Spring in the Vineyards

May 16, 2012

Buzz, Buzz, Buzz. As former beekeepers, we rushed outside at dawn – was it a swarm of bees landing on the deck?  But no, it was just the crew of vineyard workers with their noisy weed-eaters; another rite of passage in the vineyard in spring. A few days before, two vineyard workers had pushed huge lawn-mower-type weed whackers up and down the hillside rows, trying to knock down the 3 foot weed and cover-crop growth from the generous spring rains, and the present crew of guys was now doing the final mowing and cleaning up the tight rows where the bigger mower wouldn’t fit. Throughout the Napa Valley, where wildflowers have been planted between the vines, the weed-eaters always try to mow around them, leaving colorful swatches of flowers.

We always laugh when the port-a-potty gets towed into our vineyard, and is held in place by rocks at one of the few flat positions on our hillside property – a true sign of a vineyard crew coming to perform some magic. This week, it’s the suckering and shoot positioning of the newly emerging bushy vines. On each side of the vines’ trunk, the permanent arms are pruned early in the year to leave equally spaced spurs that will send out one or two shoots each. Each shoot may have one to two bunches of grapes and will grow to almost 6 feet long. But inevitably, all of the shoots are not strong enough to hold the fruit and become the basis for next year’s spurs, nor do they all have large bunches of grapes, so they are gently removed while the canes are still green, before they have lignified and taken on strength and form a bark.

 

We have set up 14 bird boxes, (actually, they were single bottle wooden wine boxes that a friend reconfigured with the specific proportions for these insect-loving birds) throughout the vineyard, and they all appear to be rented out. The colorful blue birds and tree swallows have filled them with nesting material and fly protectively around their dwellings, alternately swooping through the skies for insects and watching for intruders from their perch on top of the box. The first of the babies have hatched, creating a flurry of activity and dozens of daily trips to the nest. Hopefully they like the bad bugs that infect our vines as much as we enjoy watching them nest.

Our hillside vines were slow to bud out this year, but with the generous spring rains the vines have grown several feet since the tiny new leaves first appeared in early May, their tendrils reaching out and adding new leaves daily as they grow.

There is a mass of color against the light green of the vineyard, with pines and oaks on the hills surrounding us, where the wildflowers we planted several years ago have finally bloomed. Our strawberries, citrus and artichokes are giving fruit, the vegetable garden is planted with seeds sprouting in neat rows, and the first tomato blossoms have appeared. It’s going to be a wonderful vintage, for the birds, for us, and for our grapes!

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Mud Room Chronicles

May 2, 2012

It’s always easy to guess what time of year it is just by looking at the collection of irrigation parts, seed packets and clothing piles in our back porch, or “mud room”. Last Saturday there were 2 pair of muddy boots outside the back porch on a step stool, and 2 pair of flip-flops, (the weather’s warming). Inside, one pair of muddy socks (serious leaks and irrigation repair) and one pair with green foxtails in the tops (a sure sign that the days are warming and the grasses are dying between the vine rows).

In the old tin bucket in the sink, dust rags and old towels filled with muddy hand prints and dog hair (new plantings in the garden and dog washing days) and some rags heavy with blue PVC pipe glue from irrigation fixes (see muddy boots and socks above) wait their turn for a bleach load in the washing machine. On the counter, the ripped and wrinkled tops of several seed packets,  pieces of green tie tape too short to use, broken PVC parts, dirty garden gloves and a muddy chart of which melon was planted in which mound confirms that the ground has warmed enough to start planting seeds for our summer garden.

Like a kid in a candy store, we purchased hundreds of dollars of heirloom varieties grown by locals at Forni Brown Nursery and spent days rototilling, composting the soil and planting our “Mortgage Lifter” and “Pineapple Stripe” tomatoes. But we get some of the tastiest (most loved and expensive) tomatoes on the planet!

Pushed onto the back of the counter are sacks of sugar, stacks of canning jars and baskets of citrus (Meyer lemons, Blood oranges, Mandarins and Mexican limes), recently picked from the trees and now patiently waiting to become marmalade . . . suddenly they’ve taken a back seat to the garden and emergency irrigation, or a farmer’s life of “making hay while the sun shines!” Perhaps next weekend they’ll become jam . . . or better yet a cocktail!

Like everyone across the country, the Napa Valley had a mild winter with days in the 60’s and 70’s with little rain, teasing us into believing that it might be a dry spring with an early bud break. But March and April turned cold and wet, and gratefully prolonged the dormant vine’s shoots from forming until after the killing frosts had done their damage. Suddenly (and I know it’s a cliché, but it actually happens!) “as if before our very eyes”, in the course of a week the weather warmed, the spring showers stopped and the gnarled vines turned their tiny pink buds into 6 inch shoots of new growth with baby grapes!

Our next big chore, coming soon, will be “thinning” the crop. Unlike fruit trees, where we pull off individual peaches or apples to control the amount of fruit hanging on each branch, on a grape vine we look for a naturally balanced number of grape bunches on each side of the trunk, and snip off the entire shoot (grapes and all) if the shoot is too small to form a larger cane for next years’ crop, if it’s badly positioned or if it doesn’t have any grape bunches at all. After days of selective thinning, the once bushy vines look like they’ve had their summer crew cut, and the vines now focus on sending all that teenage energy into just a fraction of the shoots and buds.

It’s a fantastic beginning of another cycle of grape growing; muddy boots, dirty dogs, blue glue and all!

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Easter with the Iron Chef

April 10, 2012

In the Napa Valley we are blessed with dozens of exceptional restaurants locally, and we frequent them often. Within 15 minutes of our home in St. Helena some of our favorites are Farmstead, Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen, Tra Vigne, Brassica, Gott’s/Taylor’s Refresher, Market and Terra. A little further afield in Yountville, 15 minutes further down the Napa Valley, we have an equally great selection with restaurants such as Redd, Bouchon, Mustard’s, Bottega, Ad Hoc and Bistro Jeanty. But a 30+ minute drive to the town of Napa sometimes seems like going to another planet, and we rarely spread our wings that far just for a good meal.

Easter brunch gave us the opportunity to have a leisurely afternoon out, exploring fine dining options in Napa without having to drive home in the dark after several glasses of wine. We have enjoyed the multiple and tasty options at Oxbow Market in downtown Napa, and now wanted to see what the new dining selections on the Napa Riverwalk were all about.

For hundreds of years, the downtown streets of Napa have periodically flooded, sometimes with devastating results; but recent flood control and redevelopment efforts along with dredging of the river gave way to a more controlled flow and security for the local merchants. Up went high-rise (well, four stories in Napa is huge!) million dollar apartments and a new series of shops, galleries and restaurants called Riverwalk right on the banks of the muddy Napa river. We had eaten at and enjoyed the restaurants Angele and Celedon in the renovated feed mill on the water (Herb used to sell grain there, which he farmed when in FFA, for the Hunt & Behrens brand of chicken feed), but wanted to explore newer additions next door. Alas, Fish Story and Tyler Florence were closed, leaving only Morimoto, a contemporary Japanese restaurant, as an Easter brunch option. Perhaps the Iron Chef would be there in person to greet us?

And what a lucky find that was! We sidled up to the bar (all the locals eat at the bar in the Napa Valley – that way we get to try and share our and others’ wines) and ordered festive Japanese cocktails – Herb’s Japanese Manhattan with a touch of ginger liqueur was a hit! The backdrop over the bar featured old grapevines, sandblasted and hung in a huge glass box (“looks like the stuff we pulled out and chipped in the vineyard!”). We had a series of small plate appetizers, including pork gyoza, kakuni, Morimoto bone marrow and lobster wonton and duck meatball soup paired with our own Two Old Dogs Sauvignon Blanc (we never travel far without one!) and a glass of local Syrah. The sushi and sashimi looked exceptional, but we’d hit our limit. After comparing histories and stories of river activity and Chef Morimoto’s active involvement in the restaurant, (unfortunately, he wasn’t in on Easter), with the native bartender, we agreed that it was an odd place for such up-scale expectations, “between the slew and the jail” and across the river from a row of used car lots. But we left satiated and fortunate to have Morimoto as such an exceptional restaurant option, even if it would take us 35 minutes to drive home. Add this one to your “must try” and take a bottle of our Two Old Dogs Sauvignon Blanc when next visiting Napa Valley!

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