While the rest of the world baked, spring refused to give way to summer in California this year. But on those few days that summer managed to break through, it blasted and blazed. One could forgive grapevines – and their human attendants – for being confused. In the coolest growing regions of the North Coast, growers and their vines were racing to get fruit ripe before the expected start of the rainy season this fall. To advance this process, many expert viticulturalists pulled leaves to allow more sunlight directly on the clusters. And then the mercury shot up . . .