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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.