Nope, that's not a typo. It's:
http://www.expresso.net/
Since we've started our Grand Canyon training I've been riding that bike like crazy at our gym. The counter says I'm at 217 miles since May. I have to admit I love the thing. The video is not such the attraction, although I do enjoy that the routes vary your effort (uphill and down hill) as you go. What's really got me hooked is being able to track my rides and see how I'm doing. I think that tracking thing mentality is the same thing that gets into many wine geeks.
Which by the way we spent about an hour in the cellar last night with Stefania entering her bottles into Cellartracker.
Anyway I was wondering if anyone else was an Expresso rider and what you think about it?
I know that I'm feeling like we'll be in great shape for harvest this year!
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
New Tasting Notes
Dave Tong came by on Sunday and tried our current releases and a couple of barrel samples of our 2008's.
His notes are up at:
http://scmwine.blogspot.com/2009/07/stefania-wine-fall-release-preview-and.html
His notes are up at:
http://scmwine.blogspot.com/2009/07/stefania-wine-fall-release-preview-and.html
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Website Refresh on the Way
We admit it - we've let www.stefaniawine.com get a little stale. Most of our on line efforts have been here on the blog, or on Facebook. Both are better ways of keeping up with us than the website has been.
Last Friday though we sat down to do a much needed refresh. We started with an update of the front page, the wines section (adding 2007 and 2008 wines) and the vineyard section. Following company rules mojitos were prepared for the staff before we started. Here our friend Amber and Stef get started.
It's very hard to not enjoy work with a Mojito. I joked that Amber is now our "I.T." department. I keep notes on each wine and sat across from Stef and Amber as we went through each wine. Stef also wants to update the photo and events sections over the next couple of weeks so look for more changes soon. We should have everything totally updated by the end of the month.
Last Friday though we sat down to do a much needed refresh. We started with an update of the front page, the wines section (adding 2007 and 2008 wines) and the vineyard section. Following company rules mojitos were prepared for the staff before we started. Here our friend Amber and Stef get started.
It's very hard to not enjoy work with a Mojito. I joked that Amber is now our "I.T." department. I keep notes on each wine and sat across from Stef and Amber as we went through each wine. Stef also wants to update the photo and events sections over the next couple of weeks so look for more changes soon. We should have everything totally updated by the end of the month.
After we finished up for the day we started in on the wine line up for the night. A few other friends joined us, we didn't drink all these on our own! We started with a really terrible run of 3 TCA tainted wines out of the first 4 bottles we opened, but things eventually settled down.
Monday, July 06, 2009
Full Moon Part II (Notes)
We did open a 2006 Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet Sauvignon yesterday morning. We had visitors at the winery and it was one of the bottles we tasted. We sent the bottle home with Dave Tong so hopefully he'll have some notes up on his blog site this week.
I did find the notes of mint and eucalyptus on the nose very pronounced, with a good solid core of currants and black fruit. I found the finish dry yesterday with the tannins very evident. A good showing for the bottle and we brought two more home to continue the moon phase experiment.
You can find notes for this wine from others at:
http://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=600258
Or feel free to post them as comments here.
I did find the notes of mint and eucalyptus on the nose very pronounced, with a good solid core of currants and black fruit. I found the finish dry yesterday with the tannins very evident. A good showing for the bottle and we brought two more home to continue the moon phase experiment.
You can find notes for this wine from others at:
http://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=600258
Or feel free to post them as comments here.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Morning Vineyard Tour
Yesterday morning we set out to check on the 'southern' vineyards.
We visited the Epperson's 'Sesson' Vineyard to see how they are doing with their Cabernet Sauvignon planting. The vines are in year two and look right on schedule.
There's just over an acre planted right now, and yield should be around four tons from this site starting in 2011.
This is a warm site very similar to Crimson Clover and Uvas Creek.
We also visited Crimson Clover, which is in need of a re-tucking of the vines. I did a few plants as we walked around.
Over all the vineyard looked very healthy and the fruit set was good.
You can see the clusters with berries starting to fill out. The clusters from this site are usually pretty small.
Some of the 'dappled sunlight' that we are after on our clusters.
Both vineyards looked really good, and we were happy with the progress at each site.
We visited the Epperson's 'Sesson' Vineyard to see how they are doing with their Cabernet Sauvignon planting. The vines are in year two and look right on schedule.
There's just over an acre planted right now, and yield should be around four tons from this site starting in 2011.
This is a warm site very similar to Crimson Clover and Uvas Creek.
We also visited Crimson Clover, which is in need of a re-tucking of the vines. I did a few plants as we walked around.
Over all the vineyard looked very healthy and the fruit set was good.You can see the clusters with berries starting to fill out. The clusters from this site are usually pretty small.
Some of the 'dappled sunlight' that we are after on our clusters.Stef did one row of tucking also to give an idea what it will look like when completed.
Both vineyards looked really good, and we were happy with the progress at each site.
Friday, July 03, 2009
What Our Intern's Been Up To!
In case you haven't been following Rachel's blog updates I thought I'd add a few pictures of the work we've had her doing over the past few weeks.
Basically she's been turning this:
Into this:
With flowering now done she's been thinning the rows and getting everything tucked up into the wires. Chaine d'Or is the last vineyard to flower and the last to tuck up. She's been worried that she goes so much slower than Jerry, but she's actually gotten pretty fast, and we're worried about doing it right, not doing it fast.
It's been great having her this summer. She'll be headed back to Georgia and school soon. Too bad she'll miss harvest and getting to see the rewards of her hard work, but we'll make sure she gets samples of the wines in the years ahead.
Basically she's been turning this:
Into this:
With flowering now done she's been thinning the rows and getting everything tucked up into the wires. Chaine d'Or is the last vineyard to flower and the last to tuck up. She's been worried that she goes so much slower than Jerry, but she's actually gotten pretty fast, and we're worried about doing it right, not doing it fast.
It's been great having her this summer. She'll be headed back to Georgia and school soon. Too bad she'll miss harvest and getting to see the rewards of her hard work, but we'll make sure she gets samples of the wines in the years ahead.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Full Moon Rising
Ok, hang in there with me on this one.....
A few years ago we had a really bad problem with Powdery Mildew in a vineyard. I tried everything, and still we had problems (see the previous tree blog). The next winter I asked everyone I talked to in the business for advice. One thing I was told was prune by the moon cycle.
I did a little research and found that from Roman times vines were traditionally pruned after the first full moon of the year and before the holiday of Paganalia (Jan 22nd). If pruning wasn't finished by the 22nd, it would stop and resume after the next full moon.
Well I figured what the heck, it can't hurt and we tried that. We tried about four dozen other things also, so it wasn't a scientific approach, but you know what? The next year was much better in every vineyard we had. I'm not one to mess with success, even if you can't prove it scientifically, so since then we've done all our pruning on the moon cycle.
In the grape growing business this is hardly flacky, wacky or unusual thinking. Everyone growing grapes is aware of this moon cycle stuff, and I've never talked with anyone who didn't put at least some credence in it. We're all just really waiting for the science to catch up with the practices we've 'rediscovered'.
So last night we did a small private event at the Capital Club in San Jose. We poured our 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Santa Cruz Mountains. Something I've always enjoyed in this wine is the note of mint and eucalyptus. The odd thing is though that sometimes it seems more pronounced, than other times. That could just be variation between bottles, but I've noticed it at times when we're opening multiple bottles like last night.
I've wondered if maybe it could be a moon cycle thing? There is some thought now on Internet chat boards that the moon cycle effects the flavors and structure of wine in the bottle. Last night the minty flavors were very forward and the wine showed really well. By total coincidence a friend in New Jersey opened a bottle last night and also had a great report.
So I'm going to start tracking the moon cycle on this wine:
http://www.tutiempo.net/en/moon/phases.htm
I want to see if I do notice a difference at different cycles of the moon. If you have some bottles of this, play along with me. I'll open a bottle Sunday, two days before the full moon and post a note on it to get started.
A few years ago we had a really bad problem with Powdery Mildew in a vineyard. I tried everything, and still we had problems (see the previous tree blog). The next winter I asked everyone I talked to in the business for advice. One thing I was told was prune by the moon cycle.
I did a little research and found that from Roman times vines were traditionally pruned after the first full moon of the year and before the holiday of Paganalia (Jan 22nd). If pruning wasn't finished by the 22nd, it would stop and resume after the next full moon.
Well I figured what the heck, it can't hurt and we tried that. We tried about four dozen other things also, so it wasn't a scientific approach, but you know what? The next year was much better in every vineyard we had. I'm not one to mess with success, even if you can't prove it scientifically, so since then we've done all our pruning on the moon cycle.
In the grape growing business this is hardly flacky, wacky or unusual thinking. Everyone growing grapes is aware of this moon cycle stuff, and I've never talked with anyone who didn't put at least some credence in it. We're all just really waiting for the science to catch up with the practices we've 'rediscovered'.
So last night we did a small private event at the Capital Club in San Jose. We poured our 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Santa Cruz Mountains. Something I've always enjoyed in this wine is the note of mint and eucalyptus. The odd thing is though that sometimes it seems more pronounced, than other times. That could just be variation between bottles, but I've noticed it at times when we're opening multiple bottles like last night.
I've wondered if maybe it could be a moon cycle thing? There is some thought now on Internet chat boards that the moon cycle effects the flavors and structure of wine in the bottle. Last night the minty flavors were very forward and the wine showed really well. By total coincidence a friend in New Jersey opened a bottle last night and also had a great report.
So I'm going to start tracking the moon cycle on this wine:
http://www.tutiempo.net/en/moon/phases.htm
I want to see if I do notice a difference at different cycles of the moon. If you have some bottles of this, play along with me. I'll open a bottle Sunday, two days before the full moon and post a note on it to get started.
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