Dear Friends,
Happy Spring! It is an early Spring in Wine Country with many sunny and warm days in the low-70s. The mustard is blooming, adding to the color palette of all the wildflowers on our hills. We are open again for outdoor tastings. The green hills and the colorful flowers provide a beautiful vista for our guests as they sip Nicholson Ranch wine in our courtyard.
In the vineyard, the vines are waking up from a dormant winter with tiny buds emerging from last year’s branches. From each bud will grow a shoot that will extend in length every week. By mid-May these shoots are six-feet tall. Each shoot has a leaf every three inches, each leaf alternating in direction positioning them for maximum sunlight. The first two leaves that emerge are accompanied by grape-flower buds. These buds will flower in mid-May, the flowers will pollinate and form tiny berries by early June. The sunshine and the warmth in the three months of Summer will make the fruit bigger and then sweeter and then more flavorful, each an important step to producing the most delicious grapes you have ever had. As every winemaker knows, good grapes make good wine. My job as a winemaker is to nurture the vines, harvest the grapes carefully and provide an ideal environment for the grapes to ferment and the wine to age. Other than that my job is to get out of the way and let Nature take its perennial course.
Spring and Easter is a time to experience and reflect on renewal. The past twelve months have posed extraordinary challenges, but the new buds in the vineyard, however tiny they may be, are Spring’s reminder that it is a new year with sunny days ahead for all of us.
Plan your trips and visits to Nicholson Ranch and experience the seasons in the vineyard.
Cheers!
Deepak Gulrajani
