Jeff White

Having sustained rain this morning...but would have made a beautiful snow storm had it not been 72F yesterday...the first day a February.

Our mild winter continues, although it's 28F this early morning. But we've not seen any single digits this year and are running about 10 degrees warmer than usual for this time of the year. This makes one concerned, not about an early bud break which probably will happen if this trend continues, but more catastrophic would be a sudden deep freeze as the bud and plant vascular tissue is not as cold hardy as it was back in December. This of course is all "what ifs" and nothing has happened yet but thinking about the possibilites allows mind games to play, late at night, when you're weak and most vulnerable. I recently awoke to my first 2012 vineyard nightmare. I'm in the vineyard, it's January and we still have much to prune. But what's this? Green shoots are everywhere and in need of thinning and tucking already....PANIC!! Then the comfort of coming to my awake senses. All is well. We are almost finished pruning our young vineyard, a little over 1.5 acres of Cabernet to go. Then it's on to the old vineyard, 6 acres of open lyre. In the cellar we're cold stabilizing 3 wines to be bottled in March and about to begin blending trials of our 2011 reds. Just got building plans in the hands of a few prospective contractors. We're expanding the building this year, adding two 20 by 30 foot rooms, one below grade for fermenting and barrel aging reds and one above grade for tax paid case storage.

Ice, sleet, snow, rain yesterday and some drizzle today. Temps down into the mid 20s. Warmer by Monday,up into the mid 50's with rain...wacky. Bottled our 2011 SB on Friday, 527 cases including 40 cases of 375's. Grassy, tropical, very crisp with moderate alcohol at 12.7%. These grapes came in before the September rains.

To the happy couple!

Fortuitous weather I am having, with lows in the 20's, last night it got down to 18. I've moved a couple barrels of Late Harvest Petit Manseng outside to cold stabilize naturally...and cheaply too.

My Brit Dan, aka Glenway's Dynamo Dan, JH. 12/1/97 - 12/8/11, my best little four-legged friend. And to my new Brit Sport, aka TBD, whelped 12/19/11, soon to be my best little four-legged friend.

Not entirely about wine but about the human experience which includes wine...captivating!

Great day cane pruning yesterday. We finished our young Merlot and started on some young Cabernet Franc vines. Knees do take a beating as the fruiting wire is only 18 inches off the ground. We leave the canes a little long right now and make one final cut when tying them down in March.

Hey, great to hear this, even greater if this means you stayed over, are still in town and visiting today!

25F at 6AM with a forecasted high today of 36F. Yesterday, fierce winds blew but it's calmed down now. Fine pruning started on Wednesday. I'm heading out for a sunny and brisk day of it. A couple of hot eggs and bacon first.

Cold rain here yesterday, a wet 41F. Chilling to the bone. Would rather it be snow. Making headway into pile on my desk. Snow is in tonight's forecast, possibly 1 to 2 inches. Sunny and in the mid 50's today.

1/3/12 Snow this morning. Came in and left fast. About a half inch. 15F tonight. I'm heading south.

I'll start another and try to keep up with it this year. 2012 started balmy but our first artic blast is now upon us. Howling cold winds all night and continuing this morning. A 20 foot, 10 inch diameter sycamore limb came down over night and was blocking part of the road as I drove in earlier.

Drink up or hold?

This is my most enjoyed wine blog site: http://www.tairanniew.com/ by a very enthusiastic and interesting man.

White

I recently purchased Bernard Baudry from MacArthur Beverages. It is indeed a great wine!

Okay I let this drop. I am though keeping up on another site and I'm too busy to do both: http://www.wineberserkers.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=37848 My hope was on this all wine topic site I would have more participation from eastern winegrowers...not. Oh well, if you are interested and it has been an interesting and much different year than 2010.

Sounds like you'll being tasting out of someone's barrel.

Okay, I cannot find fault with the judges. You play in their game, you have to be prepared to lose. I do think though that maybe we were in the wrong category. But I really never had any thoughts of actually being nominated. It would have been as if I made a little cell phone film of my farming way of life and expected to beat Spielberg for an Academy Award. I wrote this piece not for glory or award but for fun and exercise for me and education for you. Thanks Don! It was a pleasure.

Saturday is now sold out. Reservation slots are still available on Sunday.

Spring peepers are out. I heard them last evening, February 28th, twelve days ahead of last year. Bottling today and tomorrow and then it's back out to the vineyards to continue preparing for the coming growing season.

To J. Smith Baldwin, 91, neighbor and friend, husband to Rosalie for 65 years, WWII veteran, serving 43 months in the Pacific Theatre. Another fallen member of America's Greatest Generation.

Thought I'd bring this back up top in case anyone missed it. We'll be sampling from barrel our red wines and Late Harvest Petit Manseng grown during 2010. See links above for detailed information and how to make your reservations.

Pruning and tying and watching the fires. Almost 3,000 acres burned. The fires are about one mile south of our farm separated by one ridge. Luckily, 3 to 5 inches of sleet/snow predicted for tonight.