Hello HARVEST!

Hello everyone - 2024 Harvest is here and kicking into high gear!

With that comes the rush of rising before dawn and spending brisk mornings perched on the edge of a bin trailer, hand sorting clusters to the tune of swift picking knives, the dumping of grape tubs (all at once, of course), and tractors humming along the rows of vines until daybreak peeks across the horizon.  The rest of the day is spent running around the crush pad - usually hot, most definitely sticky, and often dodging forklifts. (beep beep!) It is intense, exhilarating, and brimming with all of the stressors and sweet spots that remind us how good it is to be alive and doing what we love. 

This is especially poignant after a recent incident where our house almost caught fire due to a surprise electrical "surge." Long story short...the humans and Coco (our dog) are all ok and our house didn't blow up. We're rollin' with it. (whew!)  

THE GROWING SEASON

Mother Nature continues to humble us on a regular basis and we are doing our best just to take each day with as much patience and grace as we can at any given moment. Thankfully, she was a little kinder and gentler than in recent years and the 2024 grape crop benefited from the reprieve.  

A fairly wet rainy season was welcomed and from budbreak to veraison the growing conditions were mostly typical - very encouraging!  Aside from one slightly nerve-racking fire evacuation warning (in our area) and the hottest July on record, the rest of the summer was classic northern Sonoma County weather - cool nights and warm days.

On the flip side - random rain spells during the flowering period for our stone fruit trees cut our plum and peach crops in half. However, if anyone is in need of some apples, we are loaded. Ted pruned one of our apple trees to within a few inches of its life two years ago, and it came back with a vengeance.  If you order wine in the near future, you are likely to get some homegrown, organic Golden Delicious apples along with it!  

THE FRUIT

We have some exciting news to report - new wines are in the works!

Our Rosé of Zinfandel (NEW!) and Viognier (ALSO NEW!!) and Zinfandel are all fermenting nicely.  Back by popular demand, we are harvesting a second vintage of Rockpile Primitivo and the first crop of our Estate planting of Dolcetto this Friday! We are particularly excited about the Dolcetto, whose scion wood hails from Ted's great-grandfather Edoardo's home town of Dogliani in Piemonte, Italy. Last, but certainly not least, our Rockpile Syrah is still hanging, as it ripens later, and looks to be a captivating crop.  

All in all, it is shaping up to be a stellar vintage! [cue the knocks on wood and fingers crossed, because at least one of us is superstitious]

Cheers to all of you and we hope life is treating you well!

-Dana & Ted

*The girls tagged along with us for a 4AM Labor Day pick - harvest + no school + sleeping bags & coloring books = let the adventure continue!