We have been hosting visitors here at the winery lately.  It is just that time of the year as people are curious about how the wines from the previous year turned out, and it is also a slower time for distributors and restaurant people, so they will usually come and visit as well.  This time of year people like to ask me if I’m relaxing.  It is certainly slower than harvest time, but relaxing is not exactly how I’d describe it.  Let me give you a little run down on what I do this time of year:

1.  At the begining of January, I finalize the budgets for the winery, tasting room, marketing/sales, and grape purchases.

2.  I finalize all of my sales and revenue projections for the year.  I also finalize our very particular sales goals and what we want to achieve at this time of year and start implementing those.

3.  When I can, I’m wrapping up the odds and ends left loose post harvest — making sure all barrels are topped, the cellar is clean, etc.

4.  Production planning — setting bottling dates, considering packaging options for the 2008 vintage, ordering barrels, talking with growers about grape projections in 2009, going out to vineyards to discuss pruning options and techniques, ordering my bottling supplies, etc.

5.  Sauvignon Blanc — we bottle Sauvignon Blanc in March, so I plan for that, order labels, make sure the alcohol is measured correctly, check the residual sugar, etc.

What I always find difficult about the winter time is not the cold or the short days, but the sudden transition from the intense, physically-demanding workload of harvest to the sitting-on-my-butt-doing-computer-work-all-day routine.  I am not criticizing those who do this kind of work all the time — actually I applaud them because we need them and they are willing to do it — but for me and my personality, finding a balance betwixt the two is the difficult and sometimes frustrating part.