Spring in Napa Valley

The rate that the grapevines grow in the spring is truly amazing.  The grapevines, like rosebushes, are pruned back in February so that the only about 2” of vertical shoot comes off the horizontal canes.  In March, we can see the first sign of bud break starting as the young bud areas start swelling in preparation for bud break.  Around St. Patrick’s Day, fittingly for an Irish winery, bud break, meaning the first green, almost micro-leaves, make their appearance in the Chardonnay.  The Sauvignon Blanc follows next, then Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and finally Cabernet Sauvignon in early April. 

Then the race is on.  By mid-June, they will have grown approximately 6 feet long, an average of 2/3” per day.  You can see the change in the vineyard on a day by day basis.

Then in late April, tiny little miniature grape clusters appear.  Only about ½” long, these tiny clusters will put out a bunch of tiny flowers.  The grapes fertilize themselves with these tiny flowers.  The grapes are hermaphrodites (excusing me for talking dirty like a high school biology teacher) meaning that both male and female sex organs are on the same plant,  so no bees are required, but good weather is required.  Otherwise the grapes are not in the mood to reproduce.

 

We call this “set” – this is a critical event each year.  One year our crop was off 40% because of rainy weather resulting in a poor set.  The wine turned out great – this was our 2008 Seduction and 2008 Merlot – but we just didn’t have too much of it (those of you who have been members with us for a while will remember how fast it went).

Check out the sunlight in the above picture! 
Mystical force of nature caught by the camera!

So we are off to another vintage, holding our breath, hoping for the best, drinking a glass of wine, marveling at Mother Nature once more.

Now its time to blog again

After a long hiatus away from blogger, I thought it high time I start once more.

One interesting thought I have had lately - which might be useful to you - is that I started defining myself as a "professional athlete in the sport of marketing".  I find this to be a most useful concept.  For one, a professional athlete trains for his sport.  For me, that means I read or listen to, books on marketing.  Lots of books.  I try to listen to at least 1 book a month.  The constant flow of ideas both teaches you new concepts, but also forces you to spend time thinking about your own business and how to apply ideas.

Favorite books?  The Purple Cow - Seth Godin,  Made to Stick - Heath brothers,  Marketing in the Age of Google - Vanessa Fox, Delivering Happiness - Tony Hsieh, - these are a good start.

Treating your work as sport brings a sense of competitive energy and fires up the spirit.  Its no longer work - it is a game you play to win.  Fun!

Merry Christmas

This is a quick video I took while vacationing with my family in St. Petersburg, FL where I grew up. We came back to visit my parents and see my brother and his wife and my sister and her husband and children. This was the first time in five years we had all been together.

We had a wonderful time! We visited Busch Gardens, went to the beach, I saw a few old friends, and spent some precious time with my parents. Fortunately, they are both in excellent health, but given they are in their mid-80s, it was nice to spend this family time with them.

I hope you had a wonderful time with family and friends during this holiday season. No matter what you have going on in your life, good or bad, it is always nice to step back for a moment and realize how lucky you are to be alive and having the good fortune to be born in a great nation compared to the rest of the world.

The Perfect Proposal

Christmas is one of the most popular times of the year for engagements. When you are in love, the romance of the holidays and thinking about your future life together proves irresistable for many husbands to be.

Here is some advice for those of your planning a perfect proposal this holiday season:

1) Pick a place outside where you can return in 20 years. When you come back for your 20th year anniversary to this particular spot, you can re-live this moment. If you propose in a restaurant, it will be gone in 20 years most likely and so will a bit of your memories.

2) Propose where you have some privacy. Crowded restaurants, crowded hot air balloon baskets, and other places with an audience make this private act way too public.

3) Remember this is the moment she has waited her entire life for. Make it special. Write a few lines about what she means to you and how you want to spend your life with her. You can even go so far as quoting a short poem. At the moment of proposal, go down on bended knee (no one will be watching if you heed #2 above).

4) After putting the ring on her finger, bring out the bottle of champagne you cleverly hid for this moment.

5) Take a few photos and a short video of both of you proclaiming how happy you are at this moment in time. You won't believe how young and good looking you both are when you get around to watching it 20 years later.

6) Give her the opportunity to call her friends and her parents. Its natural. Suggest that she texts them first and calls them later after you finish the champagne.

Life is an adventure. You will be nervous. That's OK.

Good luck!

Happy holidays,

Bart

A Day in My Life Series

As I was out running last week, it occurred to me that now I had an iPhone 3GS with video capability I could start making short videos to show brief glimpses into my daily life.

This thought occurred to me while I was out jogging so I stopped, pulled out the trusty iPhone, and recorded my first "Day in My Life" video to give you a sense of where I run and what it looks like.

I will be posting more of these series over time - I hope you enjoy these glimpses.

Great people from Houston!

I love Texans! Are they fun!

Dawn Leatherwood brought Johnanna, Regina, and Debbie for a formal blending seminar. Each woman experimented with different blends of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot to create a custom blend to suit their palate. Then they made up a bottle of their custom blend and we bottled it right in front of them on our bottling line.
(note - other wineries have blending seminars in which they promise to send you at a (much) later date bottles of your custom blend. Do you think they go through the trouble of re-creating your blend at that later date when the bottling truck is bottling all of their wine for the year?)

This was a great group of Texas women!

Then I had a great time with some wonderful people from Houston! Brad and Nikki Ross, Amy and Gary Gross, and Curt and Sherri Ross stopped by to visit last Sunday. Both the Ross' are Steady Club members so the party got the VIP treatment with drinking some library and reserve wines. Fun, fun, fun! They then stayed for the Oak Knoll District tasting that was also held at our winery.

Texans are by far and away the most fun of anyone who visits. I can't wait until my next group shows up!

Balloon Crash Landing

Waking up in the morning to the sound of balloons' gas flames in the morning is a great experience. I often go out to greet them and wave at them as they pass overhead, sometimes barely over the vineyards or our roof as they pass by. I have gotten to know some of the pilots quite well and may learn how to pilot a balloon myself once our tour season slows down.

I was surprised on Saturday morning to find that two balloons had landed in our vineyard. Both had planned to land to drop off and pick up a second load of passengers; however, one had problems with the landing. The basket had gotten caught on a vineyard end post and had started to tip over, then the balloon had caught it and swung it into our seasonal creek (dry this time of year). The pilot had lost one of his lines to control the balloon inflation and so had no control at the critical moment. Fortunately, no one was hurt and had a great story to tell about their Napa Valley ballooning experience.