2009 is proving to be a challenging year in the vineyard so far.  Early and heavy rains in October are playing havoc with the harvest this year.

So far this year we have had a generally mild summer which has delayed the maturity of the grapes such that the sugars in the grapes are still below what the winemaker would ideally like.

In September we have a nice warm spell which did allow the sugars in the Merlot to reach the point where we could harvest.  This year we harvested the Merlot at night, a practice that is becoming much more common, as it allows the grapes to picked while it is cool, and then transported to the winery before they warm up and start fermenting in the picking bin.

Now with the heavy rains in October we are starting to see some mold on the grapes, so we have been busy dropping moldy fruit and pulling the leaves off the vines to allow the grapes to dry out.

We managed to harvest the Petit Verdot in mid October, but the Cabernet Sauvignon was still not ready to harvest and we needed the ground to dry out before we can get equipment in to harvest.

At the end of October with the Cabernet Sauvignon still low on sugar and showing signs of considerable mold, in conjunction with the winemaker at Benziger we made the very difficult decision to not harvest the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes this year as the quality was just not good enough.

So once again Mother Nature is in control.

This summer after a three year process Puma Springs Vineyards finally gained the coveted Demeter Biodynamic® and USDA certification for the grapes grown at the farm.

After winning a Gold Medal at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair the Benziger Family Winery the 2006 vintage of the Puma Springs Cabernet quickly sold out. The wine was a 700 case limited production bottling available only at the Benziger Family Winery tasting room in Glen Ellen and on-line

With weather reported directly from our vineyard and updated several times a day.