Summer Storms

We had a fierce storm Saturday night that dumped .75" of rain. By the looks of some of the grape clusters it also dropped hail. As a grape farmer I shouldn't like the storms but I still marvel at the energy and the beauty.

More Vineyard Romance!

It has been raining for the last couple of weeks. We will be posting pictures of the rain and how happy the grape vines are! There has been no hail to date so I am also happy. Today I wanted to show a side of vineyard life that is not much talked about. The vines do not stop needing attention. They continue to call for me when I would rather stay inside. I get wet out there! Since I am not exactly a tall person, even when the rains have stopped the vines continue to drip water as I work. And the soil, oh boy, the soil! It has a clay component that gets both slippery and sticky when wet. As I try to keep a sure footing the clay clings to my boot. It both adds a couple of inches to my height and weighs me down! Romance? You decide.

If You've Ever Been a Mother...

don't become a wine grape grower!

This picture shows what we call, "bud burst." It signals spring is here and these little babies want to start to boogie! The problem is that the last frost isn't usually until the end of the month so odds are that these beautiful buds will get crispy fried before they have a chance to fully grow into long beautiful shoots that will produce grapes.

This means that as their chief caretaker, I am going to spend the next several weeks watching the weather and hovering over the grape vines, trying to talk them into going back into dormancy. Of course, like children, they will not listen to me and will continue to venture further out into the world.

I guess there is one good thing that comes out of my hovering over my vines. My adult children must be overjoyed I now have something other than them to spend my worrying time on. How about it, Kathryn and Ian?

Keri Jelks- Wine and Farm Festival Artist

Keri Jelks has been a rancher and active community member of Sonoita for over 30 Years. Keri enjoys painting in her studio and in nature where the wind, air and birds surround her. Having received her degree in creative writing Keri also loves to write.

A returning artist to Canelo Hills Vineyard and Winery 's Wine and Farm Festival, Keri will be selling her simply delicious cookbook, "Yum-Yum," which is chock full of her best recipes as well as her exquisite paintings. She will also have Giclee prints of her animal paintings, note cards portraying landscapes and animals, and an item hot off the press, her unique birthday calendar featuring domestic and wild animals.

Zork Results

We had a great time with the Zork closure survey. The on-line vote was 78% for and 22% against. The tasting room survey customers voted 90% for the Zork and 10% against it. So, I guess it looks better when you can see it up close and play with it. Some of the "yes" voters had rave comments like, "It's awesome!" "It's easy to use!" "It's a great idea!" and "Why didn't someone think of it sooner?" Some people's yes's had qualifiers like, "but not in red, only black or maroon," and "for emergency use only." The no voters had comments like, "too much plastic" and "too hard to open." Great things for us to take into consideration. The plastic is recycle-able and a kind customer showed me how it can be opened easily.

Tim and I decided we will use the Zork for our spring bottling of our 2007 Chardonnay. We will survey the people who buy it and then consider where to go from there.

Thank you all for participating! Joan

GRAND OPENING

We're ready for our opening on September 22! Come on over! Joan and Tim

The grapes are harvested!

Whew! The past week has been a busy one. Tim and I had planned to spend the week-end labeling our wine and getting the building ready for our Sept 22 Grand Opening. Then Tropical Storm Henriette threatened both our vineyard in Sonoita and our grape suppliers' vineyards in Willcox. We all made a quick decision to get most of the grapes off the vines. So, Tim and I had several long days, from before sunrise to after sunset, picking, destemming and crushing. The winery now smells of fermenting grapes but Tim will write more about that as he is the wine maker. As the farmer in the family, it is a good feeling to have the grapes in bins. Now I can get back to preparing for the opening.

What IS Tim doing?

You may be wondering what this thing is that Tim is looking through. It's called a hand refractometer. It is one of the many tools a winemaker uses during harvest season. I think it is an amazing little thing and is used to measure the sugar level in grapes to see if they are ready to harvest. It's very handy because it can be used right in the vineyard and only needs a drop of juice. Our grapes are not quite there yet. They will need another couple of weeks on the vine.