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This morning after Paul left for work, I poured myself a cup of hot coffee grabbed a scone and headed out front to the mini vineyard.

It’s cold and cloudy today, overcast with a minimal chance for rain. Feels good, like being on the coast in late fall. The air is crisp and chilly.

While I sat there munching and sipping, the phoebe came by with her offspring to feed on bugs. Another little bird that I haven’t identified yet swooped in and pecked around the base of the vines. The mockingbird did a fly-by and a couple of doves padded around in the gutter.

The other day, two hummers came in and buzzed all around the clover that is blooming. The wires are a popular attraction for them to rest on before zipping all over. Normally they are feisty about who gets to feed where, but these two were on their best behavior and sharing the space.

Last weekend, Paul and I were at Chaine d’Or walking the rows looking for signs of gophers (a few), and to check on the two owl boxes for residents (none yet), and to turn on the drip irrigation system (needed minor repairs).

It was a gorgeous morning, light fog rolling over the mountain and low temperatures in the middle 70’s. While we walked the rows I suckered here and there as needed – it was our third pass through for suckering and there weren’t very many at all. It was tempting to tuck the stray shoots flopping in the center of the row, but the Chardonnay was still flowering in some sections and the Cabernet was just getting going, so that task will wait just awhile longer.

Chance of rain this week, but we’re not worried about shatter – it’s a minor “storm” passing through and doesn’t have any wind coming with it.

Today everyone got to head outside and enjoy the nice mild weather. Everyone but me. I was off to my day job for a series of morning meetings.

Stefania dropped me off at work, we only have one car, and headed up to Chaine d’Or. She continued the work on the drip system. Jerry joined her up there and their plan was to have all the drippers checked out and repaired today.

Rachel came by the house at 8AM to pick up her supplies for the day. She would be working on getting up deer repellent which meant I had to search around to find the staple guns and staples. We staple up the fabric softener/dryer sheets on the end posts of the vineyards. I also picked up some cotton face masks for her since the soap smell can get to be a little much when you do it all day.

This is a time of year when it seems like there are more tasks than time to do them. I know I just need to be patient though and everyone will get through all the things we have to do. For Rachel and Jerry it will be a good month, their paychecks will be full.

We had a few things to catch up on yesterday and hit the road by 8 AM. We started with a visit to Vista Verde to check and see how Rachel is doing with her work. She had also reported seeing a deer so we needed to check for damage and see if we could identify the deer’s feeding path.

First up though was to turn off the drip system. We’d had it on for the last couple of weeks to get 25 new replacement vines started off. The new vines need the watering to get going and established. Not a lot of water though, it was just 20 minutes on the dripper, two times per week.

We found the deer damage pretty fast. It looks like one deer, coming in through some hole in the fence and moving down the vineyard to the creek. I’ll have Jerry look for the hole and see if we can’t patch it. We’ll also put up deer repellent on Monday. I’ll use fabric softener/dryer sheets again. Rachel will staple them to the end posts of the vineyard and on the upper section of the fence where the deer is getting in.

The soap smell is so intense to deer that they will avoid the area. Basically deer are creatures of habit, they follow the same path and feeding routes. What we’ll try and do is make the vineyard smell so unpleasant to him that he modifies his path and moves through another yard. It shouldn’t actually be too hard with the number of other feeding possibilities he has in the neighborhood.

Then we were on to Chaine d’Or. I’m planning on turning on the drip system here also. Problem is it hasn’t been on in a couple of years so it will need some work to unclog hoses, fix leaks, and repair broken drippers. My plan is to turn it on for a long soak. A single run of 4-5 hours which will mimic a summer rainstorm. Since it’s our second year of low rain, I’m figuring the plants will need the extra water. If we need to we will repeat the process again later in the summer.

This was the vineyard as we arrived. It’s one reason this vineyard is so great. The sun is already shinning on the vines, but you can see the fog in the background, keeping the area cool and preserving the acidity in the grapes.

We had Rachel cleaning the filters through out the system, which means a lot of time sitting on the ground. Stef and I tended to gopher trapping. It was just a couple of hours of work. Stef will return on Monday to patch broken spots in the system. As we walked the vineyard she made a list of the repair parts we’ll need to buy today.

By Noon the vineyard was in bright sun, but the fog still hung around the edges.

This also gives us a super long growing season. Grapes need 100 days from flowering until harvest. Normally after 100 days the sugar gets so high that waiting longer than that will drastically increase the alcohol in the finished wine, and drop the acidity. That can make the wine flabby and ‘hot’. Here we’ll hit the 100 day mark around September 20th, but we won’t actually harvest until the last week of October. That gives us almost 40 additional days. The fog will keep the vineyard cool though and both alcohol and acidity will remain solid as the flavors in the grapes keep developing.

We wrapped up the day topping barrels in the winery and checking on the progress of our 2008’s. It was a good chance for Rachel to taste the effect her work will have on the finished wine. We headed home pretty early at 2PM to have some friends over for dinner.

I’ve gotten pretty good at the Ranch 99 routine since I first wrote about it. Stefania asked me last night; “Do they recognize you yet?”. I said: ‘no’, but had to rethink that. True – I’m only in once or twice a week, but generally I’ve been the only 6’4″ white dude holding up a whole fish. Probably at least a little memorable on the staffs part.

Yesterday I selected two really nice Sea Bream’s. Stef had a special request “I want my own fish tonight.” So I picked up two and had them scaled and cleaned, but left the heads and tails.

It was a really simple preparation. I stuffed the fish with some fresh ginger and herbs de Provence from our garden. We planted the herbs because they grow so well here and go so well with our wines. Then it was just 7-8 minutes on each side on a hot grill.

Stef made the same spinach salad we had served this past weekend, and I rounded things out with some corn on the cob, and a stir fry of zucchini, sweet onion, and some snap peas from my mom’s garden.

We opened a 2004 Windy Oaks Chardonnay to start. This was full throttle and oaky, with honey, wax, and nut notes. We then went on to a 2006 Sea Smoke Ten. It had a nice core of red fruit and spicy notes, but wasn’t as extracted and ‘thick’ as past Ten’s have been.

We lingered in the backyard for a long time, finally heading in after sun set about 9PM. I really great night at home.

A key to making good kabobs is to precook those ingredients that take longer on the grill so that they finish at the same time as any veggies you add. If not, you’ll end up with underdone meat or overdone veggies. For the kabobs last weekend I used bison rib eye, about 6 oz per kabob. Yellow and Green Bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, fresh mushrooms and Vidalia sweet onions. I pre-cooked the onions and bison.

I did two dipping sauces.

To pair with our 2006 Uvas Creek Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon:

Cherry Dipping Sauce

1 Cup chopped fresh Bing cherries.
6 oz Cherry preserves
2 Tbsp BBQ sauce
2 cups red wine (I used our 2006 Haut Tubee)
3 pinches salt
1 pinch pepper

Combine all ingredients in a saute pan and heat to a burble, stir and reduce @ 10-15 minutes.

To pair with our 2006 Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet Sauvignon

Mint Dipping Sauce:

1/4 Cup chopped fresh mint.
6 oz mint jelly
6 oz basil jelly
2 Tbsp BBQ sauce
2 cups red wine (I used our 2006 Haut Tubee)
3 pinches salt
1 pinch pepper

Combine all ingredients in a saute pan and heat to a burble, stir and reduce @ 10-15 minutes.

A note on the preserves and jelly. I used home made preserves from our friend Wes when possible. Home made are usually lower in pectin and have cane sugar vs corn syrup. I know basil jelly may be hard to find, but any basil based preserve would due, otherwise double the amount of mint jelly.

iPhun…as in, we’re having too much fun with iPhone and iPod. I’ve never been one to promote anything technological or even care, but Steve Jobs is a genius.

It’s quite possible that I use nearly every single function daily. The calendar and alerts, the timer, the notepad, the camera, web browser, email, phone, text, music, calculator (which I love, nice big numerical display!), and a selection of add-ons.

The biggest problem with this new gadget is…nothing. I have no problem ignoring people (phone, email, text), but I’m finding that when it’s plugged in and playing music, I’ll stop to pick it up when the phone rings — because I’m alerted to the fact that it’s ringing because the music stops. Go figure.

Great tool, great toy, and I’m not stuck indoors at a desk for work. It’s perfect for days when I’m mobile at a vineyard or the winery and still need to check in and track the office work.

Ok, off my soapbox and prepping the email list for Paul to send out reminders that we’re going to open the winery on the 13th for a few hours to overlap with Santa Cruz Mountains Vintners Festival.

Great weekend. The Friends of the Winemakers (FOW) came for dinner Saturday & Sunday night. We had a full house both nights and really had a blast cooking and serving. A HUGE thank you to our helpers, Kathy and Millie, could not have done this without them.

The menu, recipes, and links to the bison sources are below.

Spinach Salad with candied walnuts, feta cheese, raspberries and strawberries. The dressing was a basic Honey Mustard from the market that I thinned (a lot) with fat free milk (A LOT to make it less viscous).

Mushroom Soup:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cream-of-Mushroom-Soup-II/Detail.aspx

I omitted the flour and cream and served slices of Manchego Cheese with edible pansy garnishes.

Bison Kabobs:
Bison source: http://www.blackwing.com/ & http://www.bisonfarm.com/

For this dinner we used Blackwing, but have also sourced Bison from the other farm.
Paul will have to post his cherry dipping sauce and mint jelly dipping sauce, I don’t know how he made those. Rumor is that they paired perfectly with the Uvas Creek Cab and the Santa Cruz Mtns Cab.

The side dish was Truffled Mac and Cheese and the recipe is below along with the link to the source I pulled it from. I’ve been making this “adult” version for a couple of years now and haven’t made any adjustments to it at all.

http://www.whatwereeating.com/recipes/orgasmic-mac-n-cheese/

A Mac ‘n’ Cheese Recipe, by Amanda
Wild Mushroom Macaroni and Three Cheeses with Truffle Oil

1 1/2 cups sliced crimini mushrooms
1 1/2 cups sliced shitake mushrooms
2 tbsp oil or bacon fat (I usually use bacon, but omitted it for our vegetarian guest)
1 1/2 tbsp sherry vinegar
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
3 cup whole milk, warmed
4 oz herb chevre, crumbled
4 oz sharp cheddar, shredded
4 oz parmigiano reggiano, separated in 2 2oz piles
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
2 tsp fresh rosemary, minced
1 tsp fresh sage, minced
2-3 tbsp white truffle oil, depending on how strong you like it (I use ~1Tbsp, otherwise it’s too potent)
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 cup panko
10 oz elbow pasta
kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place a large pot of water over high heat and cover. Place a large saute pan with 2 tbsp oil or lard over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the mushrooms to the pan and saute for 7-10 minutes or until the mushrooms are fully cooked and slightly caramelized. Toss or stir occasionally. Season with a pinch of kosher salt and black pepper then deglaze the pan with sherry vinegar. Allow all of the vinegar to cook out, then remove the mushrooms from the pan and set aside.
Begin the cheese sauce. Add 4 tbsp butter to a medium-sized sauce pan and place the pan on the stove over medium heat. Once all the butter is melted and hot, whisk in 4 tbsp flour. Cook the flour, whisking, for about 30 seconds , just long enough to get rid of the raw flour taste, but not long enough for the flour to start caramelizing. Add the thyme, rosemary, sage, and red pepper flakes. Continue stirring and allow the herbs to saute for about another 30 seconds. Slowly pour in the milk while whisking continuously, so the roux and milk incorporate smoothly and there are no lumps. Allow the bechamel to come to a simmer (it won’t gain it’s full thickness until it does), stirring occasionally.
While waiting for the sauce to come to a simmer start the pasta. Liberally salt the pot of boiling water, almost to the point it tastes like sea water. This may take a few handfuls of salt . Add the pasta to the water and cook the pasta for a minute or two less than the suggested time on the box.
Once the bechamel has reached a simmer, stir in the chevre, cheddar, 2oz of parmigiano, and truffle oil until all the cheese has melted. Turn off the heat and and taste the sauce for seasoning levels. Season with salt and pepper as necessary. In small mixing bowl, mix together the panko and remaining 2oz of parmigiano reggiano.
Strain the pasta immediately once finished cooking. In a mixing bowl, toss the pasta, cheese sauce, and mushrooms together. Pour the macaroni and cheese into a deep glass or ceramic loaf pan and sprinkle the panko/parmigiano mixture evenly across the top. Bake the mac-n-cheese in the upper part of the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes or until the topping is golden and the cheese sauce is bubbly. Serve hot. Enjoy!
*if you’re lucky enough to have a real truffle, feel free to substitute shaved truffle for the truffle oil!

Cheers, Stefania

PS!! Thank you much to our friends from Boston that brought us gifts. Paul got a Bruins hat and I scored a pound bag of Lobster Gummi candies (that I’m taking to Ambers house for our next movie night, she’s the queen of all candies Gummi).

Yesterday we hosted the first night of back to back nights for Friends of the Winemakers. It’s a four course dinner paired with our wines.

Stef and I started about 9AM yesterday with trips to a couple markets to get all the ingredients together. We started prepping about noon. It was pretty much 10 hours on our feet non stop. I did the main course of Bison Rib Eye Kabobs with two dipping sauces, and Stefania did a spinach and berry salad and fresh mushroom soup.

I also showed off our mini vineyard and answered questions about it.

This morning we’re recovering in bed still, reading the paper and enjoying some coffee. We’ll have to head out to the market soon to restock the fresh goods. I had had some vineyard work planned for tomorrow, but there’s a good chance we’ll be in recovery mode still, including doing dishes.

I’ll try and take some pictures tonight as we do round two.

Jazzi Gurr, our part time pet while her owners were off on vacation. I called her “Little Mutt” the whole time the day she was in the winery with us.

The dining room in preparation for the Friends of the Winemakers dinner this weekend. As I was setting up I realized how much fun we have doing these dinners at the house. It’s really the core reason behind starting the winery; friends, family, food, wine. We’ll seat 16 for dinner Saturday and Sunday night and have a blast cooking and serving them.

Each Spring I fill up these containers with herbs and then transplant the survivors to a permanent location. I have plenty of rosemary around the yard and oregano up the wazzoo, so this years selection was more lemon thyme, english thyme, and chives.

And last but not least, the front mini-vineyard. I was going to wait until tomorrow to take the picture, (after I rake up the magnolia leaves), but Paul said to go ahead and do it now. The little vines are cruising and the crimson clover-wildflower mix is taking off and getting ready for a bloom explosion. I’ve spotted lupine, poppy, and cosmos so far that are either blooming or getting ready to.

We had one bottle that some how made it through bottling without getting a label and it’s been sitting on our cellar floor. We decided to open it up and try a quick meal. I’ll call it ‘May Pasta’

I used Fettuccine because that’s the box that was already open
Artichoke Hearts (about8)
Garbanzo Beans (1/2 cup)
Chopped sun dried tomatoes (about 1/3 cup)
Herbs d’ Provence, Salt Pepper
Olive Oil

Boil the noodles, drain and set aside. Add the Artichoke hearts, beans and tomatoes with a little olive oil to a warm pan. stir in the pasta, herbs salt and pepper.

Good, fast (20 minutes) and delicious. The floral lavender and bitey tomatoes went perfect with our 2006 Syrah Eaglepoint Ranch.