A cool and wet spring caused the vines to start a little later than usual and a rainy October challenged many later ripening varieties. Thankfully, our Pinot ripened well before the late rains came and the cooler sites we focus on escaped a hot July. What we did face was a large and unbalanced crop. Our remedy was to work with growers to drop fruit early to allow the vines to better handle a more manageable crop load. This paid dividends for quality but losing that fruit was hard for some to witness.