Sunday, March 21, 2010

First day of spring

Really??  There is snow on the ground and the wind is fierce.  First day of spring??  No matter - the Seyvals, Vidal Blancs, and Vignoles are pruned and so are the Concords.  One block left - the Chambourcin.  Our favorites.  Why?  Closest to the tasting room - we can hop out there, do a few dozen vines and hop back into the tasting room when customers arrive.

We are on the eve of our one year anniversary - April 10th!!  Just planned the weekend.  Live music, fire spinners, fireworks and give aways.  A year and what a memoriable year it has been.  We have met lots of great people, enjoyed the work in the vineyards and watched the winery tasting room become a 'hang out' for some very cool regulars.  The coming year??  More of the same and more.  We will be starting a few new programs ('walk in the vines' & 'working in the vineyard') and hopefully building an addition to house all the equipment that is laying outdoors right now.  What would we change about the last year??  We would have poured the 2nd patio earlier.

For now, get the rest of the pruning done, bottle the Viagem this weekend, have the next blending workshop and welcome the spring.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Time for Irrigation

Sat down with consultants this morning to review/revise our irrigation system design for the existing and proposed vineyard blocks. It's finally time to automate watering and have a reliable alternative to Mother Nature. The balance of the day was spent pruning the Concord block.