Weed eating between the wildflowers

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.

Bird apartments in the vines

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.

wildflowers in the spring

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!

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.

Summer tomatoes

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!

Meyer lemons

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!

Spring grape bunches

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!

Napa RiverWalk

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?

Sushi at Morimoto

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!

Fast forward 30 years, and we are still searching out little-known and interesting local cheese to serve to friends and clients at each wine tasting. No imported cheese in this household!  With the plethora of rolling grassy hills and dozens of creative cheese makers locally, we are literally in cheese heaven when it comes to selections. Dozens of aged dairies in the North Coast of California have been resourcefully converted to family owned smaller creameries, and inventive family farmers are now raising sheep and goats as well as smaller herds of milk cows to create imaginative cheeses. Fortunately, they are also doing a good job marketing their wares, which can now be found in fine dining restaurants all over the Bay Area as well as locally owned markets who now flaunt extensive cheese selections; Sunshine Foods  (St. Helena), The Oxbow Cheese Merchant (Napa), and Cal Mart (Calistoga), in case you need any options for your next Wine Country picnic. Local cheese with local wines . . . what a concept.

Here are some of our favorite artisan cheeses to pair with our locally-grown fruit and favorite wines; Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon.

We always offer a selection of goat cheese which we find is a great accompaniment to our Two Old Dogs Sauvignon Blanc. Goat’s Leap (from our own backyard in St. Helena) “Sumi” is an elegant ash coated soft cheese or try their aged “Carmela”. Any of Andante Dairy’s inventive goat cheese selections are successful pairings – “Acapella” soft-ripened, “Impromptu”, an aged hard cheese, or “Minuet”, a triple cream goat cheese. Bohemian Creamery also makes a great tangy cheese called “BoDacious”.

Cheesemaker at Bellwether Farms

For sheep’s milk cheeses we go with Bellwether Farms’ raw milk farm-style “San Andreas” or the “Pepato” with small peppercorns that both pair beautifully with our HL Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. Or, if you can find it, the “Fat Bottom Girl” washed rind cheese from Bleating Heart. (Wine labels aren’t the only brands with entertaining names!)

For cows’ milk, we always start with “The Original Blue” from Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company, creamy yet pungent and always a winner! For a hard cheese, we like the Fiscalini Farmstead Cheese “San Joaquin Gold” or their “Bandage Wrapped Cheddar”. And we can always count on the selection from Cowgirl Creamery, from their triple-cream washed-rind “Red Hawk”, to the mellow, earthy “Mt. Tam”, or the seasonal Jersey cow milk winter cheese “Devil’s Gulch” which is lightly dusted with dried peppers. After several bites of cheese paired with sips of wine, suddenly the cheese has disappeared and the glass is empty!

There are dozens of books and guides about our local cheese, and even an interesting industry magazine called Culture (look for the cheese centerfold and join their cheese-of-the-month club!), which is akin to the early publishing of the Wine Spectator covering the fledgling wine industry in the early 1980’s. As members of the California Artisan Cheese Guild (which is a great reference for local cheese) and attendees of the annual Artisan Cheese Festival in Petaluma, we have been able to visit many of the creameries in Sonoma and Marin and speak with the farmers and cheese makers first hand. It’s a real treat to visit with cheese makers -  sort of like casually meeting Napa Valley vintners in the vineyards and then touring the winery and tasting the end product . . . except that we don’t have as many cow pies to avoid in our fields. Millie would be proud.

Mike is a local grape grower of great acclaim, with his vineyard name proudly displayed on several wine labels throughout the Napa Valley. But locally, he is best known as the creator of one of the best Eggnog recipes ever found. Others have tried to substitute ½ and ½ for the 2 quarts of cream (never!), or reduce the alcohol to only 4 cups per batch (an abomination!), but if you follow his recipe you will be a crowd pleaser every time. (We have another friend who is on his third batch already this season, as his hens just don’t lay enough eggs at once to triple the recipe!)

In his own words, here is the amusing story of the origin of Mike’s Eggnog:

“I never cook anything. Most of my friends and family are wonderful cooks so I try to be what every chef needs–an enthusiastic eater and kitchen helper. One thing I do prepare each Holiday Season is the eggnog. I first made this eggnog when I was in college and worked occasionally as a bartender for private parties. When a call came in to the student employment office for a bartender to mix large batches of eggnog for a Christmas party in Woodside I was the only one who claimed to have  eggnog experience. I had, of course, lied about my experience and had  never drunk a cup of eggnog. This extreme confidence in the face of total ignorance got me the job.

The first research I did was to buy a carton of dairy eggnog, pour it into a cup, and add a good dose of whiskey. It was terrible. It ruined the whiskey. I then indulged in some real research in the card catalog of the main library. After noting the Dewey Decimal numbers for the cookbook section (641.5) I plunged into the stacks and fumbled through all the dusty books until I recognized one from my mother’s kitchen–the Joy of Cooking. It had a drink recipe for “Eggnog in Quantity” and I was saved. I couldn’t check the book out because I had some unpaid delinquent fines so I wrote it all down (I still have that piece of tablet paper).

Two days before the party I called my employer and with all the authority I could muster gave her a specific list of all the required ingredients, stated that there could be no exceptions, and said that I would need to be at work in her kitchen three hours before the party to prepare properly. The eggnog was so well received that I was given a big tip and hired to do it again the following year. I have been making it for friends and family ever since.”

Turkey dinner with Sarah and Duncan

Although it was easy, eating at the grandparents’ meant that our house never had the wonderful cooking aromas associated with Thanksgiving. So we were delighted when we were finally able to cook an entire traditional turkey dinner many years ago for a winemaking couple from Central Otago, New Zealand, whom we hosted for two months during their harvest internship. For the first time our house filled with the earthy/herbal smells of the turkey and dressing, the spicy aromas of the pumpkin and mince-meat pie. We feasted at our own table with our new friends for a full-blown Thanksgiving dinner, albeit in October, the bird looking remarkably like the cover of the latest Saveur magazine!

Since Herb’s parents are now getting on, (91 and 95 years old respectfully), we have started the last few years to cook almost the entire meal at our home and deliver it, as in meals-on-wheels, to the grandparents’ home for all to enjoy. Herbs’ love of all things seafood, even though only his dad will join him and everyone else lifts their nose to the smell, has led him to create his own version of the traditional dressing – Oyster Dressing.

Using Jennifer’s Herbed Sausage Dressing recipe, Herb suggests adding about a cup of chopped fresh oysters with a little of their natural juice. (If you can’t find fresh, the next best option is to purchase from the supermarket locally grown oysters in glass jars, not cans.). Chill the Two Old Dogs Sauvignon Blanc (you may have to sample some while cooking) and get ready for a meal to remember!

*Herb’s Oyster/Jennifer’s Herbed Sausage Dressing

(Stuffs one medium sized turkey with extra for left-over turkey sandwiches all weekend long!)
As with all recipes, feel free to add more or less of any of these items per your taste.

Ingredients:

6-8 cups cubed sourdough or French bread
*6-8 fresh, or one small jar of processed oysters – chopped into small bites
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 pound ground bulk sausage of your flavor choice (or Italian-type sausage with casings removed)
1 cup chopped celery, some leaves also
1 large tart apple, cored and diced
1 cup chicken stock (preferably home-made)
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup minced flat leaf parsley
2 teaspoons dried (or fresh) diced sage
2 teaspoons dried (or fresh) rosemary
2 teaspoons dried (or fresh) oregano
1 teaspoon dried (or fresh) thyme

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees – cook the bread cubes in a single layer on a sheet pan for 5-7 minutes, or until evenly toasted. (This can also be done days in advance by putting them into an oven that has been turned off after you’ve finished cooking a meal. Save in a plastic zip-lock container.) Dump into a large bowl.

In a large pan, melt the butter and cook the onions, celery, apples, parsley, and herbs, adding salt and pepper to taste, over medium heat until softened, about 5-7 minutes. Add to the bread crumbs in the bowl.

In the same pan, cook the sausage until browned and cooked through, breaking it up into smaller pieces as it cooks, for about 10 minutes. Add to the bowl of bread cubes and vegetables.

Add the chicken stock and cranberries to the mix. (At this point, you can also add the finely chopped, cooked gizzards and liver from the turkey if you like). *Add chopped oysters here, folding into the dressing.

Mix all ingredients lightly but well and loosely stuff the turkey cavity. (The oyster dressing should probably be cooked in a separate pan, unless you are sure that everyone around the table likes oysters!) Extra dressing can be baked in a bread or pie pan about 30 minutes or until browned on top. (Cover with foil the last few minutes if it gets too brown.)

Serve with a chilled bottle of Two Old Dogs Sauvignon Blanc (if there’s any left!)

Irregular set on Cabernet Sauvignon

Over 2 inches of rain in early June caused many of the flowering grapes to lose their set, thus reducing the volume of grapes on each vine . . . sometimes by as much as 60% in some hard-hit areas. The early morning fog lasted several hours into the day, and cooler weather persisted throughout the summer, lengthening the growing season by a month or more, as we all anxiously projected a late harvest and hoped that the winter rains would hold off until November.

Wineries and pickers found other work while waiting for the trickle, then the onslaught of grapes to ripen. We all foresaw a “train-wreck” scenario where the wineries would be full of this year’s later ripening white wine grapes that ferment in the tanks at a cooler temperature and thus stay longer in the tanks, when the red wine grapes would suddenly ripen and need the same fermentation tanks! Winemakers were also concerned with having to harvest grapes at lower maturity levels and degrees Brix (the natural sugar or sweetness in grapes that ferments into alcohol), producing leaner and more European-style wines unlike the full-bodied vintages that our California climate typically gives us. We tried to remind worried, youthful  winemakers and vintners that, “back in the good ol’ days” of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, wineries used to offer bonuses to growers for the sugar levels that you are worried about now, but they all chuckled and shook their heads!

Smaller bunches but perfectly ripe Sauvignon Blanc

Our Sauvignon Blanc was picked a month late, on September 26^th, but at peak ripeness. The juice was given 24 hrs. of skin contact then pressed off the skins and into the fermentor with the yeast to start bubbling away. After almost 4 weeks of very cool temperature fermenting, the wine was finally dry (no residual sweetness) and racked off the lees (the sediment leftover from yeast cells and fermentation) and into smaller tanks to leave room for the influx of red grapes.

Just when the sun finally came out and temperatures in the 80’s and 90’s were ripening our Cabernet Sauvignon, we received another 2 ½ inches of rain in early October. Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem to the thick-skinned Cabernet, but humid conditions persisted and many of us started to notice what is commonly this year being called “The Fuzzies”. Several types of mold and rot developed randomly overnight in many vineyards, ours included, thus pulling the plug on the hopes of leaving grapes to hang and further mature on the vine.

Picker running the grapes down the row to fill the truck

We harvested the Two Old Dogs and the HL Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon back-to-back within 4 days of each other, picking selectively to salvage the ripe berries before the mold could continue to grow. With judicious sorting, we were able to bring in just a little less than normal tonnage and better-than-hoped for quality, and everyone heaved a sigh of relief. Now, two weeks later, the Cabernets are finishing fermenting and will soon be be racked into their new French oak barrels – or homes for the next 1 ½ years.

Throughout the Napa Valley, almost all the grapes are now off the vines and an air of calmness (read exhaustion) prevails . . . time to put all the fears and worries – real or imagined – of the 2011 vintage to bed!

Night-time picking with lights

This was going to be exciting and different – picking Sauvignon Blanc under lights in the middle of the night! Although night time harvests, with their spot lights lighting the sky as though it was a local football game, have been used in the Napa Valley for many years, we have never been part of a night-time picking.

Normally we would show up with the vineyard manager and picking crew at dawn and wait until our eyes adjusted to the fuzzy light, then pick away! But with the need to get all 8 tons of Sauvignon Blanc grapes picked as quickly, (and as chilled), as possible, with only a crew of 16, it was a necessity to start early. The crew arrives at 4:00 am, and quickly take their places in the vineyard, filling half-ton bins with chilly night-time grapes under the glare of the massive overhead lights.

We follow the blinding lights to the end of the row, where each picker uses their headlamps to adjust to the band of grapes on the vines. Our forte is “leaves” – or the removal there of. First we start several vines in front of the line of pickers and sweep our hands down the canes and around the bunches to remove leaves from the picking area, so that the guys can reach right into the fruit zone and pick cleanly (no leaves), dropping the ripe bunches into the pans beneath them on the vineyard floor.

Vine before leaves removed

Clip, clip, thump, clip, thump, goes the noise, with an occasional hoot or shout or song from the pickers. Then they all run with their full pans to the half-ton bins being pulled slowly behind the tractor in the next row and toss the fruit in. It’s now our turn again to quickly pick out and remove any leaves and over-ripe fruit from the bigger bins behind the tractor. Scooting under the vines and back to their place on the row, the pickers start again, and continue for 6 hours until all the bins are full and the requisite tonnage agreed upon in our contract is weighed and loaded safely on the truck, bound for the winery.

Grapes exposed after leaves removed

The sun streams through the vines and the lights are shut off. In the distance, a flock of hot air balloons is taking off, and all that can be heard is the hiss of their heaters. The bins are full and loaded onto the truck, headed to the winery, and the vine rows are eerily silent when the crews depart and are filled with nothing but leaves!

It’s been a long but successful day, and the torch for the responsibility of the newly picked grapes is happily passed from the vineyard manager to the winemaker.

Hot air balloons at dawn

At the winery, our job is once again “leaves”. The bins are dumped into a 20 foot conveyor that slowly moves the grapes up to a crusher/stemmer. But on the way, the MOG (Matter Other than Grapes – read “leaves”) needs to be removed. We line up on both sides to sort through the cool grapes until our fingers feel frozen with the sweet sticky juice, trying to move the bunches around quickly as they travel up and out of reach, and remove anything doesn’t look like it should be included in fine wine – tie tape, branches, over or under ripened bunches, and leaves! If it’s not a grape, it doesn’t go onto the tank!

We will return with the winemaker to the winery tomorrow, after the grapes have chilled on

Grapes at the winery - dumped into the crusher/stemmer, sorted, then into the tank.

their skins in the tank overnight, when they will be removed and pressed off and the juice will return to the tank to begin its fermentation into wine. But until then, we will dream of the sweet smells of freshly harvested Sauvignon Blanc, and picture vines, without grapes – or leaves!

But our biggest vineyard pests are Deer; they will eat any and everything not nailed down! Driving around the Napa Valley, you will notice the many gated vineyards and you might think that we are flaunting our privacy or showing off our valuable property – but the truth is that we are actually fencing OUT the deer. They are so plentiful that our local landscapers even do a brisk business in deer-resistant plants, and all too often there are deer carcasses on the sides of the road where they have been looking for greener pastures (read “vineyards”) and been hit by cars.

Pocket Gophers are another major pest, eating roots of the vines and leaving tunnels and mounds that disturb the soil. Bait is sometimes used, but it can also kill domesticated animals and owls that eat the gophers, so thousands of buried traps are put out each year. We have even known one vintner in Carneros whose vineyard was so over-run by gophers that he sent out crews with shotguns to shoot every gopher that popped up! (Images of the Whack-A-Mole Game come to mind.)

Birds would be our next largest category of pests, and they come in all sizes. The Wild Turkeys are a huge pest at harvest, and some vineyards have been known to have turkeys so thick that vineyard trucks driving down the rows have to honk continually to scatter flocks numbering in the dozens. When the grapes begin to sweeten and are almost ready to pick, they also attract the Common or European Starling. Massive flocks in the hundreds of thousands can be seen swirling through the air at harvest, weaving dark clouds in the sky, and if they were to land en mass in the vineyard, the crop could be decimated.

Mylar reflectors

To combat these flocks of birds,  vineyard managers shoot off loud “bird guns” to scare them, or position large cages with bait to trap them, but most vineyard crews just tie reflective Mylar strips all through the vines. Glimmering in the sun as they catch a breeze, supposedly the birds will not land on the ripe fruit laden vines when these flashing strips are shining. But after a week or so the reflectors seem to loose their threat, and we have noticed the birds sitting very close to the reflectors, eating away at the sweet grapes, as if to say to each other “Oh look! I can see my reflection!”

Ahh . . . life in the country.

Spring buds

We all know that great wines are made in the vineyards . . . given the right circumstances! A “Normal” season of grape growing starts in the spring, when the vines send tiny new “buds” of growth out with the warming of weather after 6 months of winter dormancy. In approximately 50 more days (mid May), the vines are full of long canes and lush green leaves, and tiny self-pollinating blossoms bloom and set the crop. Another 50 days on (mid July), veraison occurs, where the pea-sized hard green grapes start to turn soft and take on sugar and show color (red or white, depending on the variety). And the spurt of final growth, in a “Normal” year, accompanied by warm summer weather, brings us fully ripened grapes ready for harvest between somewhere between September and the end of October.

The last two growing seasons have been anything BUT normal. We harvested our Sauvignon Blanc a full month later last year, and struggled with spikes of heat followed by September and October rain storms and cool weather to bring in our Cabernet Sauvignon fully ripened. This year, the extended cool weather has delayed every step of the ripening process again, from rains during bloom which gave us a much smaller set, to cool foggy mornings and mild day-time temperatures, leaving us about a month behind. But the season has at least been even, and the fruit is ripening uniformly. Hopefully, an extended Indian will extend the summer growing season to ripen the grapes, and we won’t have to battle Mother Nature again this harvest. Ideally, this will make it a winemaker’s year, with nothing but opportunity in the winery.

Foggy morning in Napa Valley

The effects of the odd weather are also  abundant in our own gardens and at our local Farmer’s Market, where cole crops are still in abundance, with lots of kale, chard and beets and even spring peas, and we are only just starting to see cherry tomatoes ripen. The multiple plantings of different tomato varieties are just showing some color, and what growers call a “Train Wreck”, when all the varieties suddenly ripen all at once, may be just around the corner in September.

Harvest has just begun with the sparkling wine varieties slowly ripening, “Normally” occurring a month before we start to pick our still wine grapes. As different grape varieties ripen at different times in varying micro-climates throughout the valley, we are all anxious to see some warmer weather soon and experience a “Normal” harvest, without varieties over-lapping in the winery. Do

Sauvignon Blanc ready to harvest

a little sun dance for us, won’t you?