These choices are intensified in decisions we make all during the growing season, especially about thinning and leaf pulling.

For example, much of the fruit for this vintage came from our oldest-planted blocks at the northernmost border of the Santa Lucia Highlands appellation, now fully mature.  At these blocks, we pulled leaves from the east side of the vines a few weeks before we expected to harvest grapes, so the afternoon sun gave the clusters an amber-gold hue, almost like the glow of a light suntan.  In another block, further to the south and warmer, the nearly horizontal canopy of our “trentina” trellis system protected the clusters by allowing only flecks of sunlight on the fruit throughout the afternoon. The result was a complex, slow-ripened flavor that beautifully complemented the fruit from other blocks.