"Harvest Almost Broke Us" | Jeffrey Plant | Barrels & Roots

I sat down with Jeff, winemaker at Round Pond Estate in Napa, right in the middle of one of the earliest and wildest harvests he's ever seen. We talked about how a warm spring pushed bud break three weeks ahead of schedule, how he found himself racing to pick Chardonnay after a five-gallon bucket sample came back at 19.25 bricks, and why the real stress of harvest isn't the grapes, it's the tanker trucks and logistics nobody thinks about. We got into robots scanning vineyards, why AI can tell you data but never flavor, and his philosophy that winemaking is about shepherding what the vine already wants to become rather than forcing it. If you've ever wondered what actually happens behind the label, this conversation pulls back the curtain.What's one moment in your work or life where you had to trust your gut over the plan?