Something smells fishy.

At the end of last week's class, the instructor gave me and my classmates a homework project. Our assignment was to find the silliest wine review we could.  Simple, right?  Well, not really. Over the years, I have read dozens of weird reviews that were chock-a-block with outlandish wine descriptors, I just had to pick my favourite. Problem was, now that I needed one I couldn't recall any (and I certainly hadn't kept any).
A quick search on the internet proved to be quite fruitful.  One particular wine review - and it was a doozy - repeatedly popped up no matter how I phrased my search question.  Bizarre descriptors? Strange bouquets in wine? Pompous wine reviewers?  Hmm, but wouldn't all of my classmates also come across the very same glib review by merely Googling 'silliest wine reviews'?  Yup, I had to do better.
Vinomaker suggested I use one of my own reviews.  Not funny.  Then I thought perhaps I should use a review of a wine made from a native American grape (always amusing on the palate, no?).  Scuppernong (Vitis rotundifolia) is just simply a silly grape and the review I found of wine made from this muscadine grape was rather amusing.  But, on a serious note, I wasn't brought up to make fun of the less fortunate, snigger, snigger.  So as a last resort, and I'm ashamed to admit it, I decided to seek professional help.  (Yes, I know Thud, it's long overdue.)  I sent a quick email to Dr. Jamie Goode, English wine columnist, author and wine scientist begging for a favour.  Good enough (hee, hee), Dr. Goode answered my email and then followed up with another email.  The second email included an attachment; an Air Canada Business Class wine list, with a note that said, "...they are totally meaningless." And I understand what he means.  Trite, vinous descriptors abound, e.g., "bold aromas; luscious texture; full bodied; velvety mouthfeel; complex bouquet; subtle notes of (fill in the blank); lingering finish; bright and complex; exquisitely balanced." And there were more.  If someone had removed the varietals and names of these wines I wouldn't have known, through such generic and interchangeable descriptors, if these wines were indeed red or white.  Meaningless, yes, but probably sufficient for when one is hurtling through the sky at 550 mph at 38,000 feet.  Many thanks for your input, Dr. Goode.
As it happens, I did eventually find a few silly reviews by myself.  I remembered a particular blog that I used to read years ago and recalled that the gentleman whose blog it was had a rather flowery way of writing wine reviews.  How does "a sort of red cherry licorice-cigarette paper element" sound?  It actually makes me feel a bit ill.  The same blogger is big on descriptors such as, "talc-like" and "lithic".  And "propulsive" seems to be used frequently whether it is in the describing of energy or acidity.  And I particularly like, "potent and seductive ferrous and sanguinary nature," and "chiseled and scintillating limestone elements." This blogger has received many Wine Blog Awards.  And he apparently also received a Roget's Thesaurus for Christmas.
And what was the one silly wine review that repeatedly surfaced on my web search?  It was a review by Robert Parker Jr., (I wasn't going to name names, but Bobby's a big boy he can handle it), that described a Pouilly-Fumé as having "notes of shrimp shell reduction and iodine."  Of course, the first person called upon in class read out this very review.

Time machines.

Grapes are coming in at a frenetic pace all over the Napa Valley.  The 2015 harvest is proving to be a very early vintage.
At TWWIAGE the Chardonnay harvest is already complete.  On Monday the first Cabernet Sauvignon (CS) reserve grapes (clone 15) were picked. September 7th is a very early date on which to have already started to bring in CS, considering that in the relatively cool growing season of 2011 that TWWIAGE did not finish harvesting CS grapes until November 4th.  On Tuesday TWWIAGE picked both Merlot and Sauvignon blanc - the first time ever that red and white grapes had been brought in on the same day.
Even here in chilly Coombsville (remember, Vinomaker calls it The Tundra), Far Niente have already picked their vineyard that is closest to Vinoland: the eastern block was harvested in the early hours of Monday morning and the western block in the early hours of Tuesday morning. It looks like the vineyard manager at Far Niente opted to once again hand-harvest their Chardonnay grapes.  Last year (photographed on September 19th 2014) the western block was machine-harvested which, at the time, I surmised might have been an experiment of a sort.
Machine harvesting is very efficient, as it can save a lot of time and it can be very economical (less payroll).  However, machine-harvesting is very tough on the grapevine and, in my opinion, can cause more trouble than it's worth. Machine-harvesters pick every grape off the vine; they also harvest small rodents, old bird nests, little snakes, lounging lizards, curled up caterpillars, etc., etc.  (Not just earwigs, Thud.) Collectively known as MOG, material other than grapes, all that detritus has to be sorted out from the grapes before the fruit is fit to be turned into wine. Not to mention that, because the berries are more roughly handled, there is more rupturing and subsequent juicing which can be a big problem with white grapes (think, oxidation).  And leaving the rachis on the vine can promote grapevine diseases like a possible early season Black Rot (Guignardia bidwellii) infection.  I could go on, but I won't because I don't have that much time before Vinoland's grapes are ready for harvest.

Meet Penelope.

Or Peanut to her family and friends, (her name could actually be P-Nut, I'm not sure).  Anyway, I took a day off today and went wine tasting with the Wisconsin Winos (WWs).  And Vinomaker, of course.  The WWs have not visited the valley for a good few years, so I was really looking forward to touring some wineries with them.
First stop was Black Cat Vineyards (where Penelope tasted alongside us), a favourite producer of mine, but one that I'd never actually done a formal tasting at.  I say formal, but proprietor and winemaker Tracey Reichow couldn't have made our happy little group feel any more comfortable and at home whilst we enjoyed her wonderful, small production wines. A particular stand out for me was a 2012 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon, just beautiful.
Next we visited Laird Family estate which is located just north of the city of Napa, (off a frontage road along Highway 29).  Built specifically as a custom crush facility, winemaker Brian Mox hosted our tasting and tour which was fun and very informative.  With the (white grape harvest) in full swing, the entire facility was abuzz (like a bee hive on steroids) with lots of folks making wine.  And that was it, we visited just two wineries.
Two wineries doesn't sound like a lot.  However, the time spent tasting and touring just those two wineries was just under 5 hours (they were serious, in depth tastings).  I had lots of fun hanging out with the WWs.

Faking it: perception is everything.

Instructed, last week, to bring six glasses to tonight's marketing class, I showed up at the NVC Ag Lab with the expectation that my instructor was going to teach me and my classmates what we don't know about wine. And, in a way, he did.
I love tasting wine blind and I am never embarrassed (well, rarely) when I don't pick the perceived 'winner' of the bunch.  The first flight of six wines, all whites, we were told were Chardonnays from Napa and neighbouring Sonoma - except for the fact that one turned out to be a Sauvignon blanc.  Oh, and one was a Chablis, oops!  With the second flight, reds, our instructor declined to offer up a varietal, or whether or not the wines were in fact a single varietal, (he said we wouldn't believe him anyway, which I think was true). The wines turned out to be all Cabernet sauvignons - except for the Rioja that was thrown in for poops and giggles.
The instructor's point was that each person in the class knew more about wine than the average wine consumer and if we couldn't identify the mystery varietals then how would the non-wine industry person, when faced with the choice of hundreds of wines in a retail shop, choose a wine to have with dinner.  I got the point.

Through the bunghole.

A frothing, bubbling Chardonnay fermentation today at TWWIAGE left no doubt whatsoever that harvest 2015 is well and truly underway. The first grapes, Sauvignon blanc, came in exactly two weeks ago, and now Chardonnay grapes are arriving almost on a daily basis.  No estimate as to when the first red wine grapes will arrive, but all signs point to 2015 continuing to be an early vintage.
The last time I photographed fermenting Chardonnay at TWWIAGE was back in 2011, October 7th to be exact, so it would seem that harvest is very early this year.  However, the Chardonnay goes through a long, cool fermentation and probably won't be finished until mid-September, so, taking that into consideration, harvest is still only about 2 weeks early.
I just love the sights and smells of fermentation.

Happy International Cabernet Sauvignon Day.

Somebody told me that today was International Cabernet Sauvignon Day (ICSD), so I was going to wish everyone a happy ICSD - until I looked online and saw that ICSD might have been on the 27th of August, or even yesterday the 29th. Sigh, whatever!  Anyway, besides, I would have been wishing everyone a happy ICS-evening, as I spent my day working in amongst Cabernet Sauvignon vines instead of drinking the finished product.  And then I went and had a Sauvignon blanc with dinner, so I hope everybody just had a happy day, full stop.
A little knowledge...

Marketing warfare.

Tonight was meeting no. 2 of the marketing class that I am taking and I'm already horrified: why anyone would want to start their own winery is beyond me.  It's all fine and dandy to want to go ahead and make wine, but then you have to sell it.  And in such a saturated market, selling wine can, apparently, be quite a struggle.
This evening, my classmates and I were split up into small groups and given a simple marketing assignment to hash out between us.  (These are the groups that we will remain in to work on a business proposal we have to write for our midterm exam.  I am in an interesting group.) My little platoon of promoters and I were, for the most part, happy with the mini-marketing strategy that we had decided upon.  One by one the groups presented their plans to the rest of the class.  The instructor then informed us that we had all failed, oops!  Not one person in the class had suggested a mission statement; snappy and aspirational, defining the virtual winery's position in less than 5 words.  Hate when that happens. It's a wine-marketing battlefield out there, folks.

Let go of my grapes!

Today I spent a bit of time performing various vineyard operations; training baby vines up stakes, clearing weeds from the bases of some vines and pulling leaves (and laterals) in the fruit zone.  Just as I was about to remove what I thought was a crumpled up, dead Syrah leaf I realised, right as I was about to grab it, that it was a rather large moth. At about 3.5 inches wide it is the biggest moth I have ever seen.
The Achemon sphinx moth (Eumorpha Achemon) is an occasional California vineyard pest as it is quite fond of feeding on wild and cultivated Vitis species.  The adult moths are rarely seen as they fly only at night and usually hide during the day.  Achemon caterpillars are rapacious feeders and can consume 9 Vitis leaves in a 24 hour period. Great!  Not exactly the type of leaf removal I was planning on.  I haven't spotted any naked vines thus far, so I think Vinoland is safe - for now.

Lettuce pray for rain.

Despite the lack of rain - for the past three winters - there are plenty of weeds still growing between the rows of vines in Vinoland; mallow, fluvellin, stinking goosefoot, plantain, bristly oxtongue etc.  I wouldn't say they are exactly flourishing, their flowers seem smaller than normal, but they are persisting reasonably well. There are even some California poppies still blooming, but, just like the weeds alongside them, their flowers are also rather diminutive. One weed that seems to be doing even better than all the others is prickly lettuce (Lactuca serriola).  But even the flowers of the prickly lettuce seem to be reduced in size this year.
Prickly lettuce, a native of Europe, can grow up to about 6 feet tall, (though I doubt they will in 2015) and they are indeed prickly as they have a row of spiky hairs on the underside of their leaves.  And they can be eaten in a salad (thanks, I'll pass).  But it is the cheery, pale-yellow, chicory-like flower that is the most pleasant feature of  Lactuca serriola.  So delicate looking, but so hardy.  Let's hope for some rain this winter.

Back to school.

Just recently, I came to the alarming realisation that my brain was turning into mush.  And, to try to rectify that, I thought I really should take a class at Napa Valley College to whip my atrophying grey matter into shape. So, tout de suite, I enrolled myself in a wine marketing course.  The first session was held this evening.
Not having the slightest idea about anything to do with marketing, I had no notion of quite what to expect from an entire semester dedicated to this particular subject matter.  (But I knew I wanted to learn.)  The first class was a very interesting, fast-paced, statistic-filled introduction - by instructor Paul Wagner - to all things marketing, not just wine marketing. Fun. My brain was so stimulated when I got home that I needed to have a cup of tea, watch a bit of telly and write this post to decompress.  I'm looking forward to next week.

Happy Anniversary: Vintage 2015.

Today is my and Vinomaker's wedding anniversary.  Now, I am one of those people who have to celebrate an occasion on the actual day it happens: I simply cannot put things off until the weekend.  And because tonight is a school night we chose somewhere a little more on the casual side for our anniversary dinner.
Fumé Bistro & Bar is more of a neighbourhood restaurant than a fancy tourist destination. Located on a partial frontage road, alongside Highway 29, Fumé definitely has more of a low key atmosphere.  Dinner was really great - my halibut served with a lemon parsley risotto was delicious, as was Vinomaker's Cajun rock shrimp/andouille sausage fettuccine. Yum!
The wine list at Fumé is, in my opinion, passable.  I just wish they had more of a 'by the glass' wine selection.  Don't get me wrong, Vinomaker and I did not go thirsty.  I just think the wine options on the restaurant's wine list aren't very inspired.
I, of course, started off with a bubbly, a glass of NV Chandon Blanc de Noirs (California).  The rest of our evenings wine choices went something like this;
Laird, 2014 Pinot Grigio (Napa Valley).
Epiphany Cellars, 2013 Grenache Blanc (Santa Barbara).
Zocker, 2013 Grüner Veltliner (Edna Valley).
Phipps Family, 2011 Zinfandel (Dry Creek Valley).
And last, but not least, a very unusual late harvest Chardonnay (yes, a Chardonnay), a Reynolds Family, 2006 Naughty Sticky (Napa Valley). Unusual name, unusual grape variey for a late harvest wine, but still quite enjoyable. Fun.
Happy anniversary Vinomaker.

Main Street Reunion 2015.

The 2015 Main Street Reunion Car Show was held today.  I love this event. I mean, what is there NOT to love about chrome (lots of it), tailfins, hood ornaments, bench seats and fluffy dice.  Oh yeah!  I wish my English family could have been here this year, but maybe next...
There were quite a few stand out cars for me this year; a Screaming Mimi-red 1957 Ford T-bird, a sky blue 1954 Chevrolet pickup truck and a jet-black 1967 Chevelle SS 396.  All very nice cars.
But my favourite car at this year's event was a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air that had not, as yet, been restored to its former glory.  This photograph does not do justice to the richness of the patina that the passage of some 60 years have bestowed upon this car - it is uniform and quite lovely.  No doubt with some TLC, and a bucket load of money, this Bel Air will once again be the shiny, eye-catching beauty it was when it first rolled off the production line.  I sort of like it now.
Vroom, vroom!

I saw some grapes.

I saw a lot of grapes, actually.  Of late, I have been reading in the local newspaper about the beginning of the 2015 harvest, hither and thither, in Napa vineyards.  It wasn't until my commute to TWWIAGE this morning that I witnessed several harvests for myself.  (Notably, Sauvignon blanc on the Silverado Trail - belonging to Mondavi, methinks.)  It's a fun time of year, but also the beginning of a very busy time.
This curlicue Orange muscat tendril, photographed some three weeks ago, is now a thing of the past: these vines are definitely going through veraison.  Another vintage is on the way.

Itsy bitsy.

Or not so itsy bitsy.  This yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia) is freakin' huge, and I don't like her.  But Vinomaker loves her, in fact he has given her a name - Sylvia.  Lovely!
Sylvia got in my way this morning as I was finishing securing the bird netting on the Pinot grigio vines.  Luckily, later in the day, she moved from right below the fruiting wire to just above the drip line enabling me to complete this particular vineyard op.  Still, I wasn't happy about being in such close proximity to this leggy femme fatale (there was something grotesquely parceled up to her right), but I tolerated her presence as she is an important part of the predator/prey food web that ensures that Vinoland is, for the most part, a naturally pest free zone.  But still, don't like it.

Napa nest 6.

I'm so excited.  I have a dark-eyed junco nest in my Pinot grigio vines. With Vinomaker's help, I spent most of  my day putting up the bird netting in the Pinot grigio vines.  Just as I was pulling some unwanted lateral growth from higher up in the canopy I noticed this nest.  As the nest was just above eye level, I had to stand on my tiptoes to see inside - four eggs, wow! Just then I realised I was being harangued by a dark-eyed junco female who wasn't nearly as excited with my find as I was. Sorry momma, let me just get right out of your way.

Happy International Albariño Day!

Today is the 4th annual International Albariño Day (IAD).  Who knew?  I didn't.  And I can't even remember how I heard about IAD, but I have had a Post-it note on the side of my laptop to remind me about it for almost 2 months now. Then I forgot, completely ignoring the Post-it note until yesterday afternoon when I decided I needed a domestic Albariño with which to celebrate IAD 2015.  And I knew exactly which domestic Albariño I wanted: a Hendry Albariño. After a quick phone call to the winery to make sure somebody would be there I headed over to Hendry Ranch (with Vinomaker and Vinodog 2 in tow).
Located on the benchlands between the Carneros and Mt. Veeder AVAs, the folks at Hendry have been farming wine grapes since 1939. The Hendry family grow 10 different grape varieties on 114 planted acres in the cooler climate, woodsy-westside of the Napa Valley. On arrival at the winery, I was greeted by name (it's the small things that make a difference) by Therese who I had spoken with on the telephone. Vinomaker and I were invited into the lab/office and Therese went off  to grab a fresh bottle of Albariño for us to taste.  In the lab, doing some research on a computer, was George Hendry the owner, farmer and winemaker.  George stopped what he was doing and spent some time chatting with me and Vinomaker about his vineyard and his knowledge (and Napa Valley history) of the Albariño grape.  When I told George that I wanted to purchase a bottle of his Albariño to drink on IAD, he smiled and said, "I learned something new today."  We all laughed.
And what did I learn yesterday, besides the vital statistics (clone 3 on St. George rootstock), of Mr. Hendry's Albariño vines?  Not much, but I was however reminded of something.  And that something was this: that on any given day in the Napa Valley one just might happen to chance upon a passionate individual, in a building that feels and looks like a real winery, who will be more than happy to take time and prattle on about all things grape with you, who walks the talk, and who then is eager to share his wine with you.   It wasn't about the ostentatiously grandiose, maniacally-marketed, gimmicky green-certified, artwork-crammed temples to all-things-bacchanalian.  The real Napa Valley is none of those things; it is about the dedicated farmer who painstakingly nurtures his grapevines in order to make the best vintage of wine that Mother Nature will allow.  A refreshing experience.
The wine?  The Hendry, 2014 Albariño (Napa Valley) is delightful.  With lemon, grass and a pineappley/passion fruit vibe the wine is crisp, clean and right on point.  This Albariño does not mess around on the palate, with well focused acidity it leaves the old taste buds wanting more. Good thing that Vinomaker bought 6 bottles.
Happy International Albariño Day to all!

Records are made to be broken.

Yes they are!  Yesterday I joined all my co-workers (at TWWIAGE) for a celebratory luncheon at Auberge du Soleil.  A good time was had by all. The occasion for the celebration was a record second quarter of sales - a cool $3.2 million!  It is the fourth such event since I started working at TWWIAGE (just on 10 years ago), and the owners of TWWIAGE pointed out to us all that a celebratory lunch could be had every month for the rest of the year if we keep exceeding our goals.  Just as well that I like carrots.

And last, but not least...

...veraison in the Cabernet Sauvignon vines has begun, albeit very sporadic.  Caught in all their blushing glory late yesterday afternoon, this particular cluster of grapes includes a few shot berries, the odd dead flower part and lots of pesky powdery mildew cleistothecia.  Lovely, (not).

Escargot?

Resting in Vinomaker's palm (he makes a great hand-model, doesn't he?), are dozens of garden snail eggs.  These eggs were a 'gift with purchase' courtesy of a bag of Miracle-Gro Potting Mix. Sigh.  As a result, Vinoland has now been inadvertently inoculated with hundreds of these little snaily-gems. Some large, some small, some so ripe that they popped when I touched them (I hate when that happens).  Now, I'm no conchologist, so they could actually be slugs eggs.  But regardless of which particular gastropod these eggs belong to they are most definitely French. How do I know this?  Because one just winked at me.  Sacrebleu!

Hens and chicks.

Hurrah!  Veraison in the Syrah.  I actually noticed the onset of veraison yesterday and it's quite irregular, but it's happening.  I also noticed that there is quite a bit of poor fruit set, or millerandage, in the Syrah (not shown in this photograph).  Sometimes referred to  as 'hens and chicks', I am used to seeing this phenomenon in the Orange muscat vines, but not usually in the Syrah.
Millerandage is a problem that affects fruit set in grapes and can be caused by a number of things; unfavourable climatic conditions, difficult fertilization, genetics, etc.  With millerandage, flowers that fail to fertilize remain on the cluster, (unlike with coulure, another form of poor fruit set, in which the flowers abscise and fall off), becoming small, seedless berries commonly known as shot berries.  Methinks the culprit was most likely wind, as I think this has been a rather windy spring/summer in the valley. Whoosh!  Bye-bye, crop.