It wasn't just a little breezy on September 22nd. On Pritchard Hill in Napa Valley, that wind was gusting up to about 40 miles per hour.

As you can see in the video, leaves were being pulled off the vines and the dusty vineyard soils were headed down toward the Silverado Trail.

Kate Elia (a member of the Wine Spectator video team) and I met up with Randy and Debbie in the Martin vineyard, where they grow Merlot and Cab. They are incredibly funny and had us in stitches (you'll notice the cameras shaking; it was due to the wind and their jokes), but the mood was also fairly intense, since the wind could potentially damage the crop.

The Lewises showed us the wind's effect and talked about what they needed to do to minimize any damage. We hope you'll learning about some of the millions of things winemakers get to worry about.

The good news: Randy and Debbie picked some of the Merlot on September 28th and it came in looking really good. Now, they're back to waiting. They estimate that they'll start picking the Martin Cab around October 15th -- depending on the weather, that is.


Check out the video on Wine Spectator's Video Theater, on the Featured Stories channel. If you've got any questions about fruit dimpling or watering late in the season or about anything else in the video, let's talk.

Cheers!
Gloria

This message has been edited. Last edited by: The Schoolmarm,

Very enjoyable videos you have, informative, good quality and well edited.

Could you let your video team/webmaster know that they don't seem compatible with Mozilla Firefox though, clicking a video just brings you back to the last page. Thanks

hi thorn,

thanks for the thumbs-up on the vids and the great comments on the forum (sounds as though you're a confirmed wine geek).

sorry you're having some trouble with the vids, but it's not a mozilla firefox issue since that's what i'm using right now and the vids are working.

eddy the vid tech guy is out until tuesday, but i can anticipate some of the questions he'll ask to diagnose the problem...
...what is your operating system?
...what is your internet connection?
...what version of flash do you have?
...when you're clicking the video and it takes you to another page, are you on the homepage, the video theater page, or does it happen on both pages?

(sorry for all the questions...)

and, for folks who are having trouble with flash or who have a slowish connection, we have the videos available as mp4s on this page. (you can also find the mp4 link at the bottom of the Video Theater page.)

best,
gloria

I'm definately a wine geek, although I haven't tasted as much as most people on these forum seem to have done.

I'm on Windows 2000 for now, on an old computer for a while. Internet connection is a 24/1 mbit DSL. I've updated Flash to the latest version, no difference. I can get everything working in IE, but not in firefox (my default browser). What seems to happen is that the player doesn't load, so all I see in FF is the menu that is below the player in IE.