Before the rains vintner Richard Arrowood joked if he could do a rain dance he would.

“As you know, we were indeed facing some rather dire consequences if we continued on the unbelievably dry path that ‘Mother Nature’ had thrown our way,” said Arrowood, who now bottles the highly esteemed Amapola Creek brand. “We were trying to figure out how and when we would have enough water to supplement our thirsty vines later this year, as well as getting our cover crops out of the ‘suspended animation.’”

Arrowood said while the drought is not over, the recent rains have helped a great deal.

“As good fortune would have it, seems that the late Saralee Kunde put in a good word for us from above and lo and behold it rained and it rained and it rained,” he said. “Over 10 ½  inches in three days has helped us go from 10 percent  of last year to a little over 50 percent of year to date’s expected average.”

The postscript?

“Because of the current moisture in the vineyards,” Arrowood said, “we are again able to tie off the canes without much chance of breakage which simply means that we are able to now get back on track towards what I hope might be an almost normal vintage.”

That said, he joked “fingers are crossed and prayers continue to be said.”