Our First Press Today

We are going to pressing the Merlot today.  If you are out touring wine country today, stop by to see the first grapes of 2011 get pressed and enjoy some wine and wood-fired pizza too!

Two more Pizza Saturdays

We will be firing up the pizza oven just two more times this season.  Come out and join us Saturday, October 15 and Saturday, October 29 when Chris will be cooking up some of his wood fired pizzas.

The Reds are Fermenting

The pictures here show us "punching down" the grapes.  This means mixing up the grapes and the juice during the fermentation process.  In one of the pictures, you can see Susan pushing down through the cap that forms on the top.  In the other picture you can see the bubbling from the fermentation as the yeast are working away turning the sugars into alcohol

Fire burns off our Shrub Steppe land

We had a range fire that burned up all of our shrub steppe dry land.  It came right up to our irrigated land where we grow our crops, but fortunately did not hurt any of our farm crops ( the wine grapes are fine!)  We were a bit worried - especially when we had flames going above the height of the corn.  A neighbor brought up a water truck and along with Tom and Neil helped to get the fire out.  It is wonderful to have such great neighbors and friends to help.  No damage to people or buildings - but we have no more sagebrush.  It will be interesting to watch the regrowth.