Having a swell time too.

Not to be outdone by the Orange Muscat, bud swell is now proceeding nicely in the Pinot grigio (PG) vines.  I had meant to have a look at the PG vines on Sunday, but I simply run out of daylight (despite the beginning of Daylight Savings Time).  Then yesterday, when I got home from work, it was raining so heavily that, after taking V2 for a quick walk, I wasn't sufficiently interested in bud swell to warrant hanging around in a soggy vineyard.  So today it was: and, lo and behold, I once again have some enthusiastic little PG buddies.

Hail, Mother Nature!

With the flick of a switch, and coinciding with the end of Daylight Saving Time, autumn has well and truly arrived in the Napa Valley. Halloween's daytime warm 82° temps, gave way to heavy rain on the night of November 1st; then thunder, lightning and hailstone on November 2nd. Cosily warm in the tasting room at TWWIAGE, me and a number of my coworkers gathered and watched Mother Nature's rather protracted spectacle of rampant precipitation. Yountville, just south of Oakville, seemed to be hardest hit during the storm, as there were widespread power outages.  There was still plenty of hail along the Silverado Trail, just north of the Yountville Crossroad, when I drove to work the next morning.
The past few days have been rather cool, so tonight I gave in and fired up the wood stove: it felt good.  It also felt like winter is just around the corner.

Stop!

No, don't stop...apparently, little vines, you are right on schedule.

With the change to Daylight Savings Time last weekend, I have been able to do some outside stuff when I get home from work e.g. walk the Vinodogs. Tonight, after returning from our promenade, something caught my eye - budbreak, and the genesis of the 2011 vintage, in the Orange muscat block. I was thinking it seemed a little early this year, but plainly the vines know better than me. The OM's timing in deciding when to awaken from their winter slumber is very close, if not identical, to last year.

Unfortunately, frost is forecast for tomorrow morning. Here we go again!

Spring is just around the corner.

Daylight Savings Time began on Sunday, so the past two days after I have gotten home from work, and the Vinodogs have been walked, I have been doing some pruning. I am way behind in the vineyard but I hope to be caught up by this weekend.
We are having such stunning weather right now that I am enjoying just being out and about in the Napa Valley. Everything is blooming like crazy, including these Bradford Pear trees (Pyrus calleryiana) that circle the pond at the Screaming Eagle vineyard in Oakville. They are actually much more impressive in their autumn colours but it will be spring this weekend so who cares about that dreary, old autumnal equinox?