An update on how the 2010 vintage is looking so far: Throughout May and into early June, we experienced cooler and wetter conditions than normal, which led to a slow start for shoot growth. The vines were roughly two to three weeks behind their normal schedule when they finally bloomed in mid June. But the fruit set was nearly perfect with only a light shatter in the merlot and syrah (which is both usual and desired) and a full set throughout the other blocks. Come late June and July, the weather on top of the mountain really warmed up resulting in temperature inversions most mornings in which our low temperature up here was in the mid 60s while down in the valley it was 54 due to the morning fog (at 2100’ feet above the valley, we are well above the fog line). High temps have been in the low 80s and occasionally popping up into the low 90s. This is absolutely ideal weather.We have never had the canopy to fruit ratio so perfectly balanced in all of our blocks. Given how much water was in the ground in June, achieving this has been some undertaking. Our vineyard crew has really been working hard. But the shoots have now stopped growing over the last couple of weeks (which is what we want) and we are waiting for veraison to begin, which could be as soon as next week since we have already seen a few dark berries here and there in our early ripening blocks. If this great weather continues through August, we will be all caught up and looking at what seems to be a stellar vintage for us. If 2010 turns out as great as we are now anticipating, it will be our 6th straight fantastic vintage (2005 through 2010), something we have never experienced before in our 20 years as a winery.