June Gloom in Paso
June 23rd, 2023
I grew up in southern CA close to the beach where "June Gloom" was a real thing. Those heavy overcast days were the clouds just don't want to seem to break open and let the sun through. But, here? in Paso Robles? This is a term I have forgot about this being a common thing since living here. As all of us as experienced this was a long, cold, and wet winter. This has kind of been carrying through spring and into what is supposed to be summer.
Currently, the Cass Vineyard is trucking along through flowering albeit a couple weeks behind what is "normal". Granted there is no "normal" when it come to seasons and growing, but we still need another couple weeks to fully get 'set'. Set is when we are actually able to start to determine how much fruit we may get for the year. Although in the next couple weeks if strong wind picks up then some of that flowing could go array and we get shatter. This is the term referred to when the potential grape doesn't develop into a grape. At the moment the are some areas that have a little bit of shatter but there are a lot of clusters. So, it should even out and overall we are looking good so far but there is a lot of "season" to go and mother nature needs to get her act together and actually act like summer. It is mid June and I should be drinking Oasis Rose on my boat but instead I am wearing a hoodie, drinking Backbone Syrah, and writing this...
-Sterling, Cass Winemaker