Summer of Love: 40 Years Later

At the last moment, we found ourselves headed to the gala opening of the Sausalito Art Festival this evening. Gala sounded serious, so we asked our friend, Keith, what was the dress. “Oh, casual” and this from a man who, since his retirement from daily work, thinks the shorts without the holes and the Hawaiian shirt that’s less than ten years old is pretty duded...

Flashback: The First Crush

Having just transferred our third vintage out of oak and into storage (read about it here), made me think back on our first attempt at winemaking lo these many years ago (three actually). Scrounging back in my iPhoto Library — or what I could save from a really disasterous hard drive crash — I was pleased to find that these photos had survived. Well, maybe not too pleased....

Will Faulkner, Where Have You Been All M...

Don’t ask me how I accomplished it, but somehow I managed to graduate as an English literature major without ever having read William Faulkner. I have a vague recollection of perhaps reading part of one of his short stories and really disliking it. But I’m not sure if that really happened. I’m also not sure what made me think, through the years, I wouldn’t like...

Moving the Syrah Out of Oak

Whatever anyone tells you about the romance of winemaking, let me set the record straight. At least 90% of it is cleaning equipment and moving liquid from one container to another. Again and again and again. This weekend we took our 2006 Syrah out of oak barrels and transferred it back into stainless steel tanks where it will sit awhile before bottling. Of course that necessitates...

We Finally See Leonard

We finally got to see our resident bobcat, who we call Leonard for no particularly good reason. I’ve been following his movements for over a year now — ever since I bought what I call “The Bumper Book of Poo”. This is Peterson’s Field Guide to North American Mammals which shows you lovely artists’ renditions of every imaginable kind of poo and...

Artisan Watch: Pasha the Decorator

Decorator is clearly not the right word to use for Pasha, but he transcends categories. He’s another artisan we were introduced to by our builder, Chris Nielson, who thought of him to distress the beams in our barn. Let me back up here. This barn is new construction (in fact, it isn’t even finished) but Andy won’t be happy until it looks as if it’s weathered at...