Dear Friends,
Fall has arrived. This year seems to offer a particularly colorful display. The vines are turning a beautiful yellow and dropping their leaves, creating a golden mosaic on an emerald green vineyard floor. We are wrapping up the year, removing bird deterrents, putting down nutrients in the east block, and winterizing the irrigation system. Settling in for a long winter’s nap... forever hopeful!
What an interesting year this has been. After late spring rains, ending four years of drought conditions, we faced a cooler than normal summer. Foggy overcast mornings burned off to warm (80°) afternoons. After weeks of this pleasant, yet curious weather, we were hit with a brief but potentially devastating heat spike. Three days of triplet digit temperatures. But our location on the Valley floor combined with our trellising system mitigated the weather’s effects on our fruit. Our trellising system, a modified open lyre, provided maximum sun and air penetration to protect our vines from mildew risk, while providing gentle shading to protect our fruit from sunburn.
This year we attempted to delay the harvest of our Merlot. Our Merlot has always been ready to harvest 10 to 14 days earlier that our other varietals. By pruning the Merlot vines 10 days later than we normally have, we hoped to push off harvest. While Tom has pointed out that one year does not provide definitive scientific proof, we have to say so far our experiment has failed. We pruned our Merlot last and still harvested it first. This just reinforces our observations, that vines have a rhythm of their own and while we may influence them to some small degree, the fact is they are marching to their own internal beat... and Mother Nature is conducting the orchestra. So, next year we will again prune the Merlot last, and we’ll see what happens... stay tuned!
 Our Petite Verdot seemed to be the most effected by this year’s cool weather, providing us with a smaller than normal harvest. Petite Verdot has a reputation for being difficult to grow, but in the past our vines have been very vigorous.It may be that it needs the heat we normally experience in the summer, to thrive. So, again time will tell, as our vineyard continues to provide us with, not only the fruits of our labor, but an ever-changing terroir.
While a number of Napa Valley growers experienced a later than normal harvest, due to the milder weather conditions, we weren’t far off our usual mark. Last year we harvested our main field October 28th; this year’s harvest was November 3rd.
We’ve seen a record number of visitors this year, experiencing our vineyard and our wine; we hope it’s a trend. We love making new friends and sharing our passion for our wine and this beautiful vineyard that we call home!
Come and see us, and remember what Tom always says, “Drink it now, something better’s coming!”
Remember, it's not too late to order wine for the Holidays, our Web Store is always open.
 Tom and Lauren Scott
www.tomscottvineyard.com
www.tomscottvineyard.com/store
info@tomscottvineyard.com
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