With the grape and olive harvest season now ‘officially’ behind us, it’s time to tuck everything in and get to planning the coming year. This can be tough when the weather is as nice as it has been. Colors are flashy and the wind drives the sudden movements of anything not attached to the ground. There are a few acorns around, but for the most part, the squirrels (my Grandfather called them North American Ground Monkeys) have done an exceptional job at collecting. The permanent cover crop is vivid green and our sheep are keeping it at golf course standard height…not a blade out of place. Half of our vineyardists are dropping wires for the pruning that will take place in the New Year. The other half are taking the month of December off. Well deserved I must say.
This Friday will be Caitlin’s last day here at Michel-Schlumberger. She came to us 
about three months ago and has become a part of our family. She’s taking off to Santa Cruz to live and work on an organic farm. More organic farming! Yes! It sounds like a lot of hard work in a glorious location in the Santa Cruz Mountains. We’ll be seeing her in the coming months, that’s for sure. One thing that we’ll do before she leaves, is taste all of the wines that she had a hand in making this year. It’s a great exercise that will give us a good glance at the vintage as a whole and show her the fruits of all her hard work. We’ve certainly been tracking these lot by lot, but we’ll have all the wines before us in one exciting set. Can’t wait.
Thanks for everything Caitlin.
