The Color of Winter is Yellow

By ML Hilton, Director of Marketing and Public Relations

If I asked you the color of winter, would you tell me grey? In your mind’s eye, would you see chiaroscuro of sky and barren earth? Heavy rains that fall in curtains washing color from the world around us?

If I asked you the color of winter, would you tell me white? The white that comes from the void of other colors: Sleets, and ice, and fragile snowflakes that entomb the ground in a cocoon awaiting renewal?

Or, if I asked you the color of winter, would you tell me green? Gentle, fresh green brought forth by the rains and covering the hills. In summer, the ground is lightly scorched and dry brittle from the California sun. But, winter lays a fresh hand on her tilled earth and brings forth the grasses along with a bright flower whose sunny face offsets the dark brow of the heavens.

If I asked you the color of winter, would you tell me yellow? Would you see what I see on a journey upvalley at the end of January? The carpet of bright flowers that spring softly from sodden earth: Lively masses of mustard that bloom in drops of gold and disappear when spring’s hot breath coaxes other more dormant plants to bud.

In Napa, the color of winter is mustard.