It’s been raining off and on this week. We only have a day or two of pruning left, but we’re not working. The cover crops are so high and wet in the rows that we quickly get soaked to the waist, and that’s miserable.The rainfall has been pretty evenly distributed this winter. Although the soil is pretty saturated, the cover crops have done a good job absorbing excess moisture. We haven’t seen a cover crop of this size in years. The vigorous growth is welcome, because the roots penetrate the soil. When the roots die back, they leave room for oxygen and water to move down deep, and the plants also break down into fertilizer and organic matter in the soil.

The vines look relaxed, in great shape for bud break. They have more energy this year, which makes sense following a smaller crop in 2007. And they need the water. Although they are dormant, a cold, dry winter can prove stressful for vines.

Anne and I were talking yesterday, and I told her that this is my 24th vintage. I know enough, but not everything. My job is interesting because it’s a constant learning experience.

I play a game with myself, like a football coach. I don’t focus on the end of the game. Instead, I try to concentrate on it play by play - a five-yard run here, getting into field goal position there. Yes, I have an idea of what a whole vintage might bring, but right now I’m concentrating totally on pruning, and next week, on tying the canes to trellis wires.

As I look back over 24 years, I realize there are many more people making wine now. Many have gone to school and are good at putting the numbers together. In the old days, people made wine more with intuition and talent, but the results were more vintage dependent because they had fewer tools to work with. Today, I think there may be fewer people with talent in our industry. But those who are both well-educated and talented — they are exceptional. Talent also has a lot to do with passion for your work.

Our job in the vineyard is to create components for great wine - the proper tannins, acid, sugar and fruit flavors and aromas. If it is necessary to manipulate the wines in the winery to make up for deficiencies from the vineyard, the wine will be inferior.

Kenneth is very involved with the vineyard. When he began here as winemaker, he was on the bench. He became a good player, then a team leader, and now he’s helping to coach the team. He is very confident in his decisions. I joked with him never to believe he’s the owner, because in football they may have power, but they may not know all they need to.

I watch Kenneth walk the vineyards. He knows what he needs and what he’s looking for, and he has developed intuition. He gets a lot of information from the grapes, and that’s good for our team.

Kenneth really starts getting involved around veraison (when grapes soften and change color). Then he’s like a chef at the farmer’s market or the fish market - he wants to know everything about his raw material. If a chef has the finest ingredients, he has to do very little, but he has to know exactly what to do. I think that’s the role of the winemaker with outstanding grapes.

My position is to make sure both Anne and Kenneth have all the information from the vineyard that they need. The better the information I provide, the more success we will have. Everything in the vineyard system is connected - fog, humidity, temperature, soil moisture, wind. If you are calm, you see it all. So you take it all in, digest it and present your interpretation. Accurate, honest information leads to trust and that eventually makes good wine. Over the years, Anne and I have learned to speak precisely the same language.

So I need to get my hands and boots dirty, be aware, gather information and stay connected with my team. It’s a discipline, a way you live. Larry Hyde taught me to pay attention. I try to teach guys who are learning to ask themselves, why am I cutting? What will this mean?

When you pay attention, you see so much more. And you become aware of the consequences of your actions. When you are pruning one vine, it hardly seems to matter if you make two cuts or four cuts. But when you prune a thousand vines, that’s two thousand additional cuts.

Recently I replaced my water heater, so I had to solder copper pipe. I had never done that before, and that’s a helpless feeling. When I asked the experts, they told me it was easy - yes, for them! That experience was good for me, because it made me more compassionate with the guys who are still learning. And we’re all still learning.

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