The Time Whole Foods Got It Right

Whole Foods has taken a lot of heat recently — mostly due to CEO John MacKey’s Wall Street Journal Op-Ed piece on the Health Care debate. What sparked a lot of criticism was his somewhat clueless opinion that if people would only eat organic food, they wouldn’t need expensive health care. Aside from the fact that this doesn’t take into account accidents,...

This Sylvan Idyll Destroyed by Oscar

So this post was supposed to be about the lovely walk from the barn to the crush pad that I’ll be taking three times a day now that we’ve had a first harvest and I need to do thrice daily punch downs and readings. I was going to amaze you with beautiful photographs of woodlands, flowers and vistas. You would almost be able to smell the fragrance of Sonoma in Autumn. See...

The Old Cinsault Soft Shoe

The harvest has finally begun. And as it happened last year, the Cinsault was the first of our varietals to ripen. Which is a good thing since we’ve planted very little of it. It’s a gentle beginning before the tons of Mourvedre, Grenache and Cabernet get going. Further good news is that we kind of know what we’re doing by this point. Or, at the least, we have better...

Hot Jammin’ Sonoma Style

It was 104 degrees yesterday. We’d done all the prep work for the harvest that we could and we had to escape the sun. Hmmm. What’s a nice cool activity? How about something that requires hours in front of boiling pots in a barn loft with no air conditioning? Yeah! Let’s make jam. Okay, I knew at the time it was a bad idea, but I’ve got batches of tomatoes...

Critters and Varmints and Cervidae. Oh M...

First the good news: the deer are back at Two Terrier Vineyards. Which most people in Sonoma would think we were crazy to celebrate. Drive around here and you’ll see most places completely fenced in from the deer. The local hardware store does a brisk business in deer repellant, especially the faux coyote wee that’s marketed under the name “Not Tonight, Deer”....

Roddin’ At The Ranch

It was a hot Sunday in Sonoma and that means time to get out the hot rod, fluff up the hanging dice and take a spin around the old downtown Plaza. Like much of California — with its hot, dry rust-free weather — Sonoma is a mecca for classic car buffs. The thing to do is crank up your rod, go slowly cruising around the historic old square and maybe stop into the Black Bear...