It speaks to the superior quality of grapevines that can stand up, despite struggling, to survive a very tough growing season and/or numerous drought years. They just shut down and went out.
Imagine this: A difficult year almost always produces superior wines.
I have tasted many extraordinary wines from poor growing seasons that were downright awesome. When learning about wine in the early 1980s at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, I had an amazing wine teacher — author Norm Roby. He taught us that even in a bad vintage, we should stick with the wine brands we loved most.
One of the closest vineyards to the Pacific Ocean, just 1.2 miles away, is Bassi Vineyard in Avila Valley, owned by winemaker Mike Sinor, of Sinor-LaVallee, who has a tasting room in Avila Beach.
“We had a cold summer, then a heat wave, and then rain, the vines have been shown all kinds of environmental changes.

Despite the innovative system that allows Pendleton to funnel most of its drinking water from the Umatilla River rather than pumping it from the ground, the city’s groundwater supply has still dwindled over the years.
The numbers fluctuate depending on whether it has been a wet or dry winter, but Public Works Director Bob Patterson said groundwater levels have dropped an average of 1.4 feet per year for the past 14 years since the ASR went online.
Pendleton has eight straws in the bowl — wells that pump 8.5 million gallons of water per day during peak use.
But it isn’t enough to stop groundwater declines.
If the pump wasn’t allowed to lower from 400 feet down to 440 feet, it was in danger of eventually pumping air.
There’s other data that show a decline in groundwater in the Pendleton area.
With Pendleton’s ASR system already in place, Patterson said farmers on the west side of the county, where irrigated agriculture is the most prevalent, were the cause of the cross-county decline.
He pointed to a 2003 Oregon Water Resources Department study that stated limited connectivity between the city’s wells and west side irrigators, but said explicit knowledge of the connection is still unknown.
If the aquifer goes dry, Patterson said the city would have to rely entirely on the Umatilla River for its drinking water.

"[Through] Friday, the heaviest rain will extend from northeastern Kansas to southern Iowa and and part of northwestern Illinois," AccuWeather Lead Storm Warning Meteorologist Eddie Walker said.
"However, locally higher amounts are possible."
Lesser rain will occur farther east in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.
In terms of severe weather, severe storms can form across northwestern Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas on Friday afternoon and evening.
However, there may be some incidents of hail.
The rainfall will impact agriculture in the region.
"On one hand, the rain will slow the corn harvest in some areas and the planting of winter wheat in others," according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls.
"On the other hand, the rain will also help to put some moisture back into the ground, even if it falls at a fast pace."
Winter wheat needs to sprout rapidly and develop deep roots to survive the cold weather in the months ahead.
As cooler air advances to the east, it will help to pull Nate northward from the Gulf of Mexico this weekend.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The drought across Ohio is worsening, with moderate drought conditions encompassing 14.22 percent of the state, up from 3.85 percent last week, according to the latest National Drought Mitigation Center’s update.
"Abnormally dry" conditions continue to spread as well, with 54.77 percent of the state under the lowest intensity category of drought.
Over the past few weeks, an unusually strong high-pressure system stalled to the northeast, bringing days on end of dry weather to the entire eastern half of the United States. High pressure dries the skies significantly making the air very stable, essentially removing its ability to produce precipitation.
When will the drought improve?
Rain showers throughout Ohio Thursday should help slightly improve the drought conditions, with the heaviest and highest coverage rainfall focused to the southwest — up to 1 inch of rain is possible. Friday, the rain showers shift north, with up to a half-inch possible for northwest Ohio.

Another Fall snow storm impacting Montana earlier this week with heavy wet snow in Northern counties did take a bite out of the devastating drought. However, the recent wet weather did not eliminate the drought entirely.
There are still huge departures from normal with year to date precipitation across Montana especially northern and eastern counties. An additional 3" – 6" of moisture is needed just to reach normal levels. So it will take several big storms to wipe out the drought entirely.
The recent wet weather has helped eliminate the drought across the far southern half of Montana and now the Butte/Blackfoot region is considered abnormally dry which is an improvement from last week when they were considered to be in moderate drought.
The ongoing drought in Montana reached it’s peak in mid September and with several cold core storms in late September and now early October the drought has been improving almost on a weekly basis.
Here is the current percentage breakdown: 10% of Montana is still in Exceptional Drought. 24% still dealing with Extreme Drought, 66% of Montana is still in Severe Drought and 76% stuck in Moderate Drought.

The Anna Fire Department responded to the scene of a field fire early last Sunday afternoon. The cause of the fire was not determined.
The National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in Lincoln, Neb., posted information on its website which showed that much of Southern Illinois was experiencing abnormally dry conditions as of Sept. 26.
Southern Illinois counties which were experiencing abnormally dry conditions included Union, Jackson, Williamson, Johnson, Alexander and Pulaski.
Anna Fire Chief Gary Rider noted that the dry conditions in the area continue to be monitored.
Drier than normal conditions, along with above normal temperatures, were recorded during September at many locations in Southern Illinois, Southeast Missouri and Western Kentucky.
Overall temperatures were around 1 to 2 degrees above normal for September.
Cape Girardeau had record high temperatures: 95 degrees on Sept. 22 and 91 degrees on Sept. 26.
Paducah recorded 2.55 inches of rain during September.
Cape Girardeau experienced its six driest September on record, with only 0.73 of an inch rain for the entire month.

While coastal New England had already been experiencing dryness (D0) and moderate drought (D1), more recent dryness has also been showing up across interior portions of the Northeast (such as Vermont, New York, and Virginia). Therefore, this week’s drought depiction in the Northeast shows increased spatial coverage of abnormal dryness across much of New England, portions of New York, northern and western New Jersey, extreme southeastern and extreme northwestern Pennsylvania, and eastern parts of West Virginia.
Over the past 30 days, widespread dry conditions were reported across this region with less than 50% of the normal rainfall in most areas.
One-category degradations were made to the drought depiction in northern and central Ohio, far western Kentucky, northern and eastern portions of Wisconsin, southern and eastern Iowa, parts of northwestern, northeastern, and south-central Missouri, and western Upper Michigan.
In Montana, welcome precipitation and increasing soil moisture warranted significant improvements statewide this week.
A small portion of the moderate drought area (D1) near the Kona Airport was trimmed back to D0 on the depiction.

After the winter of 1996-97 — arguably the worst winter for resident wildlife in the last half century — I remember hearing upland game biologist Lowell Tripp, and wildlife division chief Randy Kreil, now both retired, repeat over and over again the basic fact that North Dakota was on the northern tier of the pheasant range and winters “like this” are going to take their toll.
They also related how such a winter probably wasn’t a one-time phenomenon, which proved true a decade later, from December 2008 to spring 2013.
A simple look at historical numbers provides some insight into how that winter of 1996-97 affected North Dakota wildlife populations.
Making it through the winter is the first step, but the stress of trying to survive doesn’t end there.
“There’s nothing easy about a hen’s life,” said Jeb Williams, North Dakota Game and Fish Department wildlife division chief.
Because pheasant chicks are unable to control their body temperature for many days after hatching, untimely cold, wet weather can kill the chicks despite the hen’s best efforts to keep them warm and dry. Since insects make up more than 90 percent of a pheasant chick’s diet; a lack of insects makes survival difficult.
But just like after winter 1996-97, down certainly doesn’t mean out.

With millions of Kenyans in need of humanitarian assistance, the focus of aid agencies has shifted to using local resources and boosting the regional economy rather than providing food handouts.
The drought in Kenya has left 3.4 million people in urgent need of food assistance, the highest level since 2011.
The arid and semi-arid communities in the affected areas are now under significant stress because their livelihoods have been disrupted as the weather conditions continue to worsen," Maurice Onyango, Kenya Red Cross Society Country Coordinator, told DW.
Maurice Onyango told DW how the drought has affected the Samburu people, and how the program works: "Through funds from FAO we are able to buy livestock and do destocking, which is especially useful with regard to the weak livestock. This is how we are supporting communities through the current drought situation in Samburu."
So there has been a two-month period where people have been receiving sufficient protein from their own livestock — which is vital. It’s not us shipping in protein or food, it’s making use of local resources.

He has not seen any substantial rains on his farm in at least a year and has lost two harvests, resulting in a loss of over 200,000 Sri Lankan rupees ($1,325) — and growing debts.
"There is no work.
With rice production for 2017 expected to be the lowest in a decade, "over 300,000 households (around 1.2 million people) are estimated to be food insecure, with many households limiting their food intake and in some cases eating just one meal a day," the United Nations update said.
If we can’t get a harvest at least by the end of the year both of them will have to work," he said.
"Households reported that the amount of money owed in formal loans has not increased, indicating that families are turning to informal lenders for credit," the WFP survey said.
Gunathileka said that he was thinking of using the deeds to his paddy rice land as collateral and seeking a small loan from local money lenders.
Recent rains have dropped the overall number of people affected by drought from 2.2 million a month ago to 1.7 million now, said G.L.
He said the government planned to distribute relief food packs worth Rs 5000 ($34) to about 200,000 drought-hit families and provide compensation up to Rs 8500 ($56) per acre for harvest losses this year.
For now, Gunathileka and his wife look up to the sky each time they step out looking for work.