How Our Winemaker Gets Fit for Harvest: Triathlons

After all these years of making wine and swimming, biking and running, it never occurred to me how my training corresponds so succinctly with Mother Nature’s time clock. It is true that my hours of training are directly related to the hours of light; much the same as a growing season of the grapevines. My “finish line” at harvest compares so well to my energy/spiritual feeling at the completion of a triathlon. With all parts of life, there is a beginning, ending and the continuation of the cycle. For most if not all people in business, each person responds to their own internal clock and how it relates to the seasons. Exercise in itself is healthy, of course; but the exercise of “blending in with nature” is what is truly healthy and satisfies the soul.

We just crossed the half-way point of harvest 2014 on Monday, and after a brief rain delay from last night’s showers, we expect our last gondola of grapes to arrive at the crushpad before the end of September. Harvest is about 1-2 weeks ahead of schedule, as mentioned in our last blog post, and we’ll be finishing just as early, too. I’ll be back to training in the winter, when the vines go into dormancy, and then the cycle begins once again.

Read Wall Street Journal’s recent feature story on my work-out regime.