On the Contrary

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.

Candace's Flowers at 'Chateau Lightner'

Vine:   Well finally I have gone through the last two rows in the upper block of Syrah and thinned the excess shoots and dropped quite a bit of fruit.  With some time off from consulting and a laser enhancement on my right eye last week left me with some free time to get things tidied up in the Vineyard.

Roses at the End of Each Row

I also cut some shoots that were over running the roses and pruned them for another round of flowering.  What does this have to do with growing great grapes?  Nothing, it is just peace of mind.  There is really very little to do now but let them ripen and wait for harvest.  It will be about 100° today and then we will hit a cooling off period where the highs will be in the low 80s.  This is the time of year when you want things to slow down so that the sugar can increase at a rate that allows the tannins to mature also without too much loss of acid.  It is all up to Mother Nature now.

Speaking of Mother Nature, the hoards of birds are now gathering to feast upon my hard work.  I put out my Kite-Birds this week in hopes that they will scare off the free loaders. I put four in the lower vineyard and one in the upper vineyard, strategically placed near the edge of the vineyard where the birds like to sit in the trees before making their foray into the smorgy board.

One of My Fearless Kite-Birds Protecting the Vineyard

Kite-Birds are a kites shaped like Ospreys tethered to a 20′ pole by about a 10’ string.  When the wind blows, which is all afternoon up here, they fly much like the real thing, hovering over a possible meal on the ground.  I have tried just about everything to keep the birds out of my vineyard except load noises and netting.  I can’t imagine using netting on my steep slopes and have this image of myself tangled up in the netting and waiting for someone to come free me.  If the Kite-Birds are not effective I may be forced to resort to loud noises although I don’t think that will work since the birds seem to be oblivious to my loud shouting of obscenities when they are feeding.

Anyway, if things continue to progress as they have been, I would expect to harvest the Syrah about mid-September.  The Mourvedre and Grenache will probably not happen until October.  I will start measuring (other than taste) sugars next week and start tracking the data next week.

Wine:  Wineries have been busy bottling what they put up last year so that they will have capacity for the harvest that is going to start shortly.  For those of you that have visions of owning a winery and sipping your wine while overlooking your vineyards, I would like to remind you of the hard work and constant attention that goes on every day.  It is a 24/7 job and not quite as romantic as one would think.  You have to love the life and the work.  It is also very expensive and you must do most of your own marketing.  As my friend Tom Cooper, owner of Holly’s Hill, once said, “If you want to be a millionaire in this business, start with about five million.”  On the plus side, if you make fine wine’s like they do, eventually it starts to come together.

Last week Candace and I ate out several times because we were having our wood cabinets refinished.  Up here where I live, eating out is always an adventure.  My general rule of thumb is that I want something I can’t cook at home or if I could cook it at home, I couldn’t do it that well.  So one evening we went to the Redbud Café down in Cameron Park.  It has a good reputation and one of my friends raves about it.  I found it disappointing.  My friend is known there and I think she gets special attention that sets the tone for the meal.  Now I am a snob about service.  When we walked in the staff was very friendly, but there is something about “Hi, how are you guys tonight?”  that sets my teeth on edge.  I don’t like to be called “guys”.  The menu was adequate with some good choices but what I had was only okay and I could have fixed it better at home.  I think if you stuck with the simple stuff like a burger with frites you would have been happy.  What really got me going was that I had ordered a beer before dinner to quench my thirst (the high point of the meal) and when my meal arrived, I asked for the wine list.  Then our waitress got busy chatting up another couple and I was half way through my meal before she came back to enquire on what I might like to order.  Candace had ordered a mushroom dish and a green salad.  It turned out that the mushroom dish came with fresh greens.  Shouldn’t the waitress have known that and advised her of that when she ordered her salad?  That is fairly common up here where the wait staff is a little too folksy, too friendly, not that knowledgeable about the menu, and service suffers as a result.  Anyway Redbud is off my list.

Saturday we were sitting around outside because everything in the house was tarped over, so we decided to go down to El Dorado Hills Town Center and maybe catch a movie and a light dinner.  Well, after perusing the movie list, we decided on just getting dinner.  My first choice was a Grill (I don’t remember the name), but the wait was about 45 minutes so we went to a little place called the Wine Konnection.  We secured seating outside overlooking the little lake and fountain and proceeded to have just a wonderful dining experience. The waiter was extremely knowledgeable about the wine list and I had a flight of Pinots and Candace had a flight of Red Blends which of course we shared.  We split a wonderful cheese and sliced heirloom tomato salad.  Candace had a perfectly prepared Kobe steak and I had a vanilla braised beef short ribs.  Both entrees were about $15, were perfectly prepared, and just delicious.  I ordered a bottle on Novy Syrah and it was just perfect.  So I guess beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.  If you want a folksy experience where everybody knows your name (but they aren’t paying attention to the details) Redbud is your choice.  If you want exquisitely prepared food, where the waiter is spot on his knowleged of the menu and the wine list, the Wine Konnection is your choice.  I will be returning there.  Carpe Diem.