2019 rainfall season has dumped almost 13 inches of rain on Santa Rosa Valley vineyards so far with no signs of the rain stopping. We are sitting at 152% of our normal rainfall for this time of the year and way ahead of the 2018 rain season which saw only 1.2 inches fall by February. Our local [...]

Is it Pinot Noir or Grenache? I recently had the chance to join a blind wine tasting at a wine shop. I have no blind tasting superpowers, but was able to narrow down a lighter bodied and aromatic wine as being either Grenache or Pinot Noir. I guessed Pinot Noir. The wine was actually a 90 point Central Coast Grenache.  This experience got me thinking about how similar these varieties are. Two weeks later [...]

One of the most common questions we get from customers is: "How do you know when is the best time to harvest your grapes?"  The short answer is either "experience," or "I'm not sure we ever really know that what we did was the best."  Neither is a particularly satisfying answer, so I thought I'd dive into the subject and try and offer some insights into how we go about making picking decisions.  The [...]