2009 Ends...

It's been a challenging year.

In the vineyard, things went very well. Budburst was late, and the season remained late to the end. Spring was mild, unlike in 2008. Frost events were not excessive. There were no significant heat spikes, but the weather was warm in the late summer. There was a bit of unusually early rain, but with luck and a bit of diligence, the grapes made it through just fine. The vineyard yields were right where we wanted them. Bird pressure was not bad. The 2009 wines are tasting very good.

I began working with a new custom-crush facility, and in a joint venture with them, began my first foray into white wine with a Carneros Chardonnay grown by my friend and fellow meditator, Paul Larson. The vineyard is just east of Schellville at the southern end of Sonoma Valley, where the valley opens up to the grasslands abutting San Pablo Bay. We are working to produce a delicate wine that retains the fruit characteristics of Chardonnay with just a light touch of the smooth complexity that is usually "over the top" in a butter & oak bomb. Just 20% of it is being barrel-fermented and going through complete malolactic fermentation, and the remaining 80% is in stainless steel tanks. These constituents will be blended to make our finished wine.
It is tasting fantastic now, as we stir the lees in the barrels. I am very excited about the progress of this delicious wine.

The Pinot and Syrah hit their numbers perfectly. We picked the Pinot on October 30th & 31st - a Halloween wine! The Syrah came off the vine on November 11th. Both wines are now aging, and will remain so for all of 2010. Flavors and colors are deep! I'll taste and report as the year progresses.

In the vineyard and in the winery, things are looking and tasting great!

So what's the challenge? The wine market. These wines are expensive to produce, and large segments of the buying public have traded down to price points that don't support this level of viticulture and winemaking. I'm hopeful that the improving economy will encourage more wine aficionados to return to the wines that exhibit the passion and terroir that come with small batch, hands-on methods.

Lift your glass (filled with Clary Ranch wine, of course!) in a toast:
May the Coming Year be Filled with Joy, Health & Prosperity for All!

Happy New Year!
-Paul

Steel Drum Memories

After a week on Antigua, I spent a week on Sint Maarten. The two islands are very different! On Antigua, we were right on a splendid beach, with jungle transitioning to sand transitioning to azure seas. On St. Maarten, we were in 4-star accommodations overlooking Simpson Bay, with a "Las Vegas"-style skyline on the far shore. Antigua, the more primitive of the two, is more expensive; St. Maarten is cheaper than the U.S. for many things!

At retail, wines from California were overpriced in general (K-J California Pinot: $40), and French wines were less expensive. BUT... on a restaurant wine list, I was able to find a Pinot scoring 90 pts (WS) from Oregon for under $140, while those comparably scored from France were $395 to $2830. California Pinots scoring 85 to 87 were priced at $50-$80. The French bottle for $2830 was Chateau Petrus, which scored 90 pts. Just goes to show what a name can command!

We took a day trip from St. Maarten to the island of Saba (pronounced: Say-ba). Saba is a 5-square-mile volcanic rock: no beaches, just cliffs plunging into the sea. In the middle of Saba, which is inhabited by a mere 1400 people, is a Medical School - the main economic engine of the island. Surrounding the island to a depth of 200 feet is a marine preserve. Below the water's surface lie some of the world's most beautiful, pristine coral reefs. Diving with "Saba Deep", we encountered a profusion of colorful sponges, coral, fish, eels, lobsters, molluscs, turtles... Truly a spectacular dive destination! After our second dive, we rushed back to the harbor to catch the waiting afternoon ferry, knowing that we would someday return.

I got back to rainy California this past Saturday, arriving at my home around midnight. On the drive home, as I passed the Loomis house, the light was on at the barn, indicating that the bar was open. After unloading my luggage at home, I returned to the barn, where a party was in full swing. They were celebrating the graduation of a law enforcement class including Park Rangers, Coast Guard, FBI and Police. I discreetly savored a Cuban cigar and a single malt Scotch while thinking back fondly on my Caribbean travels.

I wonder where I'll be next year after crush...

Post-Crush Excursion

When the Harvest is done, and the Wine is finished fermenting and put to bed for the winter, I like to get far away from the vineyard.

This year, I'm in the Caribbean, writing this from Dickinson's Bay on Antigua. I've done some scuba diving, and I've been sampling the local rum. Last night, I had dinner at a restaurant over the water. The wine list showed about 8 reds, one from Lodi & the rest from Europe, Argentina and Australia. I ordered a Montipulciano, and as a backup, a Bordeaux. Turns out that they only had three wines on the list... the Lodi Cab, an Australian Shiraz and an Argentinian Pinot.

I went with the Australian Shiraz, which turned out to be a Shiraz-Cab blend. We are spoiled in California for wines, but the weather is definitely so much nicer here right now!

Going to English Harbor tomorrow, where we'll see an 18th-century dockyard once home to the future Admiral Horatio Nelson. The rum is good, and the ocean is warm!

Pressing the Pinot

Fermentation of the Pinot is very near completion. We're going to press slightly sweet and allow the fementation to finish in settling tanks. We pump off the free run Pinot Noir into the tanks.

Next comes the arduous task of shoveling the pomace into two water-pressure bladder presses. When the presses are filled, the lids are clamped down and the water is turned on, filling the bladders and compacting the pomace.

The wine runs out into collection buckets, and is pumped into the settling tanks. At first, the wine is purple with sediment, but as the press run nears completion the color changes to a redder hue. The press wine is slightly sweet and very delicious. The water presses don't get as high of a pressure as other presses, insuring a gentle squeezing of the pomace and avoiding the bitterness that can result from rougher handling.

The wine will sit in the tanks for a few days, then we'll rack to maturation tanks. The maturation tanks are made of oxygen-permeable HDPE and take on oxygen at a rate very similar to that of a two-year-old oak barrel. I have been very pleased with the results from these tanks in previous vintages. With a high-quality French Oak barrel costing near $1000 these days, and with consumers trading down in price points, a lot of vintners I know are looking more and more at ways of keeping costs of production under control, while keeping wine quality high. These tanks, while not traditional, are nonetheless a good addition to our array of winemaking tools.

The Syrah is cranking up. We inoculate with malolactic bacteria (var. "Alpha") today.

Harvesting Syrah, Part Two

With more rains in the forecast, I decided to harvest the last of the Syrah on the morning of November 9th. We harvested about 4-1/2 tons by noon. The fruit looked and tasted fantastic. It was the end of our longest year.

At the winery, I broke out a sixer of Spaten Octoberfestbier. It takes a lot of good beer to make good wine. We weighed the grapes and set them aside to crush in the morning.

Jared called me on the 10th; the grapes came in at 23.8 degrees Brix! (One week earlier, the sugar readings were two points lower.) There was one row where we left 30-40% more grapes hanging, in order to check out the effect of less-aggressive cluster thinning. There was no difference in sugar content. We're fermenting that batch separately, so we'll do taste comparisons to get a subjective reading on phenolic development. When all is said and done, we'll have learned something useful about crop load on the Syrah.

The Syrah is fermenting away and the Pinot is almost ready to press...

Harvesting Syrah, Part One

Duncan Meyers, the winemaker for Arnot-Roberts, called for picking on Wednesday, November 4th. We began picking in the morning, harvesting about 1-1/2 tons, and finished by 11 am. The sugar was at about 21.8 degrees Brix. I decided to take further advantage of the beautiful weather that we had been having, leaving my allotment to hang awhile longer.

The next day, light rains began. I was concerned for the grapes, but then, Syrah is a thick-skinned varietal, and the bunches are looser than Pinot Noir, so I felt optimistic that we'd be okay. The birds seemed to be content to browse in the already-picked Pinot blocks, and I held my breath and crossed my fingers...

The next few days, we had more warm weather.

Harvesting Pinot

Elizabeth and I drove back from San Diego, leaving at 11pm, arriving in Santa Rosa at about 7 in the morning. We were just in time to give Elizabeth's daughter, Laura, her Halloween costume to wear at school.

Elizabeth received her Open Water Diver certification on the trip. USA Oceanside, the dive center where she studied, was great. They also specialize in training disabled divers, so we'll likely go back again if Laura wants to try diving. Two of my kids, Patrick and Liana, are certified divers. Olivia and Christopher aren't so sure about taking the plunge!

Anyway, I finally got back to the ranch at about 9 am, and laid down for an hour-long nap, and was up after that to prepare for the evening's harvest. We started after dark, at about 8 pm. On Halloween morning, we had about 13 tons of Pinot ready to deliver to the wineries. At 8 pm on Halloween, we began harvesting again, and on the morning of El Dia de los Muertos, we had another 10 tons ready, signaling the end of 2009's Pinot Noir harvest. This was the latest harvest ever for Clary Ranch Pinot, and was the culmination of a near-perfect season. The October rains were a challenge, but the grapes came through beautifully.

Mid September to Late November

Jared called for harvest on Wednesday, the 28th of October. I should remember that I cannot make any plans from the middle of September until late November... I should remember. Note to self: Don't make any plans from the middle of September until late November!

Well, the Pinot Noir harvest was certainly going to be done by now! I was certain of it! We were going to be in the middle of the lull between the Pinot and the Syrah. With my plans to head out to the Caribbean with Elizabeth and friends after Thanksgiving, it's the perfect time to take a quick jaunt to San Diego in order to get Elizabeth's scuba certification! We'll leave on the 27th, drive down to stay with my friend, Rob, in Oceanside. Rob has recommended a dive instructor, and the water is warmer down there. Elizabeth has arranged to have her Mom stay with Laura, Elizabeth's daughter. We'll drive back up on Friday, the 30th...

I told Jared that we'll pick Friday night. He's okay with that.

Whew!

The Green

Jared Souza and Matt Trulli, the two principals of MJ Lords Wine Cellars, are concerned about the Pinot. They've contracted to buy seven tons, and are having second thoughts.

Out here in the Petaluma Gap, there is a green bloom that appears on the ripening grapes. I saw it first many years ago, and was likewise concerned. I brought in a pest control advisor to assess the growth that was apparent. It looked like pennicillin, but what do I know? Rot? Is there something that I can spray? My advisor told me that it was benign; he said not to worry. So I didn't. I've made my wines every year with "the green".

Duncan Meyers, of Arnot-Roberts, buys a portion of the Syrah, and has joked with me about the Petaluma Gap Green. I have no qualms about the fruit and know that it will make delicious wine.
As I think back, I am reminded of the 2007 harvest, when I had contracted to supply fruit to Scott Rich, of Talisman Cellars. I set aside some of my best fruit for him, reserving as much as I reasonably could for myself. My own portion has made some of my most delicious wines ever. Early on, I was very pleased with the results, and I called to check on how Scott was doing with the fermentation. He told me that it was the worst fruit that he had purchased, and that he did not want to pay full price! Such a vast discrepancy in our assessments has mystified me until this year.

Jared and Matt don't have the benefit of my experience with "the green", and are understandably terrified. They've tasted the wines and they see the grapes, and there's a disconnect. The wines are beautiful and the grapes aren't. They've worked out a deal with Drew to take the grapes and make the wine, but if a problem develops, the wine is Drew's - they will not buy it. At least I know that we'll be picking the grapes one way or the other. I think they'll be pleasantly surprised.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back!

When I checked the sugar on the Pinot two weeks ago, we were sitting at 21-22 degrees Brix. I'd like to harvest at 22.5-24. Since checking, the weather has been on the cool side, and last Tuesday we had some unseaonably torrential rains. We sprayed a preventive application of a fungicide to protect the grapes from rot in advance of the storm...

I did a small sampling yesterday, and the sugar was a half-degree LOWER!! I figure that the rains caused the grapes to absorb water, reducing the sugar concentration. I was hoping to harvest early this week, but you know the saying: "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." (Actually, the saying is adapted from a line in “To a Mouse,” by Robert Burns: “The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley.”)

This morning, Matt Trulli, with MJ Lords Wine Cellars (where I'm doing my custom crush), came by to do a more comprehensive sampling. We'll run more thorough tests, including Brix, pH and Titratable Acidity (T.A.). MJ Lords is buying seven tons of the Pinot, and I'm hanging on to ten tons. I hope that their numbers are more accurate on the upside, of course.

We've got a forecast of a seventy percent chance of rain tomorrow, then sunny weather after that. Come on heatwave!! The Syrah is looking very iffy on getting ripe enough this year, and is currently sitting well under 20 degrees Brix. Thanksgiving Harvest, anyone? Ay Ay Ay!!!

In a little while, I'll head off to pick up Cathy, Patrick and Christopher, and we'll attend an Eagle Court of Honor with our Boy Scout Troop. I've got the kids with me for the upcoming week, starting tonight. Gotta get the house clean NOW.

Fermentations!

We've started the fermentation on the Chardonnay!

We racked off juice into 6 barrels: 4 neutral whites and 2 nearly new Ramonds, whose wood came from the Allier forest in France. This amount of juice represents about 20% of the total, and will go through malolactic (ML) fermentation before being blended back in with the rest of the Chardonnay, which will be cold-fermented in stainless steel. This amount of ML will contribute to the mouthfeel, as will the small amount of oak. Still, the wine should retain a crispness and good acidity to complement the tropical character of the grapes.

We did the racking and the inoculation on Friday. Kristin came with me to the winery and shot some footage. This is all new for her, and it's great to have her enthusiasm around!

Meanwhile, on the home front, it's quickly getting to be time to file my 2008 taxes! Yay!

Crush 2009 Begins

We harvested our Carneros Chardonnay early Tuesday morning. The pickers arrived before dawn, and began the harvest as the sky began to glow. Moving quickly, they sliced the bunches and dropped them into picking lugs.

Picking is hard work compressed into long days. From my own experience, the opportunities for repetitive motion stress injury are plentiful. These guys pick for the big operations at first morning light, and often will do another night shift for us little guys, sleeping in the day if they can. Everybody wants the fruit to come in cold.

By 11AM, the picking was done and the grapes were loaded in 1/2-ton macrobins onto the back of a large flatbed truck. We took delivery of the grapes at Balletto Winery in Sebastopol right at noon. I pulled into the winery just behind the truck. The bins were offloaded and weighed. Our expected 10 tons became 11... the bins were all quite heavy.

Two bladder presses were loaded with whole clusters, and as the sweet nectar gushed, it was pumped directly into a waiting tanker. After several hours on the pad, we had about 1750 gallons of pressed Chardonnay juice ready for transport. From Balletto, the juice was delivered to MJ Lords Wine Cellars, where I'm making my wine this year. We pumped the juice into two stainless-steel tanks to settle for a couple of days. We'll rack the juice and pitch the yeast later today.

This Chardonnay will be about 20% barrel fermented and will undergo a partial malolactic fermentation. I'm looking to preserve the delicious fruit character at lower alcohol levels (12-12.5% vs. 14+) and to avoid the "butter and wood bomb". This juice will make lovely wine!

The Calm Before the Crush

I went out today to Paul Larson's chardonnay vineyard at the end of Burndale Road in Carneros. The road crosses the railroad tracks and ends at a gate that marks the entrance to a gun club. I didn't need the key that Paul had given me, as the gate was open. I drove on through the club and came to the first of two gates that allow passage through a bull pasture. "Keep Gate Closed", said the cardboard signs on the gates. Indeed. No need to have all of that cattle testosterone running amuck.

Paul told me on Saturday that his sampling had come in at 22.2 degrees Brix. A week earlier, it had been at 20.6 degrees. From his experience, the vineyard usually moved one point per week, so the results might have been skewed by sampling error.

I walked up and down the rows, cutting whole clusters and placing them into a cooler that I had brought along. I alternated taking clusters from the north and south sides of the rows, ending up with about twenty clusters. Paul did his sampling in the form of individual berries - about 200 of 'em. I like to take whole clusters; that way, I'm getting results that represent the grapes on the interior of the cluster as well as those that are accessible on the exterior.

With my little cooler full, I made my way back to the truck. I drove back the way I had come, making sure that the gates were closed behind me. As I approached Highway 121, I stopped at Homewood Winery. Paul had told me that Dave Homewood had purchased fruit from him in the past, and I took it upon myself to drop in for a chat if he happened to be there. He was working on the crushpad while an entourage from a tour van was entering the tasting room.

We talked briefly about the fruit and about the yeasts that he liked to use. "For many years, I really liked Wadenswil, but then they stopped producing it", he offered,"so last year, I went with QA23. They both really bring out the aromatics of the fruit." Just then, the tour driver interrupted to ask if Dave could come to the tasting room to chat with his passengers. "Sorry I can't talk more...", he started. "No problem! In this economy we're fortunate to have such interruptions", I replied, "Was that QA24?" "Question and Answer Twenty Three!" he hollered cheerfully as he turned the corner toward the tasting room. Got it.

I took my grape sample directly to the winery, waited 'til Jared, the house winemaker, returned from lunch, and handed off the clusters to him for testing. Before I left, I took one cluster in hand and squeezed the juice into a bucket. I dunked my refractometer into the sweet liquid. Holding the refractometer up, I peered into the eyepiece. 22.7, it read. I tipped the bucket and poured the juice into my mouth, straining out the seeds with my teeth. It was bursting with cool, refreshing flavors of peach, pineapple and mango!

Later this evening, I spoke with Jared. The readings: pH was 3.23, Titratable Acidity was 8.1, and Brix was 22.8. The grapes are ready as soon as we can get pickers, which will be Tuesday, according to Paul.

I'm excited about the prospects for these grapes. I've got to Google "Wadenswil".

Winemaker Dinner

Friday, Sept. 18...
There were 18 of us gathered at Central Market at 6 PM. We sat down to a four-course meal prepared for us by Tony Najiola, chef & owner. The menu varied slightly from what I posted earlier... First came Slow Cooked King Salmon with Italian Butter Beans and a pinot-marrow jus, paired with both the 2004 and 2006 Clary Ranch Pinot Noirs. The 2004 is my big "cocktail" Pinot, with a full body that would satisfy a Cab lover. The 2006 came out in more of a classic Burgundian style, lighter and more delicate. The salmon was done perfectly tender with a spice rub - Delicious!

Next came Pan Roasted Liberty Duck Breast with a fennel-potato gratin and green peppercorns. This was, without a doubt, the best duck I have ever had! It was paired with the 2004 and 2006 Clary Ranch Syrahs. I've always loved my Syrahs with a steak or with lamb. This pairing was a winning surprise. The duck was done medium rare and was reminiscent of a marinated slow cooked pork tenderloin. Yowza!

The third course was a palate-cleansing savory seeded gougere (a cheese puff) over a bed of local greens... which was followed by the piece de resistance:

a Warm Gravenstein Apple Galette with Prune Ice Cream paired with Vin de Noix. There were flavors exploding in my mouth; flavors that seemed to come out of nowhere - the product of whatever chemistry resulted from the unique combination of the Galette and the Vin de Noix. I had to go back and taste the individual components to see where the flavors were coming from, and THEY WEREN'T THERE! It was only in combination that the most complex flavors were revealed. WOW!

After dinner, we walked along the river over to Graffiti for a cocktail and more lively conversation. Graffiti was the first restaurant to carry my wine, and will always hold a special place in my heart. The setting is beautiful, overlooking the Petaluma River turning basin. All in all, it was a wonderful evening with good fellowship, great food, and some wonderful wines (if I do say so myself).

News Flash! Chardonnay for 2009!

This morning, I went out to a friend's vineyard in the Carneros, where he is growing the Wente clone of Chardonnay. The vineyard is on very shallow soils, and is at the southern edge of the grapegrowing area of Sonoma Carneros. I'm going to do a joint venture with MJ Lords, who are handling my custom crush this year, on ten tons of these grapes, which will net Clary Ranch Wines about 250-300 cases of Chardonnay. We are intending to press the juice at Baletto Winery, then truck it to MJ Lords, where we'll cold-ferment in stainless, with maybe a small fraction in barrels. We're not looking to produce a butter-bomb, so we'll halt malolactic fermentation early on with Lysozyme and sulfites. I intend to use a very light touch when it comes to oak, so I'll bottle much earlier than I do my reds.

The Chardonnay grapes are at about 21 degrees Brix, and we'll harvest soon. I'll be happy with 22-22.5, and that should be in about a week-and-a-half.

Crush is imminent!

Tastings and Dinner

I poured tastes of my '06 Pinot and my '04 Syrah last night at Central Market Restaurant in Petaluma. Central Market carries my Pinot already, but I brought along an extra bottle of the Syrah for them to offer by the glass. The Syrah sold out before the Pinot! It was great to be able to connect with new people and to have them taste their "homegrown" wines. Sadly, most Petalumans have no idea that THIS IS wine country, where we are producing world-class wines!

On Friday, September 18th, we're going to have our first Winemaker Dinner, also at Central Market. Our first course will be a Slow Cooked Salmon, with butter beans and a Pinot Noir jus. That will be paired with both the '04 and the '06 Pinot. The second course will be Saba-glazed Roast Duck Breast with cioppolini onions, to be paired with the '04 and the '06 Syrah. After a third course of Local Greens, we'll finish off with an Apple-Walnut Cake paired with our not-yet-released Vin de Noix. We'll be pouring a previous vintage that will give our guests an idea of what's to come. We still need to bottle and age this year's Vin de Noix. More on that later...

Cluster thinning

Now that we're almost through veraison, It's time to remove those clusters that haven't turned completely black. We're having some trouble finding laborers to do the work, since other parts of wine country are in the thick of harvest. I'm reluctant to just hire guys off the street, because of the decision of which clusters to remove. I'd rather have workers who are familiar with the work when the quality and quantity of the final product is dependent upon the choices that they make. But timing is important: the less-ripe clusters will be impossible to distinguish from those that are good when the color is more uniform.
I may be forced to hire workers off the street, and do their training on the job. Yikes!

Tastings

I enjoyed a visit yesterday from Tim and Sue Decker, from Minnesota. They're out here celebrating their twentieth wedding anniversary, so a hearty "Congratulations!" is due. We walked out into the vineyard while we enjoyed a glass of 2006 Clary Ranch Pinot Noir.

Out among the vines, at the top of "block 6", the view of the Petaluma Gap is an easy demonstration of what makes this place special in terms of climate and terroir. The other part of the demonstration, of course, is what's in the glass.

Tomorrow, we'll be pouring at a benefit concert just a few miles away, at Kamal & Pari Azari's home and winery on Spring Hill Road. Cinnabar Theater, for whom the benefit is being held, is a non-profit organization. California Law allows small wine brands such as Clary Ranch to pour tastings for non-profits, a critical aspect to staying in business in these trying times. The more we can put ourselves out in front of the wine-buying public, the better.

There are five tasting tickets to be included with admission. When we started the planning for the event, I had intended to pour two library wines: my 2004 Pinot and 2004 Syrah. Teela and Mike Ridgeway of Ridgeway Cellars will be pouring their 2006 Pinot. We had no other wineries stepping up to pour! So I offered to pour two additional wines: my 2006 Pinot and 2006 Syrah. Looks like 4 of the 5 tastes will be Clary Ranch.

I'll follow up with a report...

Squawking And Rehab

The birds are upset. VERY upset. It sounds like they're being attacked. The starlings screetch and the finches cry in alarm. The call of a sharp-shinned hawk rings out!

Then silence.

Suddenly, the commotion repeats! What is happening to those birds?!

It is the time of year that we start up BirdGard, an electronic audio system that plays digital recordings of pest species' distress calls and predator calls. As the grapes ripen, these sounds have demonstrated a repellent effect on the flocks of birds who can otherwise strip a vineyard in a matter of days. Right now, the grapes are completing veraison, and we'll soon go through to do our cluster thinning. When that is done, we'll begin netting for the final push to harvest.

My orthopedist, Dr. Mark Northfield (who I've known since 4th grade) told me to start pushing my hand to regain it's former range of motion. The swelling is slowly diminishing: I can see knuckles on my left hand again. Can't quite make a fist, but I'm working on it. I played guitar a couple of times this week. It will be a little while before I'll be able to play the old riffs without pain.

Meditation helps to heal the emotional disruption. Motrin and warm water work on the physical.

Baa-a-ad News!

I'm pecking this out on Sunday.
Last Tuesday was a doozy...

I was returning from a good tasting event at La Dolce Vita Wine Lounge. I picked up my two oldest, Liana and Patrick. As we drove toward the Ranch we talked about the possibilities of a family dive vacation. We drove on down the driveway, having a constructive conversation, a rare & precious thing between Liana & Patrick especially.
We approached John and Helen's house, and Greta jumped up from her "spot" outside their side gate.

Greta was getting a lot slower on these nightly trips back down the driveway.
I didn't want to wait for her, so I stopped and sent Patrick and Liana to put her in the truck. Greta ran alongside past the truck, and I, thinking she was off to the side, sped the truck forward. There was a sickening bump at the rear wheels. I had driven over her! She was howling in agony! I ran to her side, horrified at the pain I had caused. I could see it was bad. I reached down to assist her.

She grabbed my left hand and snapped/chewed it. I couldn't extract my hand. I called to Patrick, "Help me! I can't get my hand out, and she's breaking bones!", as she continued to crunch in her horrible suffering. My palm was impaled on the teeth of her lower jaw - the upper teeth were doing the breakage. Using my right hand, I managed to get her grip loosened (or she let me go!), and pulled my bleeding left hand free.

Greta was in a moan, and I scooped her up and placed her in the truck. Patrick rode in the back with her as we sped to the ranch. As we drove, I urged Liana, "Call Grandma & Papa and tell them what's happened!" Dad is, among other things, our veterinarian.

I stumbled into the house, feeling faint. Patrick was at my side. I had him fetch some ice water. He asked if I needed pain killers. I told him to call his mom.

Cathy came over, and we headed out to her car. As we passed my truck, I could see Greta's stilled body lying quietly in the back. My faithful companion of over 13 years was gone.

Cathy took me to the Petaluma Valley Hospital Emergency Room (we arrived at 9:50PM) and stayed with me 'til late. I was treated and discharged at about 8AM.

Needless to say; I'm still healing.

Petaluma Gap

Clary Ranch is located about 5 miles west of Petaluma, in Sonoma County, California. There are a number of vineyards producing winegrapes in the area, but Clary Ranch is on the edge - the edge of the Sonoma Coast appellation, the edge of the county line, indeed, the edge of the continent.

There is a map of the area known as the Petaluma Gap. Clary Ranch is marked just below the "A" in "Gap". I like to say we're in the middle of the gap.

The Petaluma Gap is a low-lying area of the coastal range that sits right over Bodega Bay. To the north rise the hills of Sonoma County, and to the south, the hills of Marin County continue the range. As the inland areas of California heat up in summer, the rising hot air draws in the cool, moist air from over the Pacific. This cooling air rushes in through the path of least resistance, the Petaluma Gap.

This morning, a blanket of cool fog hung over the vineyard, but as I write, the temperatures have risen, providing an ideal climate for Pinot Noir and, surprisingly, for Syrah. The cool evening temperatures are critical for the maintenance of higher acid levels in the grapes. Warm tempertures encourage acid levels to drop, and in other warmer areas, the result is a lackluster, flabby wine. The higher acid levels that we get here produce wines that balance with food perfectly.

The other unique aspect of the Petaluma Gap is, simply, Wind. The winds of early summer actually shut down the vines, preventing photosynthesis that generates the sugar in the grape. Winds over 8 mph will induce the stomata (the openings in the leaves that allow gas exchange) to close. Without the gas exchange, no sugar is produced. With winds over 25 mph, the stomata will remain closed for up to 72 hours!
So sugar development is naturally delayed. But flavor development continues!

This is why Pinots from the Petaluma Gap are so luscious and flavorful. Other less favored areas will continue to produce sugar and to metabolize acid, resulting in a flabby, alcoholic, grape-based beverage - hardly the elixir that is possible with the right grape in the right place.

Now, we can't ripen a Cabernet Sauvignon. I wish we could. But for Pinot and Syrah, the Petaluma Gap can't be beat.

Greta

Greta is my dog, a mixture of shepherd and who knows what - maybe even some coyote! We found her at a feed store outside of Diamond Springs, in El Dorado County.

Cathy and I, along with Patrick, had gone up to visit my Grandma. Grandma needed to pick up some stuff at Raley's in Placerville, so we took her into town, and on the way back, in front of the feed store on Pleasant Valley Road we saw a spray-painted piece of plywood proclaiming, "Free Weekend Puppies". Cathy asked if I was ready.

My previous dog, Mia, had been my companion since my days at UC Davis. She was a mix of German Shepherd, Australian Shepherd and Samoyed. You never saw a dog who would go to such lengths for the smallest crumb of a crispy chinese noodle. She would roll over, balance biscuits on her nose, crawl on her belly across the floor, shake hands, shake her whole body on command (useful trick when she was dripping wet in the shower!)... Mia had passed away the year before when we found ourselves in front of the feed store, contemplating taking on another member of the family.

There were two litters of hunting-dog mutts, and then I noticed a single shepherd puppy sitting next to a box from a case of oil. I dumped out the box and discovered six more puppies from the litter. Cathy asked, "How do we choose?" We called out,"Somebody give us a sign", and Greta came over and licked Cathy's hand. So Greta chose us.

When we moved from San Francisco to the Ranch, Greta settled right in chasing, catching and eating jackrabbits. She once chased a jackrabbit twice around our 1-mile deer fence before catching it. That dog could run! She would also stay right with our little ones, guarding them from whatever perils might otherwise befall them.

Greta's repertoire of tricks is not as extensive as was Mia's, and she can't keep up with the jackrabbits anymore. At 13, she can't hear as well as she used to, but she enthusiastically greets any visitors who come to the Ranch. She also regularly sneaks out of the gate when a departing car exits, and reliably heads up the driveway to visit our neighbors, John & Helen. John & Helen reward Greta from time to time with some freshly grilled chicken from their barbecue, so it's a nice friendship that she's got on the side. When I return in the evening, she leads me back down the driveway to the Ranch and home.

Give a holler and come for a visit, and you'll get to meet Greta, the official ambassador and greeter at Clary Ranch.

Veraison

2009 Veraison has begun in the vineyard!
The start of the changing of the color of the grapes is recorded each year in order to gauge the progress of the season relative to other vintages. Once the change is 75-80% complete, we'll begin to thin the clusters, removing those that are still pink or green. This ensures even ripening of the crop. When harvest arrives, the remaining clusters represent a tighter window of ripeness, and the resultant wine is of a higher quality.

Once the grapes have changed color, they are no longer susceptible to infection by powdery mildew, so we can discontinue sulfur applications. Soon thereafter, we'll start to monitor sugar and acid levels, which will determine the harvest date. Given moderate weather and low wind speeds, I expect to begin harvesting our Pinot Noir in early-to-mid October, with the Syrah following a couple of weeks later.

Leaf Pulling

We're almost done with pulling leaves in the vineyard. We pull leaves where they shade the grape clusters on the morning side. We also remove leaves from the crowded interior to allow the first rays of daylight to bathe the entire fruiting zone.

Just like you and I need sunlight to stave off Vitamin D deficiencies and to keep the winter blues at bay, the grapes need the sunlight to produce more complex flavors and deeper colors. A sunlight-exposed grape is a healthier grape, providing us with more of the healthful compounds that we get from enjoying the wonderful elixir that is wine.

But also, as for you and me, grapes can get too much of a good thing. Grapes can get sunburned!
So we retain those leaves that provide shade from the hot afternoon sun. On an East-West-oriented row, we pick leaves only on the North side of the vine row, whereas on a North-South row, we're removing only the leaves on the Eastern side.

It's a lot of hand work that shows up in the bottle. As some who have stopped by Clary Ranch for a visit have found, it can be a meditative experience, focusing on the next leaf, the next cluster...
By the time we've finished the job, every single vine has been the object of careful attention. In the end, the fruit is visible and it makes "guesstimating" the crop a whole lot easier. Now, just how accurate a guesstimate might be is the subject for another day.

Wet Morning

There was a heavy mist this morning. It was almost enough to wash the protective sulfur dust from the leaves. Right now, the sun is out and the temperature is in the mid-70's. No wind... perfect.

In the next week or so, I expect to see the beginning of veraison - the changing of the color. Once the color changes, we'll be done with using sulfur to protect against powdery mildew. After veraison, the vine is not susceptible.

Probably our last application for mildew will be stylet oil, an organic material that also acts as a treatment for mites. Last year, the mites were having a grand old time on the vines. Their feeding turns the leaves a bronze color and reduces photosynthesis. This year, our budbreak was about a week later than last year, so we've got to do everything we can to move the ripening along at a good clip.

Floatin' My Boat!

This week has been full of computer work! Still working out the kinks...

I applied online for admission to Santa Rosa Junior College. I haven't signed up for any classes, and haven't paid any fees, but by virtue of having a receipt that says that I applied for admission: I'm a student. So I'm eligible for the famous "Apple educational discount". There's your tip o' the week - but you didn't hear it from me!...

At the end of last week, Apple announced the introduction of a new 2-terabyte Time Capsule, the wireless automated backup hard drive... they reduced the price of the 1-terabyte model to the price of the previous 500-gigabyte model,... and they discontinued the 500-gigabyte model (which is the one that I had purchased four days earlier.) So, along with my college admission receipt, I took my now-discontinued Time Capsule to the Apple Store in Santa Rosa. There, I exchanged the Time Capsule for the 1-TB model. With my educational discount, I received $100 back plus a free iPod Touch (!) for the MacBook Pro, $66 back for the 3-year Applecare warranty, and $20 back for the Time Capsule. SCORE!... Tonight, I'm downloading updates for all of the software.

This past week in the vineyard, we've been removing leaves from one side of the fruiting zone in order to better expose the clusters to morning sunlight. This results in the development of more flavor and color in the grapes, while retaining the shade that protects the fruit from afternoon sunburn. Just another step in the labor-intensive process that produces the wines we love!

Drew and I went out this afternoon on the reservoir. We rowed out to add a float to the pump intake pipe. When we pulled up the old float, we found that it had sprung a leak. No wonder it wasn't floating anymore! We decided to return the smaller supplemental float and buy a larger replacement one. Two steps forward - one step back.

Computer Woes, Sale Slows

My laptop began crashing before the blogging conference, so on my way in on Friday morning, I took it in to my computer repair shop. Saturday, I heard the verdict: Time to buy a new laptop.

Monday, with my three youngest kids in tow, I headed to the Apple Store in Santa Rosa. I picked out one of the smaller MacBook Pros so that it would still fit in my briefcase, along with the AC adapter and a magnetic scanner that allows me to do credit card sales. The MacBook was loaded with OSX Leopard, so I decided that I'd upgrade my iMac to the same. "MobileMe" would let me keep my iMac, the MacBook and my iPhone all in sync, so I decided to throw that in. And the Time Capsule would let me backup the two computers wirelessly and effortlessly. Before you think that I'm just an Apple geek, I'll have you know that I bought an inexpensive PC laptop for my kids to use for internet access and word processing. So I guess I'm a CHEAP Apple geek.

Anyway, to make a long story short, after upgrading my iMac, I no longer had access to my email accounts, and I still haven't been able to retrieve my data from my crashed laptop! Moral: Make one change at a time! Now three days of cussing later, I finally can use my email again and Patrick is working on extracting the data from the old hard drive from the old iBook.

In the vineyard, we're pulling leaves to better expose the fruit to sunlight. We haven't been moving fast enough for two vintners who are concerned about their three rows, so they're out there as I type, pulling leaves and dropping fruit. Okay by me; I've got enough to keep me busy.

This is a weird year, economically speaking. The grape marketplace is basically silent, with vintners waiting to see what shakes out in the high-end segment. Value wines are selling, but premium wine inventories are backing up, reducing demand for the expensive grapes that go into them. The oddball thing about the wine business is that the economic decisions we make today will "bear fruit" two to three years down the road, when the wines actually come to market. Anyone care to make a prediction as to when consumers will return to finer wines?

Wine Blogger Conference 3/ 50th

Sunday, Day 3, began as before, at 9am at the Flaming-O.
This was the meat of the conference, with sessions actually pertaining to wine blogging, both from the "citizen" perspective, and from the industry perspective. Between 9 and 12, we rushed through three sessions. There was so much information that we were only able to skim the surface. The final session was about "vlogging", the newest frontier of staying alive in the era of nanocasting.
Well, I'm proud to say that we're at the forefront , or at least among the early adopters of video logging. I've got one video log on the web. I'll get Kristin to link it - I'm so lucky to have her helping me out, along with Michael, who shot, edited and posted the video. Now we've got to get the time down from about three minutes to a manageable 12-20 seconds. I think I'll start each one with me playing some signature guitar riff, then going on about some tidbit of minutae regarding viticulture or winemaking or the wine business or whatever.
A lot of 12 second spots can cover a lot of minutae!
After leaving the Flaming-O at mid-day (the conference went on with vineyard tours... Ho-hum!), I stopped off at Dan Dutra's house for a bit more wine and conversation. We watched video of Dan's son winning a teen bodybuilding contest the night before - I didn't know those muscles existed! Dan brought out a couple of very-old bottles of Gallo cab, an '85 that tasted of acetone to me, and a '94 that was quite good. We also opened bottles of my '06 Pinot and Syrah, and my '03 Syrah. Dan disappeared out into the cellar, and reappeared with a bottle of '06 Kosta Browne RRV Pinot. We compared it to my Pinot, and I'll be damned if mine didn't stand up VERY favorably to the Kosta Browne!
I had to leave at 2:30 - I missed out on the abalone! - and went home to get my kids for their week with me. Cathy brought them to my house at about 3:30, and Patrick immediately urged me to get on the road to get to dinner with my parents in Marin at 4:20. Now, I had spoken to my Mom, and she told me that we had dinner reservations at 4:20, but how did Patrick know?
I asked him if he had talked to his grandma...
When we got to Marin Joe's in Corte Madera, my Mom met us at the entrance and led us back to a banquet room, where a rousing "SURPRISE!!" greeted me. My parents and my sisters & their families had all gathered to celebrate my 50th birthday!
I am blessed!

Wine Blogger Conference 2

Day 2 began at the Flamingo Resort, also known as the Flaming-O...
We gathered at 9am and boarded a series of buses. Driving north on 101, the buses headed east on River Road over to Calistoga and on to the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena. We were treated to a fantastic continental breakfast as we sat down for the keynote addresses.
Introducing the speakers was the head of the Napa Valley Vintners Association, a woman whose face was familiar to me. She was one of my potential "matches" on match.com! I wondered if she recognized my face in the crowd. Small world!
Barry Shuler, one of the founders of AOL, gave an entertaining talk about our being on the cusp of a new paradigm, with the big shots of Old Media falling by the wayside. He spoke of our needing to pass through the Valley of Death to find out what awaits us on the other side. (Well, okay... he said "Death Valley", but I think "the Valley of Death" has a better ring to it. More Biblical, Less 20-Mule Team.) The second speaker, whose name escapes me as I type, spoke of some of the emerging technologies and strategies for making it through said Valley.
After all was said, we emerged from the CIA to explore the Valley of Napa, each bus departing to a different location. My bus went first to Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, where we were treated to a delicious lunch of Lemon Chicken, Roast Beef, Roasted Vegetables and a Walnut & Goat Cheese-laden Salad. Accompanying the meal were ever-full glasses of Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. ("Wait, I thought I finished that... Oh well..."). On to the next stop!
At our second stop we heard 3 young "lucky spermers" go on about "family-owned wineries", where it's all about the passion for making wine and not about making money. (That's why the wines were all priced somewhat below $100, unlike those other greedy folks who priced their wine higher.) All of this folksy talk rang a bit hollow, especially in an echo-y, 5-story underground fermentation room that looked like the set of a James Bond movie, sans sinister Rocket Ship of Doom. The small bites and cheeses that went with their wines WERE very good, but my appetite was tempered by the juxtaposition of "aw-shucks" and over-the-top opulence.
Onward!
Next stop was another winery at mid-valley, where some 50 (!) Napa vintners were pouring their wines. All of the diverging buses reconverged there. With about a half-hour at that location, I was mostly still recovering from lunch. I think I tasted 3 wines... a half-hour wasn't nearly enough time to even read all of the table signage. Back on the Bus! We split up again...
Our bus went to Domaine Chandon for a splendid dinner of Dungeness Crab in a Chicken Broth, followed by perfectly-roasted Beef Tenderloin, and a Raspberry-Chocolate dessert concoction, all accompanied by a flight of eight different wines! It was a great day of wine and food - not much that had to do with blogging other than the fact that we were "wine bloggers".
The buses finally returned to the Flaming-O, where there was an after-party awaiting us: More Wine! This time it was wines from Portugal. I wandered briefly through the room before deciding that I needed sleep more than I needed more wine.
Stuffed over-full of fine food and wine, tempered by the hour-long bus ride back, I headed home to my own bed.

Wine Blogger Conference 1

Just got home from day one at the Wine Blogger Conference in Santa Rosa.
I was one of the only winemakers blogging at the winefest. There were 250 bloggers trying to get online at the Flamingo Resort, and there were technical difficulties in accommodating so many with their laptops. I had taken mine in to be repaired just before the conference, so I had no way of doing the live blogging that was scheduled. I realized that it was a great opportunity for showing my wines, so I left the hall and drove home to pick up some of my 2006 Pinot and Syrah and to print up some more business cards with my blog address printed on the back.
I returned with wine in hand, and shared it with the other folks at my table at dinnertime. It was a fine dinner, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I asked the people from the other wineries how much they had paid for the privilege of pouring at the event. ...Being a blogger, I paid less than half of the fee that they had paid, and I still have two days to network and share! There are some advantages to being ahead of the curve. I've even got some other bloggers who are interested in doing video interviews with me during the time remaining. We'll see how things go.
Tomorrow (Today! - It's late), I've got to be at the resort by 9AM to catch the bus to Napa for day two. I'll fill in more details tomorrow (today!?), but I'm sure I'll get home late again...
To bed, to bed, sleepyhead!

Summertime

I just got back from a week at Scout camp with my boys. We were staying at Camp Hi-Sierra up off of Highway 108, 25 miles up from Sonora. No cell service. No computers. No wine. Lots of mosquitos. Actually, the mosquitos weren't such a great issue for me, but there were others at our campsite who were evidently tastier than I.
Friday was my 50th birthday. The other adult troop leaders asked the Camp Cook if he knew a recipe for Cherries Jubilee, since I love cherries and this being my "jubilee" birthday. Well, there are just a few ingredients, and two of them aren't permitted at Scout camp: alcohol and fire. So we settled on a Dutch Oven cherry-chocolate concoction, cooked with coals from our campfire. Delicious! Along with our dessert, we DID NOT enjoy a bit of cognac from a flask that one of the other leaders DID NOT bring to camp. We also DID NOT settle down with a bit of 7 and 7. We DID sleep well that night, mosquitos and all.
While I was away, Kristin was working on PR, and my new intern, Adrian, was hitting the pavement, bottles in hand, seeking out new trade accounts. I haven't caught up with them as of this writing. Yesterday, Drew sent me a draft grape contract for the upcoming harvest. I'll need to go over it with him ASAP.

PinotDays

My, oh my, don't the days fly by when you're havin' fun.
Pinot Days, Sunday June 28
Sunday morning there's no water at the house. So I get up, go to my friends' house about two miles away, and take a shower in their sauna room. Back at home, Kristin meets me there, and we load up for the trip into San Francisco. We're running a bit late when we pick up Cassandra in Petaluma. Off we go to "don't call it Frisco".
When we arrive at about 12, there's a line of 150 tasters eager to get in and start tasting. The doors don't open 'til 1. We're all looking good in black pants and embroidered shirts. We find our table.
No electricity, and we're on the inner court, with no wall upon which to hang our lovely banner. I take the banner back to the truck. When I return, there are tasters at the table with Kristin and Cassandra. I jump in and do my song and dance, "Root to glass! I grow it, I make it, I sell it and I wash the bottles, too." The trade tasters have nametags. After awhile, I start seeing nametags saying, "Public". I'd like to know some names of the folks who come to taste.
There are sandwiches there for us. The Roast Beef goes great with my Syrah, of course! I opened a couple of bottles of Syrah for those in the know, for those who ask.
We're getting lot of great responses. People are signing up on the email list. A couple of fans buy some wine for immediate delivery (out in the parking lot after the tasting). A number of tasters inform us that all they've been hearing is "Clary Ranch, Clary Ranch!": Music to my ears.
I love these events. To meet and interact with so many wine aficionados (I do find the female sort to be particularly engaging!) is an invigorating experience.
Between Pres A Vi and the Grand Tasting, we've got over 30 adds to the mailing list! I've had events that got less than 10. This is our best response so far in those terms.
Toward the end of the event, Michael arrives. Michael is my son's fencing teacher, the Wine Wize Guy, and Kristin's boyfriend. Michael gets a mini tasting glass, a reflection of the cost-saving times in which we live.
After the tasting is over, we (Michael, Kristin, Cassandra and I, along with Chris Didato, one of my customers, and his girlfriend, whose name escapes me) savor the remains of the open bottle of Syrah at the tailgate of my truck, and then M, K, C & I walk over to Chestnut Street to find dinner. We bring along a bottle of the '06 Pinot. The girls have changed into evening attire and are looking beautiful.
We walk up the street several blocks, looking for the right place to eat. "No, let's look two blocks back." "Okay." Tramp tramp tramp... "No, maybe a block up." Tramp tramp tramp... "No maybe three blocks over." Tramp tramp tramp... "Wait, how about that place there..." Emporio Rulli Gran Caffe. Looks good to me. We're dining alfresco in San Francisco in June. The weather is glorious. It's a wonderful evening.

The Fair & Pinot Days Prep

Went to the Sonoma-Marin Fair last night. Made it through without eating ANY fried foods! In the wine garden, they were demo'ing wine pairings with fair food: I wonder what goes best with cotton candy?
In one of those "D'oh" moments, I realized that the Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance SHOULD have had a presence in our hometown fair... Maybe next year??
What I like about our little fair is that it is actually ag-centric. There are 4H animal husbandry areas where you can see local pigs, goats, cows, etc... There's free local ice cream if you happen to be there at the right time. And, of course, there's the carnival rides and games. We limited ourselves to the Ferris Wheel and the Merry-Go-Round. I'm at a stage of life where I'm not so thrilled by sitting in a cage whipping around upside-down, losing my small change and my lunch.
For entertainment, besides bumping through the mass of humanity that congregates at the fairgrounds every year, we listened to the Charlie Daniels Band. We started out near the stage, but it was so LOUD that I couldn't HEAR!!! So, we made our way to the far reaches of the audience, where the sound was more tolerable. I only know one Charlie Daniels song, "The Devil Went Down To Georgia", and they played that at the very end of a 1-1/2 hour set. The only other song that I recognized was "Folsom Prison Blues", which of course, is NOT a Charlie Daniels song. For that one, they managed to sing the first verse, then the third verse, then the second verse, then repeated the first verse and ended the song without: "..Well if they freed me from this prison..." Sacrilege! Johnny Cash is my first guitar hero. I grew up on that stuff.
Late this morning, I met Joe at the park in Cotati, and we played music for about an hour. We played, among other songs, "Folsom Prison Blues"! Afterwards, I returned to the ranch to help my parents load up my dad's 1930 Model A Ford onto a flatbed trailer. They're taking it up to the family ranch in El Dorado County tomorrow. This evening, I've got to make my final preparations for the Grand Festival Tasting at Pinot Days in San Francisco. It's VERY hot outside today, and I'm afraid that I won't be able to to take cases to sell tomorrow, although at Fort Mason, perhaps the temps will be moderate enough... We'll see.
Now I've got to prepare a magnum of Syrah that I'm bringing for the charity auction - wax dip, apply the label, yada yada yada...
See you tomorrow at Fort Mason!

Pouring in the City

Kristin was a big help in getting everything together for the tasting. We've got a desk ready for her here in my office. Today she'll start at about 11. I still have to get the barn cleaned up from the bottling on Saturday past!
I arrived early last night - traffic into the city wasn't bad at all. It took me a bit of time to figure out exactly where the restaurant was located, but after a few wrong turns, I got directions that put me in the right place.
I had a table next to Ana Keller of Keller Estate, located out on Lakeville Highway. She brought a 2008 Rose of Pinot Noir. We joked about needing the Petaluma Gap sign behind us. Also there was my friend, Tim Olson, of Olson Ogden Wines. Tim was working with Cahill Winery back when I was getting label approval for my 2006 wines. We were all part of the "pre-dinner" tasting. Other winemakers participated in the main Table Hop portion of the dinner. One of our previous grape buyers, Scott Rich with Talisman Cellars, was there for the dinner.
Responses to the Clary Ranch 2006 Pinot were uniformly great! Tasters were enthusiastic about discovering our little gem. I had about 8 signups for the mailing list. While we were pouring, servers passed around appetizers - a peppery ahi poke, and a delicate whitefish-cake. The poke was delicious, if a bit too spicy to go with the Pinot, I thought. Wish I could have stayed for the main courses, but the price for winery participants was a bit steep: $100 plus a full case of wine! As it was, I was glad to be showcased for people who could afford the $150/person cost of the dinner.
There were about 20 wineries overall who participated in the evening's festivities. Contrast that with the 200+ who will be pouring at the Grand Tasting at Fort Mason on Sunday!

Working Alone No Mo'

Tonight is the tasting at Pres A Vi in San Francisco. I'll need to prepare business cards and order forms. I've hired Kristin to help me out with the wine business, and she's starting today at 10am.
This wine business is hard enough with managing the vineyards, making the wine, selling the wine... I'm ready for some help here at the ranch.
For the last year or so, I had retained a friend of mine, Tim Conner, to "professionalize" the front office operations, and to take over a good part of Sales and Marketing. He was successful in getting some East Coast distributors to take notice and order significant quantities of '04 wine, and in outsourcing warehousing and shipping, streamlining the business and making customer service easier to manage. The release of our 2006 vintage in September of last year, however, coincided with the nation's Economic Meltdown. Distributors have made no orders since then, so the vast majority of my sales since then have been direct-to-consumer, with a few wholesale sales thrown in. The overhead of an offsite sales office is no longer justified, so I'm moving all operations here to the ranch.
I posted an internship ad at Sonoma State University awhile back, and hired a student who was just about to graduate with a degree in wine business. She poured at a tasting for me in May and compiled a newsletter that was successfully implemented. Then, after her graduation trip to Vegas, she dropped incommunicado except for one email that indicated that she was swamped with work. Nothing more.
Kristin's here. Time to go...

The Days Are Just Full!

On Saturday morning I headed up to Santa Rosa, to The Beverage People, a winemaking supply store. I rented a corker and bought some potassium metabisufite, corks and a couple of new filling valves. Back at the ranch, Kristin and Barbara (aka GuitarGirl) met me, and along with my four kids, we began the process of bottling the 2003 (!) Syrah.
We first grabbed a half-ton macrobin and scrubbed it clean. After moving it into place, tipped with one corner lower, we weighed out about 25 grams of meta, added it to the macrobin, and began siphoning the wine from the barrel. The aroma of black pepper and blackberries filled the barn. Time to start the bottling line.
Barbara tended the intake of the siphon. Patrick and I did the filling, then handed off the bottles to Liana who carefully wiped them clean. Liana handed off the bottles and corks one by one to Kristin, who placed the bottle in the corker, dropped the cork into the slot, and pulled on the lever to squeeze and seat the cork. Kristin handed the bottle to Olivia. Olivia carefully applied the label and handed the finished bottle to Christopher, who put the bottles into the cases. As we completed cases, Christopher would announce the fact, and we would all let out with a Tom Swift-style, "Yay!" It was a lot of fun and went really well. I still need to finish the cleanup, though.
Sunday was Fathers' Day. Cathy treated me and the kids to brunch at Tres Hombres, then we headed back home for the kids to tend their rooms before going to Cathy's place for the upcoming week. After rooms were clean(er), we jumped in the truck and drove to my parents' house in San Rafael. My sister, Colleen, and two of her four kids, Kyra and Marcos, were there, and two of Christie's girls, Alanna and Shannon, showed up a bit later. We missed Carolyn and her family, who were there in the morning. After an early steak dinner and some swimming, the kids and I drove home for the weekly handoff to Cathy. The house gets real quiet with just me, the dog, and the cat.
Monday was filled with administrative catchup (I'm working with a bookkeeper to get the winery financial records set up correctly), and a Scout meeting in the evening. After I dropped the boys off back at Cathy's house, Barbara accompanied me to the Loomis Barn, where we sat in with some other musicians, playing rock covers for about an hour. It was an early night for partying at the Loomis's, ending before 11!
Yesterday, I returned the corker (The Beverage People are closed on Sundays and Mondays), then drove down to Cotati, where I met Joe Louvar, bass player par excellence. We played through about 15 of our songs there in the park, using just acoustic guitars (Well, Joe played and acoustic bass, amplified with a battery-powered amp...). After about an hour, we parted ways and I headed back up to Santa Rosa to pick up another sterile water sampling bottle from the lab, and to a print shop to get winery stationery started. Then back to Petaluma to do some banking, and home by about 5:30.
This morning, Galo tells me we need diesel fuel. Tomorrow evening is the Pinot Days Winemaker Table Hop Dinner at Pres A Vi Restaurant in the Presidio of San Francisco. I'll be pouring a tasting before the dinner. Sunday is the Pinot Days Grand Tasting at Fort Mason in SF. So I better get crackin'!

Emptying the Barn

We're readying the small barn to get licensed as a winery here on the ranch. Step one is emptying it of all the stuff that I've stored there over the last 10+ years. Among the things I've got in there is a barrel of the last bit of Syrah that I made as an amateur winemaker in 2003!
Today, I'll clear the area around the barrel to make a working space. I'll rent a corker this afternoon. Tomorrow I'll have some help and we'll crank out about 24-25 cases. The wine will need to rest for a couple of months after bottling. Since it's is unbonded, we can't sell it. I guess we'll just have to enjoy it ourselves - darn. I'm sure I'll need some help finishing it off...
So if you're around near the end of summer, do give a call and help me, please!

Vin de Noix, Part 1

This morning, the fingertips on my left hand are stained yellow-brown, the result of one of the processes in making Vin de Noix, a walnut flavored wine aperitif.

My sister, Christie Clary, lives on the family ranch in El Dorado county, in the foothills of the Sierras. In the mid 1970's, my grandma gave 4o acres of the family homestead to my parents. My Mom & Dad planted about 6 acres of walnuts. Now, over 30 years later, Christie has found a way to make a delicious beverage that has drawn rave reviews wherever it's poured.

The process begins by picking the walnuts when the hulls are about 1 to 1-1/2" in diameter, when the nutmeats are just beginning to form and the shell is still soft. Traditionally, in parts of Europe where walnut wine originated, the harvest happens on June 22, the summer solstice. The window of harvest is short - perhaps two weekends.

We're producing enough Vin de Noix to utilize one barrel of wine. We began our work yesterday with about 1800 freshly-picked little walnuts. Wearing vinyl gloves to protect against the staining that comes with handling walnut hulls, we sliced the walnuts into quarters. A pale yellow liquid oozed from the cuts. As we completed our batches of 100 nuts at a time, we poured off the liquid that remained on our cutting boards over the sliced nuts and dumped the whole shebang into a 200 gallon tank. After about 3 hours of slicing and dumping, we were nearly done with step one.

Glad to be finished with this part of the work, I pulled off my gloves. That's when I discovered that vinyl gloves aren't a good choice for protecting my hands from the stain! The stain had penetrated through to my fingertips. A childhood of walnut harvesting tells me it will be quite a while before the stain wears off.

At the end of step one, we poured the wine over the walnuts. It will steep for 40 days. Meanwhile, we'll need to order 375 ml bottles, design labels and so on, so that we're ready to bottle when the process is done. There are more steps in the recipe, and I'll go into more detail in future blogs.

News from the Front

My, my, but I've been remiss in updating over the last week!

This past weekend, I went whitewater rafting on the American River with my sons and their Boy Scout Troop. Christopher and Patrick and I did the South Fork (class III+) on Saturday. We spent Saturday night at Camp Lotus. Sunday, Chris and I returned home, and Patrick stayed on another day to run the Middle Fork (class IV) on Monday.

Tomorrow at 11am, Linda Murphy, a writer with Decanter magazine, will be stopping by here at the ranch for a tour. It will be one stop on a day-long trip acquainting her with the vines and wines of the Petaluma Gap. I'll give her a couple of bottles of wine to enjoy at her leisure, and hope that she enjoys them enough to write a good review!

My good friend, Jay Blasewitz, contacted me from Los Angeles late last week to inform me of a review of the 2006 Clary Ranch Pinot Noir, hot off the presses:

"A ripe, pure and elegant nose that is very pinot with intense red berry aromas that carry hints of underbrush and earth over to the rich and equally pure middle weight flavors that possess fine transparency, detail and lovely balance on the cranberry-suffused finish that also displays an attractive vibrancy. This is at once delicious and serious and as noted, the balance is impeccable. If you enjoy classically styled pinot that carries almost no youthful austerity, this would be a fine choice. 90/2012+" - Burghound.

Yowza! I think I'll use that!

Bloom has Begun!

Yes, the first flowers of the year have thrown off their caps in blocks 1 and 4, our Pommard 4 clone. We dodged a bullet with the recent rains, although in the end we didn't get as much moisture as we might have.

The grapevines' flowers are insignificant things, not showy like a rose. They are about as simple a flower as can be - merely a naked ovule and pistil surrounded by six stamens - not much bigger overall than a BB. From such humble beginnings, if all goes well, we'll end up with the elixir that inspires men to poetry and fosters the camaraderie and conversation of the table, spread with good food and goodwill. Hail the magic of the vine!

Rain and Flowers

We've got just a couple of acres left to sucker. When that's done, we'll do one more pass with Roundup under the vines. The sporadic rains of last week have given the weeds new life. Luckily, we haven't hit bloom yet.

Back in 2005, we had rains during bloom, which reduced fruit set by in excess of 50%. That was a disastrous year, in more ways than one. My customers may wonder why there was no 2005 vintage for Clary Ranch Wines. All along, we've sold grapes in addition to producing our own wines. In 2005, there wasn't enough fruit for my own program after fulfilling the contracts that I had. For a number of years (2003-2005), we sold fruit to Schramsberg for sparkling wine. Unfortunately, the economics of sparkling wine require a higher number of tons per acre than we get out here on the edge. In any case, you can taste the results for Schramsberg in their Reserve de Noirs for those years.

Another thing that the rains and weeds have brought up is allergies that I've never suffered with before. I'm wondering if the severe cold that I suffered through earlier might not have been allergies instead of a cold (?). Then again, it WAS over the top for a week or so. But the post-nasal drip is sure hanging on! TMI?

Petaluma Gap AVA

The Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance Board Meeting on Monday had a number of visitors. Tom Wark, a well-respected wineblogger came and spoke about establishing a Petaluma Gap AVA. He thought that if ever there was an area deserving of an AVA, the Petaluma Gap exemplified such a place. Such an effort would require, however, far more cash than is in the PGap kitty.

There are many in the community who would love to see the Petaluma Gap established as an AVA. However, the current AVA, Sonoma Coast, offers at least two advantages. According to Michael McNiel from Hanzell Winery, "the first is 'Sonoma' and the second is 'Coast'". For consumers in Iowa or Manhattan, what does "Petaluma Gap" mean? It certainly has a very real meaning for us growers here in Petaluma, but even local wine consumers have no idea what it is.

There may be a Petaluma Gap AVA in our future, but there is a lot of groundwork to be laid before we make it a government-controlled-and-mandated labeling issue.

One board member feared this road so much that he surreptitiously invited just grower members to pack the board meeting. He had unsuccessfully tried to stifle the discussion, arguing that we should not even hear from Tom Wark. But this discussion clearly was and remains a part of our organization's mandate. In the four days since the board meeting, the other members of the board have asked for and received the lone board member's resignation, arguing that his actions have been to undermine the board repeatedly, even after being voted down on issues. His constituency had been solely grape growers, ignoring the implications of an interdependent wine industry that needs cooperation between growers, winemakers and consumers.

The Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance was originally called The Petaluma Gap Wine & Grape Alliance. Our "Lone Ranger" was the 2008 President of the organization, taking charge by virtue of acquiring matching funds from the Sonoma County Grape Commission. Part of getting the matching funds was the condition that we be a Grower organization. That was initiated by changing the name of the organization, and constituting the Alliance as a Wingrowers Alliance. This was done with the consent of a cash-blinded board, changing a grassroots community organization into one that represented only one tier of the community. The implications of this strategic blunder were felt fully over the course of the past year, with our Lone Ranger consistently arguing to limit our organization's activities to those that benefit only growers. When I joined the Board, there had not yet been a single public event, such as a wine tasting. Our events were limited to our own private parties, where we drank our own wine, and patted ourselves on the back for doing a great job.

Much work remains to get us back on track as an effective grassroots alliance, but I am cautiously optimistic that we can do it. I am hopeful that we can wean ourselves from the dollar-spouting teat of "Others' Milk".

I shouldn't tell...

... But I will, 'cause you guys are reading my blog.

There is a vineyard and winery on the east side of 101 between Petaluma and Cotati. If you exit 101N  at West Railroad, the entry is an immediate right. Go up the hill, past the unlandscaped house that is trying it's best to look like a French chateau, and park at the winery, known as Windy Hill. They are selling a fantastic 2001 Pinot Noir for less than $10/bottle. Go now and stock up. They are selling for FAR below their cost. They also have some decent 2001 Chardonnay, and some 2002 and 2003 Pinots, but the 2001 Pinot is exceptional. They haven't bottled their '04's yet! I think that the owner makes his money elsewhere and doesn't operate the winery as a real business, which makes things harder for folks like me who are trying to make a living. He is really unloading some fine wine on the extreme cheap!

I don't push the competition often. This is my big Tip for anybody following my blog. So get over there and buy some of that Windy Hill 2001 Pinot, and then thank me by joining my wine club!

Back from Memorial Day

Yesterday, I went to a friend's house for a cookout and jam session. I'm still getting over the cold that hit so hard last week. Played guitar and sang (when I could!) 'til the late afternoon.

Today, we're feeding the vines with a drip injection of about 200 lbs. of Calcium Nitrate. That works out to less than a third of an ounce per plant. Nitrate is immediately available to the young shoots, and it doesn't acidify the soil like other nitrogen sources. Besides being used by the rapidly-growing shoots, this nutrition goes to the developing buds that will result in next year's fruit. The plant needs this in the period before bloom. An application after bloom has begun can adversely affect this year's crop.

Calcium is an excellent soil builder in clay soils. The calcium ion has two positive charges which allow it to bind to clay particles, inducing clumping. Clay particles are very fine and tend to pack together tightly. This calcium-induced clumping reduces soil compaction and allows air to reach down into the soil. The soil below the vines is rich with earthworms, who further aerate the soil with their tunneling.

We're irrigating for a couple of hours after the "fertigation" to move the nutrients below the weed zone. The recent late rains have boosted the weeds, and we will need to spray another Roundup application soon. Before that, we'll need to finish suckering. There are a couple of acres that need still the suckers removed. Suckers are the shoots arising from undesired locations on the vine: from the base & up the trunk. Every year, we remove these to maintain the desired structure of the vine.

One Barrel of Pinot

At the end of Harvest 2008, there were some grapes still on the vine. The Spring's frosts had made it impossible to get even ripening, with whole sections of certain blocks delayed weeks behind the main part of the same blocks. We ended up with crop insurance payments that were higher than what we could get for the picked grapes.

Still, I was disappointed with the prospect of leaving grapes on the vine, so I called together a couple of friends to do a barrel's worth of unbonded Pinot. By the time we harvested, the natural acid had dropped considerably, and the must needed an addition of tartaric acid (the main acid component in grapes). Now several months into barrel-aging, the wine still tastes a little flat. On Wednesday we'll rack the wine and do one more acid adjustment.

Meanwhile, it's about time to move the 2007 wines into the warehouse. I'm toying with the idea that I might do a pre-release tasting of the '07's at the Pinot Days Festival on June 28th at Fort Mason in San Francisco. The '07 Pinots are somewhere between the '04 and '06, in terms of intensity. Fuller than the '06, yet not quite the lush bomb that was the '04.

I'm looking forward to the tasting. Pinot Days has always been a good event: lots of traffic and interest. With a couple hundred Pinot producers, it's the largest event that I've participated in. World of Pinot Noir at Pismo Beach this year set the bar, though. I had my highest one-day sales ever at that one event in March. Hope to get a good response at this one.

The Bad & the Ugly

Tuesday morning I felt like hell! The "cold" had migrated from my sinuses to my chest. Wheezing and congested, I crawled from my bed, and woke the kids for school. I had them make their own lunches, not wanting to give them whatever I had. After I drove them to school, I returned home and went back to bed, sleeping until it was time to pick them up again in the afternoon. Wednesday was significantly better, although I'm still working through it even today.

I'd call it the flu, but I don't think I had a fever. Otherwise, all of the symptoms were there.

The Good...

I spent 6 hours in the saddle over two days at Greenhorn Creek Guest Ranch last weekend. My horse, Jericho, was very well trained. He'd respond immediately to whatever I asked of him. Four inches to the left to avoid that branch? No problem. A very good horse. He was not, however, what one would call, "gaited". At a lope, my spine was hammered! After a two hour ride, I would slide gingerly off of Jericho, steadying myself against him until my knees felt strong enough to support my weight again. Ah, the life of the weekend warrior!

Christopher, my 10-year-old son, rode every ride. His horse was named Champion. After the first ride, Christopher announced that he was going to buy Champion. Sounds like he had a good time. Olivia, Chris's twin sister, rode on two of the three rides. Liana and Patrick both went on one ride. 

Saturday night, the lead wrangler, Marty, and I traded turns at Karaoke in the Ranch Saloon. Besides the two of us, my mom & dad got up and sang "Hey Good Lookin", Christopher did an a cappella version of "Last Train to Clarksville", Liana sang "Eight Days a Week", and a couple groups of the ranch ladies got up to sing. I closed with a rendition of "Spill the Wine" that resulted in my getting a couple of drinks bought for me. Not bad, if I do say so myself!

The next morning, I woke with the first inkling of what was to be the worst cold I've had in ages. (Oink?)

I'm Ba-a-ack

Hello Hello!

Well, it's been awhile since I wrote. Last week we racked the 2008 wines. Everything is tasting great. I've been focused on the 2007's for the last bit, and the 2008's have been patiently biding their time in barrel. We moved wine from the new barrels into some older ones. The 2008 harvest was short on Pinot clone 667 and we had none of clone 113, so we probably won't bottle a separate "Fleur de la Vigne" this time around. The main blend will likely consist of all of the 667 and most of the Pom 4. We will do a small bottling of "Deux Cygnes".

Speaking of swans (Cygnes), the two swans on the main reservoir have just hatched 5 cygnets. We have a small island on the lake where they placed their nest. It is a beautiful sight to see the two proud parents shepherding the little ones. In years past, we've had anywhere from three to seven babies, but last year a late downpour drowned the nest. Every fall, the swans fly away, only to return in the spring. It will be fun to see the cygnets grow into their full beauty.

Last week, I got a call from Santa Rosa Junior College asking me to interview for an instructor position in viticulture and wine studies. Early on Tuesday, I sat down with three faculty members to answer their questions. I need to follow up with emails soon. A little paid side work is always helps, especially in these uncertain times!

Tomorrow, I'll leave with my kids to go on the annual Clary Family Vacation. Every year, my folks take my sisters and me and our families for a trip to some mystery location. Our destination is revealed at Christmastime. This year, we're headed to a dude ranch up in the High Sierras. We'll ride and fish and generally have a good time. It's great to have family so close that we can get together often. All of the cousins get along great, and gatherings are always raucous affairs filled with laughter and lively conversation. Yippee-Yi-Yo-Ki-Yay!

Onward & Upward

Well, on Monday night, the Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance board approved going forward with seeking to sponsor a benefit concert/tasting, but not without going through THE most contentious meeting I've been to. There is still resistance from some on the board, but in the end, the vote was 6:1 for pursuing the venture, although it was decided that we would offer $1000 instead of $1200. Nickels & dimes, in my humble opinion. The Cinnabar Theatre will provide all of the logistics, the volunteer labor, the summer-long promotion, advertising... I think that we are getting a lot on the cheap!

Some on the board think that our private parties qualify as "events", but we're just preaching to the choir. What we need is to educate our local wine consumers. After three years of existence, the first thing that would qualify as a public event was our participation in the local Butter & Egg Parade two weeks ago. That was the first time that many Petalumans ever heard that we are producing world-class wines right here, in and around Petaluma.

Opponents to the event think that we should put on an event ourselves... but we do not have the experience or labor available to put on such a high-quality experience for wine consumers, not to mention the fact that $1200 is chicken feed in terms how much it would actually cost to do it ourselves. That is not to say that we SHOULDN'T put on our own events, but this is at least a start, which is far better than continuing to do nothing. A couple of board meetings ago, it was agreed that putting on a substandard event would be worse that doing nothing, so we postponed the Big Media Event, the pet project of the Opponents, for another year.

For now, the proposed event will do. Baby Steps.

Springtime Tasting

Saturday's "Springtime Tasting in the Vineyard" ended up being in the barn instead of the vineyard, due to showers that went on throughout the day. I had help from three beautiful ladies, as well as from two of my kids. Cassandra and Elisa poured tastes of our wines, and Stephanie took care of sales and wine club signups. My son, Patrick, kept the wine in stock, and Olivia helped Stephanie with much of the prep work. Stephanie has a good eye for display and her efforts in arranging everything made for a fantastic atmosphere.

I'd say that we had about 80 guests. At the end of the tasting, I took a small group for a tour of the vineyard, and when we returned, most of the people had left. I didn't even get to say goodbye to my staff!

My bandmates, the BarnBurners, arrived shortly thereafter, and we set up to play some Rock 'n' Roll. We rocked the mostly-empty barn, with two girls doing all of the dancing. Our most enthusiastic fan was my ex-wife, Cathy. Go figure. It was great to see her having a good time!

Sunday afternoon, all four of my kids returned for their week with me, and I put them to work with cleanup. This morning, I'm running the last of the glassware through the dishwasher, so the job is nearly done.

Many thanks go out to Cassandra, Elisa, Stephanie and to all of my guests for making the event a wonderful one! Big hugs and "Thank you"s also to Patrick and Olivia. You're the Tops!

Alarm, No Frost!

At 2:30 am, the alarm sounded. I jumped up and pulled on some clothes to go out into the cold night air. I walked out to the pumphouse and turned on the pumps. After opening the valves to blocks 1 and 3, I walked back home and crawled back into bed. The temperature had dropped a third of a degree in the time it had taken to start up the system. I reset the alarm and went back to sleep. The alarm sounded two times after that, signifying that the temperature had risen above the set point and dropped again below it. By morning, the temperature still hovered at the alarm threshold, and the humidity was 98%. No sign of frost. Ah well... better safe.

Today I'm interviewing a candidate for an internship from Sonoma State University. SSU's wine business program offers 1 credit for 45 hours of work. It is a paid internship, and is slated to last for 135 hours; 3 college credits. I'm hoping to get some help with marketing and sales, along with administration assistance. Clary Ranch Wines will need to grow in order to start paying a real payroll. The type-02 winery license is essential to the sustainability of the venture.

The use permit from the county is a major hurdle. Drew got an estimate of $8000 from the county. OUCH! A nearby winery permit of comparable size cost about one-fourth of that last year. I guess county revenues are down, and they're looking to make up the shortfall.

Frost, No Alarm!

Dipped just barely into the frost zone this morning, and my alarm didn't sound! I'm crossing my fingers that the cold stayed close to the ground. We're in the process of mowing the rows clean. That helps with cold air movement as well as allowing the ground to accumulate more heat during the day. The stored heat then radiates back out to the vines during the night. I checked the alarm and reset it. It seems to be working now.

I'm preparing for a tasting this Saturday, May 2: our "Springtime Tasting in the Vineyard". We'll be pouring tastes of all of our wines, including some pre-release 2007's. I'll go to the winery today to pick up some cases of the just-bottled wines. At the tasting, we'll have equestrian demonstrations and vineyard tours. See you there!

Butter & Egg Parade

The parade was yesterday.

Our float, representing the Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance (PGWA), was an antique crawler towing a buckboard wagon that was carrying some compost, a winepress, and several winegrowers. My buddy's youngest daughter thought it was the coolest-looking float. Good answer!

I rode in the driver's seat of the wagon, holding a bottle of 2006 Clary Ranch Pinot Noir. I had Liana and Olivia walk alongside the float to hand out extra wine labels... Shameless Promotion and Child Labor: two great concepts that go great together, right? I told the girls I'd pay them $4/hour plus a $1/hour bonus if they smiled.

Well, it didn't work out like I hoped. Liana handed out two labels. Olivia handed out a few more. Both of them said that they didn't earn the smiling bonus. Oh well.

The PGWA is a committee-run organization, supposedly an alliance of growers, wineries and interested local wine enthusiasts. The board meets once a month so that they can review the decisions that were postponed at the last meeting, and before adjourning, they postpone any further decisions on questions that may arise. (In fairness, I may be exaggerating, but not by much...) Their stated mission is to educate wine consumers about the high-quality wines that are being grown in the Petaluma area. One would think that having events to expose local consumers to the wines would be high on the list of priorities. However, some board members are resistant to having PGWA sponsor events where wines could be sold, since this would "benefit only the wineries". So thus far, the only events we've had have been our own private parties where we drink our own wine and congratulate ourselves.

We have spent $4000 on a website and $4000 on a logo, yet cannot get support for spending $1200 on a public event where we can sell wine. There is a mental disconnect between the sale of winegrapes and the sale of wine. I am dumbfounded at the shortsightedness.

At the meeting when I was elected to the board, I interrupted the adjournment to push our participation in the parade. This action made me the Parade Committee Chair. We threw together the float with minimal fuss. In PGWA's two or three years of existence, it was their first public event. We weren't able to sell wine, but now at least Petalumans have the idea that world-class wines might be grown and produced in their own back yard. Now if we can only figure out a way to put wine into their mouths...

Ain't decision-by-committee grand?

Pouring on the Peninsula

Thursday, I picked up the kids right after school at three & went straight to my folks' place in Terra Linda. Left them there with Grandma and Papa, and got back on the road to Hiller Air Museum in San Carlos.

I was headed to a Venture Capital presentation. I knew that I was supposed to come, but with how much wine? How many people? I knew none of the details. The gathering was scheduled to begin at 5, and I left Terra Linda at about 20 to 4. Traffic wasn't bad, and I got thru the City and down to San Carlos by about an hour later.

When I got there, there was a check waiting for me, paying for one case of Pinot. I was to pour from that case and leave the remainder. Okay by me! I need to attend more functions like this.

They fed me sushi, garlic shrimp, carved tri-tip, seared ahi, roast beef on a skewer, crab cakes - and I was drinking the wine that they bought from me! OH... MY... GOSH! At one point I had people saying to me, in urgent, hushed tones: "Paul: Raise your hand and wave." They had just introduced me to a crowd of about a hundred. Sign me up for another tasting along these lines, please!

A speaker named Vinood Something talked at length about opportunities in green technology. As I was made to understand, he was a founder of Sun or Apple or Some Big Tech Firm. He was talking about getting into Billion-dollar markets on the cheap: just 50 million. These guys can afford my wine.

I invited interested guests to the Springtime Tasting in the Vineyard on May 2. I expect I'll see a couple of them, maybe more. There is the possibility of a BarnBurners shindig afterwards.

We'll see. I'm tired tonight.

Tomorrow morning is Petaluma's Butter & Egg Parade, and I'm in charge of the Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance float: a 1947 Cletrac crawler pulling a cartload of winegrowers and some compost and a wine press. Gotta be in line by 8:30am, and we don't cross the STARTING line 'til 1:40. Look for me and my chillens! Christopher will be marching with the Boy Scouts, just ahead of Liana, Olivia and me with the Winegrowers float. See you there.