Top Ten Cowboy Songs of All Time

A quick dinner trip to Sonoma’s Girl & The Fig the other day and the arrival of Andy last night has saved me from going completely feral as I manned the winemaking and evaluated the grape harvest alone this week. That was a week with no TV, no radio, no Internet and spotty cell reception. It was dicey Thursday when I found myself talking to wildlife – especially large, horned...

Wildlife Encounters: My Own and Others

This little section of Sonoma is alive with wildlife, probably thanks to the State parkland trust just over the way. In addition, the small pond we put in on the edge of the woods has acted like a watering hole on the Serengheti. It’s drawing wildlife from everywhere. After listening to the shrieks, caws, whooos and calls of unidentified animals everywhere, I decided I had to lock...

Living the Pioneer Way

Every now and then, we’ve lamented that our land is so close to Sonoma Town Square. It’s not really that country. Now that I’m staying up here alone with spotty cell reception and no Internet, believe me, it’s REALLY country. As in kind of scary. I’m starting to understand how the pioneers lived. You rushed to get everything done during daylight hours, then when the sun went...

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Farm...

The only thing you can count on with a grape harvest is that you can’t count on it. It’ll happen when it happens, usually at the most inopportune time. There is nothing you can do but stand at the ready, prepared to drop everything so you can pick and crush at a moment’s notice. Compound that by the logistics of having a vineyard in Sonoma when we still live in San...

Cinsault You Asked. . .The Great Grape H...

Just as we feared, the unusually warm spring and summer in Sonoma have cause the harvest to happen early and way too quickly for us as we are still putting the final touches on our crush pad. On a routine check of the Brix level Sunday, we suddenly found that our Cinsault was ready NOW. Nothing to do for it but drop everything and start picking. Of course, that meant no time to get a...

See Bottle Shock. Then Enjoy a Good Cali...

There is a fabulous little movie out now that should be seen by anyone who’s ever been to Northern California Wine Country, ever drunk Northern California wine, has any interest in wine or just wants to see a sweet little film with engaging quirky characters. It’s called Bottle Shock, named after the short-lived flatness that happens to a bottle of wine after it’s...