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Accolades and Awards

I’ve done a poor job keeping track of wine competition awards and other accolades.  Everyone loves to see their name in print, right?  Well, most everyone that is.

Paul and I spend a lot of time focusing on producing quality wine that we enjoy so having someone else validate its merits is nice, but we don’t go to great lengths for trophies.

That said, while we were in Colorado and in the midst of a major family crisis, I received an email from Lucinda Gilbert asking if I would please review my bio. for her website on women winemakers.  I still owe her a proper reply and to make any edits to the entries, but after a quick glance through, I’m satisfied with the information she pulled off our website.

(http://www.womenwinemakers.com/)

Then, later in the year, Paul sent me an email he received from Vineyard & Winery Management asking if we would like to participate in their International Women’s Wine Competition.  Well, heck, if I’m going to promote myself on Lucinda’s website, I may as well submit a few and see how we do.

I submitted:  ’09 Chardonnay, ’07 EPR Syrah, ’07 Uvas Cab, ’07 SCM Cab, ’08 SCM Cab, and ’08 Crimson Clover Cab.

And then I forgot about the competition. We were busy with harvest and winemaking and then Thanksgiving with friends and family coming around.  When I finally checked the website to see how we did, I was pleasantly surprised.  Everything but the Chardonnay placed.

1 Silver medal and 4 Bronze

http://www.vwm-online.com/wine_competitions/international_womens/results.asp#472

 

 

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2011 continued

The blog image I selected is of the samples of ceviche you can order at Jaguar in Coconut Grove Florida.  It’s a funny little story, but our friend Jorge picked us up from the airport.  He drove us into Coconut Grove, but before dropping us at our hotel, he toured us through the neighborhood real quick and pointed out all of the dining and shopping options.  There’s the usual franchise chain eateries and coffee shops, but he made sure to point us to a handful of independent restaurants and what they feature.  Well, Jaguar was one such location and at one point when Jorge called to check in with us, Paul said “at this point it would be less embarrassing to tell you we’re at Cheesecake Factory than Jaguar”.  The ceviches were fantastic and so were the margaritas.  One thing they do there that I keep forgetting to do at home, is to use clear glass wine bottles to serve water in table-side.  Anyway, that’s the story of the ceviche spoons…part of the Miami trip.

In July we drove to Colorado to meet up with my family.  My brother Mike and his daughter Makana went on a hike up Missouri Mountain, to check off another Fourteener, and didn’t make it back down.  Search and rescue found them after several days and we gathered at his home in Boulder to take care of the necessary arrangements.  In the photo above, I have my arm around Ila, that’s Millies sister that lives in a town nearby to where we stayed.  In all the years I’ve known her I consider her family and was glad for the friendly face during such a shitty time in my life.

A photo of my niece Makana and my brother Mike from a photo they took together in Telluride in 2010.  Each year in June for Fathers Day and Summer Solstice, the would spend the week together and usually hike a 14er, that’s what they call the peaks in the Rockies that are over 14,000 feet.

In October, while we were in New Orleans, Paul said he would like to rent a car and drive up into Mobile, Alabama for lunch and to see what was there.  So we did.  From the French Quarter, we headed to Lake Pontchartrain, drove across it and headed East from there and followed minor roads through less developed areas.  Bay Saint Louis was still in major disrepair since Katrina (2005) and Gulfport Mississippi was clearly struggling to recover still.  The center median along the coastal highway has become a sculpture garden.  Someone carved animals into the tree stumps of trees that were blasted by the hurricane, it was pretty amazing.  The last time I drove to Biloxi was ten years or so ago and to see so much devastation and ruin was heart breaking and even worse was knowing the damage was six years old.

Mobile was smaller than we thought it would be, but we enjoyed oysters and gumbo at Wintzells before heading back.

I keep forgetting about the event in Las Vegas.  Sorry for the blurry pic, it was the best one of the group…this was the annual Wine Amplified event at Mandalay Bay.  The band in 2011 was Train and the event was a huge success.  We got our usual cabana just to the right of the stage and had a great time pouring.  Millie joined us on our “company retreat” and spent the day with us lounging pool side at the cabana at The Green Valley Ranch.

Pretty sure I mentioned these guys earlier in the year, but here they are again. Our new roommates, Fat Cat (far side), and Little Bubby.  I adopted them years ago for a friend and in a bizarre tale of lesbian divorce and custody battle, I ended up with them.  We love having them around and I can’t imagine my life without them ever again.

And with that, I’m wrapping up the highlights and low lights of 2011.  Next up…winemaking related blogs as we kick off pruning on January 7th.

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Travel 2011

As I started writing all this down I realized we were fairly busy traveling last year.  That would explain the high volume of travel photos and the lack of vineyard & winery pics.  We didn’t get to work with Gerardo as much last year, he found a day job working for an electrician which meant Paul, Millie, and I did a lot more of the work.

 

We started off the year in Seattle in a condo we rented and shared with six friends.  We watched the New Years Eve fireworks from the balcony and watched the sun rise on the Olympic mountains every morning.  Paul drove us to Woodinville for wine tasting, and each afternoon it seemed we were in Pikes Market picking up groceries for that evenings meal.  On my birthday, we caught the Seahawks/Rams game.  The Seattle trip was a great start to the year and definitely a highlight for me.  I took the opportunity of a cheap flight on Southwest and flew back to Seattle in May to see my friend and her baby boy for lunch.

View from our seats at the Seahawks game.

In February the courtyard at Pat O’Briens was perfectly quiet and welcoming with the outdoor heaters on full blast.  On our trip back in October, this courtyard was a zoo as the Quarter filled up with Auburn fans that came in for the LSU/Auburn game in Baton Rogue.  It was actually good to see so many people in town even if it meant waiting for seats in bars and needing reservations for dinner.  One thing we’ve learned in New Orleans is that you don’t need to wait in line for anything, just walk a couple of blocks and you’ll find comparable food and drink nearby.

In July, I accompanied Paul to Minnesota for his day job.  While he was in meetings, I was walking thru the labyrinths of the skywalk and outdoors on possibly the hottest day of summer there.  We popped into Fogo de Chao after work to escape the heat of the day and had a fair amount of caipirinhas before feasting on the endless arrays of meat that come to your table.  The photo above is from one of the indoor shopping areas, part of an indoor fountain that I spotted on my walk.

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Food * Travel * Projects

Happy New Year!

In an effort to recap 2011 there will be a series of blogs with photos that capture the highlights of last year.   It might take me a week or longer, but hopefully I can keep it interesting.

As I scrolled through the photos, it’s clear I have a problem taking pictures of my two cats, loaves of bread I’ve baked, and pretty much food in general.  We did a ton of travel last year, spent a lot of time with our friends here and around the country, and enjoyed a couple of road trips to see my family.

We were in Miami in February and experienced our first Cuban Pig Roast in a Caja China box.  By September I had my own box and did the first pig for Labor Day weekend.  In October we went to New Orleans and met  friends of the owner at Finnegans Easy.  They invited us to a pig roast in the French Quarter which we gladly attended.  Then in December, to celebrate a milestone birthday for Millie, I roasted the pig shown in the photo above (heavily seasoned with Paul’s dry rub mix).

We actually hit New Orleans twice in 2011, once in February, then again in October.  The flights from San Jose to Miami stop and change planes in New Orleans, so we took advantage of an extended layover.  Paul found a cigar shop on Canal Street that we popped into to take a break from walking.

With money leftover from tax refunds, Paul finally got to see the deck built – something he’s wanted to do for the past several years.  With the help of our friend Eric, we demolished the concrete patio and prepared the area for Millie to build. She finished it just in time for the pig party in September.

Up next, pictures from work.  Vineyards, bottling, harvest, etc.

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Availability Update

After receiving the latest inventory sheet from our storage company I’ve update availability on the Wine tab.  Usually I do a pretty good job keeping up on things but a few items did get away from me.  I thought we would have enough of the 2008 Special Reserve Cab to do a Library Release in the future but it looks like we will not after all.  The 2007 Eaglepoint Syrah also got lower faster than I was expecting and I’ve now listed that as sold out.

There are also new notes for two wines that will be released in the Spring and are now being offered to our Futures club.  There are also new notes for the 2006 Uvas Creek Cab which will be a Spring Library release.  For fans of our secret ‘Sessen’ wine, that too is now sold out.

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Harvest is Finally Done

We’ve had a couple of years where the last task of the year was on Thanksgiving weekend. Usually we had one small lot to get into barrel. This year our last task was yesterday. We had two lots to go into barrel which ended up being 40% of our 2011 production.

I’m actually really happy with the wine we’ve made so far. No problem lots like last years Pinot Noir and the Harvest Moon Cab, Peacock Cab Franc, Crimson Clover and Mourvedre lots I’m really liking so far.

Stefania and I have a lot of blogging and picture to catch up on. Now that we finally have some down time we’ll try and get those up over the next few weeks. Today we have a pig in the Caja China for Millie’s birthday and lots of great wine planned for tonight. It feels like an end of harvest party and I’m enjoying it!

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Amexicano

Mostly I was on a rant about Illegals vs. legals and what that means to farmers and then I switched gears and started thinking about other related issues that I’ve seen pop up in the media.

Kind of related to that, is the other day Paul and I watched Amexicano, it’s a quick movie but it touches on the very basic elements of what it’s like to hire an illegal day laborer, in this case a Mexican.

The timing for watching this movie is appropriate as we often hire extra laborers this time of year to help harvest the grapes, set up, tear down and clean all the equipment.  Many don’t speak English, all are hard working and all earn a decent wage for their days work.  I can’t imagine the nightmare of trying to track them all thru payroll, but that’s another rant.

New this fall, I’ve hired someone part time to help me in the office, the warehouse, the winery and vineyards as needed.  I doesn’t pay much, but it’s better than the bartending gig she had a chain restaurant nearby.

This all seems kind of random so I’ll try to pull it together next.

In my opinion, those who are most vocal about opposing the hiring of illegal workers have no idea of the following concept:  The pay rate for manual labor is not based on your abilities or skill level.

You might think you are worth $25/hour because you have earned that much before in another job, but picking grapes (or cotton, or strawberries or zucchinis) is minimum wage.  Why are farmers having a hard time hiring white, legal, american citizens?  Arrogance Meets Lazy.  Even at higher than minimum wage, legals are walking off farming jobs faster than the industry can keep up with hiring them.

Great, you went to high school and/or college – I don’t need you to be smart in the field, I need you to do manual labor.  I’m not paying for smart, I’m paying for labor.  The pay is based on the job, not on your skillset or abilities.  Why isn’t anyone else saying this outloud in the media?  Whos egos are we protecting? And why are we shying away from saying as much?

There are jobs where your skill set and education determines your pay, farming isn’t it.

Disclaimer; “white, legal, american citizens” is a catch-all and not meant to suggest those are the only people seeking out labor employment in the fields, I’m just rattling off at the mouth.

End Rant

 

Side Bar:  This is semi-inspired by all the folks who are angry about the illegals taking our jobs, you mean the job you won’t show up to work for more than 2 days in a row. Yeah, your voice counts.

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Our Mostly All Girl Crew!

We have a new employee on the Stefania Wine team.  Our friend Jaye is going to be working with us through the shipping season and harvest.  If she likes the work we’re hoping she will stay on and help out through next year as well.  That’s a picture of her in the garage making boxes as part of the shipping process.

When we talked last year about expanding to a location in San Jose and opening a tasting toom we knew we wanted Jaye to run the tasting room operation.   We still have that as part of our future plans, but it looks like it would be 2013 at the soonest.  So in the mean time she’ll be working in the less glamourous garage and home office with us.  That makes 5 employees on payroll.  (I’m unpaid help)

That actually got me pretty mad as I though about it.  I came up with a simple formula:

Solyndra + $575,000,000 in your tax money = ZERO JOBS

Stefania Wine + $0 in tax money = FIVE JOBS

Forward this to your congress critter 🙂  Anyway I’m not supposed to rant too much.  We’re really excited to have Jaye helping out.  She’ll learn a little winemaking this weekend and join Millie, Jerry, Stef, Ron, and I at the winery Monday for her first harvest day.

 

 

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Rain – Panic – Calm

It’s raining in Northern California.  You may have read newspaper articles about the rain or even seen the occasional TV report.  Those reports usually give an air of panic and desperation as wineries try and rush in grapes before they are ‘ruined’ by the rain.  Hooey!

We have a rain event every year.  Well almost every year.  In 2006 there was no October rain, otherwise it’s an annual thing.  We do try and bring in the thinned skinned grapes like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay before the rains come.  The thick skinned grapes like Mourvedre (in the picture) and Cabernet Sauvignon though will go just fine through the rain.

The key is to let the grapes dry out after the rain and before you pick them.  In the picture you can see Mourvedre in our front yard and there are little drops of water on the grapes.  Those little drops add up and can dilute the wine, lowering alcohol by as much as 2-3%.  That’s why it’s important to let the grapes get some sun and dry out.

We had been scheduled to pick the Haut Tubee vineyards tomorrow, including Red Hen, the Church, and Home vineyards but I just sent a message to Millie and we are postponing until Tuesday.  We’ll still go on with Crimson Clover on Sunday as we have 2 days of sun coming and that will be enough to dry out the grapes.

Then what’s next?  Do we panic and bring in all the Cabernet out there before it rains again?  No, we go to New Orleans for a week to avoid all the panic going on.  The Cabs will be ready after October 20th from our testing.  Some vineyards will actually be ready around the 31st.  That’s normal for us, the warm September helped get us back to normal, so it’s best to stay calm and wait it out.

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First Harvest of the Year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday morning we were out for our fist harvest of the year. I took the traditional photo of the time and temperature from the FJ Cruiser.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This next photo is also a traditional stop for us now.  Sam’s Donuts around the corner from our house.  We get a dozen donuts or so for the crew and volunteers.

The vineyard we harvested is new for us this year.  It’s the Brauns or Under a Lucky Star Vineyard.  There are 400 Pinot Noir plants above Los Altos in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived on site just as the sun was coming up and the crew had already started working.    In 2005 we tried harvesting earlier in a couple vineyards using lights.  This sounds really cool and is trendy, but I figured quickly it’s a complete waste of time.  The crew moves at about 50% of normal speed and you end up having to go back through anyway and get what you missed when the sun comes out.  All we really accomplished was sleep deprivation and a higher risk of injury so we don’t do that anymore.

We used the ‘A Team’ for this pick since it was out first time in the vineyard to harvest.  Jerry, Gil, Estella and Ysidro made up the professional crew and we had Wes, Ingrid, Joan and Ron come as volunteers.  Everyone picking was an experienced picker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picking went very quickly and we were done well before 9AM.  Total harvest was just about 900 pounds which is the most ever for this site we were told.  There had been animal and bird issues in the past.  We used a double netting system and sealed the net bottoms with chop sticks as we normally do.  This is different from most vineyards but we’ve learned this method is key for our suburban vineyards.

The fruit looked excellent and I took the picture below of the soil in the vineyard.  Stefania and I love this red volcanic dirt.  There’s a small band through out the Santa Cruz Mountains and grapes do very well on it.  The same band also cuts through Crimson Clover.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It took just about 25 minutes to get to the winery and then only about 10 minutes to process the fruit.  There was a little drama with the pump that I had to tend to and then the winemaking so I didn’t take any pictures of the actual crush.  Stefania took readings and the numbers were Brix 23.9, pH 3.7 and TA .61.  Really great for a first time in this vineyard.

The juice went into a single bin and will ferment on native yeast.  We used 1/3 whole clusters and I’ll only do two punch downs a day to avoid getting to much tannin extracted.  We’re really excited about this vineyard and wine.