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!