Notes from the Vineyard_Part 2

In my last post, Every Meal A Feast shared how much grapes, and ultimately wine, an acre of vineyards typically produces. So want to grow your own grapes? Here's a typical planting cycle, courtesy of my friends at Nord Vineyards.

Year 1: Plant

Year 2: Grown

Year 3: Harvest 1 ton/acre

Year 4: Harvest 2 tons/acre

Year 5: Harvest 3.5 tons/acre

Year 6: Full production

The beauty, of course, is that with the proper care, grapevines can produce for 50+ years. Anyway, with a little patience...

Nv + Bl = Crush → Cy!

No, no chemistry here folks (I was a word guy in school, avoided the science topics like the plague). Just a big announcement regarding friends, clients, clients as friends, and an amazing pending restaurant experience.

Long story short: My filmmaking friends Susan and Wayne Boyer, of TwinBrain Productions (see pic at right), have developed an idea for a reality show called Crush. The idea is to follow three wine-related folks through a season of winemaking. Because S&W aren’t independently wealthy (yet!), they needed each winery to kick in some $$$ to help pay for the production of the “sizzle” reel: a five- to seven-minute film which will then be used to pitch the big execs on the show, its concept, etc. So… yours truly introduced them to the Nord family… who in turned signed on… and who in turn introduced Susan and Wayne to the owners of Bennett Lane Winery… who in turned signed on too… and which made it easier to secure the third party, Carol Farrow, a Sonoma County grape grower. So now wheels-are-in-motion re: Crush. Three days of filming are in the vault (see pics here, of Julie Nord and the Nord family, all courtesy of Lori Laube), the sizzle reel should be finished by approximately June 1, and hopefully S&W will receive a “go” from a network by the end of June, with filming throughout the summer and fall to produce six or seven episodes.

Ah, wouldn’t it be FUN to be part of a TV show? And FROTB would receive all kinds of cool invites, such as being able to attend certain filming dates, the cast party, etc. Anyway, stay tuned for more Crush info coming soon….

(BTW, the Nord's are featured in today's Napa Valley Register newspaper. Man, they're getting a lot of great pr of late. They must have a great marketing guy working for them.)

P.S. And here’s the really cool part: as a thank-you to me, S&W have given me a gift certificate to… Cyrus Restaurant in Healdsburg. Can you say SCORE! Cyrus is considered by most to be THE best Sonoma County restaurant, and one of the top wine country (Napa and Sonoma) restaurants, period. In fact, in the 2008 Zagat guide, Cyrus received a 28-point rating – second only to The French Laundry’s 29-point rating. So this will be quite the splurge and certainly an Every Meal A Feast-worthy posting (or two, or 20). And Jimmy Z, man, I’m this close – this close – to inviting you. I just gotta figure out how NOT to invite G., if you know what I mean. I mean, come on, wives can come and go… but poker buddies who love good food and wine, well, they’re FOREVER, right? (Right? Hey, back me up on this, man....)

You Ladies are EXPENSIVE!

Brrrrr -- it's been cold of late in the mornings! And that means potential frost damage to -- be still your heart -- our grapes. Yesterday I was on my way to that awesome Napa Valley lodging site, The Wine Country Inn, when I saw all the various keep-the-vines-frost-free "things" going: big fans whirring away (to circulate air), sprinklers spitting, portable pots puffing out warm smoke, etc. Later, talking to my friends at Nord Vineyards, who own or manage 900 Napa Valley vineyard acres, I learned several things, including:

* The Nords believe they've lost about 10% (or 90 acres) of grapevine buds

* Spring frost can't kill the grapevines, it can only damage the new growth, and thus make those vines not produce any grapes that year

Foreground, warming pots; background, sprinklers

Well, 90 acres doesn't sound like a whole lot, does it? But I did the math: you get approximately 4 tons of grapes per acre, which translates into about 250 cases of wine per acre. Say each bottle is $25, that's $300 per case. So each acre produces about $76,800 of wine. Multiple that by 90 acres... and that's $6,912,000 in lost revenue to wineries, grape growers, etc. Ouch! Mother Nature (one of the "Ladies" referred to in the title) can be humbling, and expensive, force! Anyway, keep warm this weekend, and know that the vineyard management folks are working hard to keep the vineyards warm, too.

Vineyard Cold, er, Cool

It's an interesting time of year for all things vineyard-related. Not only are many of the vines beginning their "bud break" -- when the first leaves burst forth from the formerly dormant vines -- vineyard owners and managers are worried about the cold evenings... which mean possible frost damage. Yesterday I was hanging out in the vineyards with my friends at Nord Vineyards, and they passed on two remedies that they're doing at this time of year to prevent frost damage. One, it means getting up in the middle of the night to turn on the vineyard fans! The fans move air through the vineyard, again preventing frost from setting in. Secondly, they are mowing the cover crop which grows between the vineyard rows and prevents soil erosion during the winter rains. Why mow? Well, apparently the cold air gathers just above the grasses... which in this case, is almost directly in line with the now-blooming buds. Cut the cover crops, and the cold air drops closer to the ground... and away from the buds. Anyway, just some "cool" info regarding the vines the produce the grapes that turn into our wine!

Cover crop before mowing:

Cover crop after mowing:

New Wine Web Site

I'm excited to announce that my friends at Nord Estate Wines in Yountville, in the Napa Valley, have just launched a new web site: http://www.nordvineyards.com/. I think it's a great reflection on their three core businesses, which are: vineyard management, wine making, and vineyard ownership. In fact, it's the Nord's family love of the land that I think sets them apart among all Napa Valley wineries. The Nord's are first and foremost vineyard folks. They get their boots dirty and have their hands on the vines. This translates directly into their winemaking, where they focus on producing the most superior fruit possible and then "touching" the fruit as little as possible during the winemaking process.

And best of all, they've been practising sustainable vineyard management practices for more than thirty years and are recognized throughout the Napa Valley and the State of California as leaders in this movement.

Anyway, check out their new web site, and by all means, check out their great wines: drinkable, affordable, and with something else most other Napa Valley wineries lack -- a sense of fun.

Tours and tastings by appointment.

Contact Julie Nord for information: 707-945-1094

My Wine Holy Grail

I've been fortunate this year to drink some fabulous wine both at wineries and at different meals. I had some awesome Ghost Horse Vineyards cab sauvignon ($500 per bottle, thank you very much); I'm a huge Nord Vineyards fan (note--they have a new web site coming soon, I promise); and recently I disovered a Napa Valley up-and-comer that I'll talk more about shortly.

I love great wine. However, it's difficult to drink great wine every night with meals. So I'm continually trying and experimenting with what I call "everyday" wines--those in the $8.00 - $15.00 range that can be enjoyed with everything from pizza to hamburgers. It's tough, because after drinking great wine, it's difficult to drink lesser wine.

But now I've found what I consider the "Holy Grail" of everyday wines: Frontier Red from the Fess Parker Winery. Most of you know who Fess Parker was: Daniel Boone! For the past 15 years, he's had a winery down in Santa Maria, in southern California. Anyway, I believe his Frontier Red is the best $9.99 bottle of wine I've ever had. It has a great nose, great flavor, but most of all, it has great FEEL -- it feels good in your mouth. It has character and taste and doesn't feel "transparent", and by that I mean that there's nothing left in your mouth once you swallow. Anyway, if you're in the market for a great everyday wine, I suggest you check out some Frontier Red. Yes, Daniel Boone was a man (theme song, folks), and yes, Fess Parker knows how to make a great $9.99 bottle of wine.

State of the Grape: Part 2

The 2007 Sonoma County grape harvest and 2007 Napa Valley grape harvest are in full-swing right now. Workers are tromping through vineyards throughout the night (to pick the grapes in the moonlit coolness); trucks are busily--and noisily--plodding across back roads, main roads, and highways. Winemakers and other winery workers are busy crushing. All in all, it's an exciting time, full of the promise--and the flavor--of things to come.

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit my friends at Nord Estate Wines to witness their bottling. This process usually takes place in August, primarily to empty the tanks and barrels to make free space to take in the new grapes which will be coming in in September and October. The "mobile bottling" is a fun--and fast!--experience. Here's how it works:

1. empty bottles enter a convey belt at the back of the mobile bottling truck



2. each bottle is shot with air, to blow out dust and other unwanted particles

3. each bottle is shot full of Nitrogen, to push out the air (oxygen, of course, damages wine)

4. each bottle is over-filled with wine


5. the extra wine is pulled out, and the bottle sealed with nitrogen

6. the cork is placed inside each bottle

7. a foil cap is placed on top of each bottle (pretty much the only by-hand step)

8. a machine seals the foil cap

9. the label is placed on each bottle

10. the bottles return to the back of the truck, where they are placed into cases

The bottling company can do up to 2,000 cases a day. Like I said, it's a fun process to watch...and an exciting one, knowing that all that great Napa Valley and Sonoma County wine is that much closer to being enjoyed by all!

P.S. For "State of the Grape: Part 1", see my post of August 14, 2007.

"...and nervous."

The pressure mounts: Will he or won't he? "He" of course being the esteemed wine writer and wine critic Robert Parker. The "show or no show" refers to the Nord Estate Wines dinner on June 13. (For the complete story, see my post on June 10: The Greatest Sentence Ever.) Will The Great One come? Or will he forever blacklist the Nord family, and all those who buy grapes from them? Will I have played a bit-role (O.K., O.K.--THE role) in relegating countless wineries to the "do not review" pile? Only time will tell. My only solace at the moment: a glass of Nord Estate Wines Page Nord Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Greatest Sentence Ever*

*IMHO

I'm a HUGE Dr. Hunter S. Thompson fan. The Gonzo journalism, the scathing writing, the ability to be both truthful and funny...all, to me, amazing stuff. I can sit for hours thumbing through his books reading only favorite sentences or paragraphs I've marked previously. The other day, I came across again what I consider perhaps the Greatest Sentence Ever Written, which also applies to my life right now. It's from his book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas:

"Into the Ballantine Ale now, zombie drunk and nervous."

Amazing! It's an entire three-act play in one sentence. "Into the Ballantine Ale now" speaks to the past. What's happened that's led him to drink? What was he drinking before? etc. "Zombie drunk"; the now. We've all been there, literally or figuratively. And then the kicker: "and nervous." Boom! What's coming, the future. Nervous about what? What evil/danger lurks just around the next corner (or, in this case, on the following page)? I defy anyone to read that sentence and not have to read the following sentence.

I'm in a "and nervous" stage right now. One of my clients, the Nord family, which manages vineyards in Napa Valley, wanted to hold a dinner for the wineries who purchase their fruit. But how do you get people to actually come to an event...when all the events start to sound and seem the same??? So on a take-off of "Big Night," we decided to announce that the famous wine critic Robert Parker would be attending as our guest. What winery would dare miss the opportunity to have Robert Parker taste their wines??? They'd HAVE to attend the dinner.

Now, like in the movie, we don't expect him to attend. But before he received our invitation, someone had forwarded to him our "announcement" that he would be attending. His assistant called the Nords. Robert Parker was very upset; this dinner was not on his schedule; etc., etc. Soothing sounds were made. Ruffled feathers were somehow smoothed.... And thus my "and nervous." What if he doesn't have a sense of humor? What if he's pissed and forever black-lists the attending wineries, NEVER REVIEWING THEM???

On the other hand, what is he does has a sense of humor---maybe even a soul---an actually shows up??? What if he comes and tastes and ends up putting several of the wineries on the map, so to speak, via his reviews???

This will all be resolved soon. The dinner is next week. Time has a way, so they say, of catching up to us one and all. In the meantime, don't be surprised to see a post from me in the next couple-three days along the lines of "Into the Nord Estate Wines Jonquil Vineyards Petite Sirah, semi-drunk...and nervous."

P.S. The Nord family also produces a line of high-quality, low production---i.e., awesome---wines under Nord Estate Wines. Check em out.