Winemaker Wisdom: Roller Coaster Weather

This season has been nothing but a roller coaster.  What has appeared to be a very dry season so far, actually has had much closer to average rainfall than it would seem. This year, Napa has received around 27.9 inches of rain. The difference is that we have experienced most of the rain outside of what most of us Californians remember as “normal.”  I can’t remember the last time summer began with rainy weather, and hope that it does not have a negative affect on our harvesting period.  Before this we experienced some very hot weather, hotter than it’s been at this time the last few years.  The vines continue to plug along, and we will just have to wait and see what happens in the next (critical) six weeks.

– Gustavo Gonzalez, MIra Winemaker