So it’s the end of May, and it is bloody cold again. The weather so far this season has been erratic to say the least. The winter never seemed to end, pushing well into April and like a tightly wound spring, boom straight into summer, with temps in the mid 20s. The vines took off, growing at a super speed, making up for lost time given the late start. And now, it’s cold raining, and miserable, and the vines are in pause mode almost, with growth slowing right down to a crawl. It gives an opportunity to breath and get everything in the vineyard under control, but it is much nicer working outside when the sun is shining, and I feel better when the vineyard is dry.
The 2012 wines in barrel are all well into malolactic fermentation, though the colder weather has pushed the cellar temperature back down so is not exactly helping them finish. I am excited by the development of the wines. Finding time to label 2011 wines has been difficult, but it does provide a welcome excuse to be inside when the rain starts falling.
On the sales side of things, each month is slowly increasing, as we push export sales, with Austria performing extremely well and we are slowly looking to open up greater sales in Italy. We are hoping to open up a few more export markets in the coming months. The next month or so will slowly see the 2011 wines being released into the local market. We have decided to focus our sales on export, and are trimming our local sales to just a few select customers, ones we like and that pay us on time (for those of you who live here in SLO, you will know just how hard it is to get paid). I will keep you all updated on where and when the wines will be available.
Thanks for reading