As I write this letter in mid-September, harvest and crush activities have slowly ramped up in the North Coast counties of California, where our magazine is based. Trucks and trailers stacked ridiculously high with half-ton bins—most of them still empty—criss-cross the areas I see on a weekly basis in Sonoma, Napa and Marin counties. Rigs of vineyard lighting for night harvesting are making their annual appearances. Spotting a polished Land Rover along with dusty white pickup trucks and worn 1980s sedans among the vines indicates that everyone from cult winery owners to vineyard foremen to seasonal laborers are paying close attention to the ripening grapes.

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