Vineyard Update: A Break in the Rain!

Rob Harris, our Director of Vineyard Operations, is one our favorite contributors to Three Sticks’ wines. It can certainly be a challenge to track him down, as he spends most of his time caring for the vineyards of the Price Family Vineyard collection, but every month or so Rob carves out some time to share some of his thoughts on the progress of the vines. And we drink up every word..

We all know it is still raining in most parts of Northern California. To be honest, I’m not sure what Punxsutawney Phil had to say, and a simple internet search will tell you that the vernal equinox lands on March 20th this year.

As we draw closer to spring by any definition, life in the vineyard is centered around the final preparations to begin the annual growth cycle. Pruning is almost complete. In just a few more days we will have systematically cut, cleaned up, tied down, and gotten each and every vine set and ready for another year of growth and fruit production.

Grapevines don’t read calendars, and rarely do they pay much attention to the prognostications of famous rodents. Grapevines respond to the length of daylight hours and to the temperature of the soil in which they sit. As such, budbreak is probably no more than a couple of weeks away in most of our vineyard locations.

Each lap around the sun makes this a time of dutifully preparing and anxiously awaiting. Another annual journey is about to start and we look forward to all that is involved in producing the exceptional fruit that becomes beautiful Three Sticks Wines.

-Rob Harris, Director of Vineyard Operations