Blogs

Sitting on the porch of the Peake Ranch casita in the fading day of rain showers and the longer day light hours of daylight savings time.  Nice deal. We have been getting occasional rain today and more is predicted.  The rain replenishes our soil moisture but soil can...

Hello again and apologies.  “I been gone too long”.  I am back now and will resume a regular dialog. It has been awhile since harvest and winter was supposed to be here but it hasn’t shown up yet.  Two days ago we made it to 83 degrees F and we will probably make it...

We have made it to the midpoint of harvest in volume but not time.  The last ones to pick are sure to dribble out over some weeks.  Even with that statistical fact, it in no way feels like the end of the tunnel.  It is hard to see the light when you are a picker in...

As the first light of last Saturday showed over the hill we were already beginning the 2017 harvest!  We harvested Pinot noir at JSV for a rosé wine.  Grapes for rosé are most commonly picked well before grapes from the same variety that are destined for red wine. ...

Over the past weekend we had “agri tourists” Tom Wagner (John and Gill’s son) and his long time friend Jeremy Gold.  We spent a good deal of time bouncing around in the truck and walking in vineyards with Daisy and Emily.  Much of the conversation centered around what...

Remember that part of veraison that begins ripening in general and includes the influx of sugar to the berry? Sugar content of the juice goes from approximately 0 preveraison, to about 25% (a winemaker decision) at harvest.  To put that in perspective, a can of cola...

Last post I talked about imminent veraison, well here it is!  Veraison doesn’t  occur in all grapes at the same moment so we talk about % veraison – I am going to say this is 35%.  There are 5 events through the season that mark significant signposts on the road to...

On my side of the winemaking equation is the requirement to produce the best grapes from our vineyard sites.  This can be a complicated process on sites that differ block-to-block and even within blocks.  As in all endeavors we learn from the past AND we hope to...

On my side of the winemaking equation is the requirement to produce the best grapes from our vineyard sites.  This can be a complicated process on sites that differ block-to-block and even within blocks.  As in all endeavors we learn from the past AND we hope to...