A sensory epiphany.

This morning, as I walked from the south building to the north building at TWWIAGE I got a whiff of a familiar smell, (something is rotten in the state of Oakville). With the temperature reaching 70° F today in Oakville I tried to find any excuse to be out of doors, it was just gorgeous.

There is a very definite seasonality to the wine industry.  Of course many peoples day jobs are cyclical; there are often tasks that need to be performed on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly basis etc., but no occupation is quite as seasonal as farming.  Unlike an office job, where ones immediate environment changes little, if at all, especially with HVAC, working at a winery one is fully immersed in the daily changes in ones immediate environment - there is constant awareness of exactly where one is on the viticultural calendar. My olfactory epiphany today was triggered by the smell of compost in the air: a neighbouring vineyard was spreading composted grape pomace amongst the vines, a typical vineyard operation this time of year (to take advantage of the winter rains). It's not a bad smell, (it reminds me of being on a Greek island after an olive harvest/olive oil pressing), but it is strong and evokes in me an almost tangible awareness of the passage of time.

This past Sunday, Vinomaker and I bottled a 2013 Chardonnay, (grapes from the Carneros AVA, all stainless steel fermentation and sur lie aging) and it smelled great.  Wineries often have very definite bottling schedules, we don't.  Sometimes our day jobs just get in the way.

Happy Epiphany!

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.

John Keats was waxing lyrical about autumn in England but this season is equally as special in the Napa Valley. If you have never visited here this time of year you have deprived yourself of a exquisite sensory experience. Each season has it's uniqueness, but this time of year you can actually feel the excitement of the season valley wide. It's as if the valley has been snoozing all summer long and has now awakened to fulfil it's oenological promise. Witness the acquiescing of the patient vines to the will of the winemaker, the singing of field workers harvesting tiny orbs of captured sunshine, the humming of tractors laden with bins of fruit, the heady smell of hungry yeast, the olfactory delight of hopeful fermentations. All of these things, and more, combine to make autumn an enchanted time in the valley. Not a time to mourn the passing of summer, nor a time to dread the oncoming winter, but a time to take a moment, feel the mist, breath in the smells and look forward to a glass of Mother Nature's elixir.