Memories Are Made Of This? It’s the beginning of the “saison des vacances,” a foggy Memorial Day weekend in Berkeley (as Cornelia has always said, Summer is the coldest season in Berkeley), and there’s no place to park because the Himalayan Fair is going full-tilt up the street at Live Oak Park (Old hippies selling […]

UPDATE: VINTAGE TWO-TRIPLENAUGHT:Lord Willin’ and the Crick Don’t Rise So, let’s see; it’s the third of October, now, and day 50 of crush 2000. Who (as the song asks) knows where the time goes? In a couple of days we’ll receive the Syrah from the Parmelee-Hill vineyard, and pass the halfway point for tons crushed […]

UPDATE: VINTAGE TWO-TRIPLENAUGHT:Rainy Day, Man This has seemed like a difficult year to gauge ripeness. I hear reports, from everyone I know who makes wine, of high sugars, most often concurrent with high acid levels in the grapes, and low pHs.(Usually, as ripening proceeds, the heat that pushes sugar levels higher also serves to lower […]

UPDATE: VINTAGE TWO-TRIPLENAUGHT:The Wheels Come Off There was a car manufactured in Germany years ago, called the Borgward. It was a solidly constructed car, as sturdy, surely, as a Mercedes, and capable of cruising on the highways and autobahns at speeds upwards of 100 mph, yet so smoothly that you never noticed until you saw […]

UPDATE: VINTAGE TWO-TRIPLENAUGHT:Good to the Last Drop “Ain’t it funny how nothin’ ever turns out just the way you had it planned?” –Bob Dylan, “Brownsville Girl” After the Syrah from Fenaughty vineyard came in on October 25, the weather was dismal. It rained the night those grapes arrived, and all the next day. The grapes […]

WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN’ GOIN’ ON A man can get himself in a lot of trouble in a very short time, I keep discovering. It’s only 2 and 1/2 weeks since the last time I wrote here, and I’ve managed to find all kinds of new places where I feel achy and stiff. Since those two […]

Listening Events Steve Edmunds’ collection of self-penned songs, Lonesome on the Ground, makes me wish I was in California… warm and easy feeling, making music with good friends. (I think people who say unkind things about California are mad, because they’re cold.) Steve’s album was produced by Laurie Lewis, who also accompanies him, along with […]

UPDATE: VINTAGE TWO-TRIPLENAUGHT:First Stirrings of Harvest Late July: While vacationing in Western Massachusetts, I retrieved a phone message from Paso Robles that had an urgent quality. The Viognier grapes planted at a new vineyard source for us were rapidly gaining in sugar. (JULY!) It was impossible not to be skeptical: new growers. First harvest. Probably […]

UPDATE: VINTAGE TWO-TRIPLENAUGHT:Maybe it was the Full Moon In my walk through the Viognier Saturday, there were highly practical considerations to be addressed. Viognier wine tastes the way it does because that flavor is in the grapes, when they’re ripe, on the vine. Some grapes just taste like grapes. Viognier, if it’s grown properly, tastes, […]

UPDATE: VINTAGE TWO-TRIPLENAUGHT:We Can’t Go On Meeting this Way Here we go again. I no sooner get the Viognier tucked away in its barrels, ready to ferment, and heave a big sigh of relief, looking forward to a weekend at Pt. Reyes with Cornelia to do some bicycling, some napping, some eating and drinking wine, […]