The holiday season is always a time for reflection. With that in mind, all of us at Pride would like you to know that we are thankful to each and every one of you for your support of the winery. That you choose to enjoy our wines is something that we don't take for granted. There are many, many wonderful wines in the world and we sincerely appreciate the relationships we've forged with you and the investment you've chosen to make when purchasing our wines.

Sunday, November 10th dawned clear and cool, providing perfect weather for the 150 or so vineyard, office and sales employees and their families who gathered for the annual Harvest Fiesta thrown every year by the Pride family to celebrate the end of harvest.

With weary bodies but upbeat spirit, our vineyard crew paused for a photo after picking the last grapes from our Rock Arch Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard on Thursday October 30th. The crew had more than earned their moment of rest after this year’s harvest, as uneven fruit ripening conditions required multiple picks of each vineyard block.

This vintage offers something new and exciting for the Pride Mountain Vineyards crew - we are hosting our first international harvest intern, Mari de Jager from South Africa.

On Monday, July 14th, we spotted the first pink berries in our estate vineyard. This is “veraison,” always an exciting time at the winery as we look forward to another harvest. Sangiovese, one of our earliest red grape varieties, is leading the charge, beating even the white grapes in the progression towards this year’s harvest. We expect the Chardonnay and Viognier to begin to soften and turn from green to gold within a few days to a week, but color in the Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc will most likely not appear for another two weeks. This is about the same as last year or even a little earlier, but it’s still too soon to predict whether this will be an early, typical, or late harvest. Last year, for example, all factors pointed to an early harvest, but in September, vineyard temperatures dropped, and we didn't really start picking until after a week of late October “Indian Summer” finally appeared.

As the first sleepy shoot tips poke their way out into the crisp spring air, we begin our journey towards Harvest 2008. Sunny days and high temperatures reaching the mid-seventies signal the end of a long and unusually cold winter.

Over the holidays, co-workers, friends, and colleagues from neighboring wineries cleaned out their closets and brought shoes they were no longer wearing to Pride.