Phew - we have had more of our fair share of cold and rain this Spring! While we might grumble about the bad weather, the grapevines at this stage are pretty excited to receive all this water, which is helping to make up for the rainfall deficit we have from the lack of rain the last few years.

Once the vines begin to flower, usually in late May or early June, however, rain is a different story entirely. Because of the delicate nature of Pinot Noir flowers, which are very small and self-pollinating, and how short the flowering period lasts (normally less than 2 weeks), rain and other inclimate weather can be devastating. In 2005, we experienced heavy hail storms in early June, knocking a lot of the delicate flowers off and keeping many of our grapes from growing and giving us a very small fruit set, which resulted in drastically reduced grape tonnage from our vineyard.

Even though we had a difficult battle with Mother Nature that year, not all was lost. We normally reduce our quantity of clusters per vine each summer by dropping fruit - in 2005, Mother Nature did that for us! We were able to make a very elegant, quality (not quantity!) driven Pinot Noir that stands on its own and is drinking beautiful after 16 months in French oak and, now, over 3 years in the bottle.

So! What can you do to help? Well, you can be like us, and do a rain dance for just the right amount of precipitation (but not during our flower set!). Then, rain or shine, drown your sorrows or celebrate your joys in a glass of age-worthy, food-friendly Pinot Noir.