Let the 2012 Vintage Begin!

BoomBoom, Tonka and Bella
So happy to be back in the vineyard again!

With pruning shears in hand, we marched into the vineyard today, the sixteenth of January, and began working toward the successful harvest of our 2012 vintage.  Our first vintage, 2010, is in bottle, the 2011 in barrel and the 2012 standing dormant under grey skies this chilly winter's day.  Hard to believe we are in our third vintage already.   For those readers who have followed us from my first post in the spring of 2008 as we prepared to plant our vines, you can appreciate just how far we have come.  Back then, we had no idea how our little experiment of planting Pinot Noir in an eco-friendly vineyard  up here in these Virginia mountains would go.  Would it end in disaster, a plot of land laden with disease, with grapes of no flavor?  Or would we be able to raise a crop of grapes in a healthy vineyard and produce a wine we would be proud to claim as ours?

In the years that have passed since that spring planting in 2008, we have lost Dennis' dear father and lost our dear old Dan and Flippy and Killian.  The  grand-baby population of two has expanded to five.  The flock has grown to over twenty sheep.  We have just finished our winery building and are considering a small expansion of the vineyard.  Our son, Nathan, has joined the business, overseeing construction of the winery and is responsible for making our wines! And how are those wines?  Are they what we dreamed they might be?   We would have to say yes!   And for that we are so very grateful and for all of you who have cheered us along as we traveled this journey together.

So, cheers to all of you and to the vintage of 2012!