From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

Yesterday, I posted about our newest resident of Two Terrier Vineyards, the coyote who is surely Coyote with a Capital C, the Cosmic Trickster of Native American legend. If you’d seen his almost levitating, loose-limbed lope and the way he slips under a gap in the vineyard fence that is almost too tight for Oscar, you’d know what I mean. Well, today we met another new...

Slow Cooking and Fermentation Wars Spice...

I’ve got a lot of small subjects that aren’t, in themselves, worthy of a whole post, so perhaps, since I’m experimenting with Slow Cooking, I should just throw them all in the pot. Actually, while we’re on the subject, let’s get right to that Slow Cooker. Long days on the crushpad or in the vineyards, then Sonoma’s cool nights creates a perfect...

The Great Fermentation Face-Off: A Battl...

UC Davis yeast revving up before being added to our grapes. If you don’t make bread, beer or wine, you probably think of yeast as something slightly icky. But for those of us who depend on it for the outcome of our products, yeast is a beautiful thing. And we’re always looking to use the best. UC Davis, one of the world’s foremost centers of winemaking expertise, has...

A Fire and a Misfire

 Ran up to Sonoma to do a quick check on our Cabernet which we transferred to secondary fermentation carboys on Saturday. Since we had so little, we’ve decided to do some experimentation. Half the Cabernet we put through primary fermentation using the specially formulated UC Davis yeast that most winemakers use. The second, smaller batch we decided to process using only the...