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Rough time of year. I've got folks that need a paycheck and I have to find work to do. Already filled a 40 yard dumpster with junk left lying around our storage areas and junk piles. Another crew has been trimming trees and brush around the vineyard and fence areas. This is something that needs to b...

Even though the Burris fire was about 5-6 miles away the winds had it possibly coming our way. My wife and I have rehearsed an evacuation plan due to our remote location. She insisted on packing the cars and to keep the peace I obliged. I'd rather do it in the calm of daylight than in a panic in the...

I had a neighbor about 2 miles away that had a herd of about 25-30 goats. Mountain lions killed and ate them all over a period of a few months.

After 4 days and nights our power came back on around 4:45 this afternoon.

Jesus, just checked weather station and NOOA. Philo and Potter Valley both 23 degrees. Not a good morning to be without power.

Hope tonight is the last of your worries for harvest 2019!

I can only imagine the power outages are messing with the final steps of harvest. Like many we're on our second day of no power. The fire thread over in wine talk seems to be the place for more news. Stay safe folks.

I texted Nate Weis as I saw Soda Rock winery burn. That's across the street from their Alexander Valley operation. He said so far so good.

Just lost power here in Ukiah about 15 minutes ago.

Loving that flight radar website. Prayers for our Sonoma friends tonight.

Paul Luckin wrote: ↑
October 26th, 2019, 10:42 am
Mandatory evacuation orders for city of Healdsburg and town of Windsor.

I can only guess they are being super safe on these orders. Have to caution on the conservative side in this day and age.

brigcampbell wrote: ↑
October 24th, 2019, 7:38 pm
We don't get much lightening in California except the the high Sierra so every fire is man made. Unfortunate but true.

Not buying that statement.

Jeff, the area where this “Kincaid” fire started is DESOLATE. Even a experienced hiker would have trouble hiking to the area where this fire started no less have brush cleared. The problem is with 60 MPH winds the fire goes from desolate to populated pretty damn quick. Tom So they can't allow cows ...

Husch Anderson Valley bottling for $25. Very solid.

Went to a harvest party in Anderson Valley last night and saw many of my fellow growers. Most feeling lucky and blessed that it's over and that most folks did quite well. Lots of folks blown away that this was my 41st harvest, probably because I look so young! Seed almost all drilled, and most all t...

Always interesting to wish for rain because MY grapes are picked, but I feel for my fellow growers who are still out there trying to salvage their crops. Cheers to my fellow growers and wineries.

Loaned 5 of my best pickers to a friend in Ukiah area. Picking Primativo at 6 tons/acre. Stinking clusters are over triple the size of the Pinot bunches we deal with. Luckily they are picking by the hour rather than piece work. They'd never want to come home! Looks like they'll be there most of the ...

Crazy frozen pick to finish my 41st harvest. Taco lady came after and we had some fun.

Final day of harvest and the coldest.....30 degrees out there. Glad I'm just the forklift operator. Taco truck at 11:00, clean up starts tomorrow. Cultivator and seeder start tomorrow. Trying to get back to normal sleep patterns hopefully starts tomorrow too.

Picked 12 tons of Pinot this morning (well my crew did) and now home to get generator going for fridge, freezer and computer/internet. So far so good. Plenty of ice for cocktails tonight, now let's see if I can get a nap.

It's 4:00 am and I'm getting ready for work. Texted the winemaker in Anderson Valley and they have power. I'm not exactly sure when ours went out. Should be interesting to see how this day shakes out.

I am ready. Have a propane stove, propane grill, wood burning fireplace, hose hooked up to the water holding tank that is fed from the well. I'll be ok. I put my wine in barrel yesterday, so no problem with fruit processing or temp fluctuation during fermentation. My guess is most wineries have bee...

Don't know if this has been brought up yet. I can't imagine every winery in the region has backup generators. Could it possibly happen that fruit won't be able to be processed....and even worse cooling jackets on fermentation tanks won't be working leading to overheated wines?

Having a short day yesterday we put our Pinot to barrel. Racked off the gross lees via siphon tube by elevating our garbage cans with the forklift. Although there's still quite a bit of stuff in suspension the wine has crazy ass color. Had enough for the barrel a 5 gallon demi and two extra gallons ...

I'm going to break tradition and do my summary before we're done picking. We have just 3 moderate sized Pinot lots that will come off Tuesday-Thursday and we'll be done. Total is going to be around 630 tons in 68 lots, split between 17 clients. We sold more fruit for sparkling this year which made t...

Hang time Chard this morning.

Going to barrel tomorrow after we pick the last Chardonnay field. I can now see the end. Today picked Gewurtz (at 35 degrees!) For two local clients, and finished another Pinot field too. A day off Monday (wineries running out of fermentation space) then our final days appear to be Thursday.

A week ago it was 102 for a high temp, this morning we're picking Pinot at 5:00 am at 34 degrees and neighbors wind machines running all around us. My poor crews hands were horribly frozen for hours until the sun came up. We are getting closer. Tomorrow we finish two fields that have lots picked ou...

I'm not a fan of MTN lions. If you have any domestic animals or house pets they will be in danger. When they have no fear of humans I don't think that's a good thing.

A week ago it was 102 for a high temp, this morning we're picking Pinot at 5:00 am at 34 degrees and neighbors wind machines running all around us. My poor crews hands were horribly frozen for hours until the sun came up. We are getting closer. Tomorrow we finish two fields that have lots picked ou...

A week ago it was 102 for a high temp, this morning we're picking Pinot at 5:00 am at 34 degrees and neighbors wind machines running all around us. My poor crews hands were horribly frozen for hours until the sun came up. We are getting closer. Tomorrow we finish two fields that have lots picked out...

Casey Hartlip wrote: ↑
October 1st, 2019, 7:00 pm

Roy Piper wrote: ↑
October 1st, 2019, 5:52 pm
I am coming off Moulds on Friday.

26.6 brix
287g Gluc/Fruc
3.8 TA
3.66 pH
72 YAN

About what I like. I will say that the grapes do not TASTE 26.6. More like 25.5. Glad to get started. Houyi is 10-14 days away.
So you'll do a water add and acid bump before fermentation?

Roy Piper wrote: ↑
October 1st, 2019, 5:52 pm
I am coming off Moulds on Friday.

26.6 brix
287g Gluc/Fruc
3.8 TA
3.66 pH
72 YAN

About what I like. I will say that the grapes do not TASTE 26.6. More like 25.5. Glad to get started. Houyi is 10-14 days away.

So you'll do a water add and acid bump beef fermentation?

IMG_20191001_092958641_HDR.jpg This is what clean Riesling looks like. Today's pick was about 60% clean and 40% rot. We pick this by the hour as it's a very precise job. We also get double the price when we hit 30 brix so it's worth the effort. Tomorrow back to Pinot for a pretty decent tonnage day...

Yes leaving the fruit on the vine is less than optimal. We'll have enough income and cushion that we'll likely drop it. It gives my folks some more hours. We will throw the fruit into the row rather than drop them directly under the vine. Less disease pressure and less acid leaching down through the...

Looking now like we'll only leave about 5 tons of Chardonnay. Pinot TBD. Casey, this might be a stupid question, but when you 'leave fruit', what happens to it? I know field crops that are left get plowed under, but what about the grapes? We'll either drop them on the ground especially if it's in a...

That's late harvest Riesling for desert wine. Shriveled berries are 35-40 brix.

Looking now like we'll only leave about 5 tons of Chardonnay. Pinot TBD.

It's rotten Riesling day!

Oh boy, picking Pinot while the neighbors frost fans are running.

Reading my remote weather station from the comfort of my jammies I see it's a chilly 36 degrees in the vineyard right now. Sure glad we're not picking today. 40% chance of rain tonight, then pretty smooth sailing for a while.

Broke out the comforter last night to shift to end-of-summer mode. Still sleep with doors and windows open, just not wide open. First two days off during harvest not caused by rain in a while. Didn't sleep great anyway. Fruit scheduled to pick thru Thursday. I don't see any ball buster days anymore ...

Looking like I'll be leaving about 30 tons out there when it's all said and done. A split between Pinot and Chard. What would I do if winery X came to me with an offer of 50% of what I sold to others? No way. I won't give a bottom feeder ultra quality fruit and an unfair advantage in the market and ...

I am coming off in 5-6 days in Moulds. The next 10 days are 69-79F. Simply won’t gain any ripeness in this period so why wait? We will be 42-44F at night starting Sunday so that will shut the vines down. I am 25.5-26.5 and 4.5-5 TA, 3.65-3.75. The canopy won’t last 10 days so off I come next week. ...

Will pass 500 tons tomorrow. SO glad the heal will be gone for the next week.

Wow, I had to go back a few pages to find this. I talked to an industry heavyweight yesterday. He said there is 5,000 tons of Mendocino Chardonnay unsold, there is 5,000 tons of Napa cabernet unsold AND 10,000 tons of Paso cabernet unsold. If we ever needed a smaller-than-normal crop this would have...

It's been a brutal couple days.....over 100 right now. Hoping the vines can catch their breath in the coming days. Knocked off at 11:00 and didn't get the amount needed but the folks were fading. Two multi client days coming up. Gewurtz and Chard, then Pinot from two different blocks. Added more wat...

Added another 80 pounds of whole clusters to my must this morning. That's 160 pounds now. Want to make sure I have topping wine after the barrel. Added 4 gallons of water and brix is now 24.7. IMG_20190924_121035928.jpg Did a little treading to get it all mixed in afterwards. Will check sugar once m...

Red Flag fire alert going tonight and tomorrow. Will be 100-103F and 15-17% humidity. PG&E lso looking to turn off electricity near the hills in Sonoma and Napa. My Moulds is 25.2, 5.3, 3.56. But I feel that flavors are behind brix. Wake me up when pH hits 3.70. Guessing 2 to 2.5 weeks. 25 brix and...

Casey Hartlip wrote: ↑
September 23rd, 2019, 8:50 am
I can take a stand. I just picked a few vines of 1995 Martini clone Pinot for the whole cluster portion of my fermentation. I got about 12 lbs per vine. Spaced 9x6.

Backtracking here a bit. 10 pounds per vine.

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