Scouting

Ye Old Road

Whew...Today was a great day to catch my breath and what do you know get out of work early.

Irrigation early in the day and then a brief trip across county to walk a tractor half a mile or so bumpty-bump down Old Sonoma Mnt. Rd. Someone really needs to pave that mother.

The Samplemeister

Taking a break from blue collar labor in the afternoon I visited a ranch in Bennet Valley to check out a 2 acre block of Syrah that still has fruit available. In vineyard mangament you learn something new every day, and today was no exceptions as I learned how to take a proper fruit estimate by counting 50 bunches and weighing and then dividing to find average bunch weight.

The sweetest part of this year might be bringing to fruition a whimsical plan stormed up by the samplemeister Shaunt and myself to make wine from a ton or so of Syrah, maybe even throwing in a bit of Grenache and Mouvedre to give the wine fruit, a backbone and some killer color. Six months on and we think we might have a cool climate Syrah vineyard we we can source our fruit and a cellar for long term storage. And yes, we are giddy like schoolboys.

When it dawned on us that the Syrah might not be bottled for a good 16 to 20 months and then it might not open up for another year, or even multiple years I began to think about whites. As fate would have it there is a bit of Chardonnay up for grabs at a ranch we farm in Cloverdale. Not a big fan of Chard. and some might say a naysayer I figure what the hell...let's give 'er a go. If we pick early and try to show off the fruit instead of the oak monster we might just have a descent summer time tipple for the upcoming year.

Brix levels fluctuated between 18 and close to 20 with seeds on the verge of being fully brown. We are considering next Sunday for picking. Piss our pants excited.

Stay tuned...