A rosy occupation.

Today, the second bottling event of Vinoland's 2012 bottling season was successfully executed.  The St. Helena Cabernet Sauvignon (clone 7) and the Stags Leap District Cabernet Franc (unknown clone) are now resting in antique green Bordeaux bottles, whilst snuggling up to a natural cork.  The grapegrowers departed Vinoland well pleased with their vinous plunder-laden pickups.
Also bottled was a delightful saignée of the aforementioned Cabernet Sauvignon.  A perfectly balanced, deeply hued, expression of a Cabernet Sauvignon rosé.
Job well done, Vinomaker.

2B, or not to be, in Napa.

Tonight I had the pleasure of meeting  Dr. Jeremey Parzen who is the author of one of my very favourite blogs, Do Bianchi. Accompanied by his Italian buddy, winemaker Giovanni Arcari (pictured at left), Jeremy took time, out of his busy meeting filled day, to drive up to Yountville (where I was representing TWWIAGE at a private event hosted at Brix Restaurant), to say a quick hello.  It was short and sweet, but really nice to meet a fellow blogger.  Thanks 2B.

Did you know that there is no Italian word for bromance?  Me neither.

Codswallop!

Vinoland, my tiny corner of vineyard heaven, is a pretty healthy place. Any regular visitor to Vinsanity can probably deduce from the various posts I pen about wildflowers, weeds and creepy crawlies that the flora and fauna here are rather diverse. Of all Vinoland's cultivated ornamental plants, lavender grows particularly well and attracts copious numbers of bumble bees and honey bees.  The bees whilst not necessary for the pollination of grape-flowers are beneficial to every other flowering plant on the property.  Vinoland is certainly no monoculture.  
Sustaining the health of the vineyard, through cover-cropping and composting etc., is of the utmost importance.  In winter, when the vines are dormant, Vinomaker will apply a narrow strip of herbicide directly beneath the vines to discourage unwanted weeds from becoming a problem later in the growing season.  This means that Vinoland could not be certified organic, but is instead sustainably farmed.  However, I think this method of weed eradication is much preferred over repeatedly driving a tractor, with a French plow attached, through the vines burning diesel and compacting the vineyard soil in the process - not good.  Also, Vinoland is far from being biodynamic as I personally don't work to an astronomical timetable.
Yesterday, whilst trying to catch up on a weeks worth of Napa Valley Register articles that Vinomaker had put aside for me, I spotted this story: Purple haze - Harms Lavender Fields hosts annual open house. Well, I like lavender, and I love Jimi Hendrix, so I read on.  There is, apparently, a farm in north Napa that was originally planted all to vines, but now includes 1.5 acres of several different lavender varieties. In 1999, experiencing farming difficulties and facing possible financial ruin the owners of the land sought help from a consultant who, upon examining an offending block of vines that would not ripen, advocated biodynamic agricultural techniques as a solution. Soon after adopting biodynamics, the Virgin Mary appeared and the vineyard owner observed that  "...The vines progressed through six weeks of ripening in just 10 days."  Really?  Well actually no, I made up the viticultural-visitation bit, but I think somebody else made up the viticultural-miracle bit.  Methinks some fantastical wizardry, other than simply embracing biodynamic farming, would have to be employed to produce such sensational physiological results in any fruit bearing plant.  
Like I said, codswallop!   
Have a happy solstice everyone!

Of the fields.

I was very surprised today to see a small stand of large hop clover (Trifolium campestre) still growing in Vinoland.  A native of Europe, this cool-season clover should be just about at an end for 2012. With it's distinctive hop flower-like blooms already beginning to turn brown as they go to seed, the days on which an industrious ladybird can clamber over this clover's cheery-looking flowers are well and truly numbered.  Never mind, this beneficial legume will hopefully be back next year to continue to work it's nitrogen-fixing magic on Vinoland's soil.

Just because 6...

...I love dogs, and I love England.  And just because today happens to be Queen Elizabeth's official birthday (her real birthday is the 21st of April). But it is with a certain royal Mendelian experiment that this post is primarily concerned.
The Queen of England has long been associated with the Welsh Corgi and is pictured above with her own first corgi Susan, an eighteenth birthday present for the then Princess Elizabeth. Decades later a descendant of Susan's, a corgi named Tiny, accidentally I hope, bred with Pipkin a dachshund owned by Princess Margaret.  The result of this little genetic mishap?  Enter the dorgi.
At the time, not wanting to openly appear offended by this travesty of mongreldom delivered upon them by their monarch and patron, The Kennel Club released this statement:  "The dachshund was evolved to chase badgers down holes, and the corgi to round up cattle.  If anyone loses a herd of cattle down a badger hole, then these are just the dogs to get them out."  Love it!
Happy Birthday QE II.

The incredible cork.

The first bottling event of Vinoland's bottling season went without a hitch today.  Vinomaker has been busy all week sourcing pallets of Burgundy style bottles (for a 2010 Sonoma Syrah) and vacuum-sealed bags of SO2 treated corks.

Whilst I do appreciate the incontrovertible simplicity of a screw cap closure (on an inexpensive white wine perhaps), I am a big fan of cork - I think I've mentioned that before.  Screw caps are perhaps the perfect wine-bottle closure in technical terms, but I still favour the age old tradition of a natural cork closure.  Call me old-fashioned.
Someone once advocated to me the use of crown caps for wine bottles (especially for home-winemaking), the very same closure as one would find atop a beer bottle. Far fetched?  Hardly, considering even the very finest champagnes on the planet are sealed with crown caps all the way through tirage and remuage etc.  I can imagine dégorgement would be much more difficult a process if dealing with a cork.
Funny, suddenly I feel like a glass of something bubbly.  Beer, or champagne?

Half hitched.

This is a little bit of overkill in the tendril department, but that's Pinot grigio for you.  This particular grapevine is making a statement - it's not going anywhere!

Fruit set: Pinot grigio.

With a diameter of about 4 mm, these baby Pinot grigio grapes seem to be really enjoying Napa's favourable, for grape-growing, climatic conditions - definitely over those of 2011.  Fruit set, aided by dry weather during bloom, looks great.  The 2012 vintage looks promising, so far.
Funny, suddenly I feel like a glass of Pinot grigio.

The state of the union?

The state of this Cabernet sauvignon graft union is rather good: the cambium of the stock and that of the scion appear to be calloused perfectly.
I have been busy performing some odds and ends of vineyard operations the past couple of days, which has included the training up of a few Cabernet and Syrah vines that I field-budded last September.  Meanwhile, Vinomaker has been entertaining himself by replacing broken valves, and failed drip irrigation hose and emitters, to ensure that the vines will have an adequate water supply during the coming summer months.  Although, Vinomaker didn't seem that entertained.  I think I got the better of the vineyard chores.  Sorry Vinomaker!

A jubilee jamboree!

In spite of the dreadful English weather, Britons turned out today in their millions to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee.  Besides getting an email from Thud about the awful weather at home, I had to laugh at this NBC News report:  "Black clouds, gusting winds and often torrential rain - the hallmarks of a British summer outdoor event - were unable to darken the magnificence of the display, although several people were treated for hypothermia."  So all in all, a typical English summer day.

Here in Vinoland the celebrations went without a hitch and under much better climatic conditions.  With an English reinforcement, the School Teacher, a selection of English, Welsh and Scottish cheeses were consumed (with Jacob's Cream Crackers, of course), all washed down with a bottle or two of Newcastle Summer Ale.  

A good time, under the warm California sun, was had by all.

Snooze.

This weekend marks the occurrence of the 32nd annual, larger-than-wine spectacular that is Auction Napa Valley. Proceeds from the four day event are donated, by the Napa Valley Vintners, to local nonprofits.  It's a good weekend for me to stay well away from the valley's two main thoroughfares and concentrate on my jubilee celebrations at home.

Wake me up when it's over...

Keep calm and drink wine.

Happy Friday!  Happy first day of June!  I'm feeling in a celebratory mood.

This weekend, with a little pomp and circumstance, I'm going to join in the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II to the throne, from my little corner of California.

Sixty years, that's quite an achievement.  During her long reign Elizabeth II has managed to remain calm - suffering through bothersome in-laws, ever diminishing dominions, the waxing and waning of the monarchy's popularity and her famous annus horribilis - which I'd like to think could possibly be attributed to drinking wine. However, I hear the Queen often favours martinis over first-growth clarets.  But still, I bet she has a more than passable collection of Bordeaux in the cellars beneath Buckingham Palace.

So with my Union Jack embellished serviettes, fairy cake cases and yards and yards of bunting I'm ready for a party in Vinoland.

Deus servo Regina.

Wine Train crossing.

On the way home from work tonight, I had to stop on Jefferson Street in order to let the Wine Train cross traffic.  It was hot and I was tired, but I didn't really mind because I'm quite fond of trains and I like seeing this particular train in action.  Besides, it was fun to see the happy, most probably inebriated, tourists hanging off the end car waving to anybody and everybody in the hopes that someone might possibly wave back.  So, I waved.

Liar, liar, pants on fire!

I fibbed.  I said I wasn't going to bore anyone with yet another picture of bloom, but it's just such a fascinating time out in the vineyard that I couldn't help myself.  So, sue me!
Vinoland's Syrah vines are about 10% into bloom, not much I know, but it's a start.  Unfortunately, it rained today.  Not a lot, but three rather heavy cloudburst-like showers which were enough to send the Vinodogs and me running for cover in the barn each time. Vinomaker had just sprayed the vines with sulphur on Wednesday morning, so this rain event was particularly badly timed.
I hope this vintage is not going to be like 2011: a vintage in which Mother Nature roundly reminded the Napa Valley's winegrowers, by way of delivering rainy weather through to the very end of June, just who is boss.  Natural crop control at it's finest?

Another semester is at an end.

I had my photography final tonight.  I was a little nervous that my prints were not going to be good enough, but it turned out that I had nothing to worry about.  Once my images were tacked up onto the classroom wall they made a fairly strong and cohesive storyline - the River Mersey - and were well received.  My fellow students are all pretty good photographers and I was glad that my work was up to their standards.

I don't know yet if I am going to take the next darkroom photography class in the fall semester.  It's hard getting to class two nights a week after work and quite frankly I am running out of ideas.  But instead of worrying about it tonight I decided to just celebrate being out of school with a glass of bubbly...and pretty soon  I wasn't worrying about anything.  For the time being, I'll just enjoy the summer.

Also, thanks to Thud and Monkey for suggesting I take a photograph of this half sunken boat.

Sunny Sunday.

And indeed it was a lovely, sunny Sunday in Vinoland (until around 6.30 pm when the annular solar eclipse made the light quality very weird).

I spent the majority of the weekend stuffing shoots and suckering the trunks of the Cabernet sauvignon vines. It's a bit of a boring vineyard operation, but the Vinodogs generally keep me company and amused. After breakfast I took a walk through the Pinot grigio block and noticed that bloom has begun.  So, I went and checked the Orange muscat vines, but nothing is happening with them yet. Not wanting to bore anyone with yet another photograph of a grape flower, I decided instead to use an image of a Yellow Mariposa Lily (Calochortus luteus) that I spotted, blooming above the vines, as I ambled about Vinoland.  I also found a couple of other wildflowers that I am fond of - fodder for future posts methinks.

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.

Rate My Sausage.

Everybody likes a nice sausage, right?  If you have a couple of spare minutes today click on this (sausage) link (d'ya get it?) and have a peep at my guest post on  Rate My Sausage - a blog devoted to all things saucisson.
And if you happen to be in downtown Napa, or San Francisco, stop by The Fatted Calf Charcuterie and treat yourself to something deliciously meaty.

Afternoon in the Vineyards: 2012.

The 12th annual Afternoon in the Vineyards is being held today. At five different vineyards, from Napa to St. Helena, attendees get to rub shoulders with viticulturists, winemakers and vineyard owners if so inclined.
It's a great event, meant specifically for locals, and is hosted by the Napa Valley Grapegrowers and the Napa Valley Vintners.
It's free, the weather is gorgeous, there is wine to be had, and one can get to act like an über-vine-nerd...like me.  And, if I'm in attendance it means I'm not out in my vineyard stuffing shoots!   What's not to love about such an event?

All stuffed up.

I might have been on holiday, but the grapevines haven't.  There is a lot to do right now out in the vineyard;  suckering the trunks, thinning out the heads and stuffing the shoots into the trellis wires. When I have gently coaxed all the shoots under the first trellis wire the vines will be all stuffed up, just like me, as I returned from Blighty with a nasty virus that has been totally enfeebling.
The weather was pretty nice in Vinoland whilst I was away, glorious by English standards.  The vines all look healthy, verdant and vigorous - and virus free, unlike me.