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Pretty Pictures

A collection of 345 issues

Experimenting with Tradition: Vine Training

By Austin Collins There is no doubt that most everything we do in the vineyard has been done before. The invention and implementation of new technology, equipment, and products (fungicides, etc.) bring some novelty to viticulture, but the methods used on the ground and in the vines are age-old. The

Putting the cool, dry start to the 2024-25 winter in context

With the terrible fires in Los Angeles still top of mind around the country, I'm guessing that most of you won't be surprised to hear we've had a dry start to our winter here in Paso Robles too. You might be surprised, though, to

Five Reasons Why Winter Is the Best Season to Visit Wine Country

Most people think of wine country in the autumn, with colorful grapes on the vines, golden hillsides, and clear blue skies. And that is a pretty great backdrop for a wine country visit. But I'm here to tell you that as excellent as the fall is, it'

November is the month for epic vineyard photos

Something about November just hits different. Maybe it's the lower sun angles. Maybe it's the clouds. Maybe it's the fall colors. Or maybe it's that daylight savings has ended, so I'm here at the vineyard as the sun sets each

A pilgrimage to a reimagined Beaucastel, built of the earth and with the Earth in mind

I just got back from two weeks in Europe. The first two-thirds of the trip involved visits to work with our importers in the UK (thank you, Liberty Wines) and Germany (thank you, Veritable Vins & Domaines). The last third of it I got to spend with the Perrins, checking

Paso Robles Is Ridiculously Beautiful Right Now, Autumn Transition Edition

We've had a hot last few months. That's been enough to accelerate things in the vineyard enough that we're pretty much done with harvest after just 46 days, ten days less than last year and roughly a week shorter than our long-term average. But

Harvest 2024 ramps to full speed, then cools down. Our vines (and our people) appreciate the respite.

On Monday night, I was snuggling under a blanket reading in our living room when I realized that it smelled like snow. No, it was never actually going to snow. Snow happens only once every few years in Paso Robles, and never in September. But that didn't change

Harvest 2024 begins under ideal conditions as moderate temperatures return

At around 5am today, we kicked off the 2024 harvest with six bins of Viognier from the top of our tallest hill. Conditions were perfect; it was in the low 50s, which meant that the fruit got into the cellar chilly. As we were finishing up, the sun started to

Why we're glad for the wet 2023-24 winter and glorying in the (so far) cool 2024 spring

This past weekend was Memorial Day, and we spent Saturday evening with friends on their patio. I wore jeans and a long-sleeve shirt and brought a quilted Tablas Creek pullover for after the sun went down. It turned out I needed it starting around 6pm, and the friends broke out

What separates a great wine dinner from the many good ones?

I've hosted a lot of wine dinners the last few months. Restaurants, understaffed and overwhelmed in the aftermath of Covid, are starting to have the bandwidth to refocus on special events. Add to that the fact that after a few years where yields were low and demand was