Groundhog Day

One year ago today I made the following post…

“Late July is the slowest season for me. The vineyard is on its own and there is just not as much to do.

With all the late rains this spring and the cool summer everyone is a little worried about the vintage. One grower reported that he heard that it was the coolest summer in 40 years. Another said the average summer temperature was 5 degrees cooler than normal. It is pretty much what we talk about.

With all this anxiety about the cool summer I sometimes imagine that the vineyard won’t ripen and we won’t harvest any grapes. Yesterday I became really excited when I was in the vineyard and I saw for the first time some berries turning color. Just a very few berries but enough that I was encouraged and for a moment I felt the excitement of harvest looming.

So veraison is just starting and we are about two weeks behind “normal.” The peach trees are heavy with large firm beautiful fruit that is moments away from perfection but I am leaving for vacation and I won’t here for the fruit orgy!”

Exactly one year later and nothing has changed.