Ah, big doings up here on the hill, our Monte Bello vine has had a hair cut!
It was quite exciting actually, as our vine was pruned as part of an annual ritual of great significance; the morning that our Monte Bello Retail Sales & Hospitality Team is called upon to prune “their” block!
~
It was a chilly Saturday morning. Behold the roof of my car as I prepared to drive to work …
On the mountain, our Monte Bello viticulturist Kyle Theriot VERY kindly and gamely met with the team bright and early Saturday morning, and led everyone up the slopes for a tutorial in advance of the action …
Once into the block, our team took to their tasks with a studied vengeance, under Kyle’s watchful eyes …
A great time was most certainly had by all, and of course the vines received nothing but the best treatment! (It’s very well-known that the best fruit on the mountain comes from this very special block … ahem.)
~
Truth be told, what I really wanted above all else was to see our #VineWatch13 vine get its clipping, and get clipped it did!
Quite a different look from six weeks ago!
–
I cannot stress enough how terribly vital and important the pruning process is, and if you’re interested, I heartily encourage you to watch the following video, in which Kyle Theriot walks everyone through the process of just exactly how these decisions are made, and how the pruning process is enacted (and apologies in advance for the wind noise on the audio track; ’twas a tad brisk in the morn! Oh, and also, the dog is Emma; Kyle’s pup. You’ll see why I mention this …)
–
–
What’s that you say? Ah, rest assured, we have not forgotten to check in on our friend up at Lytton Springs!
Under sunny morning skies, our Lytton Springs vine is happy, healthy, and dreaming of springtime.
We’ve chosen a slightly different camera angle for you this week, in hopes of giving you added perspective on the utterly singular architecture of this beautiful old head-trained zinfandel vine …
Just lovely …
–-
Please stay tuned as we follow our lovely vines through the 2013 vintage!
We’re six weeks in to-date, and for a quick look back, please enjoy the links below:
Week 2-Lytton Springs
Week 2-Monte Bello
(if you’re following #RidgeVineyards on Twitter, you can also track VineWatch 2013 by specifically filtering for the following hashtag: #VineWatch13)
