Ankida Ridge Vineyard

Let the 2012 Vintage Begin!

2012-01-16T22:02:00.002-05:00

BoomBoom, Tonka and Bella
So happy to be back in the vineyard again!

With pruning shears in hand, we marched into the vineyard today, the sixteenth of January, and began working toward the successful harvest of our 2012 vintage. Our first vintage, 2010, is in bottle, the 2011 in barrel and the 2012 standing dormant under grey skies this chilly winter's day. Hard to believe we are in our third vintage already. For those readers who have followed us from my first post in the spring of 2008 as we prepared to plant our vines, you can appreciate just how far we have come. Back then, we had no idea how our little experiment of planting Pinot Noir in an eco-friendly vineyard up here in these Virginia mountains would go. Would it end in disaster, a plot of land laden with disease, with grapes of no flavor? Or would we be able to raise a crop of grapes in a healthy vineyard and produce a wine we would be proud to claim as ours?

In the years that have passed since that spring planting in 2008, we have lost Dennis' dear father and lost our dear old Dan and Flippy and Killian. The grand-baby population of two has expanded to five. The flock has grown to over twenty sheep. We have just finished our winery building and are considering a small expansion of the vineyard. Our son, Nathan, has joined the business, overseeing construction of the winery and is responsible for making our wines! And how are those wines? Are they what we dreamed they might be? We would have to say yes! And for that we are so very grateful and for all of you who have cheered us along as we traveled this journey together.

So, cheers to all of you and to the vintage of 2012!

Wishing You Peace and Cheers!

2011-12-19T20:06:00.001-05:00

The countdown is on. Only five more nights till Christmas Eve! I sit by the fireplace, listening to the sizzle, snap and pop of the woodfire. All is quiet down in the winery except for the simmering sizzle of malolactic fermentation inside the barrels. The woods are grey and a chirping assortment of birds gathers at the feeders. The sheep are no longer in the vineyard, having returned to their winter pasture down in the lower forty. Without the sheep in the vineyard it looks so bare, empty and void of life. That will all change soon enough.

But for now, the focus is on family and the spirit that is Christmas... of sharing and giving thanks. Our wish for all of you is a holiday season filled with good health, safe travels, joy, laughter, love, and of course, good wine to share with family and friends as you celebrate the joys of the holiday season.

Happy Holidays to one and all and may you all be blessed with the joy and thankfulness we feel for our many blessings here at Ankida Ridge.

Cheers!

The Vrooman Family

Happy Holidays!

And Merry Christmas!

A Season of Bounty

2011-11-29T23:34:00.001-05:00

I can't help but take a moment away from the vineyard and winery life to stress the value of family during this time of the year. We were blessed over Thanksgiving to enjoy the presence of each member of three generations of our family... all together here on our mountain. Missing was our 94 year old paternal patriarch whom we lost this year and whose memory is deeply cherished by all of us. Remaining from that generation is the sole living great-grandparent of our clan, my very proud World War II navy veteran father, who remained deep in the sunny south, as any place north of the Florida state line beyond October is a bit too cold for him.

And so our four and their families, including five wee ones (all under the age of five) gathered for days up on this mountainside. Looking back at our time together I hear the laughter, the stories, the newborn cries and toddler tales. I remember the warm sunshine, blaating sheep, childrens' squeals in an echoing barrel room, their foot races across the new winery deck. I see the horizon at daybreak painted in red. I smell the baking pies, the turkey and the soft scent of a newborn. And I remember what I have dreamed of for years... seeing bottles of wine, made from the grapes we raised from this land, set on our Thanksgiving table.

When I began my blog in 2008, before we even planted our vines, I recall musing about the day we would set a bottle of our own wine on our holiday table, an event that seemed so dreamlike and far away. This Thanksgiving of 2011, that vision became real and we did indeed pour into our glasses our very own wine. We raised those glasses and offered thanks for our many blessings, and we put that wine to our lips. And it tasted oh so wonderfully good. A dream fulfilled.

Thank you. Thank you to all and everything that made this dream come true. And I thank all of you, my readers, for sharing this journey with us. You have made it all the more special.

And here, I share with you images of my many joys...

And a Happy Holiday season to you all.

A Quiet Time of Year

2011-11-20T08:04:00.000-05:00

Ahhh...Time to catch our breath. Activity has slowed down in the vineyard and down in the winery. Time for us to rest a bit, while our sheep take over some of the work load. Our sheep have been grazing the vineyard floor for nearly a month now, and they have everything inside the deer fence looking quite manicured. I so enjoy sipping my morning coffee while looking down on the vineyard and seeing these mounds of white scattered about, working away at a job we humans now don't have to do. They have cleaned up just about everything, especially the thicker, high grasses that would have collected debris over the winter and harbored things we don't want harbored! In addition to the valued grazing they do, they are adding nutrients, especially potassium and phosphorous for which we are always fighting a slight deficiency.

By spending all this time up in the vineyard, the lower pasture grasses have a chance to catch up and will provide the sheep with fresh grass as we head into winter. They'll go back to work in the vineyard in early spring and stay in there until bud-break in mid-April when they are allowed to roam free on the property, keeping all our lawns mowed down. Ya gotta love 'em!

In the fall, we collect their manure that has accumulated near the sheep barn and compost it with the grape pomace (skins, seeds, stems left over from the wine-making process). This composts over the winter and is ready to return to the vineyard in the spring, adding again the nutrients and organic matter that help keep our vines healthy. This inter-connectedness and re-cycling of what is produced on our farm and vineyard is a beautiful example of sustainability and eco-balance. We honor our sheep by including an image of them on our label. They truly are an integral part of Ankida Ridge and the wines we can create.

Before winter sets in during this quiet time of late fall, we go into the vineyard and remove any secondary fruit or missed clusters. It is important to remove this fruit from the vine because it could be a source of fungal pathogens that could overwinter on the vines and infect the young fruit next spring when the weather warms up.

Strolling through the autumn vineyard and snipping off this fruit is actually a lovely job, especially when the sheep are in there with me. They tend to congregate around me. I love sitting on the ground as they gather around and sniff my hair and put their chins out for me to stroke them. This time of year is my favorite, when the days are warm, the breezes cool, immersed in the peacefulness of a quiet vineyard. Just beautiful.

In the winery, we continue to smell the wine in the barrels daily. Our 2010 vintage inventory is depleting fast, which is good and bad, as we have to limit our sales now to have enough wine left to carry us through the release of our 2011 vintage.

The barrel room is essentially complete and now we head upstairs to work on the tasting room over the winter in preparation for our official spring opening, hopefully around the time the redbuds and dogwoods are in bloom. It is a feast for the eyes.

The Last Press

2011-11-06T15:01:00.001-05:00

"Crush 2011" officially ended at Ankida Ridge this past week when we pressed the last of our grapes. Crush, in the wine industry, is that time of year between the beginning of harvest and the end of processing the fruit, with much of the action happening on the "crushpad"( above.) After the de-stemming (for red grapes) and sorting, then fermenting and pressing, the juice is put either into barrels or tanks to undergo the aging process. This is a time of year like no other for those in the viticulture/wine-making industry. The demands on body and mind are rigorous. The days are long and strenuous. But, oh how I will miss it all. There's an electricity, an energy in the air that is vibrant, exciting and so very rewarding.

For the grower, harvest is the culmination of a growing season full of challenges. With the picking of the fruit, the grower then passes the baton to the winemaker and with that comes a sense of relief the grapes are off the vine and at last free from dangers that lurk there! Now that we are making our own wine here, I don't have to say goodbye to my grapes, and I can continue to be involved it their transformation into wine, and that is so gratifying for me.

For the winemaker, the responsibility now falls into his/her hands to create the wine, to oversee the entire crush process, to keep the juice safe from bacteria, spoiling, etc. and tend to the slow progression of the aging process. Nathan has done an amazing job in the winery and I am his willing helper!

He moves with precision; coordinating bins and barrels, sniffing juices, tending to a multitude of equipment parts. Siphoning, measuring, testing, punching, pressing, lifting, pushing. It's all a ballet of sorts, a grand production after a year of preparation! Thank you, Nathan! Great job!

While the grapes are fermenting, the entire winery is filled with the yeasty, sweet fragrance of the fermenting fruit. The fruit needs to be "punched down" twice daily at first. I love punching down the fruit. There is a punchdown tool designed for this purpose, but I prefer to punch down my Pinot grapes with my hands, usually listening to Bach or Mozart! As the rising cap of fruit is pushed down into its own juices, a purple, bubbling sweet juice rises and the fragrance is entrancing... vapors of summer sugars permeating the air I breathe. The juice up to my elbows is so warm... my last contact with the grapes I cared for all season. It fills the senses.

Our wines are now all in barrel and we sniff the wine nearly daily to be sure no off odors are developing. The wines have a beautiful smell and are developing a lovely, early aging flavor. We will watch them closely over the winter and spring months and care for them just as we did in the vineyard, cherishing the opportunity to create a vintage to savor, enjoying the fruit produced in 2011 as the years go by .

The vintage of 2011 also gave us the latest addition to the Ankida Ridge Vrooman Family Vineyard's roster. Introducing Curran Wells Lucas, born Sept 15 to our daughter, Tamara and hubby, Gary. And right in the middle of crush season! More excitement and goodness added to the 2011 vintage!

Our Wine Club has officially opened and first shipments are on their way! We will not be selling this first 2010 vintage anywhere but through the winery and Wine Club shipments. Our production is extremely limited. If you want to buy any wine, click here for more info.

And... we are now open for "Personal Tour & Tasting" visits. Click here to learn more about how you can visit us.

We look forward to your visits and sharing our wines with you!

Our Wine Club insert, delicious recipes included!

Bon appetit and cheers!!

Art in the Winery, Naturally!

2011-10-16T16:11:00.000-04:00

Without looking too hard, one can find brilliant bursts of spontaneous art sprinkled throughout life. Discovering such art during the winemaking process is no exception. Below are images I took of the "dregs" in the bottom of one of the stainless steel tanks that had just been drained of Chambourcin juice for a future port wine we are making. I walked by the tank, its side portal open, and my eye caught the brilliant, gnarly veins of white amongst the stretches of deep purple. Natural, beautiful art... caught in the act of just being!

2011-10-15T09:01:00.009-04:00

In honor of DrinkLocalWine.com's "Regional Wine Week 2011" I drafted my 47 word essay in the form of a poem. Here's to Local Wine!!!

From this earth underfoot

Grows a wine that speaks
The language of this place
Not California
Nor Burgundy
Nor regions beyond
But of Virginia’s
Rocky Blue Ridge

Local wine epitomizes
Community
Feasting
Neighbors
Friends raising glasses
Sharing wine grown
In this place
We love to call home

Harvest 2011: A Photographic Collage

2011-09-30T22:02:00.000-04:00

The irony of being a writer in this winemaking business is that when there is so very much rich detail to share, there is an inversely proportional amount of time with which to share it! And so I have compiled a photo journal with captions to offer you a visual glimpse of this most adrenalin-rich time of year! Enjoy!

Pinot Noir Harvest!

And two weeks later....Chardonnay harvest!

An Historic Harvest Season!

2011-09-07T08:39:00.000-04:00

This is a harvest season for the record books here in Central Virginia. Trying to pick fruit between earthquakes, hurricanes and tropical storms makes for strong vintners!! An earthquake! Here? I have never in my life felt the earth shake under my feet. I was out on our deck and with a jolt, the house started shaking. I thought the washing machine was "tilting" out of control until I remembered I wasn't doing any laundry. With a growing cresendo of shaking, trembling, rattling I suddenly realized an earthquake was underfoot. And it was growing in intensity. I grabbed onto the railing for the security of it. I looked across the valleys to the mountain ranges in the distance and wondered if they were shaking too. For a flash I thought the view such a beautiful image if it were to be my last. At that moment the rising crescendo of the trembling earth reversed. I could feel the shaking diminish in my grip of the railing and felt the last little tremor wither away. We had just harvested our Pinot Noir two days earlier and I wondered if there was any damage down in the winery... a concern I, never in my life, would have anticipated... that our grapes in our winery might be damaged by an earthquake!? All was fine.

Within a week we were facing Hurricane Irene. Here in the mountains we watched with relief as she churned just to our east. And she gifted us with some amazing clouds swirling south that I captured with my camera. And then Tropical Storm Lee wreaking the most havoc with winegrowers in Central VA, dousing us with downpours just as grapes are ripening all across the land. We were able to get all our Pinot and Chard in before the deluge. Sigh...

Below, Hurricane Irene's beautiful side. What these images can't capture is the movement of the clouds. They were all streaming left to right (north to south) as if each cloud formation was racing to catch the cloud ahead of it. It was absolutely breathtaking.

And next... The Harvest!

Our Pinot Noir "undressed" and ready to be harvested!

And Hear, Hear to our Man of the Year!!

2011-08-19T12:16:00.000-04:00

It is safe to say we would not be making our wines in our own winery this year had it not been for the person Dennis and I are announcing as our Man of the Year, our fabulously talented, hard-working, magnificent son, Nathan!!
Nathan, has been in charge of the entire winery project. I can't even begin to mention all the hats he has worn during this undertaking; from the beginning design concepts, all the way through to setting up the tanks and everything in between. He got through it all...and got us where we are, ready to open our own winery in time for our own harvest!! Amazing! He ordered equipment, arranged subs, negotiated, conferred, designed, repaired. You name it, he did it. He even faced the chimney with stone when we couldn't get anyone here in time so the roofers could finish the roof. This guy can do it all. AND... he is in charge of making the wine, under the guiding hands of our dear, Monsieur Mattheiu Finot.
Words are insufficient to express our gratitude that he chose to move from that lovely city of Denver and take this family business to the next step. Hear, hear.. to Nathan! Bravo, dear son! And more thanks than you can imagine.

He even works in the vineyard! What a guy!

What a gift!

Countdown! Pinot Noir Harvest 2011!

2011-08-19T11:01:00.000-04:00

One aspect of this whole "viti" endeavor that has taken me by surprise is the excitement of harvest. Last year we were exhuberant over our first ever harvest. There would never be another very first! I thought at the time I would not experience it all to the same degree. Perhaps after many, many years the vibrancy of the event will fade, but I have to say that this year I think I am even more excited, possibly because of less anxiety of the unknown... just how does one know how to harvest a vineyard if they have never done it before? And I think, because we now know that our wines are considered to be of fine quality and they taste really good, I am even more excited to see how this year's vintage will turn out.

The numbers are of vital importance in determining when to harvest. We look primarily at the brix (sugar levels) and the ph. Having the proper proportion of each will offer the greatest chance of making an outstanding wine. It is difficult to find that perfect sugar/acid balance, but at this point, it looks like we will hit those numbers spot on come Sunday morning. We are aiming for 23 brix and 3.4ph and we are going to be very close, if not precisely there, in less than 48 hours from now.

And here, my little "viti-kid", Owen, learns how to read the brix level in the refractometer!

It hurts sooo bad.....

2011-08-02T20:14:00.002-04:00

To drop fruit!! "Dropping fruit" is the industry term for cutting off fruit from the vine during the ripening process before harvest. This is done for a couple of reasons. If too much fruit is on the vine, it is believed that the intensity of flavor is diminished, so the fewer the berries, the more flavorful the crop. The other reason is to help achieve a more uniform ripening. By removing those clusters whose ripening is lagging behind the others, we will achieve a brix (sugar) level more close to our desired percentage. This must be done at a point when the majority of grapes have changed color, but not all. If done too late, we cannot tell which of the grapes just turned. They might appear as ripe as the others, but their sugar and acid levels are not where we want them to be. So a good time to accomplish both goals is now when we are almost through veraison (color change).

Can you pick out the two clusters I ended up snipping off this vine?

After struggling to produce fruit on our young and under-vigorous vines last year, this year it really is painful to remove these beautiful, perfect, large clusters of grapes. So I decided to put the riper ones cut from the over-abundant vines to use and make some Pinot Noir jelly from the juice. The juice is now in the fridge. I'm too busy to make the jelly right now though. Hopefully I will get to it before it starts to ferment.

And I am soo glad.... we spent all that time, energy and money putting up all that netting that will keep those cute little birds from feeding on our crop!

Deep Breath Now, Dear Vines...

2011-07-30T07:00:00.068-04:00

Fog, Oh Sweet Fog... After over two weeks of relentless sun, heat, and high humidity, my vines can take a deep breath and relax a bit. A cloudy day today! That's good. Tomorrow hot and sunny again, then it looks like this heat wave might be history and those sweet little grapes can slow down a bit in their ripening and slowly develop their balance in their sugar and acids. They are ripening faster than I expected due to this hot stretch. We were hot up here at 1800 ft, but not as hot as everything below us these past weeks. We averaged about 8 degrees cooler every day, sometimes as much as 10 degrees. This is a good thing for our Pinot Noir. They prefer life a bit cooler than the thicker skinned reds. I have been walking through the vineyard pulling leaves down from the canopy to cover those clusters that seemed a bit too exposed. ..sort of like pulling down the stroller cover to protect the little ones from the sun.

Lucie Morton spent a morning here this week. We had our pruners, magnifying glasses, cameras, etc and went to work examining the grapes and vines. The Chardonnay is filling out beautifully. We should certainly be able to get a bigger crop this year over our measly pickings last year. And there was absolutely no disease to be found. Yes! Fingers crossed for the next few weeks.

The Pinot vines appear to be healthy, happy four year olds, just becoming aware of all they are capable of being. The difference in the maturation and canopy in the vines this year compared to last is amazing. My babies have grown up!! They are in nearly full production mode. They have worked hard to become strong and healthy. I have allowed them to defend themselves a bit, spraying minimally which allows them to produce some of their own defenses by producing more phenolics (which enhances flavor). I am so proud of them!! And the few morsels of grapes I have tasted that seemed the ripest are absolutely beautifully sweet and rich in flavor. Just a few more weeks of slow (hopefully) ripening, and a bit of time to rest and hang on the vine before their big graduation day!!

And then there is the interesting Stink Bug issue! My concern this year has been with the BMSB (Stink Bugs) getting in the tight clusters of the Pinot grapes, piercing the fruit and setting us up for Fruit Rot (Botrytis). We made an interesting observation. The Stink Bugs have nearly disappeared now that the Pinot has turned color. The only ones I found were in the still green clusters. There was a mixture of the indigenous bugs and the BMSB. We studied the clusters and could see that the bugs appeared to have been feeding on the pedicle part of the grapes, where the grape is attached to the tiny stem. Perhaps this is what the BMSB likes to feed on and not the ripe fruit, and once that hardens off it is not so tasty and they move elsewhere? Also, in most cases we found some webbing. Will have to check with VA Tech to see what that is.

There is much to learn about this new invasive pest. VA Tech and others are working to find a solution. I hope it comes soon, as the amount of BMSB in our vineyard this year was hugely increased over last year.

"Hangin" at the Governor's Mansion!

2011-07-21T08:43:00.002-04:00

I was honored to have been invited to a reception at the Virginia's Governor's Mansion for Women in Business. I had met Mrs. McDonnell earlier this year at the Virginia Vineyard Association annual meeting. She told me she would love to hang in her office a copy of the photograph I took that is the cover of this year's Virginia Winery Guide. And so I took the opportunity of this visit to Richmond to present her with a framed copy of the image. As you can see she was delighted and I am so honored to have one of my photographs hanging in her office in Richmond!

Vineyards Beware the Dreaded Stink Bugs!

2011-07-12T07:44:00.002-04:00

As most of you that live in the Mid-Atlantic region are aware, the last several years we have witnessed the invasion of a pest from Asia known as the Brown Marmorated Stink bug, or BMSB. Last season I did not see any in the vineyard, other than a few of the indigenous variety in small numbers. This year the story is different. I am finding Stink Bugs in increasing numbers of all ages and sizes all over the vineyard, on the leaves, on the grapes and inside the clusters.

Last year the bugs lived in the forests and didn't swarm into "our" world until the first cool nights of fall, which was mid-September for us. So they were not an issue for us late in the season or at harvest, given we harvested on Aug 11 and Sept 1. My concern this year is now that they are already in the vineyard, once we get ripening fruit (which is already beginning) they will puncture the fruit, the sweet juices will drip amongst the clusters and we will risk getting a disease called botrytis, or bunch rot. A great deal of research is ongoing by major institutions and government bodies on how to address this rapidly increasing agricultural problem. This might be the year that an insecticide finds its way into our vineyard before we risk losing our crop to this dreaded pest. Stay tuned.

Opening Up the Winery View

2011-06-28T20:59:00.000-04:00

We are making slow, steady progress on our mountain construction adventure! This afternoon we went ahead and cleared some trees to open up the magnificent view from the winery! The bottom left is the "before" pic, and next to it the "after" pic. And above them is the view from inside the winery as you walk in. We are so looking forward to entertaining you on this deck this Fall and having you sip some of our beautiful wines that have seemed to capture this view in the bottle!!

A Green Explosion!

2011-06-03T09:56:00.000-04:00

I never would have believed years ago as I lived my city life that I would one day be spending endless hours in a vineyard under grueling heat, my pores pouring sweat, body baking under a hot sun on a muggy, still day. I lived the life of comfort, where I went outside on a day such as this only for quick moments as I dashed from house to car to office to restaurant, etc. I picked the days I wanted to spend outside. Here I don't have that choice. What impresses me is how much more we are capable of withstanding than I ever imagined possible. I learned that this past week.

The climate conditions of this spring and my four days absence from the vineyard when I traveled back to Virginia Beach for a few days created a perfect storm for utter chaos in the vineyard upon my return. We had so much rain under very cool conditions for most of the spring. The vines had been well fed with a good dose of compost. They soaked it all up and rested quietly as they waited for sun and heat to kick start their season of reproduction. Well......

The hot sun arrived just as I left and when I returned, my jaw dropped at the jungle of growth before my eyes. Canes spewing forth in all directions, canes that were too short to tuck into the wire before I left were now so long they were laying on the ground. Walking down the rows was like walking through a tunnel. Oh my God! And we had to spray within 48 hours to not allow a lapse of coverage and Black rot to rear its ugly head. This is such a vulnerable time. The fruit is in bloom and the baby grapes are tiny and tender.
I was frantic. 3,500 vines, each with multiple canes. Impossible! Dennis was there to help for a while. Arnold lended a hand. A storm was coming the next day. We had to get all the canes off the ground, tucked in and Arnold spray before the end of the next day. Temps in low nineties with high humidity and no breeze. I felt like I was running ahead of a freight train that was picking up speed. I have to say this was one of the most grueling days I can remember.
By six o'clock on day two I tucked in my last cane and Arnold began spraying. He finished spraying beyond twilight, into the darkness of night with the tractor lights on. The expression around these parts is "dark caught me". For me, the heat caught me. It took me two days to recover. Fluids, electrolytes, rest. I walked the vineyard the next day and I felt a reminiscence of those days after childbirth... feeling exhaustion along with an overwhelming sense of pride in my accomplishment and a deep connection to what I had given birth to.

Grow in good health my baby grapes. Trust you will be cared for to the greatest of my abilities.

The Secret World of Animals

2011-05-24T23:39:00.000-04:00

Oh, we humans sometimes think we are the only sentient beings. I have discovered that the more time I spend with the animal kingdom the dumber I feel. They have a sense that we do not. I don't know what to call that sense, but my moments with Dan as he died have confirmed in my mind that animals can perceive things without the use of language that we humans cannot.

Yesterday afternoon, in the sheep barn stall, under a cloudy sky, our Dan was "put to sleep"... such a tender term for such a difficult event. He had stopped eating and drinking, nature's way of helping a life to end and to help us humans accept that our animal has chosen its time. I held his head in my lap for about an hour before, cradling him with my love which soothed him and helped him to rest. I could see from my position Bella, our female Maremma, pacing back and forth outside the barn, looking in our direction, slowing down to look our way, but not coming in. Dan went in and out of his restful place. Dennis came in and gave him a sedative. He relaxed more and I held him so close. Just before Dennis gave him the euthanasia medicine, one my favorite ewes, Gracie, walked into the stall and blaated. She stood over Dan, sniffed him and continued to stand next to him. We moved her and she faced the outside of the stall and began blaating. I wondered if she was trying to get the rest of the flock to acknowlege what was happening and for them to come say their goodbyes, a goodbye to their protector who had guarded them so steadfastly for the last eight years.

Dan died quietly and peacefully. We called Bella to come in. We had to coax her into the stall. She glanced quickly at Dan and turned away. She just would not look at him. Gracie stood guard for some time. Arnold, Dennis and I stayed there for several minutes in silence while the sheep blaated to one another. We wrapped Dan up in a blanket and drove him to our pet burial ground on a mossy knoll in a beautiful thicket of blossoming mountain laurel overlooking the pond. And here is where BoomBoom sensed something was not right. After resting Dan in the ground and partially burying him, BoomBoom came over and sniffed the grave and sat in it. He did this when we buried Flippy as well. They are tuned in to so much more than we think , or maybe want, to know.

And so we say goodbye to a legend in his own time. He rests now above the others buried before him, at the top of the burial ground where his spirit can overlook the peaceable kingdom he created in our world. Rest in peace, our Dear Dan. The tender animal communications surrounding your death was your last and one of your most precious gifts left behind for us. Thank you, thank you, my Danny Boy.

Haiku

Noble in spirit

Wise beyond mere mortal grasp

Tell us what you know

Oh Danny Boy...

2011-05-23T00:01:00.002-04:00

For those of you that have been to our farm or who have been following my blog these last few years, you know what a special dog our ol' guy Dan is. We needed a guard dog for our little flock of sheep and via the grapevine heard of a good Maremma for sale in southwest Virginia. We got him in 2003 when he was four years old, a massive dog sporting a majestic coat of white fur and whose black-rimmed almond eyes connected so easily with ours. His quiet strength exudes his inner knowledge that he is king of our peaceable kingdom and he was happiest knowing he was working hard to protect his flock.

Over the years he did not need to throw his weight around to prove his power. He just carried it with him all over this mountainside, and all the other dogs who came to visit over the years knew it as soon as they sniffed one another. He was king, but a benevolent one and was happy to share his empire with those who appreciated it. But just don't forget who is king, all you other dogs. Dan is the man!

In previous entries I have shared stories of how Dan guarded me when I injured my knee and lay helpless on the ground. And of the time when we first got him and he escaped from the enclosed pasture and was ready to run down the creek to open pastures whose wild sweet scents called him to be free. I screamed for him to come back. He stopped, sniffed again the breeze of freedom, looked back at me, looked the other way one more time, the wind blowing his beautiful mane. He took one more step away from me, out of my reach across the creek. I screamed his name one last time. He must have felt the pleading desperation of my call. He stopped, looked at me and slowly turned towards me, lumbering across the waters until he stood next to me. From that day on, we had this special connection in a quiet, etheric way. My Danny Boy, my Danny Boy.

Tonight, as I write this, my Danny Boy is resting under the weeping cherry tree in his favorite spot overlooking his domain.  He is nearly paralyzed, a gradual worsening condition that is also painful when we try to move him. We have to slip a blanket underneath him to move him and he cries in pain everytime we do. He was panting so hard this evening. I layed myself down on the ground next to him as the sun was setting. I rested my head against his and put my arm underneath his head. His panting stopped and he began breathing slow, deep breaths and fell asleep on my arm. I rested with him on the damp, evening ground. Bluebirds, wood thrushes and other birds were singing in this warm late spring evening. Baby lambs were blaating in the background and behind them the sound of rushing water rolling over the creekbed... all sounds of the familiar world that Dan loved.  I got up off the ground as he slept peacefully. Tonight will be Dan's last sleep under his weeping cherry tree. We can't let him suffer any longer, although his eyes still seem bright and connected and his white coat so soft. He is a dog of nobility beyond description. I love you, my Danny Boy.

I had to leave my writing above about an hour ago and have just returned from making a hurried trip down to Dan to bring him in from a horrible thunderstorm that has popped up. The lights are still flickering and the sky is lit up with constant flashes of light.  A clap of thunder just shook the house and BoomBoom is panting at my feet under the table. The storm came out of no where.  We had to go down and move Dan inside,the barn, carry him to a safe, dry place. It was 10:30, too late to call Arnold who lives in our cabin below to ask if he can help us. Dennis and I donned some rain gear and rushed down the mountainside. The forest was lit up and the rain pounding down. Halfway down the mountain Arnold calls my cell to tell me he has gotten Dan inside the barn, dragged him on the blanket we left under him this evening. We met him at the barn. Dan looked at us, wagged his tail and he drank some water. The flock had rushed into the barn around us and Dan was surrounded by all that he loved and all he had protected all his life. I grabbed a few shots with my cell phone to capture this moment when all us creatures huddled together under one roof. Bella has stayed close to Dan. We sadly never got a breeding of the two of them and it saddens me we have none of Dan's offspring.

I told Arnold that I had been writing about Dan when the storm hit. He answered that he also had written about Dan this evening. He wanted to go back into the cabin to retrieve his writings so I could read it. He walked through the downpour and came back with his piece of notepaper wrapped up in a ziploc bag. With his beautiful penmanship for which he is so proud, he wrote the most thoughtful, tender piece. Arnold's ancestors have lived in this rural hollow for generations and we feel blessed to have them in our lives. In silence, under the dim barn light and pouring rain all around us, I read Arnold's tribute to Dan . His tribute moved me to tears. Thank you dear Arnold. You have cared for Dan as he has cared for all of us.   We hugged and cried as Dan lay at our feet taking in what will be his last night. What a difficult job for Dennis tomorrow. We will all be there. Oh how we all will miss our dear, beautiful dog. My Danny Boy.

Arnold's Tribute:
Down in the valley of Franklin Creek lies a beautiful view of the mountains, and a lovely old cabin. Beneath the evening sunset there's a lovely flowering tree and on the lawn of beautiful green grass lays a lovely old dog named Dan as he spends his last moments of his life. He will be missed as the years go by. The wonderful care guarding the sheep throughout the days and guarding by night. His lonely barks will be missed. Bless the Vroomans for the care that they have done for that favorite dog named Dan. He will be remembered in memories of friends, family and others as the days go by.
Written by Arnold Martin.

Bottled Wine!

2011-05-19T17:30:00.003-04:00

It seemed the day would never come, the day we actually put into bottles the wine from the grapes we so lovingly raised. But that day did come and it arrived full of sun. May 5, 2011. Perfectly perfect!

Here is how a bottling day at a winery goes! The long tractor-trailer housing the bottling assembly line arrived at the Stinson's winery early in the morning and it took them a couple of hours before everything was lined up and ready to roll. We were bottlling not only our wines, our Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, but some of the Stinson's wines as well. We will label our bottles ourselves later this summer, but we had the corks ready to go!

The wines inside the tanks in the winery are pumped through a long hose into the bottling truck as the bottles move through a multitude of stages and stops, all the glass clinging and clanking in a rhythical dance, right side-up, upside down, rubbing shoulders, movin' on down the line. What a show. After moving down one line, they circle at the front of the truck and march on out to be quickly dropped into boxes, rolled down the conveyor, stamped, box labeled, sealed and ready to head into your homes!

Rolling out the hose

Rachel Stinson clamping together sections of hose; the guys teasing her about handcuffs:)

Command Central

Setting it all up

Bottles getting filled with our Chardonnay

After completing the circuit, out the other end they march!

And down the conveyor the cases will slide

to be stamped, sealed and crated away!

Nathan hauling the filled cases

And when the bottling is complete, time to clean out the tanks! Rachel Stinson and Nathan climb into the tanks and begin scrubbing them down with disinfectants and cleaners. Cleanliness is one of the most important factors in a winery to prevent a variety of off-flavors that can develop due to contaminants.

It is recommended to wait several weeks before drinking wine after it's been bottled, as it has to recover from "bottle shock", a reaction to the wine from the act of bottling, leaving the wine with muted or disjointed fruit flavors. Well, we just could not wait several weeks to taste at least one of our wines. So we figured the Chardonnay would be affected least by the bottling. That evening we chilled it, pulled out the cork, studied the color, aroma, held it up to the light, swirled it, sniffed once more... and took our very first sip. Siiipppp. siippppp. We were silent. Our eyes lit up. Someone mumbled, Wow.. or something like that. It all seems a blur. Our Chardonnay is delicious. The flavors lingered and lingered, the fruity minerality was soft, elegant. Haunting. Beautiful.

Thank you, thank you, little grapes. You are making us proud, so very proud indeed! I remember how beautiful you looked dangling from your vine and you have transformed that beauty into something equally beautiful in a glass.

For the Pinot, we will wait a few weeks for the bottle shock to dissipate. We will taste it near the end of May with our winemaker consultant, Matthieu Finot and our viticulture consultant, Lucie Morton, two amazing individuals with whom we feel honored to be working.
I cannot wait!... But I will!

Our very first bottle of wine from our very first vintage

Ankida Ridge Chardonnay 2010

Harvested Sept 1, 2010

Bottled May 5, 2011

Cinco de Mayo Damorrow! Another reason to Celebrate!

2011-05-04T20:56:00.001-04:00

May 5, 2011... An historic day for Ankida Ridge. Tomorrow... after five plus years in the making... tomorrow... we bottle our very first vintage, our 2010 Pinot Noir and Chardonnay! There will never be another absolutely first bottling day for Ankida Ridge... ever! A cause for celebration! Tune in Friday for pix!
And Happy Cindo de Mayo to our Mexican friends!

Uplifting Experiences... Roof Trusses and a Newborn Calf

2011-05-03T22:55:00.001-04:00

To see how a building goes up amazes me. I marveled at our excavator, Marvin; then at our retaining wall guys, Keith and gang who were equally impressive. Watching concrete trucks back uphill, up a mountain driveway, maneuvering around ditches and steep banks, made me want to close my eyes at times. Now Eric and Corey are framing it up in no time, and with prescision and enough pride in their work one could assume this building was their own. The huge crane operator guided the roof trusses into position today. Amazing. They are all heroes in my book!

*****

Yesterday we were hard at work in the vineyard, thinning shoots and finishing up our additional Pinot vine plantings when Arnold was called down to the family farm. A cow was having difficulty giving birth. They needed more people to help with the calving. Of course, I grabbbed my Nikon and hopped into my car and followed Arnold rushing down the mountain to their family farm down the road in the valley below. It took five people to get the job done. The calf was much too big for this first time heifer to give birth on her own. This would take a nose harness to secure the cow in position, some rope to attach to the calf's front feet and three people to pull the calf out. That's right! Three!
Now the images below might be considered graphic by those not familiar with farming or the birthing process. I will make the images very small so you can just glance over them without looking too closely. For those of you who want a closer look, you can click on the images and marvel at the miracle of birth!
Mama and baby are doing fine

Harvey grasps the calf's front feet to tie to the rope

Found them and he loops the rope around them

Making sure he's got a good grip

Pull, pull! Here it comes!

A huge calf !

One last tug and... swish! Onto the floor he drops

And with him, everyone who was pulling!

Rub, rub, rub that calf to get him to take his first breath

And instinct takes over

And Mama cleans her calf

And is so proud of her new baby

I love you

******************

And see how my vine named Anna has grown in just one week!

And So Grows the Winery!

2011-04-27T23:15:00.000-04:00

We are so looking forward to sharing our wines with you here at our beautiful, tranquil spot tucked away from it all. Our anticipated opening date is September, depending on weather of course! A powerful hail storm rolled through yesterday missing us and dropping nearly 2 inches of hail in some areas. Oh how we sighed with relief. The baby buds right now are about as perfect, delicate and beautiful as can be.

New Shoots, New Vines

2011-04-26T17:27:00.000-04:00

The Pinot Noir broke bud about four days after the Chardonnay. Within a week the difference was barely noticeable, which makes it convenient for our sprays, as both will be ripening at about the same pace. Below are images of the same bud, about 10 days apart. Already you can see the tiny fruit clusters in the bottom image. The vines are looking healthy and happy!

This is the bud we will follow throughout the season. I had originally picked a Chardonnay bud to follow, but wanted you to see the change of color, "veraison", so have switched to a Pinot bud. And I have given this bud the name of Anna, after one of my most dearest life-long friends.

Anna reaching to the skies

Here is the same image as above, enlarged so you can see the baby grapes!

I love this bright, spring green spread across the fruiting wire..

A sea of spring!

The Pinot is tasting so good in the barrel we are scrounging around looking for more space to plant more. We cleared away another 1/8 acre or so above the rest of the vines and planted nearly 250 additional plants, following the Biodynamic calendar for the best planting days. The rocks were plentiful, as expected, but we got the vines planted, clone 777 on rootstock 101-14. We will tend to them for three years now before harvesting any fruit from them. One attribute we have learned to develop when raising a vineyard is patience.

I'll take a pic of this vine when it begins sprouting its new shoots.

And the new winery... Coming next!

*****************

And the answer to the last blog posting's question about what is wrong with the buds in those last images... They both have double buds. In each of these buds, one of the double buds will have to be plucked off. If left alone, the canopy would be too dense and the fruit crop too heavy. A dense canopy will set us up for mildew issues, as not enough air movement and sunlight will get to all the leaves. And too many fruit clusters will result in too much fruit which will diminish the intensity of the fruit flavors. These are just a couple of the little things that make a difference, giving us the highest quality wine possible

Buds Are Popping Out All Over

2011-04-15T08:45:00.000-04:00

Chardonnay Budbreak, 2011

I am officially claiming April 14 as our budbreak for Chardonnay this year. It looks like the Pinot will be about one week behind. I am going to follow this one bud for you throughout the year. I'll need to give her a name.
The buds are fragile now. They will pop off pretty easily so we want to be gentle with these newborns. Weather report is predicting possible large hail tomorrow. This morning it is sunny, mild, birds are singing happily. Oh hail, you do not need to fall here tomorrow... just move on down the valley to where nothing is so young and vulnerable.

Can you tell what is wrong with the buds in the next two images?

You'll find the answer in my next post!

A Photojournalist's Day!

2011-04-06T20:06:00.000-04:00

Today, I'll let the images speak for themselves.

Pruning 2011 Complete!

Last few vines!

Celebrate!

With a delightful Virginia Veritas Mousseux!

BoomBoom and Tonka want in on the fun too

Good to the last bubble!

Ahh... .

Meanwhile back down on the farm, spring is bursting out all over!

And the winery retaining walls go up, thanks to a hard working crew!

We so appreciate these hard-working men who are helping to make it all come true. Thanks, guys!

An Atypical Spring Eve

2011-04-05T19:02:00.000-04:00

Just before dark this evening, Arnold called from the sheep pasture to let us know we have a new addition to the farm. Two in fact! Our first set of lambs are here! They were born in the pasture near the creek, away from the rest of the flock. Dennis, Nathan and I hopped into the car and drove down the mountain to catch a glimpse of the babies before it got any darker.
As we got to the bottom we could see Arnold standing over a white mound next to the pond. I stopped the car and ran toward him. It was our dear dog, Dan, lying as a cold, wet heap of fur... our loyal, grand ten year old guard dog who has been protecting our sheep for years. Arnold was rubbing him. This poor old dog had walked into the pond sometime today and was too old, arthritic or weak to get himself out and he had been submerged up to his neck in the cold, springfed water for who knows how long. Arnold had managed to pull him from the water onto the bank of the pond. Dan was trembling, couldn't move, his massive, thick coat of fur soaking wet with the frigid water. Dennis instantly went into veterinarian mode and checked the color of his gums, felt his chest to detect the beat of his heart. Dan's gums were a whitish blue. Not good. I ran for a blanket from the back of the car and wrapped it around him, rubbing his body, encouraging him that everything will be OK. I kept rubbing him, trying to infuse some sense of comfort along with the physiological addition of heat. I looked up. The evening was near balmy, the first warm evening of the season, which probably helped to save Dan's life. The peepers, those wonderful harbingers of spring, were singing their sprintime chorus behind me, from the marshy end of the pond. It would have been a perfect evening. Oh please let my Danny Boy get through this. He has been my guard dog as well. A few years back I fell and injured my knee badly. I couldn't get up. Within minutes Dan was at my side. He scanned me with his nose, stopped at my knee, then put his front legs on one side of me and stood guard. I will never forget wrapping my arms around this beautiful protector while I lie on the ground looking up at a deep blue sky that framed his majestic lion-like mane of fur. Oh, my dear, dear Dan.
Nathan and Arnold lifted him into the back of the Pathfinder and we wrapped a second blanket around him, turned up the heat and he responded by holding his head up. The color in his gums was returning. Other than not being able to use his right, front foot, he seemed he would recover from this near fatal hypothermia. Dennis will take him back to Virginia Beach to our animal hospital and give him a good working over.

And oh yes... those baby lambs! We then drove up to the sheep pasture with Dan warming nicely in the back of the car, heat turned up to 85. In the back corner of the pasture, next to the babbling creek, in a beautifully tranquil spot, stood a Mama ewe and her newborn twins. She was cleaning them, they were trying to stand on their feet, their scrawny legs wobbling. They immediately try to nurse. This innate awareness always is a marvel to me. How do they know where to find their food? Are there wired synapses in their brains that direct them to lift their heads and nudge the warm body above them? I see the functioning of the natural world as amazingly eloquent and intelligent. To observe first hand the creation of new life, I am always infused with awe.

Next: We are within hours of pruning our last vine. And with that last vine we pop some bubbly... our end of pruning tradition!! Right there in the vineyard... no matter what hour of the day! It is that much worth celebrating!

Beware The Lambs Who Think They're Goats!

2011-04-03T21:11:00.000-04:00

The saga of my fruit orchard continues, much to my dismay. I planted an assortment of fruit trees seven years ago in a fenced in area of the sheep pasture. Fruit trees take approximately three years to produce fruit, so after tending to the trees for two years, the next year I eagerly awaited my first crop of peaches, assorted apples, Asian pears, plums. Our son had decided we needed a couple of goats. They do clean up a yard of most wild vegetation, but we didn't know they liked bark of fruit trees! It was too late before we realized they had gotten into the orchard and chewed the bark from all the fruit trees. All eight trees; gone. We had heard if you spread melted beeswax on the bare tree it might help. We tried. It didn't. All we got was an exterior cabin wall into which the honeybees would build a new hive. We had left the unused beeswax on the porch and it must have attracted them.

And so the next spring I replanted my orchard. Last year was year three for most of the trees. We got a good-sized crop of Damson plums and Asian pears, and some Elberta and Red Haven peaches. The apple trees have had a rough time. But this year... this would be the year; at long last, for a full crop of precious, organic tree-ripened, sweet, juicy fruit. I walked into the orchard a couple weeks ago. I stopped in my tracks. Why was the bark of the trees such a light color? What is going on? I moved closer. The bark was stripped nearly completely around the Damson plum and the Asian pear. I looked around and shreds of bark were dangling from the trunks. The peach trees damaged but to a lesser degree. No. Tell me it isn't so. I ran to ask Arnold about it. He said he'd seen the young sheep climbing up on the fencing around the trees, so he had secured the fencing. But alas it was too late. My long-last abundant fruit crop; foiled again! These young sheep have started being naughty in the vineyard as well, climbing up on the trellis wire. The mature ewes are grazers; are calm, reliable. These year old lambs must be feeling their oats. I haven't quite decided how I will handle them till they settle in like their mothers.

Was there any hope of saving the trees? We tried a new concoction this year that I found on the internet. It is an organic treatment whose recipe consists of equal parts compost, wood ash, and diatomaceous earth, along with a bit of liquid seaweed, all mixed with enough water to form a paste. We mixed it all in a five gallon bucket, donned some rubber gloves and spread it over the injured areas. We also pruned way back, the most affected trees, leaving just a bare minimum on the pathetic Damson plum.

I went into the orchard this afternoon and everything is in full bloom, and all the trees have at least some blossoms, even the Damson. The mixture we applied seems to be holding up. It obviously cannot replace the missing xylem and phloem, those channels under the bark that are the equivalent to our circulatory system. But it seems to be protecting the exposed areas from pests and disease and helping the plant to heal. We'll see how many blossoms actually become fruit.... and how many of these lambs grow up to be sheep!!

Some pix of the trees in bloom tomorrow!

Earth Moving Experiences!

2011-03-11T08:42:00.001-05:00

Life up here in the mountains is never boring when one is constructing a building on the side of a mountain. It is deceiving to look at a slope and "see" the future building in one's mind. Oh, we can just level it off a bit here, flatten it here some, scoop here, build up there. Done! Hehe...Not that easy.

The amount of earth that has been moved from one spot to another boggles my mind. In addition to space for the winery building, we need a driveway to it and parking and drain fields and walkways and sitting areas, and the list goes on and on. And for each of these, dirt, a lot of dirt, has to be relocated.

Our Amazing Marvin the Excavator is a master of his art, and there is an art to it all. He needs to be able to see in his mind how he is going to scupt the earth. He has a gift. To watch his hands operate his equipment is like watching a dance.

And such impressive equipment it is!

Massive, groaning, squeaking, roaring, pounding, rumbling... The sounds of progress. And then, silence. Everything comes to a grinding halt when some gasket blows and hydraulic fluid, 20 gallons of it, comes pouring out and suddenly all work stops.

When we got down to the site, we found Marvin just chillin' in a deep pile of leaves waiting for some more hydraulic fluid to be delivered so he could start the dozer up enough to load it onto the massive trailer. He always keeps his cool, no matter what the circumstance. The fluid arrived and was poured into the dozer. Then one guy started it up while Marvin jumped into the excavator to pull the dozer onto the massive trailer behind his huge dump truck. I clenched my teeth, covered my eyes when I saw the weight of the dozer started moving Marvin's dump truck down the road a bit. Just below was another guy's pickup about to get run over by it all! I could just see it... a runaway dump truck and bulldozer rolling down our mountain! But one of them ran down the road to move the pickup. Another jumped into the dump truck. I just stood there watching out of the corner of my eye, afraid of the equipment carnage I was about to witness. But they did it. They kept everything under control. I don't know how they always manage to get the job done. Amazing.

And then the spring rains come pouring down... six inches in the last three weeks and all that moved earth is moved a bit more, by Mother Nature this time. Sigh... And so we take a breather, wait for things to dry out. Marvin orders parts and figures he has a $10,000 repair on his hands. A week later work resumes. More rain. Here we are nearly four weeks from ground breaking and still don't have the earth fully ready to begin construction. Already we have moved back our opening from August to Sept.

But we have made progress.

Winter Slips Away

2011-02-27T18:43:00.000-05:00

"Hoarfrost:" n. The white particles formed by the congelation of dew; white frost.

We were in a fog up here on the mountain for nearly twenty four hours last week with the temperature set at 26 degrees for nearly the entire stretch. The visibilty was only about fifty feet that day but I could peer into the woods enough to see a white frost accumulating. When the fog finally drifted away, it left behind a visual spectacle that is rarely seen here in our stretch of Virginia's mountains. The woods were laced with white ice, on every twig and branch. The condensing, frozen fog had created a hoarfrost that transformed the winter woods into a magical crystal wonderland.

But by mid-morning the following day, the hoarfrost had melted away... the spectacle over. The ridges of the higher elevations above us remained draped with icy white shoulders that lasted for a couple of days. Folks down in town would look at the mountain range in the distance and thought it had snowed up there on those ridges and I explained there wasn't a flake of snow that fell, only a blanket of frozen fog that settled on the world up there. What a gift for me to have spent at least a few hours in a white, crystal kingdom.

And enter visions of spring... I feel it everywhere. I can see it in the slant of the sun's shadows coming from a higher angle and in the first hint of green in pastures in the "bottom lands", as they say around here. I can hear it in the calling of the songbirds, robins, bluebirds, cardinals, and the first rise of peepers' voices at the pond's edge. A whiff of something sweet smelling drifted by my nose as I walked through a path in the woods today. But most of all, I see it in those dots of white meandering through the vineyard. Our little flock is back on the job!

This is the perfect time to get the sheep back in to graze the vineyard floor. We will keep them there from now until budbreak. By keeping the weeds low in early spring, it helps to slow their growth and reduces the length of time we have to manage the weeds ourselves. And the eighty hooves from our twenty sheep massage the soil, and the sheep add a bit of fertilizer to the earth as well!

There is something very peaceful about working in the vineyard with the sheep working alongside me.

From a distance the vines seem unchanged from their winter sleep. But upon closer examination, we can see the buds swelling. Just not too soon, dear buds. It is only February, you know, and there will be more frosts ahead, so please just rest a bit longer.

******

Haiku

Heavy fog slithers

Frigid this damp, quiet night

Crystal my kingdom

The Son Also Rises...

2011-02-16T15:16:00.003-05:00

...To the occassion of our expansion! With gratitude and great joy, we are able to officially welcome our dear son, Nathan, into the growing realm of Ankida Ridge. Having returned from a wonderful job in Denver that paid so very much more than will come anytime soon here, he is heading up our expansion to the next level...the construction of our winery! He will also implement our winemaking, under the expertise of our winemaker from this past year at Stinson Vineyards, Matthieu Finot.

Nathan has been hard at work with the entire design, from the size and location of the building to studying and pricing the various pieces of equipment that will fill up the building. Groundbreaking... or shall I say "rock-breaking" began last week. To get an idea of the amount of rock we are dealing with, here is a short video of Marvin, our "excavator extraordinaire" trying to break through the massive granite bedrock that is occupying the back corner of our future barrel room!

Stay tuned for more!

The Journey, Part Two!

2011-01-18T10:54:00.036-05:00

Five years ago we cleared a spot of land atop a lovely knoll on our beloved mountain retreat. A vineyard we would plant. I remember the first few times I referred to that plot of land as "the vineyard". I nearly felt embarrassed when speaking the word in reference to something of ours, as if we could or would actually ever own a vineyard! The reality of it still seemed so distant, so dreamlike. But we could and we did, and we now own and tend to a little vineyard all our own. I love that little spot of land!

And now after three years of the vines in the ground, we can claim our first harvest. We have wine in barrel at our dear friends', The Stinson's Winery. Both families were newbies last harvest... sort of like the blind leading the blind throughout "crush", that term used in the industry referring to the period immediately post harvest when we are sorting, destemming, crushing, pressing etc. Fortunately, we were in the capable hands of our dear Monsieur Matthieu Finot, winemaker extraordinaire!. Merci, merci, Matthieu!

Our Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are resting quietly in oak barrels, a mixture of new and neutral French Oak. They continue to undergo their transformation. It amazes me, the change in flavor and mouthfeel in these wines from their post primary fermentation period. Currently they are undergoing a process called "malolactic fermentation" in which the malic acids are converted into the smoother lactic acid molecules, changing the mouthfeel and acidity levels. In France they refer to this as the "spring fermentation", as that is when the wines naturally kick into this stage of their cycle of development. It is all just so amazing to me, and I continue to see the comparisons of rearing children to giving birth to wine... Our adolescent wines are now tucked away in their rooms, away from us as they continue their growth and transformation. We only peek in once in a while to make sure they are coming along OK! Our hope, as is every parents' hope, that they will emerge from their adolescence unscathed, mature, and ready to give their talent and gifts to the world. A taste of their talents we will soon enjoy.

Haiku

In the dark you rest

Transform young, unknowing ways

Emerge, speak our land

Looking back........

Clearing land, Winter 2006-07

Cover crop planted, Aug 2007

Tilled, rocks removed, marked, ready for planting, May 2008

Ready, Set.. Plant!!! May 10, 2008 (3,500 vines!)

Baby vines emerge, June 2008

And grow up to show their beauty, July 2010

And bless us with their lucious, sweet fruit

And after the harvest

The transformation.... the fruits of our labor become wine

Sometimes, when I sit back and reflect, and try to assimilate all that has brought us to this point, I think of it as somewhat of a lofty, dream.... one that I have been delighted to share with you.

********

I feel very honored to have had one of my photographs selected for the cover of the 2011 Virginia Winery Guide. I thank those who voted for this photograph. I hope through this image, I can do my little part to help promote the amazing wine industry of Virginia!

And Next, Looking Forward...

A winery of our own!

Triple Celestial Event!

2010-12-20T06:42:00.067-05:00

Last night the alignment of the sun and moon and the rhythm of the seasons lined up for a rare, and I mean rare, celestial event. Not since the year of 1638 has such an event occured. On the Winter solstice we had a full moon this year. In addition, we witnessed a full lunar eclipse. Well, some of us did at least.
Our skies were clear as the huge round moon rose above the mountain ridge. Our land here at Ankida Ridge is still covered with snow, so to stand outside in the dark overlooking the vineyard and into the woods was bright enough to see every branch, every limb on the ground, every shadow of the trees. It is absolutely magical to stand in that silvery, milky aura of light.

Just after midnight, an hour or so before the onset of the eclipse, a haze stretched across the sky, and just before the eclipse started, a band of dotted clouds began rushing past the moon, giving the effect of the moon racing across the sky. And by the time the eclipse was underway, the clouds had totally obscured my view of the moon. My eyes did not see one moment of this rare stretch of hours that had not been experienced in 372 years!

But as I lie in bed, tucked snuggly under the covers on this blustery, cold winter's night, I reveled in the rarity of this celestial event, imagining life here in these mountains the last time this alignment coincided. There were no settlers here then. Our mountains and valleys were quiet and unlit and inhabited only by the Natives, the Monacan Tribes. They lived in clusters nestled in small patches of cleared forests, and under the light of the moon their teepees must have glowed. At the image, I smiled as I tucked myself more deeply under the covers and had to settle for imagining what was happening in the heavens above, behind the untimely clouds. I had witnessed a lunar eclipse in the past. I knew that once the first cresecnt slice of white was carved from the bright, white face of the moon, the lunar glow would gradually dim, until at the full eclipse it becomes an eerie, rusty orange ball hanging in the sky. Then the white crescent returns and creeps across the orange face, growing fuller and finally returning the moon to its former glory, illuminating my woods once again with a silvery, magical, lunar light.

I was asleep well before the eclipse had peaked and would have to settle for other people's captured images. But I made the moment special in the only way I could, to reflect on it and imagine its beauty. I look forward to a half moon for this Christmas Eve and the light it will sprinkle into my beloved woods and upon my beloved family who will gather here this Christmas time.

Moonlight and a family gathered....Simple pleasures. But those are the best kind.

This Winter Solstice morning delivered me a beautifully colored sunrise, the sun rising today at its southern-most point. It will now begin its trek toward the northern sky, across our valley, moving right to left now, and with it lengthening each day just a bit. We've made it past the shortest day of the year!

And now... onto the celebration of Christmas!

A Vitis Aestivalis "Festivalus"

2010-11-22T21:15:00.000-05:00

Recently I enjoyed a visit to the home, or shall I say "wild lab" of a very interesting man, Dr. Cliff Ambers, whose passion is re-discovering and working with native grape species. Our vineyard consultant, Lucie Morton, our son, Nathan, and I traveled over the mountain and through the woods, driving through a most spectacular palatte of autumn colors to arrive at the Ambers' beautiful old country home and vineyard nestled at about 1000 ft. on the eastern slope of Tobacco Row Mountain in Amherst Co, VA. We stood under his "Courdec 3309" (a rootstock!) pergola on a most delightful late autumn afternoon, brilliant sunshine dappling through the diminshing leaves above us.

Growing grapes and making wine at his Amherst County home dubbed "Chateau Z Vineyard", Cliff lives the life of an authentic vigneron, performing all operations by himself with no hired help. He scours the mountains, creekbeds, roadsides, forests, fields.. anyplace where wild grapes might possibly grow. He currently has planted in his vineyard nine species of 100% North American wild vines, including grapes with names such as labrusca, riparia, cinerea and more. He pollinates these with selections from his over 200 cultivated varieties, including hybirds and vinifera stock, the intention being to increase the genetic diversity and to gain insect and pathogen resistance from the wild stock, thus allowing for cultivars that require less chemical sprays and more environmentally sensitive practices in the vineyard. Cheers to that!

We stepped inside the house into the country kitchen, walking first through an enclosed porch with tubs of fermenting foods filling the air with a sweet, pungent perfume. Inside the table was "set" with a long line of wine glasses containing a hefty pour of various shades of red wines, all in a neat row, all labeled.

Cliff asked us to place them in order of depth of color. He sat with this computer and notebook and had us all taste each of them, asking for tasting observations that will help him make breeding decisions for future vintages. Lucie was impressed by some of the fruit flavors and structure. Some were a bit too acidic, probably a bit tart for most tastes, albeit they had only been harvested one month ago and had only just finished their primary fermentation. But all were certainly very interesting and were quite different from the wines most of us are accustomed to drinking. But his hybridizations will tame this "wildness" and his work might one day bring to the world of viticulture in our region a species that pleases the palate, is indiginous and is pest and disease resistant.

The tasting complete we cleared the table for lunch. Lucie had prepared a pumpkin peach soup made from her homemade dashi base (Japanese soup stock), garnished with her homemade "peppy pepitos". And Cliff had prepared homemade tempeh he sauteed up and served on his wife's homemade rye bread with home grown tomatoes and lettuce. And I threw in some of my homemade applesauce whilst we sipped some of Cliff's homemade hybrid Vitis cordifolia wine!! Do you get the picture?! T'was a veritable feast, an array of brilliantly prepared foods shared with some brilliant people. A lovely, informative, delightful day at Chateau Z. Keep up the hard work, Cliff! Well done!
http://www.chateau-z.com/

Cliff and Lucie seeing eye to eye!

Autumn Colors the Vineyard

2010-10-28T23:02:00.000-04:00

Haiku

Crisp and golden leaves

Tired, relinquishing life

Fall softly to earth

A quiet, crispness fills the silence of this evening's vineyard stroll. Crunching grape leaves underfoot and lonely autumn crickets are all that's heard. The birds are silent. The constant whirr of cicadas and katydids are just a memory of sultry summer nights that remain vivid in my mind. But now the days are noticeably shorter, the nights becoming chilly, the sun is rising far to the south. Soon the vines will sleep for a nice, long while.

I wonder, as I look at the nearly naked canes and stems, how much vigor the weaker vines were able to store in their roots for next season. Will they finally come on strong next year, or is there just something inherent in the soil in certain areas of the vineyard that are holding them back? No one seems to know for sure. With this year's additional root growth and catching up, hopefully there will be a bit more uniformity to their vigor and size next year. And with it a more abundant crop. This was a good year. They had abundant sunshine, were disease free, were irrigated when needed. It was in fact a very good year. Hopefully we will see the results in next year's crop. In the meantime we wait for the wine from this, our very first season, to develop its inherent qualities and unique expression of all that has brought it to this point.

I have always loved searching the clouds for imaginary figures that feed my imagination. In this image can you see the bank of angel faces looking down on the vines?

And Dear ol' Dan... Somewhere along the way, he has lost his grooming skills and has turned into a muddy, gnarly, nearly dread-locked mutt! He is getting on in years and I cherish the moments we have together. He is still effective in his guarding duties, although he does now leave the chasing up to Bella while he, without moving a paw, sits and barks at whatever merits his warning!

Ol' ragged Dan!

Oh pretty Bella!

The sheep now roam freely during the daylight hours and every morning I find they have hiked the half mile up the mountain side to graze around the house and enjoy a bit of a different view from up here on the ridge.

And I was excited today to find this tasty little morsel left on the vine. It was puckered and nibbled on, but still was a delicious, unexpected sweet treat.

I cannot end this post without including the most magnificent of mornings I enjoyed yesterday. There had been much talk about the fall colors being non-existent this year due to the severe shortage of rainfall. And up till a few days ago, there really was not much color, and here it was almost November. But in a near explosion of color, after receiving over two inches of rain the previous day and night, the sun rose and illuminated the most spectacular fall morning. Ignition! We have color.. spectacular color that nearly popped overnight and will probably dissipate as quickly as it arrived. In typical years, I've noticed the red-leafed trees lose their leaves before the yellows and golds come on. But this year they all came together for a most unusual and spectacular burst of color.

So here you are. What gifts such scenes are, a feast for the eyes. Enjoy!

Next: Soon we should be getting a sneak taste from the barrels of wine! Oh, be still my heart!

Goodbye Dear Flippy Dog

2010-10-02T07:35:00.001-04:00

My handsome threesome... we've been together for so many years. Killian is the senior member of the trio, an ol' mixed breed, abandoned mutt, we think an Akita mix. Then about seven years ago came this most unusual little gal, a Corgi/Bassett (maybe) mix with short, contorted legs and front paws that looked like flippers, thus the name. And then our big guy BoomBoom found his way to our cabin in the woods as a lost, starving puppy. My threesome.

Our littleFlippy had been acting a bit confused for a few days. When I came back from town one morning recently I heard her yipping loudly and found her stuck in the blackberry patch. I had to don my beekeeping outfit to protect myself from the prickers and literally cut the briars away from her to release her.. poor little thing. As the day progressed she grew more confused and unstable and by evening I was giving her subcutaneous fluids as she had gotten very dehydrated. I was hoping that was all it was, but alas something much more serious was going on.

Within twenty-four hours she had deteriorated enough for us to take her to an animal emergency hospital in Charlottesville. All of this was going on as we were preparing to attend our daughter, Marisa's, baby shower. We dropped Flippy off at the hospital while we went to the shower. Flippy remained stable so we brought her home with us, IV's in hand and enough meds to hopefully keep her alive while we figured out what was going on. The blood tests they ran on her were relatively normal. She made it through the night and seemed a bit better the next morning. I put her outside under a bench next to a tree and she would lift her head occasionally. I wanted her to feel the joy of the mountain air that she loved, hoping it would send some endorphins through her body and help her heal.

She gradually fell into a deeper sleep. I layed down on the ground next to her for long stretches, rubbing her back, whispering to her. She knew I was there. Then shadows swooped over us in the late afternoon sun. I looked up and three vultures were circling overhead. Go away....
What do they know?

If she wasn't improved by morning, we decided there was nothing more we could do. We were giving her all the meds that could possibly help, but nothing was improving her condition. We tucked her in for the night, rubbing her ears, whispering into them our love. She seemed cozy in her position, settled in for a good long sleep.

She was gone in the morning. She looked so peaceful. We cradled her and continued to tell her how much we loved her, hoping she could somehow hear. We to this day do not know what it was, other than a severe neurological condition, perhaps a brain tumor?

We buried her up on the mossy knoll, Arnold, Dennis and I, along with Killian and BoomBoom, who truly sensed what was going on and stood vigil throughout the burial process. And dear Arnold came back with her little "gravestone" he carved from a piece of wood.

Flippy, little girl, we will miss you so.

Oh how she loved to cuddle

My constant companions

Haiku

Prance those little feet

Your nose lifting for your treats

Silent your steps now

Chardonnay!!

2010-09-05T20:38:00.015-04:00

Three weeks to the day after we harvested our Pinot Noir, the Chardonnay were ready to come off the vines. It has been a very difficult year for Chardonnay in Central Virginia. A week of fog and rain at bloom dramatically reduced fruit set. Then just as the grapes were nearly ready to be picked, the Brix just about where we wanted it, we get hit with a deluge of rain, some places over 4 inches of rain. Our brix dropped 1 1/2 points.. from 22 to 19.5. So we have to wait for the sun to come out, dry things up, let the sugars come back up. Just about ready again... another deluge, the brix back down. This was the scenario throughout our region as we all anticipated our Chard harvest.

In the meantime, while our dogs were "guarding" the vineyard at night, aka "sleeping" in the near-side of the vineyard, some woodland critter had been sneaking in from the forest on the other side of the vineyard, crawling up into the netting and using the space as a convenient little channel to stroll through and feast on the grapes the netting was supposed to be protecting! Here is a critter's eyeview of this bountiful opportunity!

So, what had already been a diminshed crop was diminished even more by the little beasts! Next year (are you beginning to hear "next year" pop up quite a bit??) I will raise a new dog to live on the far side of the vineyard and that will be his area to patrol as the grapes ripen!

The day of harvest for our Chardonnay was the antithesis of our Pinot harvest morning. The skies were bright blue, the air cool with soft breezes drifting by. Our harvest was completed in half the time of the Pinot, and off Nathan went, driving an air-conditioned cargo van of fruit to the winery.

And with that... Done! A year's worth of raising these grapes from the day the little buds of green broke through in early April, timing our sprays around weather systems, pruning, tying, thinning, watching, searching for disease, testing the sugars, monitoring for the multitude of pathogens and critters that would love to devour our fruit before we send them off to become wine. It is done. The season over. Oh, we must still monitor for foliar diseases and keep the vines as healthy as we can for the next couple months while they replenish their body with sunlight, nutrients and water in preparation for a hibernating winter season, after which it will start all over again. That is the redeeming factor in growing these cherished grapes.. there is always another year. Until then, we will be monitoring and sampling the juice from our fruit and waiting patiently as it sits in the barrels over a season, making that magical transformation into wine.

Haiku

A season of toil
Completes a measure of time
Light are your arms now

And Back In The Winery

2010-08-20T16:49:00.006-04:00

There is something about that smell, the aroma of grapes fermenting... that yeasty, fruity, sweet, pungent vapor that resonates deep inside me. It is said that a smell of something can create one of the most lasting and impenetrable memories. Well, I cannot recall any memory of a time long ago where I was in the wrap of fermenting grapes' aroma, but I cannot step into a winery where that intoxicating vapor is present and not close my eyes and inhale this sweet memory I cannot recall.

In the winery, many different grapes are in various stages of fermentation. Our Pinot is in primary fermentation and bubbly and sweet and bathing in its beautiful deep blue juice. The berries need to be punched down twice a day to keep the cap from being exposed to the air for any length of time without being "re-juiced" if you will. The sugar levels are measured daily, along with the specific gravity and all sorts of other tests that gauge the progression of fermentation. Our son, Nathan, has been helping the Stinson Winery where they are making the wine from our grapes. He is learning and recording the process. He has loved the challenges, loved learning the science and the art of making wine, under the guidance of Monsieur Matthieu Finot!.

It's not easy punching down!

Oh, that perfume!

It makes me nearly giddy!

When fermentation ends the grapes will be pressed and pumped into tanks or barrels, depending on the desired end product. Our grapes are going into French oak barrels , some new, some old. And in these tanks the wine will sit for nearly a year, creating its magic in the dark, undergoing molecular changes and coming out with a juice that is unique only to our land, our grapes and us!

Haiku

Sweet fumes fill the air

Evaporate into space

A smile to my face

Meanwhile... Back on the Farm

2010-08-15T09:06:00.002-04:00

With the Pinot grapes now off the vine and the Chardonnay still not ready to pick, I felt a palapable pause in my days and was able to turn my attentions to other aspects of our life here on the farm. The lambs are growing up, some nearly as big as their mothers. We had the sad misfortune of having to euthanize one of the ewes. She had had prolapsing issues since her pregnancy and this particular evening, four months after delivering, she was prolapsing everything and struggling so we couldn't allow her to suffer anymore. I gave her an injection to sedate her before she was euthanized. It brought me to tears when her lambs were blaating to her from outside the stall and she lifted her sleepy head and blaated back to them. I think of all my moments on the farm this was the saddest and most heartbreaking. Within a day, the lambs adopted another ewe and lamb as their own and they became their own new little family. Maria is buried with our other lost livestock up on a mossy knoll overlooking the pond, next to our family pets' burial ground. It is a soft and sacred place.

So gentle are our sheep

The peaches have taken on a lovely blush, and with that have come the squirrels. I never realized squirrels liked peaches! But the darn things nearly stripped my trees before I was able to harvest some for us! Guess we'll have to net the trees as well next year!
My heirloom tomato crop seems a bit light. I believe the heat and the drought has crimped their style a bit. I am trying to raise one cross-pollinated volunteer that sprouted on its own a few years back. I have kept it away from the other tomatoes for three years now and I think it is producing true and might be ready to become its own variety, worthy of a new name. It is extremely prolific, salad size and is the sweetest tomato I have ever tasted. I am going to name it in memory of my dear, sweet mother, whom we all called Mimi. My new heirloom tomato... my "Sweet Mimi".

And the Damson plums are just about ripe so this is the perfect time to pick them to make a plum version of "sloe gin", a liqueur made from sloe berries, plentiful in the UK, but not here. So a group of visiting women friends (our sons all grew up playing soccer together!) and I picked the plums, with Arnold coming to our rescue! We shook the tree and collected the fallings on a plastic sheet and Arnold climbed up in the tree to get the high plums.

Everyone loves "the Arnold!"

We cleaned and pitted the plums and stuffed the lucious, plump blue fruit in jars with sugar where they will begin breaking down and fermenting. In a couple weeks we will add gin to the bottle and let them age. Before Christmas we will drain out the fruit and let it set and then for the holidays we will pour the liqueur into little bottles and they will make the most delightful little Christmas gifts to sip on a chilly winter's evening... another little taste of Ankida Ridge in a bottle.

*****

Haiku

Season of bounty
Helps to soften a sadness
Sleep sweet ewe in peace

A New Home for the Grapes

2010-08-13T08:09:00.002-04:00

Into the cooler they went, after their hour and a half ride to the Stinson Family Winery, a delightful new winery that is perfectly suited for our precious crop. As meticulous as we are in the vineyard, they too are in their winery. Their equipment was sparkling new. In fact, our Pinot grapes were the first grapes to be processed there.

Soon after I arrived at the winery, the renowned and delightful French winemaker, Monsieur Matthieu Finot, arrived. With quick and determined steps, he headed directly toward the cold room where the lugs of grapes were stacked. He stood at the closed door, eyes fixed on it as it lifted. As soon as the door was high enough for him to walk under it, he squeezed himself between the stacks and began popping berries into his mouth. My eyes studied his, trying to read his reaction. This was one of those moments of truth. Just how good are these grapes? Will they be able to make the fine wine the Stinsons hope to be able to make from our grapes?

He stopped, still chewing the grapes and turned to me. He nodded. And with his delightfully thick French acccent proclaimed, "Eet is goood. Zee grapes are goood!" I wanted to jump with arms raised in victory-mode, but I restrained myself and uttered something subdued like "Really? Wonderful!"

The grapes would rest in the cooler two nights. On Friday at 7 am, we all convened at the winery to destem and sort the fruit. The clouds were heavy and gray, the air a bit cooler, comfortable enough for us to process everything outside on the crush pad. An intense and exciting energy pulsated as two families of "newbies" went to work. Matthieu moved swiftly and gracefully around the equipment, with such grace, ease and familiarity... setting up, connecting, arranging, plugging. It was like watching a ballet.

The grapes were brought out. In my mind, I heard the drumroll! And the process began. First, each lug was dumped into the destemmer that spit out the stems to one side and dropped the fruit onto the vibrating sorting table where we picked through the grapes and pulled out any leftover stems the machine missed.

We were surprised by the arrival of our daughter, Rachel, and little Owen, who came to experience first-hand the grapes-to-wine process. Owen could not quite figure it all out, but certainly tried.

Below are the stems that were spit out by the destemmer and below that is the T-bin fillling up with the sorted fruit after taking a ride up the conveyor belt. Up to the sky they rose for one brief, final moment, catching their last glint of sunlight before their life inside a toasted French oak barrel begins.

At one point the destemmer stopped functioning. We began removing the stems by hand. Oh... this was going to take a very, very long time. Matthieu got on the phone and was speaking French to someone from the company in South Africa. Seems there was a voltage setting issue. A few adjustments.
Let it rest. Working again. Thank you, thank you!

In less time than I expected, we were done, the T-bin was full.

I rubbed my fingers over the grapes and smelled their sweetness. Matthieu began working his magic.. a little of this, a little of that.. additions to protect the fruit until the fermentaion process begins after a time of chilling down first. He plunged a hollow pipe into the fruit, stuck the end of a pump hose into the pipe and pumped over the juice from the bottom of the bin over the top of the fruit.

And then out comes a giant box of plastic wrap! Mattthieu shows eveyone how to make a removable cover with it, one that keeps out the fruit flies, but allows the CO2 to escape. After securing the top, Nathan slips the pallette jack under the T-bin and slowly rolls the bin into the cold room where it will spend a bit of time settling down before it is brought up to room temperature to begin the fermentation process.

And into the cooler you go!

Going.....

Going....

Gone!...

You are on your way, my sweet grapes.

Reaping The Fruits of Our Labor

2010-08-12T18:15:00.001-04:00

I will never have to try to remember this day, August 11, 2010. A day of symbolism, anticipation, of determination and termination. A day to literally measure the fruit of our labors, in pounds, brix and pH, all measurements of the present, to be bottled up for the future. I will only once in my life experience these hours of my very first harvest.

The night before I laid in bed rehearsing, going through the steps of the day to come. Never having organized a harvest, I ran through my mind all the scenarios I could concoct... not enough lugs, collecting the lugs, too many lugs, not enough room in the truck, too much room in the truck! Cut fingers, not enough fingers. I felt a bit blind, like I could not quite see the day ahead, only imagine it with a blurred, uncertain vision.

I woke up as the light of day lifted from behind the mountain ridge. It was 80° when we went to bed and it was 80° when we woke up. The air was thick, moist and still. Not even the hint of a breeze on this, the muggiest morning of the entire season. I would have loved to have harvested our grapes on a clear morning of cool, soft breezes, singing birds, humming pickers... idyllic images. But this morning not a bird could be heard, not a leaf a'fluttering. But the grapes were ready and so were we.

Lugs were set out at the bottom of each row. The netting was dropped, the vines undressed, the grapes exposed. I reviewed to our small army of pickers the logistics of snipping, what not to pick, the dropping (ever so gently) into the lugs, how high to fill the lugs, where to move them, and so on. With that, I sent the troops into the vines. Charge! Onward we go, into the great moment of harvest.

As we made our way through the rows, I stopped for a moment to take it all in. An unexpected feeling of melancholy hit me as I looked at a naked row of vines. The canes were vacant, barren. Their purpose fulfilled. The vines had borne fruit and now would come their time of rest... and quiet. T'was a bittersweet moment, for I had grown to so love the sight of these dangling clusters of purple berries against the green leaves and blue skies.

Before.... and after

It took us over four hours to harvest our little acre of vines. But the extra time it took in the vineyard would save us time at the sorting table at the winery; the picking was clean.. no leaves to have to pluck out later. The grapes were clean, nary a single grape showed any sign of disease or rot. I saw that as our first true measurement of success. A season of meticulous care had paid off!

After the last row was cleared of fruit, we rushed to collect all the filled lugs. We wanted to get the grapes out of the heat, into the truck and on their way to the winery one and a half hours away. Nathan jumped behind the wheel of the truck, and he and Dennis rushed down the mountainside. If there had been red flashing lights and a siren, he would have been using them in his "rush to the emergency room" mode! Get these heated grapes into the cooler as fast as we can!

When all was quiet, after everyone had left the vineyard, I sat at the picnic table with a bottle of water. My clothes and hair wet from the heat and humidity. My feet so very sore after a frenzied few days. The Pinot grapes were gone. It should have been a time of great reflection, but I was too tired and consumed with the need to get into my car and drive up to the winery to witness the next phase of our grapes' journey. I drove up to the house for a quick shower, looking over my shoulder at the vineyard. The years of striving for a harvest of healthy grapes.. Done! And from those grapes, a wine of high quality that expresses the site from which it came...We're halfway there!

The thrill of victory... but oh, the agony of de'feet! I feel a nice cool footbath comin'!

Next.... At the winery!!!

Tomorrow! Tomorrow... It's Only A Day Away!

2010-08-10T21:00:00.040-04:00

We have been facing a pressing issue in the vineyard with some of our Pinot grapes. We would like the grapes to hang on the vine a bit after they reach their full ripeness to give the grapes a bit more time to rest without necessarily ripening any more. We need cooler weather to accomplish that. We are raising these babies in a record-breaking summer. They are ripening now during the hottest of the hot! Pinot grapes do not like extreme heat. That is why we chose them for this site. At our elevation of 1800 feet we are usually about 5 to eight degrees cooler than surrounding areas. But this heat, this heat! Those berries that ripened the earliest are beginning to shrivel in this hot sun. They are increasing their sugar levels but are losing their juice. It is evaporating and the berries are drying up. We have to get this fruit off the vines.

But Are They Ready? We have been measuring the sugar levels (Brix) and the pH levels every few days for the last couple of weeks. How do we measure Brix? Well, I gather about 50 grapes from all sections of the pinot vines, from all areas of the clusters. I put them into a ziploc bag and squeeze them, squeezing the juice from the skins and macerating the pulp. I then drop several drops of the juice onto the refractometer and a blue line reads the measurement of sugar in the juice. Pretty simple, actually. We use a pH meter to measure the acid/alkaline reading. We have been calling in the numbers to our French winemaker, our dear, "Monsieur Matthieu Finot!!" He wanted a Brix of 22.5-23 and pH of about 3.4. If we could get the numbers close to that at the same time, he will be happy, he tells me. This balance of sugar and pH levels will produce a wine of balance and good structure. We believe the wine is made in the vineyard, not in the wine cellar. And so, last evening we took a reading and voila!! We are there! 23 and 3.5. Get ready for delivery! Tomorrow we harvest our Pinot Noir!

Before the sun rose today, I walked down to spend a last quiet morning with the grapes, draped so lusciously from the trellis like strands of deep purple pearls. On the horizon, behind the mountains, the sky grew pink, then gold and orange, lifting a sea of blue to begin this day of preparation. I walked through every row, my hands outstretched as if to bless each vine. I wished for the grapes to touch the hearts of those that sip it, that they feel the love that has gone into this fruit from the moment these vines first set their roots into the gravely dirt. It was a nearly sacred morning, a final communion with the fruit I have nurtured for so long on this very special place on earth.

The day was charged with an energy I can't quite describe. It was reminiscent of preparing for opening night, or of the day before a wedding, or graduation or the day before giving birth. We gathered everything we will need for tomorrow...the lugs, the nippers, scales, refreshments, and of course our pickers! Our dear friends, John and Char, have owned a vineyard nearby for ten years and they let us borrow lugs for the harvest and will come to lend a hand. It was a near giddy experience to drive down the highway behind our truck full of lugs. The grape harvest in Virginia was officially underway and we were finally a part of this challenging but exciting time. Actually, I believe our Pinot grapes are one of the earliest to be harvested. I felt so proud to be a part of this Virginia vineyard community as I watched our lugs head toward the mountains in the distance.

The sun was scorching hot today, the last day our grapes are attached to their mother vine. The near blistering rays were streaming down on us, on the grapes, shriveling, nearly simmering our tender Pinot fruit. It was one of the hottest days of the summer. Only one more day... please give them a rest from this sun. I pleaded for a break, for them not to shrivel any more than they already had. Right about noon, the sun directly above me, I was walking through the vines, unclipping the netting in preparation for tomorrow. I felt the cool shadow of a cloud above... ah, at least a moment's break from the scalding sun. I looked up. I stopped. Above me, directly above the vineyard, and only above the vineyard stretched this long white cloud. It hung above us for nearly three hours, like a mid-day Milky Way. It was the only cloud in the sky and it was shading my vines. I do not recall, ever, such a singular long cloud that hung in the air for hours... One of life's little miracles for which I offered my gratitude.

Tomorrow... Tomorrow

We Harvest Tomorrow

Yet Another Battle in the Vineyard

2010-08-02T21:22:00.000-04:00

There is a lovely window of safety for grapes. It is a brief, but cherished time for a vintner. Once veraison begins, the susceptiblity to fungal diseases, such as Black Rot, dissipates and we breathe a sigh of relief. The skins of the grape are thick, and there is a changing chemical composition to the fruit that prevents certain pathogens from taking hold. But not too long after, a few short weeks, another danger appears in the form of birds and other critters who are drawn to the sugar of the ripening berries. One day the grapes are safe, hanging brightly on the vine, transforming sunlight into sweetness, then suddenly the word goes out... Get your sweet berries here!

It goes something like this: a bird pecks the fruit, if not yet sweet enough it moves on, leaving a small hole into which the bees immerse themselves and suck out the pulp, leaving behind an empty shell of a grape. Then the smell of the sweet juices attract the four-legged critters who manage to sneak in under the deer fence and help themselves to whatever grapes they can reach.

I am ready to wage war.

We cover the vines with netting, prop up owls on the line-posts, hang mylar tape that slaps and flaps and shines in the wind.

The netting did an excellent job in stemming the invasion of the birds. The flocks of berry-eating birds literally vanished within a couple of days. I was impressed. The netting was a success.

Or so I thought.

My sweet grapes all tucked in safely??

It became obvious shortly thereafter the birds would not be our biggest concern. Walking through the vines I began noticing some very disturbing evidence.. Varmints were still on the attack, leaving their grape-filled scat everywhere, as if to say... Ha! So there! Take this!

And so we released our snarly, hungry dogs! BoomBoom, Killian, Flippy, Dan and Bella!! A veritable army of canine warriors off to the rescue! If they can't catch'em, at least they will chase them out of the vineyard.

"Sniff, sniff... Don't worry... We'll catch those critters eating your grapes!"...

R-i-i-i-i-ght....

Until nightime sets in, about the time the critters come out of the woods, which just happens to be about the time the dogs settle in on the opposite side of the vineyard for a good night's sleep! Just a slight curve of the ground separates the scent of the crawling little beasts from the noses of our sleeping dogs. And so a munchin' the varmints go, forcing their noses against the netting and grabbing a nice mouthful of delights. Please just go away.

Harvest cannot come soon enough. Every morning, day and evening, if I am not in the vineyard, I am peering down on it through the binoculars, scouring the landscape for evidence of a new invasion. Of all the weeks in a growing season, I have found these last few weeks to be the most stressful, the most vulnerable. We have worked so hard to get our precious grapes to this point. For this, our first harvest, it has been nearly five years of preparing, planting, tending, pruning, nourishing, spraying, protecting in every way we can, these grapes that I have grown to know so well. Harvest is coming. Soon. But when? Being our first year, we cannot anticipate yet the date of the grand event... the day my vines will give birth... graduate... transform into something greater than themselves. What a day that will be.

The Time Grows Near

2010-07-31T10:32:00.000-04:00

So it seems we will be harvesting our grapes around the mid of August! At long last, we will be snipping off ripe, lucious clusters of fruit, our first vintage that has been five years in the making. It has taken that long; from the time we first cleared our little bit of forestland and removed literally tons of debris. Hauling away rocks, adding lime and compost, and raking rocks and more rocks. And grading, adding more lime, and digging out more rocks, and more rocks... rocks that seemed to multipy before our eyes. But in those heavy, hard chunks of this earth are minerals that feed the soil, as well as the roots of our vines, imparting a flavor to our grapes that will be unique to this little place... which brings me to a discussion on that much-talked about word in the world of wine, "terroir".

The word "terroir" is translated from the French expression, "gout de terroir" or "taste of the earth". What creates a wine's taste specific to a piece of land? The main components are the soil, vine/rootstock, and climate. I see the image as a triune of the earth, the air and the life that grows "in between and as a result of" these two elements... that precious grapevine that I nurture, encourage, support. I suppose the grower could be considered a fourth element of terroir. I try to allow our vineyard to express itself with as little intervention as possible, only the addition of elements needed to maintain healthy, productive vines. One could point out that by adding lime and compost, I am not truly allowing for an honest expression of our soil. The way I reconcile this is that if a soil is depleted of nutrients from feeding a forest for centuries, I consider it acceptable to replenish the soil and enrich it to the degree that it can help to create new life. Its main structure remains the same, but its ability to create is enhanced. I correlate it to the education of a young mind. The mind is what it is, but by adding the element of education, the mind is enhanced, enriched and can (not necessarily will) create great things.

And so, just what our terroir will create is still a mystery. It has yet to be defined... yet to be tasted. As I stand at our vineyard's edge and look over this heavenly spot, I believe in my heart, something this beautiful will create something equally beautiful to taste.

***************

These days I am vigilante in my sentry duties, walking various rows of the vineyard daily, inspecting, touching, keeping my focus on maintaining the health of our fruit and its safety....
Coming Soon:

This Means WAR!!

Veraison!! Let the Ripening Begin!

2010-07-14T07:37:00.000-04:00

Nature At Work, Along with Man and Sheep!

2010-07-02T23:38:00.046-04:00

Disgusting, But Oh, So Cool! While searching for a sweet, ripe Black Cherry tomato in my little salad garden in the vineyard, I stumbled across some branches totally stripped of their leaves. Immediately, I looked under the closest leaf to the bared area and sure enough, a big ol' fat tomato hornworm. Now if you've never seen one, you are in for a visual treat. Tada!

These nasty caterpillars can do great damage to a tomato plant in just a few days. Now of course, we don't spray insecticides, thus these little beasts can roam freely. But, because of our insecticide-free environs, so does a lovely little parasitic wasp from the Braconid family of insects, not of the "stinging wasp" family. They are our friends, because as you will see in this image below, they inject their eggs under the skin of the caterpillar. The eggs hatch inside, turn into larvae and feed off the viscera of the worm, literally sucking the life out of the destructive critter. Eventually the larvae work their way outside where they pupate and emerge as a grand, new army of Braconids, ready to go out into the gardens and vineyards of the world and devour such pests as aphids, beetles, caterpillars, even those nasty stinkbugs.

RIP

Canopy Management

The importance of a properly maintained canopy can not be overstated, especially considering our environmentally sensitive approach to viticulture. The "canopy" is that portion of the vine from the fruiting area near the bottom of the leaves and all the leaves above to the top of the vine. Sunlight and air MUST flow freely through the vines, their leaves, and around the fruit itself. Although when the berries are young, we try to expose only the morning side to the sun, pulling off the leaves surrounding the clusters on the east side of the vine. This gives the tender fruit an opportunity to "harden off" a bit before exposing them to the hotter, more intense afternoon sun later in the season. It is a time-consuming process, but an easy one. We did however, get a little more help than we had planned one week. I noticed several areas that had been totally stripped of their leaves, both sides, precisely in the "fruiting zone", leaving the clusters to hang freely in the sun.

The grapes were not disturbed (aka eaten), as they had not yet begun the sweetening process, known as veraison, where they begin to turn color and the sugar levels (Brix) rise. The sheep had been brought up to graze the vineyard perimeter, but were confined behind an electric fence. (We have yet to re-attempt the aversion training to the leaves). And then I spotted the evidence. Aha!

Notice the tell-tale sheep's wool wrapped around the wire here? As it turns out, the electric fence was not working properly and they were coming and going as they pleased behind our backs! They actually did a perfect job of leaf-pulling in the fruit zone if both sides could be exposed. Some vineyards in New Zealand use them specifically for this purpose. I might try to refine the timing next year and see if we can use them for this purpose.

I managed to find another source of help to work by my side one day, a bit more reliable in his discernment of east and west. These three-year old hands did a perfect job, and you can see the seriousness of the work in little Owen's face as he moved from one end of the row to the other, pulling just the right leaves. My little companion...xo

Advancements to the Cause

Slowly, but surely, I sense a true movement taking hold for a more environmentally sensitive approach in vineyards here in the East. An article in a recent issue of "Wines and Vines" magazine, a trade journal for the industry, spoke at length about the meeting I attended in Lancaster, PA on sustainable viticulture. The author discusses in greater detail some of the issues I touched on in an earlier post. For further reading: http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=news&content=75503&htitle=Solutions%20for%20Eastern%20Winegrowers

And here in Virginia, the owners of one of our most highly regarded wineries, Veritas, have turned their eyes toward the philosophies of organic and biodynamic viticulture. In his most recent newsletter, our dear friend, Andrew Hodson, speaks refreshingly of his willingness to apply some of the earth-friendly approaches to farming their vineyard, to nurturing the soil, and being stewards of their land. I certainly am no expert in either organic nor biodynamic farming, but I am passionate about the principles behind the philosophies. I believe in being kind to the earth, in feeding the soil rather than depleting it, and in keeping a balance in our little bit of this beautiful earth... the soil, water and air, that feeds our vines.... and our bodies.
Andrew's delightful and informative newsletter: http://veritaswines.com/newsletters/currentnews.htm

Sharing a beautiful spot on this Earth

Willow Tea Anyone?

In the intriguing world of biodynamic sprays, there is an interesting assortment of concoctions that assist the vines and the soil below to enhance life in the vineyard. Biodynamics is a homeopathic approach, only proportionately minute applications are used. As I mentioned, I certainly am not an expert in the field. A few years ago I sent my sister, Cindy, to a biodynamic workshop to learn about this "slightly mysterious" approach to farming practices. She was reluctant, but eager to learn more about it. Over that weekend, she experienced and learned enough to come away enthused and convinced in her mind that the principles behind biodynamics are worth applying in our vineyard. My way of thinking goes about like this..... If one thinks of the role the moon plays on the forces of the earth, pulling and moving entire oceans I suppose other celestial bodies could play a role as well, albeit a much more subtle force. And don't we inject minute amounts of vaccines into our bodies so that our system develops the desired response of immunity? The left brain, skeptical part of me questions the validity of many BD practices, but I suppose when centuries ago someone first starting talking about the planet being round rather than square, people were skeptical as well. Until we develop the technology to prove new theories, I suppose it is healthy to be both skeptical and to have an open mind, which is where I am. I rely on Cindy to study the biodynamic calendar and inform me of what to spray when, based on the lunar and celestial cycles, and the purpose of that particular spray, which is the basis for timing of all biodynamic spray applications.

So, what is this Willow Tea? In my readings and conversations, I had come upon the use of this tea, not only in biodynamic farming, but for general farming use. Willow is a source of salicylic acid, the base of common aspirin. The theory is that this will stimulate the SAR response (discussed in my previous post) to generate cellular protection and increase flavors. So last week, we picked some bark and leaves from one of our willow trees, a tree we planted to mark the year our first grandbabies were born, three years ago. We let the willow tea soak overnight, strained it and stirred it for the required one hour. Then we sprayed it on the fruit. How do I know if it works? All I know is that my fruit is healthy and disease-free, and we are a nearly organic vineyard with dense planting. In Virginia! And if biodynamic practices are good enough for one of the greatest vineyards in the world, Romanee-Conti in Burgundy, it's good enough for me!

You might enjoy this very interesting and informative article on SAR, salicylic acid and Willow Tea: http://www.bluestem.ca/willow-article1.htm

Off to go pick some more willow bark now! Ciao!

Owen and Kaegan

Under the Willow Tree, 2007

Berries, Bella, Sun and SAR!

2010-06-30T20:23:00.068-04:00

Red, Black... And Blue!

The season is here! I just picked four pounds of wild red raspberries, putting three in the freezer that I will blend into preserves with the blackberries I'll be picking next week. Scrumptious, sweet, wild. There is no comparison in flavor to the cultivated varieties. Our red and black are wild, the blueberries cultivated. Why are the wild so flavorful? Well, that brings me to the explanation of "SAR", Systemic Acquired Resistance". Simply put, it refers to the response of the plant to various elements, pathogens, diseases, etc. The wild varieties are the products of generations of self-defense. Studies have shown that every time a plant reacts to an attack, its defense mechanisms are stimulated; its "system acquires a resistance" to attacking pathogens. And with that reaction in grapes, the phenolic and flavonoid compounds (chemicals that create flavor and character to wines) are released. When a plant has an "ancestry" of strong defense mechanisms, the result is a fruit of intense flavor.
In our grocery markets, the organic produce typically has more flavor than their conventionally grown counterparts. The conventionally treated plants that are sprayed with chemicals their entire life do not need to defend themselves to the same degree, thus are not quite as colorful and tasty. Wild blackberries are the perfect expression of SAR's benefits. And hopefully, so will our wines!

This is a very simplistic explanation to a very complicated process. For further reading: http://www.organicwinejournal.com/index.php/2008/11/wine-quality-organic-viticulture-and-vine-systemic-acquired-resistance-to-pests/

Shhh.... Don't Tell Dan

Bella is our sweet two-year-old female Maremma that helps her counter-part, ten year old, Dan, protect our flock of sheep. Bella's cycle of reproduction is upon us. After running some tests on Dear Old Dan, it was determined he is, alas, too old to become a proud Papa. So after doing some research, we found a new love for Bella up in Northern Virginia. She has spent the last week up there in the sweltering heat of this past week. The news is good. We apparently have a mating and if all goes according to schedule, Bella will become a first time Mama the end of August. I am hoping Dan will forget that nothing happened between him and Bella, and he will see those babies being born and think of himself as the proud Papa we had always hoped he would be.

Here Bella sits with her handsome one, "Gnocchi" behind her.

The Importance of Sun at Fruit Set
As mentioned in an earlier post, our Chardonnay bloomed during a long, wet spell, and thus the pollination of the fruit was greatly impacted. In the images below, you can appreciate the value of sunlight at a critical time in fruit development. And we are so grateful to the "weather gods" that they spared us our beloved star, our Pinot Noir.

What Might Have Been

Walking through the vines yesterday, I stumbled upon a dreadful sight; a cluster of Black Rot infected grapes. I am assuming the spray had somehow missed this spot and the end result speaks for itself. Had we not sprayed our two conventional sprays directed toward this pathogen, this is what our vineyard would have looked like this year.
Be still, my heart!
With each successive year the source of the disease will be lessened, and with each year, our sprays for it will also diminish. As much as I am opposed to the reckless use of chemicals on our earth, there are some instances where a judicious and calculated use is needed.

2010-06-11T11:03:00.000-04:00

A Visit from Mizuho
We were fortunate to have Virginia Tech's Grape Pathologist, Dr.Mizuho Nita, come for a visit to check out our vineyard last week. As you know, organic (or near-organic) viticulture practices are rare in Virgina, as well as dense-planting of the vines. To put the two of them together, even rarer. Combine that with the planting of Pinot Noir grapes... unheard of in Virginia, and perhaps the entire East Coast. As Mizuho walked through the vineyard, I noticed him nodding his head a bit. I surmised he was liking what he saw. I think he was impressed by the health of the vines and perhaps a bit surprised to find us essentially disease-free. No phomopsis, no leaf-roll virus, no antracnose, no insect damage... the list is long. And most importantly, no Black Rot! Only a spot here and there, thanks to our two conventional sprays that are considered some of the more enviro-friendly of the conventional sprays.

We do have an area in the Chardonnay block where the vines are somewhat pale in color and the growth a bit weaker in relation to the rest of the vineyard. We are trying to figure out the issue. I collected petiole samples (the stem from the leaf across from the fruit cluster) from both the weaker Chard and the stronger Pinot Noir vines. The results have just come back and we are finding the weaker vines to have very high potassium levels, often caused by a deficiency of magnesium. So we will try to adjust those levels by applying some interim sprays of Mg to see if it helps. I feel so fortunate to have such a great team of professionals in our court. Thank you Mizuho and Lucie!

Fruit Bloom and Days of Gloom

When the Chard fruit was just beginning to bloom in mid-May, we were enveloped for the next five days by the gloomiest of weather patterns. We had days of rain, fog, drizzle and not a drop of sunshine. I remember emailing Mizuho and Lucie about my concern the fruit would not set in all this dark, damp weather. And that is precisely what happened. Much of the fruit clusters in the Chard are pitifully thin. I suspect we will have only about half the fruit we were anticpating. The blessing is that our Pinot bloomed about a week after the Chard, when the sun was shining. Our Pinot clusters are thick and full. A blessing. The Pinot is our shining star, and we expect to have a beautiful crop of this much sought-after grape that is considered so hard to grow in Virginia. Mizuho warned I will have to baby them as they ripen, and of course I will! I will post an image of our beautiful Pinot soon, and you will be able to see the vast difference a bit of sunshine makes at just the right time.

Where the Wild Things Grow
It is obvious in the forests around us that the wild berries loved the heavy dose of nitrogen soaked into the earth this winter by weeks of slow-melting snow. Our crop of wild raspberries and blackberries are going to be amazing. I froze strawberries from last month and will be mixing them into preserves with a combination of our planted blueberries and the wild blackberries and raspberries. The raspberries are ready to burst forth, and the blackberries will follow a couple of weeks behind them. Mmmmm....

*******

2010-05-28T11:11:00.001-04:00

Biodynamics Spoken in the East?!
I just returned from a viticulture workshop in PA, sponsored by Penn State University. The topic: Organic, Sustainable and Biodynamic Viticulture in the Eastern US. Amazing!:) The organizer was hoping to have thirty or so people. Actual attendance was 60 to 75 I would estimate. Among the presenters were two vineyards, one from Long Island, NY (Shinn Estate) and the other, Black Ankle, from MD. They both have been applying similar farming practices as we have, but they have been at it longer. The general discussion followed along with our experiences in the vineyard... Black Rot is the major issue keeping Eastern vineyards from becoming certified organic or biodynamic. But the discussion continued and the consensus was that practices of minimal input of chemicals and keeping the vines, vineyard and farm in balance with nature was the more desirable (and attainable) goal. We tasted their wines and they were truly superb. If you have the chance, find some of their wines so you can taste first hand the results of their environmentally sensitive vineyard practices. Fabulous!

I feel inspired, encouraged. There is more than just hope! We are seeing proof!
Onward, vineyard soldier!

Leaf Pulling
And now the all-important canopy management begins. Last year we lost much of the canopy to Black Rot. This year, we are developing a beautiful, full canopy and fruit zone.

The management of the "canopy" will be critical to our success. We spent the last week or so pulling away the leaves on the east side around the baby berries so the morning sun and air can get to them. By exposing the young berries to the morning sun, they develop a stronger skin and a greater ability to ward off fungal diseases later in life, it sort of toughens them up a bit. We will keep the afternoon sun away from them till late in the summer when the sun is not so hot and the fruit are mature. An overheated grape will "cook" a bit on the vine, losing its acidity (not a good thing) and the anthocyanins that provide color will be detrimentally affected. So monitoring this sun exposure is very important, as is balancing the amount leaves removed for air movement with those left on the vine for adequate photosynthesis.

Intruder Egg Update
In a recent posting, I showed you the image of a bird's nest with an intruder egg, a cowbird. These birds lay their eggs in other birds' nest and let them raise their young, not a very admirable trait. I had decided to go back and remove the egg from the nest, as the baby cowbirds are much bigger than the sparrows and they end up getting all the food from mama sparrow and her real babies would not survive. Here's the image of the eggs that I posted earlier.

So two days later I went down to Row 20 and planned on removing the egg, I guess tossing it into the woods. And low and behold...

They had already hatched! Now what to do. It is a lot easier for me to toss an egg into the woods than a baby bird. You can see the difference in size already. When I watched the baby sparrow open its mouth for food, with the cowbird positioned to get most of the food, I decided I had no choice but to remove the cowbird.

So with two fingers, I picked up the bird by the torso and carried it up the vineyard in my hand. I could feel it twitching and squirming and it was so warm. Oh, I did not like this. Not at all... having to kill this little creature... it wasn't his fault his mother is lazy. I sat it in the warm sun on the picnic table while I struggled with how to "dispose" of it humanely. Then I got to wondering if the mother bird might abandon the entire nest, knowing someone or something had discovered it and things just weren't right. I just couldn't kill it. I had to walk back down to Row 20, set it back in the nest and let nature take its course.

And nature did. Upon checking on the nest two days later, I so hoped to find everyone doing well, growing, sharing the nest as one family. As I approached, I could see the mother was not sitting on it. She must be out looking for insects. I pulled away the leaf covering the nest. The nest was empty. They were all gone. I surmise a raccoon, or perhaps a snake found its way. It was near the end of a row, close to the woods. A few days later I checked in on another nest I knew had baby hatch-lings. It too was empty.

I did hear two raccoons fighting in the woods a few nights ago. Time to put my hound to work. I will let BoomBoom roam the vineyard at night for a while. He is the master 'coon hunter. Best we get rid of these raccoons before the grapes ripen anyway. And nothing would make BoomBoom happier than to catch himself a raccoon. He caught one once down on the farm, and he spun himself and the raccoon in his mouth around in circles, pivoting on his hind legs, the raccoon flying in circles in the air by the centrifugal force of it. I made him drop the little beast and it went off staggering into the woods like a drunk. That better not be the same critter that is coming after my grapes. Should have let nature takes its course back then, perhaps.

My sweet BoomBoom loves the vineyard life!

And just look at that face. What's not to love?