On the Contrary

A real analysis of Afghanistan is that it is a civil war.  The players are Afghans who want to move forward, and the Taliban who want to move backward, with pot stirring by Al Qaeda.  I want you to think hard here.  Vietnam was the same problem with those who wanted a free Vietnam (mostly different warlords who had control of different areas), and those who saw Ho Chi Minh as the national leader, with the Viet Cong stirring the pot.  And of course, they didn’t like us very much.  But here is the part I want you to focus on:  We had 500,000 troops in the country to pacify the country and we failed.  Ask yourself how could 500,000 Americans and the whole South Vietnam military  not defeat the North Vietnamese?  Hint:  The answer is not in military strategy.

It is that we poorly understood the real motivations of the culture and we tried to superimpose our ideas about their future on them.  I could go into some deep analysis of different cultures and their xenophobia, but think instead about trying to tell your teenager how to live his/her life.  Your advice is good and wise, and yet they totally reject it.  They reject it because it is their life and they have to find their own way.  It is critical to their own identity of who they are.  Do you see the analogy here?  We are making the same mistake in Afghanistan that we made in Vietnam.  Its their destiny and as much as we think we know the right path for them, they are going to have to work it out for themselves, as painful as that may be.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel.  Just a few more troops and we will pacify the countryside and then democracy will flourish.  We just need the right leader and things would be different.  These are the rationalizations of the Vietnam war and we are seeing it all over again. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal warned in a confidential assessment that he needed additional troops by next year or the conflict “will likely result in failure.”  I wonder if it occurred to him that even with more troops it will likely result in failure also?

General McChrystal, or those who support this war in the military, leaked this report because they didn’t like the fact that President Obama may actually be asking the right questions.  He has said that he will not commit more troops unless he thought we really had a plan that would work.  Apparently they haven’t convinced him yet.  What I see is a repeat of the military thinking that failed us so disastrously in Vietnam.  These guys are good Americans and they want to solve a problem.  But they have a one-dimensional view of the problem.  The only light at the end of tunnel is one that is held by Afghans, not Americans.

So what is the way forward?  Are Pakistan and Afghanistan intimately linked?  If Afghanistan becomes a Taliban stronghold will it be the home of terrorism?  Is it that simple?  I don’t think so.  We have an arrogance that makes us think we can control another country’s destiny.  We actually think we know what is best for them and we can control it.  Should I remind you again of the teenager analogy?  The last time we went down this road it cost 58,000 lives and now we recognize that there was no national strategic interest there.  We are only at 4000 and counting now.  Will it take another 54,000 before we get the message?  I hope not.

What is it about checking the polls before we do anything?  It has become the measure of what is possible.  How many people believe that global warming exists?  How many people support continued troop deployments in Afghanistan?  Is there strong support in the country for tough Wall Street Regulations?  What percentage of the voters thinks there should be a public option for health care?  What percentage thinks we should investigate torture?  It goes on and on and it tells us nothing about what we should do, only the challenge we face to convince people of the problem.

Leadership is about telling the people what they should do and then convincing them to follow.  We seem to have forgotten that.  Leadership is about finding what will really work to solve our problems and then convincing people to do it.  It would appear that we are getting buried in the conventional wisdom about what the voters will support, and everything else is getting buried as impractical.

Health care is the prime example.  Is it more important to know what the electorate wants or is it more important to figure out what will really provide 100% coverage and start to restructure our system to lower costs with better outcomes?  If the two aren’t aligned isn’t it the leaders job to show the voters what will work and convince them to support him?  If you believe that the Republicans will never vote for a public option, should you negotiate it away even if you think it is critical to your reform package?  Maybe if you really went out there and fought for the public option, there would be enough pressure on the Republicans to change some of their votes.  It’s called leadership.

I love the discussion that is going on right now whether the voters will stand for more troops in Afghanistan.  Wrong discussion.  The American voters will support a troop increase if they are convinced it is in our long-term interests.  So the discussion ought to be on what is our goal, what are the policy choices, what are our alternatives, and what does it cost.  Once you have a plan forward that you believe in, then the job is selling it.  It’s called leadership.

My real consternation is with this idea that health care needs to be bipartisan to work.  Actually it needs to have the right elements to work and if the Republicans continue to try to block things, then the President should lead for an effective policy, not one that is fatally flawed so we can include elements of failed philosophical ideas.  Sometimes the other side just doesn’t have any good ideas and it is just time to move on.  Now is that time.  Right now 66% of our population is “confused” about health care.  If that is not an indictment of failed leadership, nothing is.

For my own part, I take issue with most of the conventional wisdom of today about most of our policy issues.  The conventional wisdom is that we should not be too far to the left or right, but continue a middle of the road approach that most of the voters will be comfortable with.  But as I look at the challenges that face us, I am convinced that old go slow approaches are no longer operative.  In order to get back into the race, regain a leadership position in the world, and secure the financial security for our children, we need a totally different approach.  This means government has a major role in bringing about these changes because the market place has shown that its only interest is in the status quo of the moneymakers.  Not only do we need to convince the voters of this, but we need to convince these same people to make the necessary sacrifices in taxes and life choices, to secure our future.

David Brooks in his column on Monday said, “It means he (the President) has to align his proposals to the values of the political center: fiscal responsibility, individual choice and decentralized authority.” But the political center, by which he means right of center, and decentralized authority, is what is leading to our downfall.  It doesn’t mean we give up on market solutions, it just means that the market is not the be all and end all of policy solutions.  It is time to move in another direction and we need the leadership to show us that direction.  So far it has been sadly lacking.  If you think I am wrong, ask yourself why 66% of the nation is confused on health care.  This one is a no-brainer.

The passing of Ted Kennedy impacted me more than I thought it would.  I have to admit I shed a few tears.  Through all the years that I have followed him, he always stood for the little guy.  He fought for education, civil rights, gay rights, women’s rights, and of course, health care for all of us.  When Bill Clinton started leaning to the right, he was unafraid to criticize him.  When the nation was rushing to war in Iraq, he was unafraid to vote no.  I am a little depressed because I am not sure there is anybody to stand up for me anymore.

I remember when it wasn’t cool to be liberal and Senator Kennedy stood up and said, “I am liberal and I am proud of it.”  He never attacked anyone personally, but he was unafraid to roar like a lion when he saw injustice in the Senate.  Where Republicans were trying to limit government, he was trying to find ways for government to help.  Where conservatives try to tell us what we can’t do, he was always imagining what we could do.

I think what he represented to many of us was a belief in shared responsibility and that we are all in this together.  For the younger generation he epitomized resurgence and all that was good about being a liberal.  He represented indefatigable striving against inequality and injustice, and most of all hope for a better tomorrow.   Losing him was like losing one of our great generals in a never ending war against little minds.  I am just not sure there is anyone to take his place. He passed the torch to Barack, but so far there has been no lion from him.   At any rate, may he rest in peace.  He damn well deserves it.

I think the health care debate kind of epitomizes the American decline.  It is a decline driven by people who feel entitled to certain things and are no longer willing to sacrifice for them.  It is about a country that has lost its way in an ever-increasing struggle to hang on to what they have.  It is about how little people are frightened of change, and paralyzed by their fear, stymie any potential for growth.  It is about how one political party capitalizes on that fear and in using that fear to prevent any change in the status quo, works against the best interests of the fearful.  Why do they do that?  Big money and big corporations.  The status quo makes them rich.

There is only one solution to the health care problem (covering all our population and getting control on the costs).  That solution is a single payer system where we all pay for it through our tax system.  Anything else is built on lies.  The health care insurance industry is incentivized to maximize profits for their stockholders, not provide cost effective health care for all.  Taxing the rich to pay for expanded coverage or requiring everyone to buy health care insurance is just another way of trying to find a free ride and maintaining a failed system.  We think nothing of paying for police and fire protection through our tax base, why not medical care?

Will there be rationing?  Of course there will be rationing.  People want unlimited care, but they don’t want to pay for it.  Should granny, who has only about six months to live, get that hip replacement?  If it is not your money, why not?  But if it is your money and it could also be spent to ensure that one of your children gets the care now to ensure a long life, where would you spend it?  Sooner or later we have to quit running around like scared children and face up to some hard decisions.

The fear of change and the future is driving a lot of the behavior we are seeing to today, especially from those over weight white people screaming at Town Hall meetings.  Health care isn’t really the issue.  Their world is rapidly changing and they are terrified.  They think if they just hang on to the status quo everything will be okay.  As the world population grows and other nations become real competitors with the United States, their security and our favored position has been threatened and they are lashing out like frightened children.  And the Republicans know how to play on that fear.  This morning in the local paper (Sacramento Bee) there was an article about how CalPERS (California Public Employees’ Retirement System), the country’s second-biggest buyer of health care services, has urged Congress to act quickly to overhaul the nation’s health care as the present system and the benefits they are paying for are not sustainable.  So much for the status quo.

Why would Republicans be so supportive of policies that will lead to the decline of our country?  Well there are several factors here.  First, if anyone saw the interview on Meet the Press last Sunday with Dick Armie and Senator Tom Colburn from Oklahoma (this state elects some of the most ignorant and backward politicians of our times) then part of that question is answered.  They aren’t very smart.  It was shocking to see the amount of misinformation, which poor Rachel Maddow tried to correct, that they put out as fact.  But the real insightful moment was when Rachel pointed out that Armie has been against Medicare and Social Security.  Arianna Huffington drew the obvious generalization about this crop of Republicans on Keith Olbermann’s Countdown on Monday night (sorry, no transcript is available yet).  They want to make government so small as to be totally ineffective.  Even though we have seen where that leads us, they persist in this ideological pursuit of dismantling government.  That would leave the corporations in charge and these are the entities that make the Armies and Colburns of the world rich.

So in this health care debate, we see the seeds of our own downfall.  If the corporations win by using ideologues like Armie and Colburn to strike fear of change into our less than educated and informed population, then we are truly a failed nation.  Instead of standing firm behind a basic right for health care for all citizens, that government has an important role in our future, and that we must invest in that future, we become frighten selfish people who protect what is ours and fail to make the sacrifices for our future.  In doing so we think they are protecting our American way of life.  But what we are really doing is sowing the seeds of our destruction.

Bad news comes in many forms, but Friday it came in the form of an email. It announced that a friend and co-worker had suddenly died. That friend and co-worker was Sally Neufeld who lived in Denver with her husband and children. I had known Sally for about seven years, working with her on various proposals for federal environmental cleanup contracts. Being a proposal manager, as Sally was, is a grueling job made even more difficult in the construction industry because it is such a male dominated field. But Sally could handle these guys and she did it with dry wit and professionalism. She was one of those rare people you meet that you know you have met someone special. She was always trying to balance her 60-70 hour work weeks with her family life and she always did it with a smile and a matter-of-fact approach to the challenges in front of her. I really admired her and so enjoyed the special privilege of stealing some of her precious time for a glass of wine after a long day trying to make sense out of a proposal.

Apparently about 10 days ago she had a bicycle accident and hurt her arm and thought she might have hurt a rib. When she went to the doctor a few days later because of the swelling in her arm, she was admitted due to blood clots in her arm. One of the blood clots broke free and caused a mini stroke so they did a CAT scan and discovered cancer in her brain. Then they did a PET scan and discovered she had stage four lung cancer and the cancer was in her bones and kidneys as well. She found all this out a week ago on Saturday. She went home Tuesday, then into hospice on Thursday, and passed away Friday morning around 1:30 am.

No, life is not fair. So live every moment as though it could be your last. That is your lesson to us. I will miss you Sally. So will almost everyone who knew you. You made my life richer and I thank you for it.

UPDATE:  THE SERVICE IS AT 10AM Wednesday, Aug 5 at Crown Hill
7777 West 29th Avenue
Wheat Ridge, CO 80033
Phone: 303-233-4611

Sorry for the late notice, but I just found out.  You can probably call that number to find out about how to send condolences to the family.

No I haven’t fallen off the earth.  I am on a all consuming consulting job and my blog program won’t let me upload photos.  I should be back in action soon and can focus on solving my technical problems.

There are three things (other than torture, See Securely in the Bubble) that I think President Obama must wade into if he really wants to set a new moral and ethical tone for this nation.  President Obama has set out goals for change in America, but he has been hesitant to take a stand on the specifics of these programs.  A case in point is the Stimulus Package where he would say that out of political necessity, he let Congress fill in the details.  Sadly allowing Congress to shape this plan watered it down with way too many tax cuts instead of real spending on infrastructure and he ended up with zero Republican votes.  One could argue that this is the only way you can make things happen in Washington, but if political expediency gets you a watered down version of change, is it really change?

Sooner or later President Obama has to draw a line in the sand and we are all waiting eagerly for him to do it.  It is sad to say, but true, that he could take a lesson from his predecessor, President Bush.  President Bush was not afraid to say exactly what he wanted done and then he got Congress through his bullying to go along.  Sadly on most of this stuff he was wrong, but the lesson on getting things done should be evident.  There are three issues on President Obama’s plate that if he does not take a stand, he will fail us morally and ethically.  They are health care, equal rights for gays and lesbians, and government administration of student loans.  Each is a no-brainer yet each is adrift in Congress in a sea of special interests.

First let’s take health care.  Can anyone believe that we are discussing a revamping of health care and no one who supports a single payer system has been allowed at the table to present that option?  This is morally and ethically depraved.  I will not rehash why the only way forward is a single payer system (See Health Care Wars and Scare Tactics and Reinventing the Wheel – Universal Health Care)), but to allow a Congress that is bought and paid for by the health insurance companies to stymie real change is only another futile game of kick the can down the road.  So where is your moral courage Mr. President?  Where is your demand that whatever comes to your desk will have a single payer option in it?  Sixty percent of our citizens, doctors, nurses, and other health care providers want to see a single payer option so where is your outrage?  If Congress is left to their own means, health care insurers will be protected and history will look back on this as another failed attempt to get serious about change.

Then there are the gay and lesbian issues.  Say what you want Mr. President, this issue boils down to equal rights for all our citizens.  Good, brave Americans are being kicked out of the military because of the misguided Clinton compromise of don’t ask-don’t tell.  Lives are being seriously disrupted and damaged and you could prevent this, and yet you do nothing even though you promised to protect these people.  Is it not time you looked the military in the eye and said grow up?  On the marriage issue, we have this idea that states should decide who can marry whom.  We had this same problem in the civil-rights era and finally the federal government had to standup for the rights of our black citizens when states used the “states rights” argument to deprive many of our citizens of their rights.  When are you finally going to stand up for the rights of our gay and lesbian citizens?  While you dither with what is the most politically expedient thing to do and pacify the generals, real people are being seriously hurt.  People have a right to their religious beliefs, but these beliefs cannot be used to deny others their rights.  It is time you took a stand.  You could issue an executive oder delaying any further actions against gays in the military until you can get the appropriate Congressional action.  All it takes is a little courage.  You don’t have to be reasonable.  Simply look the nation in the eye and say this is wrong and I am ending it.

Finally there is the issue of student loans that have been administered by the private sector (banks) where the government guarantees the loans, buys the loans back, takes all the risk, and the banks have been raking in a fortune in fees.  These fees, in the billions of dollars, could have been turned into thousands of additional aid for students to go to college.  Talk about corporate welfare.  So this no-brainer screams for the government to deal out the loans directly, save the money in fees and put thousands of deserving kids into college instead of corporate welfare for the banks.  President Obama has taken a sort-of stand on this one, but the banking lobby is once again doing its work in Congress and this may also be stymied.  So Mr. President why don’t you stand up and shame the banks?  Point out that they are stealing from our kids and their future?  Is it inconvenient during saving the banks with massive bail outs to force a little tough love?  Most of us would welcome it.

Bottom line Mr. President is that we elected someone to lead.  We know Congress is bought and paid for and they need adult supervision.  So when is it you are finally going to give us some instead of some halfway measure that gets us nowhere?  It is time to take the reins.  It is time to be the leader we voted for.

Vine:  Well I have just come in from the vineyard, thinning the Syrah.  The picture on the left gives you some idea of the rapid growth that is occurring in the vineyard especially if you compare to my last weeks posting.  For those of you that want to know what growing grapes involves, this is one of those extremely important tasks to focus growth on well-positioned and strong shoots.  I have been getting up every morning at 5 am to be in the vineyard so I can be out of the vineyard by 10 am or so to he out of the heat and the sun of the day.  What you want is that each of your spurs produce two well positioned (top of plant and growing up) fruit bearing shoots. Think of a T, with the cordon forming the top of the T.  On each side of the trunk on the cordon, you want 5-6 spurs out of which you want two fruit bearing shoots to grow.  But the grape plants are very unruly and they will push out buds that grow into shoots all over the plant, and will push out multiple shoots at one connection point (node).  You want to remove all of these excess shoots, break off one of the doubles since this weaken the joint and makes the two shoots compete for nutrients, and remove non-fruit bearing shoots (you can see the flower clusters that will produce the grapes).  So you must walk along each row, and do some choosing at every spur.  It is time consuming, sometimes frustrating, and tedious. This gets further complicated since many times your strongest shoots are either doubles (two shoots out of the same node) or are poorly placed so that pulling them up through the wires (trellis) could and will break them off.  In some cases, growth is weak and then right next to it you have a very strong shoot, but with no fruit bearing clusters.  So you are trying to thin the growth, pick the best choices for fruit bearing shoots based on strength of growth and location, and sometimes leaving non-fruit bearing shoots to reposition your spurs next year.  The picture on the right shows a single spur and some of the jumble of shoots.  The picture below on on the left shows the same spur thinned.  It is a long tedious task but I have finished in the Syrah.  The lower vineyard Syrah is the worst because it is all terraced so you are working on a steep slope and yes I fell on my ass more than once.  Next I will tackle the head trained Grenache and then the Mourvedre.  In the meantime I need to walk the Syrah about every three days, break off any new growth, and push the shoots through the wires as they grow.  And you just thought I sat on the porch and sipped wine.  Next up after that is mowing down the vineyard, and then beginning Spring spraying for powdery mildew.  The fun just never stops.

Ron Mansfield, my vineyard adviser, told me a story about a couple who recently planted a vineyard (last year) and the plants (bushes really) needed to be thinned to strong shots to grow up the stake to later be thinned to one (the strongest) to form the trunk of a head trained vine.  He had gone out to give them a lesson in how to thin the plant and pick the two shoots (and tie them to the stake).  Then left them to their work.  While he was out there they were telling him about their plans to do some traveling in June and I laughed and said, they don’t get this yet, you don’t travel in June.  He said it got better.  They called the next day to see if Ron would “back them up” if they couldn’t get all the work done.  It is a lesson for all you out there that are thinking about your own vineyard.  It is hard work, albeit rewarding work, but the work doesn’t care about your schedule.  If you are planning to do everything yourself, I would not exceed 1500 plants which is what I have.  And understand that some tasks you really will need help because it won’t wait for one or two persons to get around to it.  Heavy equipment won’t help.  That is pruning in the spring, and harvesting in the fall.  Both tasks have a window of optimum performance and needs to be done by a crew who can complete it in a very short time.

Wine: We have an event up here this weekend (Rock and Rhones) which is one of my favorites and I wrote about it two weeks ago if you are interested.  But this is my time to replenish my wine cabinet and since I belong to many wine clubs, most of my work is simply picking up my shipments at the different wineries.  So I thought I would do that so that during the event at many of these wineries I would not have the additional task of picking up wine.  My wife is always suggesting that we buy more wines we are unfamiliar with and generally I would agree with her, but one rule of thumb is that good wine is usually not cheap.  Good wines up here are usually $20-$32 and of course I get a growers or club member discount which makes getting my wine fix locally even more attractive. So I pick up about four cases (of course I added some additional bottles to my shipments) and I thought I would give you some recommendations to come up here and taste so here they are (sorry, no whites):

Holly’s Hill

2007 Mourvedre Classique (Disclaimer – Some of the grapes are mine)

2005 East Slope Syrah

2007 Tranquille

Miraflores

2006 Petite Sirah

2004 & 2005 Syrah 2006 Zinfandel

Any Year Methode Ancienne Syrah

David Girard

2005 Mourvedre

2006 Syrah Gamay Noir

2006 Syrah

Narrow Gate

2007 Petite Cuvee

2006 Petite Sirah

2006 Syrah

Donkey and Goat

2006 Four Thirteen (Disclaimer-2 of the 4 varietals are my grapes)

2006 Syrah (Vieilles Vignes, Mednocino)

2006 Fenaughty Vineyard Syrah

I have a suggestion for you.  Sometimes if a winery is tasting several vintages of say Syrah ask to do some side by side tasting.  For instance pour a Miraflores 2004 Syrah next to a 2005 and compare.  Do the same thing with different growing locations.  For instances at Holly’s Hill ask to taste the Hilltop Syrah along side the East Slope (same vintage).  You will be amazed at what you can learn.  Carpe Diem.

The thing that keeps me sane is the assumption that most people see beyond the soap operas that are presented in the media as news, but I am beginning to wonder.  I drove once again to San Francisco this weekend for a five year anniversary party for my sister-in-laws for being cancer free and the experience of watching other drivers gives me pause about their ability to think and the future of this country.  Here are my favorites that make me think either the rest of the world is oblivious, or just rude and stupid:

• The idea that the far left lane is where you set the cruise control at 55 mph and never look in your rear view mirror at the line of cars piling up behind you hoping you will get over.  When you notice people passing you on the right, you give them the evil look as though they have somehow offended you.  Personally it is a good thing I don’t have a rocket launcher mounted on my car.
• You merge into traffic moving at 65 mph behind someone going 35 mph.  This is usually someone with a gray head that thinks they are being super safe while exposing you to being rear ended by the oncoming traffic.  Then after they have made your merge potentially lethal, when you try to get around them, they accelerate to 85 mph.  The only positive thing is that they will die soon.
• Then there is the guy (usually a guy in a truck) who decides to merge into your lane without looking, so as you swerve to miss them and honk your horn, they flip you the bird.  Then later on as they pass you, the woman in the passenger seat gives you the evil eye.  I cannot figure out what is going through their mind that could say this was my fault.  But then I think I know exactly how Republicans think:  They cause all this havoc and then when you try to make the world safe again, they glare at you.
• You are moving 70 mph in the fast lane when suddenly the car in front of you slows down to 55 mph for no known reason (speed limit 65mph).  Then they drift around in their lane going from one line to the other.  Finally in exasperation and your need to put some distance between you and them, you pass them on the right.  As you pass them you notice that they have a cell phone plastered to the side of their face.  I wish I could stop all drivers not using hands free devices, rip their cell phones out of their hands and stomp on them.
• You are in the left lane going 65 mph with traffic in front of you as far as the eye can see, and some guy/gal passes you on the right and then forces his/her way back into your lane.  Let’s see.  You gained one car length moving at 65 mph which gained you .5 seconds on your trip.  You could do that only because I was nice enough to leave enough space between me and the guy in front of me to allow for an emergency stop.  But you showed me didn’t you and now you are winning the race.  Where oh where can I purchase a rocket launcher for my car?  Maybe one of those 50 caliber machine guns that mounts on the roof that are available at gun shows or maybe a one of those gun shops along the border.
• What is it about using a turn signal indicator that is so hard?  I know it would require moving your right hand about 8 inches, but is that so much to ask?  When I lived in New Orleans where most of the drivers did not have car insurance, I understood why they didn’t use it.  If the other driver knew what you were going to do, that would give them an unfair advantage.  Maybe that thinking is spreading.

Well the good news is we survived the trip, my sister-in-law is healthy and happy, the party was a great success, and San Francisco is a beautiful place to visit.  The bad news is that if people’s driving habits reflect their judgment and intellect, we are heading for hell in a hand basket.  Hopefully they vote better than they drive.

Vine:   Okay, work in the vineyard continues.  Right now it is boring work raking up the piles of pruning debris and hauling them down to the burn area.  The picture on the left is the raking results with the piles waiting for pickup.  At the bottom of the hill you can see the debris that has been moved down from the upper vineyard waiting to be burned.  Note that you can click on the picture to get a full sized picture.  My old back is getting tired of this.  I have found some erosion damage and will be repairing in the next couple of weeks. Generally most of this damage is due to gophers digging holes that the runoff water fills and washes out, hence the reason for continuous gopher patrol.  I will fill the washed out areas with rocks and then dirt to prevent them from washing out again next year which of course they will as the gophers continue their terrorist activities.

I have also included a picture of pruning on the trellis system and here is how it goes:  This year’s new wood (the shoots that spring from the buds from last years new wood) are what produce the grapes.  Grapes generally only grow on new wood.  So the picture that you are seeing is a pre-pruning picture where you see the two shoots from last year growing (last years new wood) from a spur (6-spurs on each cardon (horizontal part of T) on each side of the main trunk (vertical part of T).  Last year these two shoots produced the grapes for the wine.  Pruning will cut one shoot completely off, and pick the other shoot that has the best positioned buds and health, and cut it back to two bud length.  This becomes part of the spur and the two buds will push the new shoots (this years wood) that will produce the grapes.  Note that on the picture on the right you can see the buds as white pimples. Typically these buds will produce more than two shoots and later you have to thin to the two shoot configuration.  Two shoots per spur and 6 spurs on each side of the T (each cardon) is a good balance for this plant in this soil.  Note that each shoot will produce multiple grape bunches and these will be later thinned to two (depending on size of shoot to support) grape clusters.  See the vineyard pictures for how this was done last year (Vineyard).  Okay so much for vineyard 101.  On to the fun side, the product.

Wine: This last weekend was a biggie.  Saturday we had committed to help my friends the Wards with a charity dinner they had sold at auction to help the local theater group.  It was a seven course affair mostly prepared by Fran and Mike with Steve and Candace doing prep, general cooking, serving, and cleanup.  The Bush’s (Paul and Maggie) from Madroña Winery worked with us to pair wines for each course during a practice dinner several weeks ago and to pour and explain each wine (cook the Bread Pudding and help in every other way).  The pairings were excellent and we must have tried at least 10 different and distinct wines.  My favorite was the Madroña Reserve Malbec.  The meal included:

- Grilled Ahi with Ginger Black Bean Sauce on Asian Coleslaw – 2007 Dry Riesling ~ 2005 Reserve Syrah
- Leek Salad with Creamy Tarragon and Garlic Dressing – 2007 Reserve Chardonnay
- Deep Fried Quail in Ale Batter, Pear Apple, or Apricot Chutney – 2006 Zinfandel
- Intermezzo of Honey Dew Melon – 2007 Fiore
- Short Ribs in Cabernet Sauvignon, Green Beans and Shredded Almonds, Garlic Mashed Yukon Gold/Purple Potatoes – 2006 Malbec
- Fromage and Fruit Plate (Midnight Moon and Petite Basque) – 2003 Enye Syrah
- Traditonal Bread Pudding with Warm Whiskey Sauce – 1993 Select Harvest Riesling

Sunday we were up and traveling to San Francisco for the annual Rhone Rangers Grand Tasting at Fort Mason (on the water).  Rhone Rangers is an organization dedicated to the growers and wine makers of Rhone varietals.  Their Grand Tasting in San Francisco each year is to showcase what is being accomplished throughout California (and some in Oregon and Washington) locations to further the quality and enjoyment of Rhone varietals.  There were roughly 142 wineries represented with 36 food purveyors.

Obviously, one cannot taste everything so my plan this year was to stick with Red Rhone blends.  I wasn’t very successful, but I did a lot of spitting.  We usually go in with the Trade for two hours of tasting before the general public is admitted so that we can spend a little time with each winery.  Once the crowd descends, it is best to get your taste of wine and then move back from the tasting area to let others have a chance.  Some people never get this, and they try to hog the wine and the conversation while others wait.

My general impression was that this was a very good year.  Even with the economy in the dumpster, the wineries were well represented and the place was packed with happy tasters.  The quality continues to notch up each year so what I tasted had to be a limited selection and to reflect my own special interests.  So here are my favorites, and I tried to stay away from wineries I know so they are omitted:

Rhone Blends:
2006 Le Mistral – Le Mistral Winery Syrah, Grenache and Alicante Bouschet
2006 Brat – Prospect 772 Wine Company, Syrah, Grenache

Syrahs
IO Wines – 2005 Upper Bench, Ryan Road, and Rhone Red Classic.  All their Syrahs were complex and tasty, even meaty
Cedarville – 2006 Estate Syrah
Novy Family Wines– 2006 Syrahs, all are excellent and Novy continues to hit the mark
Prospect 772 – 2006 Syrah
Martinelli Winery – 2005 Terra Felice

Varietals:
Cedarville Winery – 2007 Grenache
Morgan Winery – 2007 Grenache
Frick Winery – 2006 Cinsault, 2005 Carignane, 2006 Grenache Blanc Note: I had never tasted any of these other than in blended wines and it was a treat.  Thank you Mr. Frick

Edmunds St. John – Heart of Gold, a 54% Grenache Blanc, 46% Vermentino blend, a truly distinct and refreshing white.

There were many others that I did not mention which included Holly’s Hill, Terre Rouge, and David Girard which are right up there with the best because I was trying to branch out and not taste my known favorites.  I would have tasted at Tablas Creek since they really started the Rhones in California and many of my varietals are clones of their vines, but there is always a gaggle of people there and I refuse to be a groupie.  Sadly A Donkey and Goat was not there.  Small wineries in this market have to pick their marketing opportunities carefully.  I did run into Tracy Brandt (Jared was home baby sitting), joint owner/wine maker and she gave me some great tasting tips.

For food, it was a bonanza for chocolate lovers.  Best chocolate came from Belgique Truffle Gateau and Clairesquares.  For other venues Sonoma-Artisan Foie Gras, Marcel Et Henri’s Pâté, and The Girl and the Fig’s cassoulet got honorable mention.

So after a hard day of wine tasting, we departed about 3 pm and hiked up (about 4 miles) to 2073 Market Street to the Woodhouse Fish Company for a Crab Louie, Fried Shrimp, Claim Chowder, a Calamari Sandwich, and a very cold beers. After all that wine, a great lager tasted quite refreshing.  It is a small place in a neat neighborhood with great seafood served casually.   Another perfect day.  Carpe Diem.