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I know Paul already wrote about the new pruning method in the Chardonnay section at Chaine d’Or, and let me tell you what, the bud break this year is AMAZING! As much as it sounds crazy, I kept telling Paul that I was getting a “vibe” off the vineyard when the old cordons were cut …

It’s been cold for California this January.  It is a time we have to be outside a great deal.  We probably spend more time in the vineyards in January than any other month of the year including harvest time.  As long as it is dry though it’s not bad to work in the cold.  We …

We lingered over coffee and the newspaper, then just before 8 Paul fetched the little trailer from Uhaul while I took the nets off the “estate” mourvedre vineyard.  We harvested the house and church and met up with Millie in Los Altos. She went up with 10 bins to get started and was almost done …

Harvest Date: Sunday, September 30th. The Haul: Just under 1500 pounds of fruit this year. The Nitty Gritty: Brix 23.5,  pH 3.42,  TA 1.05                 Paul loading grapes into the press.                     In the vineyard spreading the seeds, stems, …

El Toro at sunrise on Saturday September 22nd at Crimson Clover Vineyard.                 Paul harvesting the first row before the sun reaches the far end of the vineyard, it’s 56 degrees outside.                   Paul smiling as he brings in the …

A quick blog post in response to a question about why we would be buying 600 pairs of chopsticks that came up on : http://wineberserkers.com/forum/ We use them to secure the bottom of our bird nets.  When I learned to bird net I was taught to use plastic twist tie to secure the bottom of …

After we wrapped up bottling I decided I needed some new boots for the winery.  My current ones are really good but they are heavy and after standing for ten hours my legs and feet felt really heavy and tired.  I was thinking something lighter would be good for the longer days n the winery.  …

I planted the estate mourvedre vineyard in March of 2009.  By definition, this is a baby vineyard still. The goal in 2009 was to grow one strong shoot to the cordon wire, this would become the main trunk of the vine. The goal in 2010 was two shoots that would be the “forever” cordons. The …

Many years ago on this blog I said I’d try to not use French words in the blog or when talking about wine.  Veraison though is a word that only exists in French.  The English translation is: When the grapes turn from green to red.  So, everyone uses the word veraison through out the world …

Saturday morning Stefania and I set out to check on all the vineyards.  We like to do this about every six weeks or so.  We’ll visit each one more often than that but it is a good idea to see what is going on everywhere at once to really get an accurate gage of how …