During the winter of 2005/2006 we received an average amount of rainfall, most occurring later in the season. The importance of rain is always evident in the spring with an even, healthy budbreak in the vineyard. Pruning commenced in January and was completed by the middle of March.  At the end of May, our vineyards saw another 1.5inches of rain; this happens once every 25 years in Paso Robles.

In the wake of a cool spring, bloom occurred about two weeks later than normal, finishing in the middle of June. A period of high temperatures in early July, were our first indicators of the long, dry summer that followed. Our vineyard crews were busy during the month of August as they worked through each of our vineyards by hand in order to thin shoots, work on shoot positioning, leaf removal and green harvest.

For Vina Robles, harvest officially started on September 4th with our ROSEUM 2006! We picked Syrah, and for the first time, Grenache grapes for our summer wine.  Shortly thereafter, we brought in Syrah for our RED4 and the Syrée. Harvest continued on with the Petite Sirah from our Jardine Vineyard, Petit Verdot from our Huerhuero Vineyard and Zinfandel from the Westside. Lastly, the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes were picked at the end of October, completing our 2006 harvest.

Just prior to harvest we purchased an Italian-made Diemme basket press.  It is a modern, high-tech stainless steel variation of the classic wooden basket press. This new equipment enables Winemaker Matthias Gubler to fine tune our small lot winemaking and to enhance quality through gentle, balanced pressing of our red grapes. The 2006 harvest went well and we are very pleased with the excellent quality of this year’s fruit.

By November most wines were in French and American oak barrels for an ageing period of up to 16 months. We look forward to bottling our 2006 Roseum in December, for release in February 2007.