Growing Grapes for Wine

The 4 Season Job of Growing Grapes for Wine

When you talk about growing grapes for wine, most everyone automatically thinks of harvest. Really, though, grape growing is a four-seasons job, with different tasks for each month of the year.

In the winter, the projects begin with pruning. Then, beginning in the earliest spring, vines and vineyards are tended with shoot thinning, leaf pulling, shoot positioning, crop thinning, mowing, discing, fertilizing, controlling erosion, and more. Dutton Ranch has a full-time crew working nearly every month of the year performing some necessary task.

All throughout the growing process, from surveying a new plot for a vineyard to choosing the moment to harvest, a farmer knows that everything comes back to the partnership you have with the environment in order to grow grapes for wine. Through the successes and the failures, the work and the seasons, when a farmer experiences that partnership with the land it's rewarding.