Winter Work

We are back after a little time off in December and January. We have still been working but at a little bit of a slower pace. Last week we racked off our 2010 reds from the lees. The whole day went pretty well and the wine is looking good. Today I got started on some regular maintenance, cleaning barrels. We have to keep any barrels we aren't using to store wine clean, dry and sulfured. This month I went ahead and gave them a hot water rinse before sulfuring, just to be sure they are staying clean.After a little bit of work at the winery in the morning I switched gears and headed out to our orchard to help out with the pruning of our Gala apple trees. Over the course of the growing season the tree tends to grow straight up, these new branches are called "suckers". We go through the orchard cut these off. We also try to do some positioning of branches through selective cuts. It is pretty mentally stimulating work actually. You are thinking about which buds to save, what branches are going to block the sun and what branches you are going to need in a year or two to keep the tree producing fruit. It's a challenge, but pretty satisfying. Below are two pictures one of an unpruned tree row and one of a pruned tree row.





















Apple trees with a "haircut".