Why We Age Red Wines
August 20, 2024by Dirk Brink, Winemaker As red wine ages, and small amounts of oxygen is introduced, the mouthfeel becomes softer, less astringent. The tannins chemi...
Mother Nature Strikes Again
August 18, 2024by Jay DeWitt, Managing Partner and Vigneron The Walla Walla valley was visited by a polar air mass in February. Sub-zero temperatures killed over 95%...
Summer Update from Birch Creek Vineyard
August 17, 2023by Jay DeWitt, Managing Partner and Vigneron It has been a full 12 months since our 2022 crop was wiped out by the hailstorm. At the beginning of this...
Birch Creek Vineyard Update
June 9, 2023by Jay DeWitt, Managing Partner and Vigneron The 2023 crop is coming along fine. There was hardly any bud damage from winter freeze events, and spring...
Birch Creek Vineyard Recovery Update
March 16, 2023by Jay DeWitt, Managing Partner and Vigneron In my blog post last March, I wrote “Mother Nature can be an ill tempered, whimsical disciplinarian.” I a...
Vineyard Recovery After the Storm
September 30, 2022by Jay DeWitt, Managing Partner and Vigneron Several of you have asked about how the vineyard is recovering since it was decimated by the hailstorm in...
Making Compromises for Optimal Vineyard Farming
August 5, 2022by Jay DeWitt, Managing Partner and Vigneron My 86 year old father likes to say, “farming is a series of compromises.” It is one of those nuggets of ...
Late Winter Weather in the Vineyard
April 19, 2022by Jay DeWitt, Managing Partner and Vigneron It is Saturday, April 16. I am looking out the window at a snowy blizzard, wondering if the grape buds ca...
Winter Weather in Walla Walla
February 23, 2022by Jay DeWitt, Managing Partner and Vigneron I sometimes chuckle to myself at the personification of "Mother Nature," as the benevolent, nurturing lif...