It’s the last week before holidays command everyone’s complete attention.  We are busy closing annual files, making last additions to wines in barrel, and tracking errant shipping orders.  Temperatures have dropped.  My thermometer was under 30 for the first time this season.  Our fence posts were thickly frosted with white this morning, even as our last round of roses bloom before we cut them back for winter.

January promises to be busy.  We’ll be heading to San Antonio to pick up an award for “Best All Around Winery” from the San Antonio Rodeo Wine Competition in the middle of the month.  And the end of the month will find us in Sarasota, FL, participating in the tenth anniversary year of the Forks and Corks event.  The independent restaurants of Sarasota created this very successful event to highlight their businesses and raise funds for culinary students.  On Sunday, the 29th, a Grand Tasting is held on the marble porch walk encircling the gardens behind the Ringling Museum, an extraordinarily beautiful venue.  This year the tickets sold out in less than eight minutes!

And once we return from Florida, we’ll be getting ready for Napa Valley Premiere and looking forward to the new visitor season beginning – by then, 2017 will be well under way.  Amazing how quickly that happens every year, isn’t it!  Cheers to the New Year!