It looks like California got socked with quite a storm, especially the Santa Cruz area.

Any first hand accounts on how the grapes came through the deluge?

Did a day of harvest last Saturday up in Napa and they rushed in almost all of their grapes before the rains. They left the cab hanging but brought in almost everything else.

At our Kapcsandy Family vineyard in Yountville, CA in the heart of Napa Valley we had 4.5 inches of rain in 24 hours with 25-35 mph winds.

We dodged a bullet with the winds drying the wet vines from excess water damage. Now we're about 72F broken clouds and sunshine and continues winds around 15 mph helping to dry things out.

We have Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc still hanging out, but with their tougher skins they fared well.

Tomorrow will be important to inspect for gray rot and/or Botrytis. We'll probably turn our wind machines on to drive off even more of the moisture on the clusters.

The forecasted warming trend is also going to be a huge help.

Wow. It'd mid-October. How much longer do you usually let them hang?

Can be as late as November.

Spoke to a few winemakers. Generally they knew it was coming and harvested anything they thought was at risk. The stuff that's still out there is almost all thicker skinned, later ripening grapes like Cabernet sauvignon.

Quite a few have fruit on the vine still; the forecast was for one big storm then dry weather. If it stays dry the risk of rot should be low; it'll just have washed the grapes, and the only issue will be muddy fields for the tractors and pickers.

Rhys has everything in apart from some Syrah at Horseshoe which may not ripen at all.

La Honda still has a couple of cab vineyards that are 2 weeks out, one in Chalone and another local.

Sycamore Creek has quite a bit still on the vine but isn't worried about it.

That's typically what I'm hearing.