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Weather & Climate

A collection of 289 posts

A little tropical rain in January

We're worried about the rainfall we've received this winter. So far, we're under seven inches total, which is behind the pace we need to be at to get to our annual average of 28 inches. And we had a very warm, dry stretch from

Ten Years of Vintage Grades: Paso Robles Report Card 1999-2008

I was called recently by the Wine Spectator, who wanted my review of the 2008 vintage in Paso Robles for their annual report card for the recently-concluded vintage (you can read the resulting article on the Wine Spectator's Web site). Distilling the complexities of a vintage down to

A frosty winter morning (and more good weather ahead!)

We're finally in a great winter weather pattern. We've seen measurable rain each of the last four days (totaling about 2.5 inches) and a couple of very cold nights in the mid-20s. It's a terrific time of year for this, as the cold

Challenges in assessing a vintage like 2008

I had a meeting with the Paso Robles Rhone Rangers yesterday, and while we were waiting for everyone to arrive we spent some time kicking around impressions of the recently concluded harvest. The general consensus was that all we were missing from our list of calamities was a plague of

End of Harvest 2008: two weeks of Mourvedre, Roussanne, and Counoise, and a better picture on yields than we'd been expecting

We're concluding the 2008 harvest today. Yesterday, we brought in 6 tons of Mourvedre, and today added another 2.5 from from a last pass through late-ripening areas where we left odd bits here and there. Yesterday's bins of Mourvedre are below: We were pleased (and

Harvest, weeks of October 6th and 13th: Lignification, Whole Cluster Fermentation and a Yield Assessment

We've had two busy weeks of harvest surrounding last weekend's cold snap. Before the freeze, we pushed to bring in the last of our Marsanne, Syrah and Grenache Blanc, our Picpoul, the bulk of our Grenache, and a significant chunk of our Roussanne. We figured that

Cold, Cold, Cold: A Harvest Freeze in Paso Robles

Until now, harvest 2008 has been proceeding under nearly ideal conditions. Daytime highs have been in the 80s, lows in the 40s, and the grapes are ripening beautifully. Enter this weekend. A cold, dry arctic low dropped down into California about six weeks earlier than normal, and we have seen

Harvest, Weeks of September 22nd and 29th

After what seemed like weeks of waiting, all of a sudden most of the vineyard is ready to pick. Last week, we focused on whites and picked the rest of the Viognier, most of the rest of the Grenache Blanc, and the Picpoul Blanc (we also picked the first of

Animated satellite images of Paso Robles morning fog retreating up the Salinas River Valley

We've been in the midst of a glorious weather pattern for most of the last three weeks. These days begin with fog in the mornings in Paso Robles where I live (though usually not at the vineyard) and nighttime temperatures in the mid-40s. The fog burns off by

Veraison 2008 Photos of Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre and Counoise

We're seeing veraison in most of our red varieties. Our timing is nearly identical to last year, when I wrote my post on Veraison on July 27th. Veraison (sometimes anglicized to verasion and pronounced vuh-rey-zhun) is the time of year when berries stop increasing in size and refocus