Happy 2020 from V2.

It's a fact.  I have been rather conspicuous in my absence from posting on Vinsanity, but I'm hoping to remedy that in 2020.  Besides, my little party animal, Vinodog 2, wanted to wish everyone, out in the blogosphere, a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.  And who am I to resist her requests.  So here she is, with her 2020 vision.

The 2019 routine.

Humiliate the dog, walk through the vineyard, hang up my 2019 calendar (a complimentary calendar that comes with my subscription to American Vineyard magazine).  Wow!  It's 2019 already, how did that happen?  Next year we'll be out of the teens, crazy.
My immediate 2019 routine, well, starting pretty soon, will consist of pruning, training and other vineyard operations.  I have at least a dozen vines that need replanting due to them being dead, or dying.  And two end posts that have died and need replacing.  All fun stuff.
A happy 2019 to all!

See ya, 2018.

No messing around this New Year's Eve, Vinomaker and I planned on simply imbibing in our two favourite Champagnes.  The Widow is undoubtedly my go-to non-vintage bubbly, whilst the Cordon Rouge is most definitely Vinomaker's.  Sometimes it's good to stick with the tried-and-tested.
Vinomaker decided to blind-taste me on the two wines: nailed it.  Not that it mattered, I then proceeded in drinking equal amounts of each tipple.  It is no secret that I love bubbles.
The year 2018 is now history.  I'm hoping 2019 is the fabulous future.
A Happy New Year to all!

Party like it's MMXVIII.

Weather, beautiful; Rose Bowl, exciting; Supermoon, impressive; Vinodog 2, festive.  I hope everyone had a very enjoyable and normal first day of the new year.
A happy 2018 to all!

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!

Party animal.

My traditional New Year's Day walk through the vineyard this morning was a little disappointing. I had wanted it to be crisp and white with frost (like it has been every morning since Christmas Eve), but instead, because the weather has warmed up a bit, everything was moist and green. Nonetheless, I got to have a good look around and assess the job close at hand - pruning.  Vinodog 2 accompanied me, but I insisted she leave her glad rags in the house.
A happy 2017 to all!

2016: Done and dusted.

This is the bubbly line up for Vinoland's New Year festivities.  Can't wait.
2016 was a funny old year, neither good nor bad - which is a good thing I suppose.  But time marches on and here we all are on the eve of a new year.  I, for one, am ready to embrace the next 365 days.
I hope 2017 is prosperous, safe, healthy and blessed for all those that I hold near and dear. And for some other, random folks as well. Cheers!
Have a very Happy New Year, everyone!

Joie de vivre!

This year, in homage to the people of Paris, I went 100% Français in the selection of wines for my traditional New Year's Eve bubbly event. Real Parisians, one and all, demonstrated remarkable stoicism in 2015 when faced with abominable barbarism.  Three cheers to freedom!
The wines?  Of the three Champagnes in tonight's tasting, the Perrier-Jouët was, unquestionably, my favourite.  A perfectly delightful tipple.
It had been quite a stressful day, with my little Vinodog 2 spending most of it at a veterinary clinic having an emergency surgical procedure, but, thankfully, the prognosis is good.  So tonight, in celebration of life, I had an extra glass of the Perrier-Jouët.  Tchin-tchin to 2016.
A Happy New Year to you all!

2014: Over and out.

Roger that.  Or rather, Pol Roger that.  Yes indeed, the line up for Vinoland's annual New Year's Eve bubbly tasting includes a bottle of Pol Roger Brut Réserve (Épernay), along with a bottle of Louis Roederer Brut Premiere (Reims) and a bottle of Mumm Napa, 2008, Devaux Ranch (Napa Valley).  A nice selection of bubbly, each one very distinct from the others, each one yummy in its own way.
I wish everyone a very happy and healthy 2015.  Happy New Year to one and all! 
Over and out, 2014.

Happy New Year: GMT style.

Although I will miss Vinoland's annual, New Year bubbly tasting it's not like I am going to forego drinking bubbles altogether on this the last day of 2013, am I? No, instead I will be imbibing in a tipple of Thud's choice, a nice little something from Piper-Heidsieck, a good 8 hours ahead of Vinomaker and all my Californian friends.
Have a very Happy New Year everyone!

Spurred on for 2013.

The fair weather continues, so this afternoon I was able to take my traditional New Year's Day walk through Vinoland's vines.  My little promenade, with the Vinodogs in tow, allowed me to make a quick assessment of what I need to do, coming up here shortly, pruning-wise.  This time last year I was hoping that 2012 would be a better growing season than 2011, and it was.  In fact, it couldn't have been any better if it'd tried, so I'm hoping for more of the same in 2013.  Greedy? Absolutely.
As Vinoland's Cabernet Sauvignon vines mature my job becomes simpler.  Of course, it has taken me several years of pruning to convince the young vines' canes and spurs to go exactly where I'd like them to go. And now, for the most part, each vine is beginning to exhibit the ideal model, or at least how the ideal vine exists in this pruners mind.  Thanks little buddies.
A happy, healthy and fruit of the vine filled New Year to everyone.

Wishing you a bubbly New Year!

Although I advocate the consumption of Champagne and sparkling wine at any old time, there is no denying that imbibing in a glass, or three, of something bubbly on a special occasion heightens the enjoyment of that particular festivity.  So as I embark on my annual New Year's Eve bubbly tasting, I want to raise my glass and wish you all a happy and safe New Year and the continued enjoyment of your favourite wines, the nectar of the vine, all the way through 2013.  Cheers!

Roll on vintage 2012.

From a grape-growing perspective, I am glad to see the back of 2011.  Rain, rain and more rain.  Cooler than average temperatures.  Persistent marine fog.  Powdery mildew running amok through Vinoland.  Just one of these trying climatic conditions would have been perhaps a tolerable nuisance, but all of them in a single, abbreviated growing season?  One would have been forgiven for expecting a plague of locusts of biblical proportions next.  Besides all that, it was quite a good year.  But 2012 will be better.

A happy, healthy and fermented-grape juice filled New Year to everyone.

A rosé outlook for the New Year.

For Vinoland's annual New Year's Eve bubbly tasting I chose two rosé wines - one French, one domestic.  Both wines are remarkably similiar to look at, with their deep salmon hue, but quite different on the palate.  

The Mumm Brut Rosé is, as always, delightfully pleasant and approachable with subtle black cherries and strawberries and, thankfully, only 15% Chardonnay content.  

The Cuveé Rose Laurent Perrier has always been one of my top three favoutire Champagnes, and his bottle did not fail to disappoint my palate. Made with 100% Pinot noir this elegant red-berry, subtle rosy-vanilla, lean citrusy-mineral wine, in it's distinctively shaped bottle, is simply sublime.  And that's all I'm going to say on the matter - I'm wasting valuable drinking time.

Happy New Year to you all!

A New Year Haiku.

I don't particularly enjoy reading all the pontificating on some wine blogs about the 10 best this and that of 2010. I think I am blessed with enough good sense to realise that nobody is, in the tiniest bit, interested in the things last year that were note worthy to me (although Happy Balls would feature rather high on any list I might compile.)
Instead, I'm going off on a tangent here and submitting a viticultural Haiku for your delectation. Why not? This unassuming Cabernet sauvignon bud, formed in the spring of 2010, contains all the promise of this year's coming vintage and deserves to be lauded in verse.

Hush bud, be still.
Until springtime's will
Awakens you.

A happy, healthy and wine-filled New Year to everyone.

Keeping Mumm.

It's not a secret that I love bubbles, I think they should be consumed most every day. So, it was to my surprise that I noticed, just recently, that Mumm Napa Valley had a sparkling wine that I had not yet tried - Cuvee Renouveau. What? I needed to remedy that instantly. And there perhaps would be, I thought, no better time than New Year's Eve to imbibe in a bottle of the aforementioned Renouveau and then compare it with it's soeur Française, Cordon Rouge. So, I procured myself a couple of bottles of the American red-striped bubbly (not the Jamaican beer) and a couple of bottles of the French variant.
If Mumm Napa were trying to duplicate Cordon Rouge they got pretty darned close. The grapes are sourced from the Anderson Valley, slightly cooler than Napa, and perhaps more suited to bubbly production. The Cordon Rouge's mouth feel is irresistibly and undeniably French, redolent with yeast and toast, whilst the Renouveau has an alluring nose heady with sour-apple skin and ripe pear, still they are incredibly very similar.
However, I'm not going to over analyse that which is sparkling in the glass before me, it's New Year's Eve...I'm just going to enjoy two rather decent wines.
Happy New Year!

Take a seat.

Sit down, relax. It's time to take the weight off your feet and enjoy New Year's Day. There aren't many days throughout the year when you get quite as much time to do, well, nothing.
I had intended to get out in the vineyard today and have a quick look at the vines and figure out when I should start pruning, but as soon as I came back from walking the Vinodogs it began to rain...so I watched the Rose Bowl instead.
A happy, healthy, mellow and bubble filled 2010 to you all.

Mumm's the word.

Two French, two domestic: This is the selection of bubbly for tonight's festivities. Only one candidate for merriment is a vintage sparkler, (it just so happens to be the locally produced 2000 DVX by Mumm Napa Valley), the others are non-vintage. 75% of the offerings are technically from the same producer, G.H. Mumm. 100% of the wines, thankfully, have the Chardonnay grape as the smallest component.
The Mumm Cordon Rouge wins this particular tasting hands down; redolent with stewed Bramley apple skins, yeast, and toasted white bread. It is simply delicious. The Perrier-Jouët was a close second.
Champagne? Methode Champenoise? It doesn't matter. The final word is, just enjoy this style of wine often and in abundance.
Happy New Year!

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!!!

The Snowman.

One family tradition is watching 'The Snowman' every Christmas. A teenage Vinogirl watched the very first airing in 1982...and I haven't missed a year since. Some things have changed; I've located to a different continent for one and the American version of the very popular short animation doesn't include David Bowie as the adult James, but the whole experience is just as magical for me. I was a little behind this year and have just watched it now with Vinomaker, accompanied by a bottle of Roussanne (Domaine La Bastide), and a bowl of pistachios.
Next up, a selection of cheeses and a bottle of 'The Widow'.
Happy New Year!