Just now I’m sitting inside my business partner’s house in Breckenridge, chillin’. Everybody else has been out skiing all day—fresh powder Friday and great conditions on the mountain: clear, 31°F on the mountain and moderately breezy. Not me. Last night I got slammed with a nasty head cold. But it’s given me a chance to [...]
Archive for the ‘Journal’ Category
Consumers Finally Ask About Alcohol Levels
There’s little need for me to rehash the back-and-forth in the wine media regarding alcohol levels: in short, the wheel has turned and we are back in the 1980s when it was fashionable to criticize California wine for having high alcohol. Here we are again. The difference this time around is that there is a [...]
2011 Vintage—Not That Bad!
“I have never seen anything like this…” I heard this sentiment expressed by more growers and winemakers during the 2011 harvest than ever before in my 25 years of doing this. I said it myself any number of times. It’s not that any one thing about this vintage stood out on its own as unusual [...]
Here Comes The Rain
Here comes the first rain of the season. The radar loop shows a slow eastward progression; most of the motion is southwest to northeast. Forecast total rain accumulations have increased from yesterday’s projections. Dislike.
2011 Vintage – Quick Harvest Update
Sunday afternoon; outside the overcast is increasing and westerly wind rising as the first of a series of cold fronts approaches the area. Rain on tap for tomorrow and then for Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Forecast has advanced the timing and decreased the amount of rain expected from the system. We really don’t have [...]
Biochar & Yeast Nutrition
I love Twitter. For example, biochar would not be on my radar today if I was not following @RandallGrahm on the platform. I remember reading an article on terra preta some time ago (might have been this article in National Geographic) but it is Randall’s sustained expression of enthusiasm for biochar as a vineyard amendment [...]
2011 Vintage & The Rain
Sampled the vineyard yesterday, confirming that Syrah (approaching 23° Brix) is two full weeks ahead of Pinot (not quite 21° Brix) this year. Awesomely weird; feels like down is suddenly up. Jennifer Thomson tweeted this morning that “Diageo reports they are bringing Chard & Pinot in around the clock for next 72 hrs. Anything 23.5° [...]
No Harvest Yet :-(
It is the day before the autumnal equinox and I haven’t picked grape one. A week ago I was sweating bullets over this, in spite of it being cold outside–in fact because it was cold outside. I have been mostly tweeting it up from the vineyard this year, but it is time to make a [...]
No One On The Corner Has Swagger Like Us
Close friends know I have been a M.I.A. fan since 2004. Closer friends know that weekend nights I sometimes turn DJ. A+B= this is how the Labor Day weekend has felt so far:
Is The Customer Always Right?
In a word–no. End of discussion. I refer the reader to the wise thoughts on this question expressed by Herb Kelleher, Gordon Bethune and ServiceGruppen (click here for a nice synopsis). Since we opened in May, 2005 we have relied on our semi-hidden location to weed out the people who might not “get” our unusual [...]
