Josh Raynolds

The Peays lost 60% of their crop to severe frost, and Andy Peay told me that "it was just painful to have to think about that all season as we looked at our vineyard. The only silver lining to losing half of your production six months before harvest is that the low yields gave us great concentration and vineyard expression." Given the harsh conditions of the market, the Peays decided to hold the line on pricing for their '08s despite the huge drop in production. It's a move that Andy admitted didn't make logical business sense "but I've come to grips with the fact that farming at this level is pretty far removed from economic realities. If we didn't know it before, we learned it the hard way in '08."