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Insult to injury.......24 degrees here this morning

Another day another 10 day forecast showing no rain.

I like end of year lists. It gives us all something to bitch about. WS has made a great living doing their reveal of the top 100. Last year's WS list had Roederer Estate high end sprinklers around #7 which was a pretty deal for our neighborhood. I made the WE year end list once #22 for my Eaglepoint...

Just back from a brisk walk with Zip on a brisk day. Pretty cold north wind blowing out there. Finally seeing some thin ribbons of cover crop popping out. I recently cut my Colorado deer up and tossed the carcass outside the vineyard. The first night something moved the thing about 75 yards uphill, ...

Ok so I got 3 Mendocino wines on that list.

Yes it's the time of year for lists. I scanned this pretty well and didn't find a single Anderson Valley OR Mendocino county wine. I guess '17 & '18 were good in many other locations. I'm expecting many amazing wines from the north coast to be released soon.

Very concerned about lack of rain. Looks like the jet stream and a huge blocking high pressure dome is setting up to send storms north into OR and WA for the foreseeable future. Really shitty.

Went out and did some pruning once things warmed up. Started in the 2015 planting of Robert Young Chardonnay, but after 45 minutes I remembered just how hard Chard wood is. Let alone those young Chard vines have very healthy growth. Shifted over to a Pinot block. A 2006 planting of clone 667 that ha...

Ended up recording an inch of rain over the past 24 hours. Bummer is nothing in the 10 day forecast.

Just had a 45 minute downpour that sounded so good!

My 2020 Pinot is a wreck. Smells and tastes great but like I said in the weather thread I blew the water add. It's now 15.5% alcohol but the sugar is still 2.1. All activity in the barrel has stopped and I'm not going to try to restart a single barrel nor heat the wine up. Will consult with some of...

My 2020 Pinot is a wreck. Smells and tastes great but like I said in the weather thread I blew the water add. It's now 15.5% alcohol but the sugar is still 2.1. All activity in the barrel has stopped and I'm not going to try to restart a single barrel nor heat the wine up. Will consult with some of ...

Merrill Lindquist wrote: ↑
November 16th, 2020, 4:25 pm
I see a forecsr for rain Tuesday and Wednesday. That would be nice.

Hoping for an inch!
Got my 2019 clone 91 Pinot bottled late last week. Very excited to get some.

Back to work tomorrow. Pruning begins for the 2021 season.

Back from my hunting trip late last night. Moderate rain falling this morning. There won't be any leaves on the vines after this one. Vineyard is cooked and crispy. Gonna see if cover crop popped with that quarter inch last week. Sure hope this next week brings some serious rain. Dead deer pic over ...

Hope everyone got their pictures of the fall foliage in the vineyards, because it's 28 degrees out there which means there WON'T be any foliage out there by tomorrow.

And the drought continues. It's hard not to enjoy the weather. 10 day says lows in mid 40's highs in the upper 70's. Life on the ranch has slowed. My salaried guys getting some much earned down time. Some doing their own clean up projects around the house, or just cruising. I've stopped looking for ...

Called my old neighbors this afternoon and they are without power too. I'm feeling fall and have a chick roast thawing out. A gift from one of my guys who I help facilitate them raising two nice steers. Totally grass fed and finished it should display some great AV flavors. Pics in the morning! Plea...

Curious as to who runs the Fox Hill vineyard now.

Obviously there's a touch of subsoil moisture in this spot. Cover crop begging for moisture.

First fire of the year....in the wood stove that is. 42 and a thick fog here this morning. Everything wet and drippy outside. Visability about 100 yards. Predicted to hit 77 this afternoon. Having the family over for dinner to see the ranch house this afternoon. Currently we are not predicted to los...

Not trying to alarm anyone, just reporting what is on the news this afternoon. The weather forecasters are projecting a "20 YEAR WIND EVENT" starting Sunday late night, early Monday morning. Winds on the hilltops forecasted to routinely hit 60-70 MPH during that time with some gusts to 100 MPH. The...

Al Osterheld wrote: ↑
October 20th, 2020, 9:40 am
Yowza, you had some efficient yeast.

-Al

We added 10 gallons of water to the must! Still missed it!

Update on my barrel of Pinot: my friends at Roederer did labs for me this morning. 15% ALC....oops on the water add! It's not dry yet and not thru malo yet either. My warehouse is around 60-65 degrees so we're going stir the lees and move it outside during the warm hours of the day. It still has 2.8...

The Indian summer/drought continues. It's hard not to enjoy the weather but the 10 day shows nothing upstream. Bummer.

What a trip. 38 this morning......98 this afternoon.

Crop insurance is very spendy. I bought it one year during the drought and I was afraid we wouldn't have enough water for frost protection. Back then you could get coverage from 50-80% of your average crop levels. I can only imagine that premiums will go WAY up after this year.

I'm still waiting to hear from clients to get some direction. So far I've heard that wineries are waiting for the wines to be fully fermented and will then send off for labs.

Lots of interesting chatter here. I've always considered myself a helpful person. I don't know how many times I've helped translate for a complete stranger in a store or on the street. My proposal is certainly hypothetical at this point. I would never 'require' that ANY of my workers speak only Engl...

I am still waiting on labs.... I did get the cover crop in yesterday...now a little rain and that will do its job. We are under another fire alert starting Wednesday evening and going through Friday. Please say it's not true. I expect to be without power from 6:00 pm Wednesday until 6pm Friday. I h...

I would just say you can assimilate without losing your culture, traditions and your soul.

38 degrees this morning in Philo. The move is basically over but it will take weeks to sort shit out. As I was here for the 6 weeks of harvest it feels good already. Took Zip for a morning vineyard walk. IMG_20201012_082522440_HDR.jpg What a spectacular place this is. The cool morning air free of sm...

A funny thing happened at harvest this year. I saw a French guy speaking Spanish at a winery in California. We speak Spanish at work almost exclusively. I'm lucky to be pretty fluent after two years in high school and immediately going to work in the field. There's no doubt it's been a huge part of ...

the Ukiah house pretty empty.

Philo house looked like a furniture store yesterday.
AND my barrel of Pinot is simmering away going thru Malo.

Lynne and I in a state of chaos. Moving from our Ukiah mountain house to the job site in Anderson Valley. Both houses a disaster right now. Moving company due tomorrow for the big stuff. Had some great friends helping pack stuff the last two days. A small group of my core guys have been fencing the ...

Put our barrel of 2020 clone 23 Pinot to bed today. As we are low tech farmer folks, everything was done with gravity and siphon. Seems this wine will be more on the red fruit style compared to last year's darker complection. All the unsold fruit is dropped and in another day or so all cover crop wi...

Al Osterheld wrote: ↑
October 1st, 2020, 7:09 pm
The Covid tests were just on general principles for the end of harvest?

-Al

No sir, with harvest almost done, one of my 22 person crew became Ill. Tested positive for Covid-19

Worst air quality that we've seen in weeks. Just horrible conditions. My crew and myself all went to the local clinic for a Covid test this morning. We had other projects planned but decided they should stay indoors with the shitty air. On a personal note Lynne and I in the final stretch of our hous...

Young friend of mine did a night harvest of Cabernet the other night in the Calistoga area and an hour later they looked back at the field they just picked!

Still need to do my 2020 recap. Pressed off our 75 gallons of Pinot yesterday and it's now settling in garbage cans. Going to go in this very fancy barrel on Friday.

Woke up at 4:00 am this morning knowing what was starting to happen to the south of us. Like most folks have had a sick feeling in my stomach all day. My foreman and I pressed off our half ton of Pinot this morning talking about the fires. I took my gooseneck trailer to MacRostie in Healdsburg to ga...

Ehren just did a Facebook post. The fire flared up & jumped CrystalSprings Rd and burned over the ridge & thru his vnyd but the firefighters stopped it at the driveway and none of the bldgs ignited. Good thing vnyds don't burn very fiercely. It hits close to home when it's one of your friends being...

Been wondering about Merrill too. Sometimes after harvest she heads to Boston I think. For the locals: how's the wind?

Hope y'all are following the smoke taint thread in wine talk.

Incentive? If I lie to my customers and misrepresent my product in order to get sales and they then discover I was dishonest/misleading they will no longer do business with me and will tell everyone who will listen that I am not to be trusted. That’s incentive enough for me. How about you? OK. Misr...

Andrew Demaree wrote: ↑
September 24th, 2020, 2:25 pm
Definitely sad to see.

Deer must gobble those clusters up, no?

We are 100% deer fenced.

Paul Gordon wrote: ↑
September 24th, 2020, 12:23 pm
Casey

Why drop the fruit instead of just leaving for the birds/to rot on the vine?

Paul

I would rather not have the vines continuing to try to ripen the crop. Certainly want less botrytis spores in and on the wood. Plus it's a bad look for our region to see unpicked fruit for months on end.

I'm sure my crew would rather be paid piecework for picking rather than their usual hourly wage, but this is reality.

Done 510 tons, left 40+ in the field. Recap to follow.

Very informative. Pretty much spells out the issues facing all of us ITB. I'm hearing a bit more optimistic views as wines and micro ferments are finishing up. I think our region of Anderson Valley is going to be fine. We only really had a couple of smokey days (air quality numbers of 150-160) and t...

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