Katarina's Blog

A big treat for me, any time of the year, is to walk through our vineyards and the surrounding landscape of forests and fields. Right now the small embryos of grape clusters have been through bloom but are still hard and green. This time of the year the bees are busy and patches of flowers have come alive, each with a humming chorus. Especially the lavender turns the bees just crazy and they seem drunk as they plunge in. Gnarly vines, wild turkeys, a fox, grape trucks and fermenting fruit are some of the things I encounter depending on the season.

Harvest is over and it was a fast and furious one this year. It started earlier than ever and we were done with Cabernet Sauvignon at the end of September which is record early. Now we are waiting to see what El Nino will bring. But before that we have the fun "Wine and Food Affair" festival and we are introducing a new wine and a special recipe to go along.

Pretty colors light up our vineyards right now. The winter cover crops are sprouting after the rains in December. Yellow mustard, green barley, orange calendula cover the space between the rows of vines. The plants are not only beautiful but they also play a big role in creating the best grapes possible for our wines. There are so many ways in which they contribute.

We have roses at the end of the vine rows next to our Tasting Room. It's a beautiful frame for our outdoor tasting patio. But did you know there's also a historical reason for planting them by the rows of grapes? It used to be a warning system for grape vine deceases. Now we have other methods, but roses and lavender can be used in many other ways and in cooking.

Today we are finally launching a new website. It has been a long project, strung out since there are just 24 hours a day and 23.9 of them are already accounted for. So in that midnight hour I have tried to get copy done for this site and collaborating with the look and feel with the team at Kreck Design.