Trois French fizzes!

On this, the seventh day of Christmas, not wanting to bother trying to procur three French hens, and being four days late anyway, I am making do with three bottles of Champagne for my annual New Year's Eve festivities.  As one can see, The Widow is heavily featured.  Go 'ed, Mrs. Cliquot!  I hope a bubbly-filled night is ahead for all.
Have a very Happy New Year, everyone!

The net weight of a wet winter.

I spent a little time out in the vineyard today, un-pegging pegs and removing the bird-netting from the Pinot grigio vines.  I probably should have performed this little vineyard operation before now, as soon it will be pruning-time, but I ran the risk of being bonked on the head by an acorn, or two thousand.  Yikes!
I swear, I have never seen so many acorns as I have this autumn/winter.  There are years when the acorns are noticeably more bountiful than other years, but this year the sheer number of acorns has just been insane.  And they haven't stopped falling yet.  They're everywhere, not just in the bird-netting.
No doubt a result of the disastrous amount of rain that California experienced last winter, I'm afraid that if they all germinated and grew into oak trees there wouldn't be much room left for anything else in Vinoland.

Merry Dogmas!

This festive little poochie wants to wish everyone a very happy Christmas.  My little Vinodog 2 certainly enjoyed opening her presents this morning, especially the edible one.  And as far as I am concerned, I want to wish one and all a very safe and merry Yuletide.  "For it is in giving that we receive."  St. Francis of Assisi (and approved by V2).

Gaudete, 2017.

It's Gaudete Sunday, once again (funny how that happens).  My rosé of choice for this third Sunday of advent is a little something from the Côtes de Provence, a 2016 Fleur de Mer.  I picked this wine because I liked the name, Flower of the Sea.  And also because I felt like continuing with the French-themed weekend I am having; TWWIAGE's Christmas shindig, last night, was at a French restaurant.
A lovely pale salmon-pink, the Fleur de Mer is a little lean, but it does have a little bit of citrus, a little bit of white-heart cherry and a distinct briny vibe.  Of course, I could be just imaging that.
Sing it Maddy!

Oh, life.

Erm, hello.  As months go, November was a bit of a bust and I am happy it is over.  December is now here, thank goodness.
Time marches on and the Napa Valley is still busy with harvest.  However, it is not grapes that are being harvested right now.  No, it is the other crop, olives.  The olive harvest is in full swing and, at least to my untrained eye, it looks like it is a bumper crop this year.  Harvesting olives doesn't look like much fun, plain tedious if you ask me.  And the rewards are not as plentiful as from the positively-bursting-with-juice grape, although just as delicious.  I was talking to the gentleman whose crew was harvesting the above olives and he told me that he only expected a yield of 15 gallons of oil from each half ton bin.  No wonder good olive oil is so pricey.