Spring to summer in the vineyard is a big transition. The green promise of spring matures into plants producing their fruit and working hard to find water in the soil and keep the leaves photosynthesizing so the fruit can mature. This spring’s signal to the plants was one of abundance. With the spring rains, the grapevines showed their resilience after 4 years of drought. They grew stronger and longer branches than they’ve done in years; flowering flourished. Now, in our dry farm system, where the roots go deep to find water in the soil and the plants are more dependent on the resources in nature than in a conventional vineyard, we hope the grapes will color and ripen to their full potential. We can help in small ways such as dropping fruit (oh so hard to do!) from plants that are visually struggling. And, since we are following four years of drought, we are giving the vineyard a mid-summer watering with our back-up drip system to supplement the minimal water in the soil. At this point we see is the formation of small fruit. (Yes, that classic dry-farm concentrated fruit.) We hope for a larger harvest than last year and look forward to friends and family joining us in August (Shiraz) and September (Zinfandel, Pedro Ximénez, rosé fruit) for our community harvests. Meanwhile we see more olives on the tree than last year. The olives will continue to develop and increase their oil content through summer and fall until their November harvest. Let’s pour a glass of summer wine (Pedro Ximénez or our dry-style rosé) and cheer the grapevines and olive trees on. We think they deserve it!