Weekend Update

It's been another busy weekend. My phone actually rings more on the weekends now than during the week. There was a little break Saturday. I had planned on harvesting Syrah and Grenache from the home vineyard, but it's just not where I want it yet, so I was able to sleep in on Saturday for a few hours.

At 11:30 though we had an appointment to visit a new vineyard site. It's about 4 acres in Los Altos Hills that would be planted next year. The site is on a very nice hill with southern exposure. We met with the general contractor and will decide this week if we take the project or not.

Then it was up to the winery. We had a little clean up work to do after the move in and I wanted to get all the barrels marked off and topped up. We had visitors who wanted to ask questions about getting started in the wine business. We had a fun time, and finished up our work after they had gone, getting home by 6pm.

Today Millie and I headed off to the Harrison vineyard to replant three plants and tie up the new little plants. They seem to be doing very well and a few have even reached the cordon wire. Next we drove to the Elandrich vineyard to check on the grapes.

They look amazing. This really looks like it's going to be a great year. The clusters are small, tight, and clean. The colors look great and the flavors are intense already. The Zinfandel tested at 23.1 BRIX and the Merlot at 22.0. It looks like 3 week until we'll harvest the Zin and 4 weeks for the Merlot. That's on track with what we saw at Chaine d'Or on Saturday. I didn't take BRIX levels, but the Cabernet tasted and looked like it was 4-5 weeks away.

That break will be good, because we're spending the afternoon stuffing envelopes with our fall release letters. We're also going to go check out the Almaden Art and Wine festival. I'm not a big fan of Art and Wine festivals, but this one is the closest to our home, and since we're are the only winery in the area, we're going to see if we want to set up next year. The last task for the day will be visiting the annual Friends of the Winemakers meeting at 4PM. Hopefully a good nights sleep and then off to the 'full time' job on Monday!