Doesn't quite capture

The monsoon rains are a magical time of year and now that they have started the storms never cease to amaze me in the variety of weather experiences they provide - rain and lots of it for sure, threat of hail that damages grapes, dramatic lightning and thunder storms, and swirling skies with eerie light and shadows. This past weekend a storm was quickly moving through as the sun was setting behind the Santa Rita Mountains and cast a strange light on everything. It was not the typical brilliant explosion of oranges, reds, and yellows, but rather a piercing pure white light on a background of dozens of shades of grey. Our sign was lit up in a way that it has never looked so I snapped this shot. The picture doesn't quite capture . . . .

Grapelings

So much is happening in the vineyard this time of year. As a farmer it’s a challenge to keep up with the plants. Thankfully Joan does an amazing job and manages to deliver incredibly luscious grapes for our Estate Wines. (Did you know that according to the Federal Government a wine can only be called an Estate Wine if it is totally the product of the owners’ vineyard and winery and only if the property is located in an American Viticultural Area? For us that is the Sonoita AVA, the only AVA in Arizona). So busy farmers we are. But the grape vines just keep chugging along, single minded in their pursuit to make a biological impact on this earth. These young Tempranillo grapes are gorgeous and will make a dynamite 2008 vintage wine when they grow up.

More to the Story

The encounter with the snake Saturday was only the beginning of a long day for me in the vineyard. I continued the tying up work in our 5th year Syrah a little shaken and contemplating why that snake didn't bite me. It certainly must have known I was there before I saw it. So, deep in thought, I unwittingly plunged my hand into a bird's nest buried in a vine. When I looked in there was a little brown thing with a huge mouth opened, expecting me to drop a bug inside. I thought, "Oh,great, here's another life I am adversely affecting." I wondered if its parents would now abandon the baby and how I was going to keep it alive. As I was thinking of catching some flies and grinding them up I noticed a pair of adult birds hovering and making noises at me. So, I decided abandoning that area of the vineyard would be easier than parenting a baby bird and moved to the 4th year Syrah. This is where I had an encounter with a red ant. Frightening? No. But definitely painful. It somehow crawled up my pant leg and continued to munch as it marched up my leg. My last encounter for the day was with a fly that flew up my nose. Now, that was uncomfortable but easily expulsed! Oh, the romance of growing wine grapes!

Snake

Since we have planted our vineyard in a series of stages, we have vines that range from brand new to a mature 5 years old. That makes training and shaping vines a complicated job. I was going to describe the task I’m performing in training this 2 year old Gewirtztraminer vine, but how boring that would be compared to Joan’s story of her encounter with a Mojave Rattler. She was struggling with the luxuriant growth of the root stock (called water shoots) at the base of a 5 year old Syrah when she realized that she touched a snake that was hunting a big black stink bug. We have many types of snakes in the vineyard, so that’s not unusual, but this one was different, she just had a sense about it. She hollered for me to come “Tim, I think there’s a rattlesnake here”. For sure it was. By the time I got there it was coiled and ready for business. I shoed it away with a shovel and as we both watched it slither along in silence I know we thought the same things. The snake was here first. This is its land. We are the ones who changed it and replaced it with a vineyard. Just let it be. Well no. It is a Mojave, reputed to be the most toxic of rattlers. There’s little Emma to think about and customers and the next time (God knows why Joan wasn’t bitten). I dispatched the creature, but not without a heavy heart. So here’s a picture of me training Gewirtztraminer vines (there was too much excitement to get a shot of the snake). But the real story is more interesting and more complicated.

The Monsoon Rains are Starting!

We had our first summer rain this past Saturday. It didn't amount to much but it was fun to listen to the rain pelting the metal roof in the tasting room and to watch the clouds move across the sky. It was also nice to walk around outside in the cool air for a little while and snap some pictures before the sun reappeared and turned the little bit of moisture we got into a steam bath!

A Rose is a Rose is not a Rosé

Back in May, Joan and I tested our new bottling line (in anticipation of the Chardonnay bottling party blogged last week) by bottling 50 cases of Nebbiolo Rosé. It has settled down after the trauma of bottling and it is ready for release this coming weekend. I think it’ll get even better in the bottle over the next year or so. It is a lovely clear pink color and tastes just as refreshing as it looks. Definitely Nebbiolo, it is tart but very smooth and pleasant in the mouth with just enough fruit (cherry) and oak in the nose to complement the perfectly ripe flavor of a “gotta eat this one right now” strawberry and soft tannins in the finish. It is completely dry at 11.9% alcohol and will be for sale for $15 a bottle and as always a 10% discount for any 12 bottle case.

Music to bottle by

As we headed into a full day of bottling the 2007 Chardonnay, Sonya, Karla, Alicia, Kathryn, Joan and I started out with no music.

Although the rhythmic “squeak – kashook” of the corking machine provided us with some distraction, real live music was called for.



With the help of a mix of pop love (mostly forsaken) songs and country love (mostly about trucks and beer and broken hearts) songs we were rolling along.




We rotated the jobs – moving the empties, filling bottles, corking filled bottles, shrinking the neck wrap, labeling and stacking full cases.

Eighty-two cases later we were done.



After a few weeks resting to recover from “bottle shock” it’ll be available in the tasting room.