Preparing for Our Next Great Flight
Every vintage starts here. Months before anyone picks a grape, it begins with a pair of shears and a decision about how much fruit each vine will be allowed to carry.
The Short Version
- Pruning happens while the vine is still dormant, before bud break
- Cutting back last season’s growth decides how much fruit each vine will carry
- Fewer, well-placed shoots mean better concentration and balance in the glass
- Decisions made now show up at harvest, months later
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Why We Prune
As winter gives way to longer days in Willcox Wine Country, our focus in the vineyard turns to one of the most important steps of the entire growing season: pruning.
Pruning is the careful process of cutting back last year’s growth to prepare the vine for the season ahead. While it may look dramatic — vines reduced to just a few carefully selected branches — this work is essential.
Left unpruned, a vine will produce too many shoots and too much fruit, spreading its energy thin and compromising quality. The vine does not know it is making wine. Left to itself it will make as many grapes as it can, and none of them will be very interesting.
Quality Over Quantity
By pruning, we decide how much fruit each vine will carry. Fewer, well-placed shoots allow the vine to focus its energy, resulting in grapes with better concentration, balance, and flavor.
In short, pruning sets the stage for quality over quantity. It is the least glamorous decision in the whole year and one of the most consequential — a vine carrying twice the fruit it should will still ripen, but the wine will taste like it.
Why Timing Matters
Timing matters, too. In early spring, before bud break, the vine is still dormant. Pruning at this stage helps ensure healthy growth once the vine awakens, guiding everything that follows — from flowering and fruit set to harvest and, eventually, the wine in your glass.
Prune too early and a warm spell can coax the vine awake before the last frost. Prune too late and it has already spent energy on growth we are about to cut away. On the Willcox Bench, above 4,000 feet, that window is narrow and it moves every year.
It’s quiet, hands-on work, often done on cool mornings with the season ahead still full of possibility.
What Happened Next
These decisions, made months before harvest, play a major role in shaping the wines we will share with you later. This is where the next vintage truly begins.
It did not stay quiet for long. An unusually warm winter and spring pushed bud break early across the whole estate, and the 2026 season ran ahead of schedule from that point on — we started picking in August, about two weeks earlier than usual.
You can read what came of it in Wheels Up: The 2026 Harvest Begins at 4,200 Feet.
