Organolepticians # 91 June 28, 2016 Yesterday, and today, we bottled the 2015 Rocks And Gravel, our signal blend of Mourvedre, Grenache, and Syrah. It was the 16th rendition of that blend (1) bearing that name. In the earliest years of Edmunds St. John we called this blend by the name Les Cotes Sauvages. There […]
Don’t Know Much About History
Organolepticians #89 I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise that I’ve forgotten a lot of things in the 30 seasons that have passed since the launching of Edmunds St. John. Forgetfulness has it uses, don’t you think? And there’s still so much I remember, too; I’ll share a little of it with you, if you […]
The Circle Game
Organolepticians # 88 Just a few short weeks ago our oldest grandchild graduated from Berkeley High School, and will shortly be college-bound (headed to Wesleyan). Just a few weeks from now, our youngest grandchild will begin first grade, in Decatur, Georgia. In perhaps only a few days Edmunds St. John will be heading into its […]
LIKE A COMPLETE UNKNOWN – April 16, 2013
Organolepticians Number 87 How does it feel? You’ve spent close to half your life in the wine business, and established yourself as a vintner in California, working with some grape varieties almost no one else in the neighborhood has heard of, and it works, in its way; you’ve begun to carve out what will become […]
LOOKING OUT MY BACK DOOR – October 18, 2012
Organolepticians Number 86 (October 18, 2012) Is a body in motion Just a lonesome ocean, Goin’ and goin’, East to West, All night and all day, With nothin’ to say To a body at rest? * One thing leads to another. I’m reading “The Art Of Fielding;” it’s late in the Summer. The Giants acquire […]
ANNIVERSARY WALTZ (Silver Edition)- October 23, 2010
Organolepticians Number 84 The sun seems, so quickly, low in the sky, as I raise the collar on my jacket, the breezes no longer soothingly cool, so late in October. The season is running out of steam, its great work nearly complete. Two last bins of Mourvedre grapes receive my hands, twice each day, now, […]
A Few Thoughts Regarding Syrah, 25 Years Into The Parade… – May 27, 2010
Organolepticians Number 82 (May 27, 2010) The first wine I ever made from Syrah grapes was barely ten and one-half percent alcohol. I hadn’t intended it to be so low; twelve and a half to thirteen percent would have been more like it. But being pretty new at the winemaking business in 1985, I left […]
Time Out of Mind – February 8, 2010
Organolepticians Number 81 When I moved Edmunds St. John out of our Emeryville facility, in the late ‘90s, there were a few items I didn’t know what to do with: things there weren’t room for in the Audubon winery, where we moved, and no place else to keep them. Small pieces of equipment, some lab […]
Whoppin’ Good Time! – November 6, 2009
Organolepticians Number 80 I saw Bob Dylan and his band the other night, at the Greek Theater here in Berkeley; I must have seen him eight or nine times over the past 44 years. Just making a statement like that kind of makes my head spin around a little. I was a kid when I […]
What’s In a Name? – September 26, 2009
Organolepticians Number 79 Sycamore tree! I’ve seen the storms come tearing at you, But I’ve never seen them catch you, and I wish I could bend that way…* I almost called my album “Bend That Way,” but the fellow who was doing the liner art kept sending me these lewd drawings, and I succumbed to […]