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Weather & Climate

A collection of 293 posts

Changing of the seasons

It's rare that in a single day you feel the changing of the seasons as dramatically as we did yesterday. Last weekend was warm and sunny; it hit the mid-80's out here both Saturday and Sunday. Even after the rain from a week ago, the overall

Photo Essay: After the Rain

Last weekend, we received a glorious and much-needed 1.17 inches of rain. Much of this came Friday night (Halloween) which wasn't great for the kids out trick-or-treating, but for those of us desperate for a wet winter, the rainfall was a treat indeed. In between Saturday'

Autumn Vineyard Photo Essay

The grapes are all off the vines. The days are shorter, with a lower sun angle. We just avoided our first frost of the year here last night, and tonight is supposed to be just as chilly. The weather pattern is transitioning, and each storm front makes it a little

Harvest 2014 at the Midway Point: Very Like 2013, which is a Good Thing

We finally feel like we're in the middle of harvest. Every day brings a mix of new fruit coming in, sample teams going out, both presses running as we press off fermented red lots and newly-harvested whites, winemakers on the sorting table and de-stemmer processing newly-harvested reds, and

Harvest 2014 slowed with a cool second half of August, but is picking up speed

It often happens in harvest that you get your first burst of fruit and then enter a lull, where it seems like half your vineyard is sitting there almost-but-not-quite ready. Because you're into the routine of daily punch-downs, and you've broken out your harvest equipment, it

Photos of each Rhone grape as harvest approaches, and an updated vintage assessment

I returned this week from two and a half weeks on the east coast to find a vineyard landscape transformed. In what was a sea of green we now have new colors: pinks, reds and purples in our red grapes, as well as the first hints of gold in our

Veraison two weeks early suggests a late-August beginning to harvest

This week, we've seen the first hints of veraison in our Syrah and our Mourvedre. One of the most advanced Syrah clusters is below, alongside other clusters that like most of the vineyard are still totally green: Veraison is an exciting time visually, but its implications in the

Veraison in June? Not so fast, in Paso Robles at least.

In his blog this week, the Wine Spectator's Tim Fish reports that regions as diverse as Contra Costa, Santa Lucia Highlands and Santa Maria Valley are already seeing veraison: the point at which red grapes start turning color, and all grapes stop growing in size and turn to

A rainy (and not-frosty) March gives hope for the 2014 growing season

As the last raindrops fall from today's minor weather system and we turn toward a warmer forecast for next week, it seems like a good time to assess this spring's conditions so far, and start to look forward to its impact on the 2014 vintage. Today&

Why we're dreading the 2014 frost season

Last week, we saw budbreak in our Grenache, Grenache Blanc and Viognier blocks. This week, it's been joined by most of the other grapes, with only Roussanne and Mourvedre still fully dormant. It won't be more than another week or two before they look like the