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January
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February
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March
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Vineyard: Vines are being
pruned.
Winery The wine is aging in
barrels or vats. Previous vintages are being prepared for
sale. Equipment maintenance, etc.
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Vineyard: Late pruning. New
grafts are prepared. Equipment maintenance, etc.
Winery: Racking (moving wine
into clean barrels) begins. Some wineries add barrels of
wine together to assemble the first blend. Since the wine
has to be moved out of the barrels, and barrels are
expensive, assembling the blend also allows the wine to be
stored in a large vat while the barrels are cleaned for
reuse.
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Vineyard: Final pruning. Sap
begins to rise. Soil is worked to aerate and uncover base of
vines.
Winery: Racking should be close
to complete. Topping off continues. As the weather warms
malo-lactic fermentation may start or be induced. End of
previous vintage bottling, etc.
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April
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May
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June
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Vineyard: General vineyard
maintenance. You often see cuttings burning in the
vineyards.
Winery: General maintenance.
Time to finish anything that may not have gotten done
earlier.
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Vineyard: Frost watch. Smudge
pots are burning at night and everyone is praying. Soil is
worked again to turn under weeds. First spraying against
mold and mildew. Remove suckers.
Winery: Shipping of previous
vintage and preparing for next racking.
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Vineyard: The vines flower.
This is another critical time, so everyone is still anxious.
Much of the quantity of the vintage will be determined at
this stage. Shoots are thinned and tied. Second
spraying.
Winery: Second racking. Older
wines are racked. As weather warms barrel maintenance
becomes crucial.
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July
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August
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September
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Vineyard: Tiny grapes begin to
develop. Vines sprayed with Bordeaux mixture. Turn the weeds
into the soil again. Keep shoots trimmed.
Winery: Winery is closed down
in times of heat. Steps are taken to prevent bacterial
growth in winery.
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Vineyard: Color begins to
change in black grapes. Trimming and weeding keep everyone
busy. Preparation is made for harvest.
Winery: Everything is cleaned
and inspected for the coming harvest.
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Vineyard: Final harvest
preparations made. Earliest harvesting begins.
Winery: Double check
everything. make sure all vats and barrels are water
tight.
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October
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November
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December
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Vineyard: Most vintages start
late September and continue into early October. Once the
grapes are picked and the whites are pressed, the grape
skins are spread on the vineyard and turned into the soil in
preparation of the winter.
Winery: Stemming, crushing and
in some cases pressing, fill the hours. The new wine begins
to ferment. Last year's wine is racked and moved to the
aging cellar.
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Vineyard: Shoots are cut and
collected to burn (or sell as firewood in some cases).
Vineyard is plowed and soil heaped on the base of the
vines.
Winery: Young wines are now
finished with fining and filtering, and are then bottled.
Older vintages may also be bottled. Wines that will be aged
are still fermenting in contact with their skins.
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Vineyard: Some vineyards the
soil needs to be replaced after rains. Pruning starts about
halfway through the month.
Winery: The end of fermentation
for the hearty reds. Bottling of young and older wines is
completed. Wines for aging are moved from vat to barrel
after fining and possible filtering.
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