Harvest 2015 was unusual. In fact, the entire season bordered on bizarre. Due to a warm winter budbreak was early, in February, with warm days and frosty nights. Then in May, when the vines were flowering, the weather turned cold and windy for the entire month reducing crops in some varieties dramatically. Schizophrenic summer weather, constantly shifting from hot to cool, confused us and the vines even more. As expected with an early budbreak, harvest was also early, at the end of August instead of September. One would expect that early ripening grape varieties should always ripen their fruit before late ripeners. Not so in 2015! Ed Berry's Zinfandel, usually a late ripener, was harvested before this year's early-ripening Pinot Blanc. Unpredictable ripening created some logistical problems in the winery.

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