Just because 10...

...I love dogs - love, love, love, love, love - they're great.  And baby dogs are simply unbeatable.  Happiness, indeed, is a warm puppy.
Meet Shasta, one of a litter of five Entlebucher Sennenhund puppies, who is one calendar month old today.  All boys, Shasta and his littermates are named after mountains in North America; Rainier, Denali, Teton and Lassen complete the quintet.  Cuteness overload.
I love dogs.

The Chef's Market.

Tonight was the beginning of the 2012 Chef's Market season in downtown Napa, so Vinomaker and I, along with a couple of friends, ventured into town to grab a little something to eat and a glass of vino.  The event, which is held every Thursday evening through the summer months, entails several downtown Napa streets being blocked off and pedestrianised so that attendees can have free run of the locales surrounding First Street.  Beer and wine tents are dotted here and there throughout the area; one side street is dedicated to food trucks, another to children's activities and yet another to a traditional farmer's market.  There are cooking demonstrations, three stages of live music and lots of vendors selling anything from art to olive oil.

After walking the entire length of the Chef's Market to get a quick overview of what was on offer this week, and chatting to some friends I bumped into, it was time to eat.  I settled on a beef empanada (a Mexican pasty, basically) which I paired with a serviceable red wine - The Third Bottle from Gustavo Thrace.

I took quite a few photographs of the crowd, the vendors, the downtown Napa buildings, baskets piled high with produce etc., in order to see which image would best illustrate my post.  It was only when I was leaving First Street that I spotted this British racing green convertible Mini, replete with a pair of Wirehaired Pointing Griffon sentinels who let me stroke them, that I knew which pic to use.  

If only the Vinodogs were so well trained!

Photo taken with Instagram for Android.

Happy Thanksgiving 2010.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all from me and my glass of Sauternes.
Be thankful for the small things in life; a baby's giggle, the smell of baking bread, a tail-wagging dog (a Vinodog that is), and a good glass of wine...amongst other things.
Life is good.

The year in preview.

When most people are still thinking up New Year resolutions that they may or may not keep, I decided to take a more practical approach to the year ahead.
Accompanied by the Vinodogs, I took a stroll through the vineyard to assess the amount of pruning work to be done in the near future. Due to the fact that white wine grape varieties bud out earlier than red wine grapes, I paid particular attention to our Pinot grigio and Orange muscat vines. The Syrah usually displays bud break a whole 2 weeks before the Cabernet Sauvignon, (which is clone 4), so I most likely have at least 4-5 weeks before I have to start to prune either red varietal. Even then I will prune the vines higher up on our hill than those down by the creek to lessen the chance of damage by late frosts.
I really like pruning the vines. It is said that it is the one most important thing that you do to the vine as you are determining the crop and vegetation for the year ahead.
The vines are very forgiving, if I get a little over zealous with my shears, which has happened in the past, they grow back next year, tah rah!!!

Dogsicle.

Vinodog 2 is enjoying an early morning snack of...frost. That dog will eat anything.
It's 23 degrees F right now, unseasonably cold for Napa. The leaves on the vines from a couple of posts ago are now all on the vineyard floor, having been blown off in brisk winds on Tuesday. Last season's wood, trained up through the trellising wires, is white with frost. The scene from my window all looks very festive...if only a robin red breast would appear and bob through this tableau.
Alas, I just have V2, (V1 is in her bed, the old dog is not so daft).
Look at those ears!!!

Not more grapes.

Here she is, Vinodog 1, acting as usual in her supervisory capacity.  She is never too far away, (unlike Vinodog 2 who is usually off somewhere doing her own thing), she is always just close enough to keep an eye on me.  At one point though, when they were both nearby, I do think I heard them discussing why the bi-ped wasn't grafting the rootstocks over to something useful like dog biscuits instead of stupid grapes.  I'd better watch my back whilst I'm bending over, there may be a 'Canine Mutiny'.