Both a weakly nonlinear analytic theory and direct numerical simulation are used to document processes involved during the spin-up of a rotating stratified fluid driven by wind-stress forcing for time periods less than a homogeneous spin-up time. The strength of the wind forcing, characterized by the Rossby number ε, is small enough (i.e. ε[Lt ]1) that a regular perturbation expansion in ε can be performed yet large enough (more specifically, ε∝E1/2, where E is the Ekman number) that higher-order effects of vertical diffusion and horizontal advection of momentum/density are comparable in magnitude. Cases of strong stratification, where the Burger number S is equal to one, with zero heat flux at the upper boundary are considered. The Ekman transport calculated to O(ε) decreases with increasing absolute vorticity. In contrast to nonlinear barotropic spin-up, vortex stretching in the interior is predominantly linear, as vertical advection negates stretching of interior relative vorticity, yet is driven by Ekman pumping modified by nonlinearity. As vertical vorticity is generated during the spin-up of the fluid, the vertical vorticity feeds back on the Ekman pumping/suction, enhancing pumping and vortex squashing while reducing suction and vortex stretching. This feedback mechanism causes anticyclonic vorticity to grow more rapidly than cyclonic vorticity. Strict application of the zero-heat-flux boundary condition leads to the growth of a diffusive thermal boundary layer E−1/4 times thicker than the Ekman layer embedded within it. In the Ekman layer, vertical diffusion of heat balances horizontal advection of temperature by extracting heat from the thermal boundary layer beneath. The flux of heat extracted from the top of the thermal boundary layer by this mechanism is proportional to the product of the Ekman transport and the horizontal gradient of the temperature at the surface. The cooling caused by this heat flux generates density inversions and intensifies lateral density gradients where the wind-stress curl is negative. These thermal gradients make the potential vorticity strongly negative, conditioning the fluid for ensuing symmetric instability which greatly modifies the spin-up process.