February 11
Normally, you might think that February is a quiet time in the winery. Although the wines are blended and quietly resting in their cozy barrels, absorbing minute amounts of oxygen, decreasing astringency, deepening the color and slowly settling any particles left over from the fermentation to the bottom of the barrel, there are numerous jobs to keep the staff out of trouble.
This is the time of year that the winemaking team meets with the vineyard mangers to decide how the existing vineyards should be pruned. Pruning is one of the most important things that happen in the vineyard because you select the buds for the growing season to come and make sure that the wood has enough sun exposure to develop the buds for the following year. The vineyard managers will take pruning weights to help determine if the balance between the amounts of cane cuttings to fruit weight are suited for the site.
By the end of February new vineyard contracts also need to be solidified. So, for developing programs like the Twomey West Pinot Noir we need to go through our little black books and call on very possible contact to identify new fruit sources. Those sites are then visited and evaluated. Meanwhile, there is unplanted land that needs to be evaluated for future planting. All this does not mean that we can neglect events at the winery.
If there are capital improvements to be done such as tank or equipment purchases these need to be developed at this time. And then of course we need to get the wines ready for the up coming bottling. So, while the wine rests quiet there is no rest for the winemaking team.
~Daniel Baron