News & Events
- Tuesday, October 26, 2010 The last few weeks has been unbelievably hectic. What was a cool, wet season turned real hot real fast at the end of September, everything ripened at once; bins and trucks and crushspace and cool heads were at a premium! We picked Devoto on Monday 10/4. I was up there with Dean on 10/1, and we hoped the fruit would hold out over the weekend! The fruit was actually in great shape, mainly due to some proactive farming by Stan (some mild fungicide earlier in the month after the rains, some irrigation before the end-of-the-month heat). Here’s Stan with every farmer’s trusty ...
- Sunday, October 03, 2010 Some shots of the sort at Amber on Thursday — a beautiful warm day made a bit stressful due to the crush of everything ripening at once (and everyone needing equipment at once). Though, here’s my Westy resting, appearing very unstressed. The 115 and Pommard clones were certainly interesting this year with the cool summer and late heat; berries smaller, a bit haggard, some shrivel and minor amounts of rot — but the flavors were auspicious, nice mature brown, nutty notes from the seeds and stems too. Yours truly forking some fruit (this is the 115) onto the sorting belt. Crushing outside on a ...
- Thursday, September 30, 2010 Amber Ridge valley fruit (115 clone) is between 25 and 26 and needs to come off that vine ASAP! Going to do a light crush on a ton and a half up in Napa this afternoon, then put the must into a five-day cold soak. Hoping to do a field mix of 1/3 667 and 2/3 115 but will make that call on the spot. The Devoto pick I’m putting on Tuesday 10/5, will be in the vineyard Friday taking brix and pH measurements, am expecting an average between 23-24. It’s been warm up there though cooling a bit of late ...
- Monday, September 20, 2010 Was in the vineyard Friday morning, a cooler, overcast day in Sebastopol. Did most comprehensive brix survey to date this year (via refractometer, at left) and was pleased to see much more even readings than last year, though visually the ripening isn’t as even as I might like. The average brix was 21.7, up a couple degrees from two weeks ago. Am hoping for a few more weeks of hang time; Stan and I are tentatively putting harvest at October 5th! Here’s a shot of the bird netting over the vines. Working great. Big worry now is rain, we had some ...
- Tuesday, September 14, 2010 in m Finally posting field data for Devoto Gardens from my trip on 9/3! While San Francisco has been shrouded in fog (here’s the Golden Gate on my return trip about noon, it was even worse in the morning!), the hills of Sebastopol have been basking in beautiful 80 degree days in September. In general it had been a cold, slow-ripening summer until a heat spike (multiple mid-90’s days) in the last days of August. Stan has been on the ball with natural fungicides throughout the cool summer as well as more aggressive leaf pruning. He irrigated for the first time for ...