In The Vineyard
Every few months we post an update on our homepage about what we are doing in the vineyards.
Afterwards, it gets archived here for historical records.
March 2026
It’s hard to believe the sheep are already here, eating down the covercrop and nurturing our vines with their nitrogen-rich droppings. Grazing also helps with frost protection by allowing cold air to flow out of the vineyard. With spring right around the corner, all hands are on deck out in the fields. We’re finished pruning and are expecting bud break within days. We’ll keep circling back throughout the season to keep grapevine growth in balance. This winter brought ample rainfall, though we are hoping for a few more inches before the end of our seasonal storms. Watching the fronts pass over the valley is mesmerising!
November 2025
We’re excited to report that harvest 2025 is a wrap! We brought in our last lot of Cabernet Sauvignon in late September, and everything is delicious.
This season was remarkably moderate and mild, with perfect weather at flowering and set, resulting in a generous crop. We are grateful to have had a third consecutive year of good rain, which gave us strong growth in the vineyard. The cool nights contributed to an extra-long ripening period, resulting in snappy acidity, beautiful inky color and wonderful complexity. We look forward to seeing how these wines develop in the cellar!
As always, we are so grateful to our incredible team for another memorable harvest. It was a real family affair! This was Grace’s second year as Assistant Winemaker, and in to help our core team were Cathy’s sister and a couple of Grace’s and Rose’s cousins.
August 2025
We have been busy since bud break managing the canopies out in the vineyard, balancing the way the vines grow with the fruit they will ripen, and ensuring that the right amount of air and dappled light get in to the berries. Our goal is to pick fully ripe, delicious grapes at lower sugars, to create the powerful and elegant style we love.
As we welcome August, veraison is underway in our vineyards. That’s the magical stage when hard, green berries soften, turn black, and begin to accumulate sugar and flavor. We saw the first signs here at Kronos a bit earlier than usual, but the timing in the other vineyards is shaping up to be just about normal.
Once veraison is complete, my daughter Grace and I will start sampling the vineyards every morning, monitoring progress as we get ready for harvest. We’re hoping the even, moderate weather we’ve enjoyed all summer will continue until it’s time to pick.
February 2025
We are excited to announce that the winery and our estate vineyards, Sunbasket and Kronos, are Napa Green certified! Sustainable practices have been core to our grapegrowing and winemaking for decades, but being Napa Green means we now have even more resources. From regenerative farming to employee education and support, we love how this program pushes us to be even better.
Last year, Napa Green helped us source a grant to start a grazing program. Running sheep in the vineyards lessens our carbon footprint by replacing tractor use. This allows us to “mow” the cover crop early in the season, which also minimizes the risk of frost damage at budbreak. Grazing also aerates and nourishes the land, resulting in increased fertility and water absorption. The soil is wildly alive!
November 2024
We pressed our last tank of the beautiful 2024 vintage, the wines were all put down to barrel, and we waited patiently for them to complete their secondary malolactic fermentation. Outside, the vines were rejuvenated by fall rains and a bit of irrigation on our part, allowing them to get ready for winter dormancy. And now the storms are marching in!
At long last we celebrated last spring’s release of the 2020 Kronos, our 25th anniversary vintage! Tasting through verticals with guests and trade, Cathy got a bit emotional reviewing her Kronos journey. It’s an honor to steward the gnarly old vines!
August 2024
At the end of veraison, we took a last pass through the vineyard, dropping green clusters that lagged behind their cohort. This allows us to pick uniformly ripe fruit in the fall. This year, veraison was remarkably even and we hardly dropped any fruit. Now with long, warm, sunny days and cool nights ushered in by the fog, the grapes are marching toward ripeness.
Cathy, Rose and Grace are walking the vineyards daily, monitoring vine health and checking for ripeness. In making their picking decision they look at many things, including vine status, flavor, aromatics, acidity, sugar level, and color. Cabernet will soon be rolling in!
June 2024
Happy Summer Solstice! Spring was very mild with perfect weather for flowering, leading to a terrific set. The berries are sizing up and it is looking like we’ll have a bountiful crop this year. The vines are so happy, with lots of water still in the soil from late rains. The weeds thrived as well in our organic vineyards, which we manage mechanically with our electric tractor. We just finished our third mowing pass!
Throughout the growing season we stay busy with canopy management, starting with suckering in early spring, pruning all shoots that are sprouting where we don’t want them. We are now removing laterals in the fruit zone, on the morning sun side, to let the perfect amount of dappled light and air in to the developing clusters.
This is the sixth year we’ve done all of the vineyard work ourselves, so we’re over the moon that the vines get what they need, when they need it, more than ever before.
March 2024
We just had a flock of sheep spend several days in Kronos Vineyard, mowing the covercrop and leaving a myriad of nutrient-rich pellets behind! In addition to the obvious nutritional benefits for our soil, grazing sheep protects our crop from cold spring weather. We are approaching budbreak, and freezing temperatures can harm the tender new shoots. By letting the cold air flow down and out of the vineyard, we get several degrees of frost protection. Sheep allow us to get into the wet vineyards earlier than we could with a tractor, reducing soil compaction and our carbon footprint. We are so pleased to see many of our neighbors also grazing sheep.
January 2024
Happy New Year! The late fall harvest crashed into the holidays, and we are just starting to come up for air. The 2023 crop was large and delicious, with long hang time after veraison, which promotes great flavor development, inky color and firm natural acidity. Intermittent rains have soaked the soil and the covercrop has sprouted. We start pruning towards the end of January. It’s joyful to note each passing day getting longer, and we look forward to what 2024 may bring.
June 2023
As we celebrate the Summer Solstice, we are reminded of how busy we’ve been in the vineyards since the first of the year, pruning, mowing and managing the canopy. After a rainy winter, showers continued through much of spring. It was a rather cool season, with budbreak in late April. With all that groundwater and long, warm days, the vines are so happy!
We continue our passes through the vineyards, leaving shoots just where we want them to let in enough light and air. This also allows the right balance between the fruit and the leaves. We will be watching for veraison in August, when the grapes turn from hard and green and photosynthesizing like a leaf, to soft and blue-black, starting to ripen, accumulating sugar, flavor and color and losing acidity. Then it’s a steady march towards harvest 2023!