The growing season started out unusually cool, delaying grape flowering until well into July. Poor pollination produced smaller than average clusters. Even then we were compelled to further thin our crop, removing grape clusters to get the yields well below average. There was just not enough growing season left to ripen a normal crop. A season saving string of 80+ degree days at the end of September gave us all hope of ripening and put life back into our plans to make red wine. A bit of warm, soaking rain in early October sent us into further removing leaves and working to keep fruit healthy. Mid October brought an great, dry forecast and harvest began with a bang to beat predicted October 23rd rains. Red wine was harvested with gusto beginning the 17th and we wrapped up harvest the 21st October. Keys to our success were, small crop, healthy fruit, and patience to wait until the very end of the season to pick.