Bringing in the Grapes – IV
The harvest is so full of unknowns. You never know exactly when the grapes will ripen – when the pH, Brix, tannins, flavor, and so many other variables will all be perfect – and so vineyard managers...
View ArticleFive Vintages of Cab Franc at Gadino Cellars
Gadino Cellars, founded by Bill Gadino and his wife, Aleta Saccuta Gadino, is a Virginia winery with an Italian flavor. The Nebbiola grapes grow alongside the Cab Franc and Viognier, two of...
View ArticleNatural Wine, part I: Alice Feiring’s “Naked Wine”
Alice Feiring: Naked Wine One of the most arresting moments in Alice Feiring’s book on natural wine is occasioned by a question she posed to Jacque Neauport, one of the movement’s pioneers, on what...
View ArticleMaking Tempranillo, Part I
So much of what I’ve written on Project Sunlight has to do with the vineyard – planting vines and tending them until they’re ready for that first harvest. Well, okay, we’re actually a long ways from...
View ArticleTempranillo, Part II: The Hydrometer Never Lies
I was pretty excited last Monday when I began making six gallons of Tempranillo wine. I thought I had been pretty clever in the way I had gotten the temperature just right before pitching the yeast,...
View ArticleTempranillo, Part III
On the eve of our departure for WineMaker magazine’s annual conference, hosted in Monterrey, California, this year, I expressed some regret to the Vineyard Goddess that I didn’t have a bottle of...
View ArticleTempranillo, Part IV: Wine Faults and Me
It’s been about a year since I bottled my Tempranillo, and so I thought it was time to give it a try. This is a wine I had great hopes for: I had participated in a tasting at WineMaker magazine’s...
View ArticlePreparing for the Harvest
The harvest is here, or at least it’s close. Our Viognier grapes should be ready to harvest next week (I had thought a week ago we’d would have harvested yesterday), and the Merlot and Cab Franc won’t...
View ArticlePreparing for the Harvest – Part II
The bladder press is a lovely piece of equipment. below the juice channel, you can see the hook-up for the garden hose. After three years and more of work and study, we’re close to our first harvest....
View ArticleYou Never Forget Your First Crush
Scott Elliff of DuCard Vineyards once told me that harvest was a joyous time, the culmination of a year’s hard labor tending the vines. And on September 21, after four years of planning, preparation,...
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