Winery & Tasting Room
So, I didn’t realize how many tree pictures I was accumulating this year, apparently I have a thing for trees in 2013. I’m happy to share them with you. Call it a vineyard intermission of sorts while we are busy doing manual labor thinning, tucking, spraying, repairing drip systems, etc.
The Picasso image was taken at the Art Institute. It’s from the “Original Etchings for the Texts of Buffon” display, and dated 1936. I liked that he captured the grapevine, leaves, clusters, and tendrils so completely. I also snapped a couple more photos from that particular grouping and a handful of other very colorful paintings of his. I’m not sure yet how I feel about the folks with iPads snapping photos of all these famous works…I think it’s great we can share art across many mediums, and although it wasn’t really intrusive, I wanted it to be rude and it wasn’t.
Thank you Windy City for blowing my hair all crazy on our walk over to the Art Institute.
That’s Mrs. Oleary’s cow, they blame the cow for knocking over the oil lamp that burned the city down (that’s my quick summary about the cow). It’s actually a horrible story, a lot of people were killed, and miles of the city were destroyed.
Random photo of a perfect ice ball in an Old Fashioned. I have become obsessed with the perfect ice ball…
Another Picasso etching, I’m a Capricorn and have a thing for goats and goat art…
Paul took me to a Cubs game. It was cold. We drank beer and ate hot dogs. It snowed. The Giants won. I’d like to publicly thank our friend Allison for suggesting we take blankets, they saved our frozen butts. Did I mention it snowed? At noon, at a baseball game, in late April. Snow.
We met friends at Caro Mio in Chicago, a lot of friends actually. I’m not sure I could begin to describe the scene, but for 20 people, there were easily twice that many bottles of wine that we opened. The food was family style Italian and perfect for the event. Good Food, Good Friends, Great Wine!
We did get to showcase our latest release and some of our previous vintages for newcomers to try. Only a handful of new faces this time, we are becoming regulars to Chicago and getting to be very close friends with more folks, this winemaking gig has been a lot of fun, I won’t lie.
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 off. I could feel the vines go “aaahhhh”. Well, they are definitely loving having all that dead weight gone, they are THRIVING!
Bud break is out of control (in a really good way) and I’ve already gone through and thinned them. I already dropped a ton of fruit, the shoots all have teeny little grape clusters on them already. Crazy Good, Exciting Good, Really, Really Good!
Can you tell I’m excited?
Oh yeah, and there are ladybugs everywhere! Not just at Chaine d’Or either. I saw them on the vines at the church, and the ones at home. It’s the first time I can remember this many of them.
My rose garden is the healthiest it has been in years, I have a great feeling about this growing season. We are going to have strong, healthy plants all across the board, not just vines.