On the Contrary

Vine:   Remember when I told you we would “drop” some fruit.  Well it’s time and it is always painful.  The picture below gives you an idea of some of the damage.

Dropped Fruit

Why do we drop fruit?  Well you have to understand that grapes and humans have two different goals.  Grapes want to be as prolific as possible because each grape contains the seeds of its progeny.  Grapes get red and start pushing their sugar, not because they love us and want to give us the best wines possible, but to attract those winged devils that eat the grapes, fly off and leave deposits here and there with the seeds of the grape’s progeny.  Now birds have the taste buds similar to those who think who think food is grub and wine is red.  They don’t care just give me some.  So the obliging grape pushes out as many grapes as possible.  The fact that all the flavoids have been diluted to grow so many grapes is lost on the dumb birds, but not on the discerning humanoid.  So we go through this time of year and drop fruit to focus the plants efforts on the crop that is left to provide the best possible and tasty grapes.  What you are looking for is two bunches per shoot, assuming the shoot is well developed and well leaved.  Additionally there is a lot of “secondary” growth which are grapes that developed later and are never going to get fully ripe.  So, snip, snip, snip.

Now you think the birds would eat the grapes on the ground, but oh no, let’s focus on the money crop.  Maybe they can discern the good grapes because they know when the brix is about 24° (indication of sugar, we usually pick around 24-28).

Tasty Syrah Just Begging For Bird Attacks

The bastards wait until you have this beautiful crop and then it is binge time.  I will be putting out my Kite-Birds next week. These are kites that fly in the vineyard and look like hawks.  I will post pictures when I get them up.  I have tried streamers and other devices, but the kite-birds seem to do about the best.  The point is that we are in that time of year when you have selected who the crop is going to be and you are left with sitting back and letting nature take its course.  It is an exciting time because the harvest is not far off and the crop is beginning to look really good.  I won’t know for a few more weeks as I taste through the vineyard and see what the sun, the wind, the water, and this wonderful soil have wrought.  Nature is a wondrous thing.

Upper Vineyard from the Front Yard

Wine:   This last weekend I was having a real hankering for roast beast.  I also needed some social interaction.  I have been working on another consulting job and siting up here in a beautiful vineyard, but I needed social contact.  So I got a really good looking rack of pork ribs and an organic chicken.  I called my good friends the Wards and said I am cooking roast beast, come on over.  The Wards are wonderful people to be around and they are one of those rare couples that don’t require high maintenance.  Either they can be there or they can’t, no complications.  They always ask one question:  What can I bring, and I always say nothing, and they always bring a special bottle of wine.

Now cooking both is fairly simple.  I prepared a rub the night before.  You know, the usual suspects, paprika, thyme, cayenne, garlic, salt, pepper, sugar, etc.  Throw in what ever hits your fantasy at the time, rub both the ribs and chicken, wrap well in aluminum foil and put in the refrigerator over night.   I have a deep barrel barbeque so I get the charcoal going, with some mesquite mixed in, with the coals piled up in one end.  Then I put the ribs in about 3 hours before we are going to eat, all the way on the other end where the draft will pull the smoke across as it finds its way out the barrel chimney.  Then about two hours before you are going to eat, put in the chicken on one of those vertical roasters.  I used to use a beer can, but technology has caught up with me, and now there are plenty of stainless steel roasters available.  Fill the cup shoved in the chicken breast with about half a bottle of a good ale (drink the rest to make sure it is not gone bad and then get another just to make sure), add a little rub and put it with the ribs off the direct heat.  Then just take them off at eating time.  People will think you are a genius.

This was a simple dinner with sliced tomatoes and cucumbers out of the garden, some good bread dipped in olive oil, and some saffron rice.  For wine I chose a nice (turned out to be fabulous)  pinot because it goes good with meat and chicken.  It was a  2006 Migration (Anderson Valley).  It had complexity and depth that was stunning.  For dessert Mike and Fran brought a wonderful 1999 Boeger Pettite Syrah that was served with sliced peaches fresh from the orchard, and double chocolate brownies.  As a finisher we opened a bottle of 2006 Holly’s Hill Tranquille,  So we sat on the patio overlooking the vineyard ate this wonderful food and drank this wonderful wine, watched the sun go down, and laughed the night away.  As Mike always toasts, “It is a good day to be alive” and he ought to know.  Carpe Diem