Veraison, even in the table grapes.

Yes, even in the table grapes.  Vinoland's Red Globe table grapes are as enthused as the wine grapes and are blushing at the prospect of an early harvest.  Not that I harvest the Red Globe, or the July Muscat, or the Crimson Seedless - I just eat them as I go, perhaps leaving a few for the birds. 
That's enough veraison for this week.  I'm exhausted.

And over in the Cabernet vines...

...veraison.  Fancy that!  I don't think I have ever had, in my albeit somewhat limited farming experience, all four of Vinolands's grape varieties (not forgetting the Orange Muscat) going through veraison at about the same rate, at the same time.  The Cabernet Sauvignon is usually the last to begin changing colour.  But what is usual?  Every growing season should be different from the last, that's why we call them vintages.

Meanwhile, in the Syrah vines...

...veraison is also moving along nicely, thank you very much.  Although, my Syrah vines are not as far along as the Cabernet Sauvignon vines at TWWIAGE.  But then it is much warmer up in Oakville than it is down here in Coombsville.  Still, it looks like everyone in the valley is in for an early 2013 harvest, especially if the growing conditions continue to be as agreeable as they have up to this point.  A friend who works at Mumm Napa told me that they are going to start bringing grapes in on July 29th - that's about 3 weeks early (as compared to previous harvests).  Yikes, I'd better get my picking knife sharpened.

Veraison 2013.

It's that time of year again.  How time flies.  Actually, veraison in the Pinot grigio vines is a little ahead of schedule this year.  But whose schedule?  That of Mother Nature I would suppose.  The Napa Valley has been experiencing a pretty nice growing season thus far for 2013.  I have been enjoying this pleasantly warm summer, so I don't see why the grapevines should be any different.  Thank you, ma'am.

A tale of shortpod mustard.

Identifying common vineyard weeds and strategies for managing weed populations were the subjects being discussed last night at the Napa Valley Small Vineyard Association's quarterly meeting/wine social.  John Roncoroni, University of California Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor (Weed Science), was the guest speaker and just let me say this, he really knows his weeds.  An extensive PowerPoint presentation was followed by a lengthy Q & A session.  There was a lot of discussion about certain weeds and grasses that are becoming herbicide-resistant, although none of the guilty suspects have made it to the Napa Valley...yet.  Good stuff. 
Mr. Roncoroni is actively involved in advising farmers on all types of weed eradication (not just chemical weed control) and has an ongoing vineyard floor project at the UC Davis Oakville Station comparing several weed control practices with and without herbicides.  The day before he had held a field day in which he took groups through the Huichica Creek Demonstration Vineyard in Carneros to train attendees on how to identify and control weeds that commonly occur in vineyards.  Unfortunately, I missed it because I had to work.  Drat!

One weed that was profiled by Mr. Ronocoroni was shortpod mustard (Hirschfeldia incana).  He explained the mustard's growth habits and how it can thrive under certain vineyard conditions - those in which the weed is faced with little competition from other weeds.  I can attest to the fact that it doesn't like to compete with other weeds, as hitherto Vinoland had been an any-type-of-mustard-free zone and now there is a sizeable stand of this weed on what is normally a weed-free gravel access road to the barn.  I have to begrudgingly admit that the mustard looks very cheery and honey bees really seem to love it.  Yes, Vinoland's pollen-pluckers have been at work daily, from dawn until dusk, minding their own business whilst performing flower related bee activities.  That is until somebody (me) walked through the mustard and disrupted their apian-industriousness.  Consequently, one particular bee displayed his displeasure, perhaps because he was unceremoniously catapulted down my left welly, by stinging me on the foot.  Ouch!
I have always maintained that mustard is bad for a vineyard.  To emphasise my point of view I have been walking around like the Emperor Claudius all week.  Sigh.

New fridge.

It's amazing how many tired, out-of-date condiments can accrue and lurk in the back of ones refrigerator.  It took me almost 2 hours today to organise, purge and dispose of a lot of undesirable sauces, relishes and spreads.  A 2009 mustard, anyone?  I didn't think so.
The upside of all of this is now I can fill my new refrigerator with a lot of yummy stuff and the necessities of life - which I have started making a shopping list of.  Have to have my priorities straight.
Exciting life, huh?

We the tax-payers.

Lest anyone think I was going soft on Big Government with my last post about the effectiveness of quarantines...
Yesterday I learned that next Saturday, July 20th, I am going to have a bit of free time on my hands.  I had planned to attend the 31st annual Home Winemakers Classic (HWC), an event which I find is always a lot of fun.  That was until I read in the Napa Valley Register that the HWC, a fund raiser for the Dry Creek-Lokoya Volunteer Fire Department, had been cancelled less than 10 days before the event.
The state Alcohol Beverage Commission (ABC) has shut down the 30 year old event after deciding that the HWC was breaking the law.  What law?  Apparently, under state law, home-made wine can be consumed only by family and friends.  The state refused to issue the HWC a license for the one day event because it learned that wine produced at home would be poured and, in effect, sold.  Sold?  Yes, because asking attendees to pay an admission fee is tantamount to selling the home-made wines.  Chris Albrecht, north division chief of operations for the ABC, when asked by The Register "if the name HWC had caught anyone's attention in the past 30 years?"  "Well, no,"  Albrecht replied.  And there you have it...our tax dollars at work.
So let me get this straight.  A group of like-minded, wine-loving, tax-paying individuals agree to purchase tickets to a wine-tasting event in full knowledge that they cannot buy any of the wine, but want to attend the event anyway because they support the fundraising nature of the event.  A volunteer fire department, desperately in need of funds to meet their annual operating costs, incurred when protecting tax-payer's properties from fire, apply (with applicable fee) to the ABC for a license to hold their annual fund-raiser, but this year are summarily refused.  A government agency, only in existence because it is funded by monies in the form of taxes from aforementioned tax-payers (tax-payers who are also the fund-raisers of Mr. Albrecht's pay cheque), decides that it is shutting down the tax-payers fun, whilst also shutting down the volunteer fire department's fund-raising ability. 
The government always knows what is best for the tax-payer, right?  I suppose we all should be thankful that the ABC are spending our tax-dollars to save us from ourselves; keeping us from unwittingly breaking the law when imbibing in an illicit glass of home-made wine, all for a good cause.  The mind boggles.
Breath Vinogirl.

Quarantine!

Quarantine - a word deserving of an exclamation point! 
No, it isn't me that needs quarantining.  I haven't got a case of galloping payaka, or anything for that matter.  The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is not interested in any ailment I may have contracted.  No, they are primarily concerned with the baby grapevines I just had delivered and whether such delivery harbours any plant or animal pests and diseases.  The CDFA uses quarantines to prevent unwanted heebie-jeebies from entering the state and also to prevent subsequent infestations within the state from spreading to new areas.  The Federal Government has already approved my resident-alien status, so the pests the CDFA are interested in are not of Liverpudlian origin.
The CDFA's quarantine guidelines are amongst some of the world's most stringent.  A measure of their effectiveness is that a large number of pests that have gained a foothold elsewhere have not established themselves in California; including the Colorado Potato Beetle, the Golden Nematode, the European Grapevine Moth and various (and sundry) exotic fruit flies.  To the grape-grower, the restrictive nature of the imposed quarantines can constitute major impediments to the general flow of viticulture.  Indeed, pests have helped define viticultural practices and vineyard management in this part of the globe.  To the government imposing them, the quarantines are the first line of defense against potentially devastating infestations of unwanted pests.  Let's face it, with the global nature of today's wine industry, (no more suitcase-clones, please), it would be all to easy, if there wasn't such an agricultural-watchdog as the CDFA,  to reek a pestilence-like havoc on unsuspecting California vineyard owners.  An old fashioned vineyard nemesis like phylloxera (Daktulosphaira vitifoliae) would be the least of California's problems.
People laugh when I tell them Great Britain is rabies free.  "How quaint," they quip.
Quarantines work!!!

What wine goes with...No. 7.

...venison?  Despite my best efforts to pair a red wine with this brown sugar/bourbon marinated game meat - I had two different Cabernet Sauvignons, a Cabernet Franc and a Syrah at my disposal - the wine that actually worked best with the venison was, surprisingly, a relatively unassuming Riesling.  Now, I'm not saying that Riesling is a so-so wine varietal.  On the contrary, many top wine critics (think Hugh) consider Riesling to be the world's finest white grape variety.  So who am I to argue?  It's just that the Dr. H. Thanisch, 2010 Bernkasteler Badstube Riesling is, at approximately $20, a reasonably priced and reasonably accessible wine.  Nothing too special.
This Riesling, grown on the steep, slatey, sun-facing slopes along the banks of the meandering Moselle River, is what I'd expect a typical Riesling to taste like.  But what does a typical Riesling taste like?  From bone dry to staggeringly sweet, I am coming to the realisation that Riesling can be a rather delicious wine at any sweetness level.  Well balanced acidity and sugar (with a citrusy, flowery, slatey-minerality thing going on) meant this medium-bodied wine paired well with the sweet, tender dead deer on my plate.  A fact that I can only attribute to the acidity of the wine pairing well with the sweetness of the meat.  So at a measly $20 it was a deer wine after all.  Sorry!

Happy Birthday America!

Born, or rather grown, in the US of A!  That's my Syrah grapes not me.  But not one to be a party-pooper, I'm all ready to don my glad rags and join the natives in a convivial afternoon of patriotic revelry.
Happy 237th birthday America!
Oh...and God save the Queen!

My salad days.

My go to salad dressing is Newman's Own (NO) Lite Balsamic, I rarely use anything other than this particular dressing on my rabbit-food.  Love it.  I even have my sister-in-law OTW, and her sister Tenbellies, hooked on the stuff.  I have never, however, purchased any other NO products; no popcorn, no pizza, no pasta sauce.  I certainly have not ever bought NO wine.  In all honesty, I didn't even know the company made wine until I saw a coupon for it in the Sunday newspaper.  Perhaps I should clip this coupon and procure for myself a bottle of NO Chardonnay (just kidding!) and see what passes for a wine that raises money for charity.  I may.  I may not.
No doubt this fermented grape juice is made by some Goliath of a bulk wine producer like Bronco Wine Company.  And it's probably not a flawed tipple, just something that you wouldn't bother writing home about.  But here I am blogging about it.  The irony.  The coupon just amused me.

An Alsatian Pinot Blanc.

It's been pretty toasty in Vinoland the past few days (103° F today), so white wine has been the accompaniment to all of our evening meals.  This Calvet, 2011 Pinot Blanc is one of the bottles of wine I brought back with me from my recent trip home.  I always try to find something different for Vinomaker to try, as I'd never find an Alsatian Pinot blanc for sale anywhere in Napa.
The thing I like most about the wines of Alsace is the labelling, it's very straightforward - in some ways even simpler than California wine labels - maker's name and grape variety, that's it!  And this was a very simple wine due to it's lack of complexity.  I do usually like Pinot blanc, in all of it's mutationally-weird-wonderfulness, but the Calvet Pinot blanc was unfortunately a tad flabby for me.  I did enjoy the extreme white-peachiness of the nose and palate, but without that extra zing of acid that I was expecting the wine just fell short of being appetising.  Bottle got emptied though.

New tractie.

Not content with the three John Deere tractors we already owned, Vinomaker recently decided we needed something more powerful.  So Big Deer (BD) was sold; Medium Deer (MD) was traded in; which left us with only Little Deer (LD)...until today when BD II arrived.  New, shiny tractors are so pretty, aren't they?  Just as pretty as, erm, a new Paul Smith handbag (hint).
BD II is a welcome addition to Vinoland's accumulation of rolling stock which, amongst other things, includes a backhoe, a log-splitter and a wood-chipper.  Don't worry, our neighbours love us...they even like the sound of the duelling banjos that waft uphill from Vinoland.  Yee haw!

Tendrils gone wild.

If any further evidence was needed to prove that a grape cluster is a modified tendril, here it is - one of several hundred morphing-into-mini-cluster-tendrils that were hanging about in the Cabernet Sauvignon canopy...y'know, flowering and stuff.  Well, they were until I cut them off in their prime. 
I spent the entire past weekend stuffing shoots under trellis wires and removing the aforementioned modified tendrils, along with any other opportunistic secondary fruit clusters (on lateral shoots).  I needed to get the vineyard whipped into shape before the rain, which was forecast for the next two days, appeared.  And rain it did, much more than I expected.  Rain this time of year is not at all detrimental to the grapevines, it really is just more of a nuisance.  And now, with all the shoots stuffed, Vinomaker can easily navigate the newly tamed rows to re-sulphur the vines and protect them from powdery mildew.

A rosy day.

Happy summer solstice!
I love this time of year.  I love the longer daylight hours.  I love photosynthesis, (so do the vines).  I just love light.  Although I miss the longer summer days of my youth in Liverpool, (so much further north than Napa) I'll take any daylight I can get, (so will the vines).  The longer days also allow me to walk the Vinodogs later, in the cool of the evening, which suits the aging V1 much better.
Blooming, on my daily Vinodog-walks, amongst the roadside-thicket that is composed mainly of poison oak and Himalaya blackberry, is the appropriately named Rosa canina, or Dog rose.  A wild rose - which in it's cute pinkness looks pretty enough to be tamed and cultivated in a garden - the dog rose asserts itself and thrives along roadsides, irrigation ditches and creeks.  A cheery little flower, the dog rose could only look happier if it sported a wagging tail. 
June 21st, a happy summer day, a rosy kind of day.

True Wine Lover 14.

Whilst sitting in Heathrow, waiting for my flight back to San Francisco, and feeling a little sorry for my already-homesick-self, it was nice to see a familiar face smiling at me from a page in The Daily Mail. 
It escapes me right now how I first came across the 'Knackered Mothers' Wine Club' blog: writer Helen McGinn may have commented on Vinsanity first and I simply, and nosily, followed the link to her blog.  I'm glad I did, I really like how she writes, both style and content.  Apparently, lots of other people do too.  Ms. McGinn has been receiving a ton of well deserved recognition and critical acclaim of late, the accolades have been coming fast and furious.  Helen is a Brit who worked for a long time as a wine buyer for a supermarket chain.  She is a busy mother of three who finds time to be a columnist in a daily newspaper (see photograph above), regularly updates her blog, and has just recently released her first book, The Knackered Mothers' Wine Club.  With all this activity going on, she still finds time to answer comments on her blog, which most bloggers who achieve some measure of success fail to do.  No wonder she's so knackered!
I have never met Ms. McGinn (then again, I have never met any of my TWLs), but this particular knackered-mother is one of my True Wine Lovers because I am convinced she is the genuine article, i.e., truly a wine lover.  And our paths may never cross, but I wanted to acknowledge that Ms. McGinn unwittingly did me a favour when she smiled up at me from the page of a tabloid.  I smiled back.  Thank you Helen.

Corks gone wild.

No, there aren't any angry corks marauding around Vinoland - just an over zealous human-corker perhaps.  Accidents happen.  Besides, this particular bottle might simply have had a weak spot on it's neck or shoulder.  Such a flaw in the glass would cause the bottle to break when pressure was applied from the hand-corker.  But rest assured, no wine-drinkers, or Vinodogs, were hurt during the bottling of the 2011, St. Helena Cabernet Sauvignon (clone 7).
A leisurely lunch followed; corks were pulled from miscellaneous bottles and after a while the broken bottle was forgotten. 
Job's a good 'un.

Vigna Le Tese.

I do not know much about this wine, except that it was good.  Very good.  So good in fact that Thud, Monkey and I finished the bottle pretty quickly and were left wanting more...if only we'd brought two bottles back from Lucca.  Sigh.
Produced by Azienda Agricola Valgiano, an agriturismo in the Pizzorne hills north-east of Lucca, the 2008 "Le Tese" (DOC Colline Lucchesi) appears to be a blend of approximately 85% Sangiovese and 15% Canaiola.  Or Ciliegiolo.  Or Merlot.  Or Cabernet Sauvignon.  I don't know...when it comes to Italian websites online-translators can only help so much.  Where is Do Bianchi when I need him?  No matter.  One of the more expensive local wines to be had on the shelves of Enoteca Masser Ugo, on Via S. Andrea (just loved the ever so dapper proprietor), it was a bargain at €12.50 (about $17.00).  I'd have to say that this vineyard designated wine is one of the most pleasantly delicious Sangiovese blends that I have ever had.  I can almost imagine Pucchini, a native son of Lucca, quaffing a glass of this wine and perhaps being inspired by it whilst composing one of his operas...like La Rondine.  Well, at least something similar, as I don't think Valgiano produced this wine back then.  Great wine!

Balloon over Napa.

I've been back in Vinoland a week already.  The time has flown by.  My first morning back I was interrupted, whilst unpacking, by a hot air balloon that floated over the southern end of Vinoland...you're not on Merseyside anymore Vinogirl.  Sigh!
All my spare time has been spent in the vineyard catching up on a fortnight's worth of shoot-stuffing and trunk-suckering.  Fruit set looks good so far, especially in the Pinot grigio.  The Cabernet Sauvignon is perhaps only 70% through flowering, but everything looks like it's going according to plan.  2013 is looking like it maybe another excellent vintage. 

Goodbye Blighty!

Yet again, my holiday at home has come to an end.  How does this happen every year?  It's been a great one, but now it's time to jet off through England's grey skies and reacquaint myself with the Vinodogs...and that thing called work!  So goodbye Blighty.
California, here I come!