A once a week blogger in 2010, I was just a once a month blogger in 2011. I felt uninspired, crunched for time, had bigger fish to fry. I was dealing with some stuff, okay?

In 2012 I’m going to attempt to be an every week blogger once again because, sorry guys, I actually have something of value to say rather than bitching about the 100 point system; or lamenting about Gallo throwing their weight around to expand the RRV appellation; waxing on and on about the Sonoma Vintners organizing a tasting of 400+ wines for Galloni and the implications of such an initiative; or the worst – Pancho Campo and his evil Spanish ways. He’s Latin. That’s how Latin men roll. Trust me.

2012 promises to be one of the most pivotal years in my Wine World Domination Plan since I launched it in 2009. And blogging it is the only way you’re all gonna’ get a chance to follow it.

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. I do my best blogging while driving. Don’t phone in a citizens arrest call to the CHP just yet. What I mean is that I put a lot of miles on my VW in 2011 transcending three great counties. Napa, Sonoma and the satellite office in San Francisco. I also put a lot of miles on the Ranch Rig delivering premium Carneros Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Time spent on the road is when I “write”. Typically I rush right into the house, nearest Starbucks or Carneros Deli with free WiFi to get what I’ve written out onto “paper”. Usually, but not always, it turns out pretty darn close to what story I’ve spun while driving Highway 101 or the back roads of Napa and Sonoma.

Since it’s just about the third week of January and I’m three posts behind, I figured I may as well just lay out three posts to catch me up (and a fourth to get me ahead) in one lengthy post and ya’ll can just pay me. It’s worth a lot damn more than 100 point scores and the people who give them.

The Farmer – Not Farmers Insurance

A small producer we work with called Lightheart Cellars in San Martin asked me for the Thomson Vineyards logo the other day so they could generously outfit me and The Farmer with some sweet field jackets. At the same time one of  The Farmer’s approximately 1,300 Twitter followers @BethSandefur tweeted,

“Saw a mention of the Farmer’s blimp and  immediately thought of @ThomsonVyrds Farmer, not Farmer’s Insurance.”

Branding mission accomplished! That same day, a winemaker tweeted back to me, “You’ll need a logo for that size advertising.” You see, Thomson Vineyards doesn’t have a logo. I’ve got pruning crews to pay.  No money or time to pay or supervise a graphic designer to get it “just right”. The thing about branding is that it about so much more than an image. And sometimes in life, it can’t always be “just right”. You have to let it work itself out to get it “just right”.

I strive to do a few things well, consistently. Primarily that’s deliver quality fruit, be professional yet lighthearted with clients while doing it, and continue building a positive and strong reputation for Thomson Vineyards.

Secondarily it’s using the same typeface across our website and business cards, coaching The Farmer on signing in at industry events as The Farmer, and wearing my latest stunna’ shades of choice – The Original Ray Ban Wayfarer when I set price per ton with new winemakers in the vineyard. Not nearly as menacing as the  aviators I know…mid 2011 harvest I tweeted,

“The ONLY person my reputation hangs on is the winemaker. The ONLY thing my reputation hangs on is the fruit.”

That’s my brand. I mean it and I stand by it.

Toby Kieth, Red Solo Cups & Expensive Wine

Neither Napa or Sonoma County has a decent country music station any longer. But from about Infineon Raceway to the Sonoma Square I can catch Froggy 92.9 out of Healdsburg.

A rather exceptional example of reason numero uno people hate country music is Toby Kieth’s Red Solo Cup hit. Each time I hear it though, I’m reminded of what it’s like to actually grow up and live in Napa. No. Not be a transplant to Napa, nor a wanna’ be transient. To live here means holiday house parties not $300 dinners at Redd.

Over this most recent holiday season I was privileged enough to drink ZD Winery’s $500 per bottle Abacus Cabernet Sauvignon …out of a red solo cup. They way I look at it, it’s kinda like making wine in poly tanks. If you’re moving juice through tanks fast enough it’s not actually in tank long enough to pick up the nuances of plastic. It also means you have a killer product and/or sales team if you’re moving wine that fast. You can read more about the high priced wine phenomena in an article published this week at Wines & Vines, High-Priced Wines Hottest in December.

About the same time I was drinking expensive ass wine out of red solo cups I happened to be at my favorite watering hole 1313 Main where another Grower commented to me as we made our usual grand entrance through the set of double doors, “oh, Ghost Winery is parked outside.” To which I responded, “yeah, I know them, they don’t pay very well for fruit.” Which is when the winemaker swung around on his bar stool and said, “ya, I own Ghost Mario Kart Winery, my bottle of Cab sells for $1,000.” Well played Ghost Winemaker. But truth be told, you still don’t pay very well. Especially for having a bottle worth a G on the retail market.

That very same Grower and I, becoming famous for grand entrances and giving winemakers a run for their money, are currently engineering a 100 buck a bottle Carneros Chardonnay. So we can compete among all the rest of the ridiculously expensive Napa wines being flounced around in the marketplace. Okay. Okay. It’s a pipe dream. But, it’s nice to dream.

If You Can’t Beat ‘Em…Just Build Your Own

Speaking of dreams. At the onset of my Wine World Domination Plan I told one of the two Carneros “Sons” that I was going to comandeer the Carneros Wine Alliance and actually make something of it. Problem was, I could never exactly figure out who the captain was in charge of that ship. Come to find out, it has been abandoned (so says a well known vineyard management company actively farming in Carneros). Figures. Abandoning ships seems to be the story of the month. More than you know. Anyhow, I had heard towards the end of 2011 that at one of the final Carneros Wine Alliance meetings, when asked who wanted to be president, everyone in the room looked around the room at one another and it was decided that no one wanted to be president.

It’s difficult to fix something that’s already so broken. So I put together my own underground group. Except I don’t intend for it to be so underground. In December I hosted the first Women in Wine Production networking group for all the up and coming women in this industry who work in production and need a sounding board for new ideas, a resource for networking and jobs, an infrastructure and support system to keep on climbing their way to the top. A couple of emails later, some bottles of wine and platter of cheese, 25 women showed up to downtown Napa to network, all under the age of 35.

Attendees included winemakers and enologists from some of Napa’s finest Chardonnay houses Clos du Val, Groth, Sequoia Grove and Emma Pearl. Viticulturists from Diageo and several family operated vineyards well known in The Valley. Business strategists doing R&D for some of the industries most dynamic product offerings and others, many others. More than 10 women emailed me to say beforehand they couldn’t make it but to please plan another and they would be there.

If you’re a woman working on the production side of the industry email me and we’ll include you on the next meeting invitation. Our intent is to meet quarterly. Our mission is to keep climbing our way to the top.

They say when it rains it pours. Simultaneously as I constructed my own “association” (by the way, both of these groups have NO membership dues) I also offered to help in any way I could with The Napa County Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers & Ranchers. Having attended meetings for just over a year and collected my fair share of tips at the First Annual Wine Country Tractor Pull (those boys are smart, they put the girl at the cash register) I figured I could carve out a bit more time, from somewhere, to spare.

This Tuesday, while on my way to the second Executive Committee Meeting of the year my Ranch Rig got a flat tire. Long story short, I was late to the meeting. And when you’re late to the meeting you get volunteered for things. So, listen up. If you’re under the age of 35 in Napa, Sonoma or as far away as you care to drive and interested in agriculture, education, being a part of a group who really are the up and comers of the wine industry, as the new president of YF&R I’m happy to help grow and further develop its place in the community.

I hope that whether you work in the vineyards, on the farm, or babysit barrels you’ll join us the first Tuesday of every month in 2012. Email YFR@NapaFarmBureau.org for more information.

Crab Season, Championship Games & Carneros Chardonnay

Early on in the 2011/2012 Dungeness crab season, fishermen were deadlocked over price leaving the fate of hundreds of thousands of pounds of crab in the hands of those sitting at the negotiation table – negotiating the standard price to be paid on the docks for one pound of crab.

It got me thinking, even then, way back in November about the concept and how a situation would play out like that if  Growers got together and held the price on Chardonnay in 2012. Or any other varietal for that matter. Could we stand together on a price in years of shortage or excess and hold firm? Crab fisherman held the line on just 50 cents a pound. Could we hold the line on $500 a ton?

Yeah, yeah. I know. Price fixing is illegal. But sharing information is not.

I don’t think any Carneros Chardonnay grapes should be sold to a still wine program for less than $2,700/ton in 2012. I’m signing 10T purchase agreements for $3,000/ton. If a winery wants to drop fruit for any reason it’s $12,000/acre contract. If you’re happy to let me be The Farmer you can have your tonnage contract and I’m going to crop it at 4T/acre, but you are more than welcome to chop away at your investment all you want. Bring your shears. I’ll let you take a whack.

I don’t think any Carneros Pinot Noir grapes should be sold to a still wine program for less than $3,000/ton in 2012. I’m signing purchase agreements starting at $3,200/ton.

By the way, for the sake of honesty, I’m still shoveling myself out of 3+ years of operating in the red. But this year my Chardonnay is going into some of Napa’s most prestigious $30+ bottle programs. My Old Vine Martini Clone Pinot Noir can’t be found anywhere else outside of the Thomson Ranch. Those are my prices. Those are my reasons.

I’ll be at the 2012 Unified Wine & Grape Symposium next week and you can pin me up against the wall and raise holy hell about my prices. Or wag your finger at me for my bruising and battering of associations over the course of the past three years. Or really, for that matter, challenge me about any of the rest of what I’ve got to say. But I assure you my prices are fair and every winemaker I have ever sold to or currently do sell to will vouch for the fact that I’ve got the chops to stand behind what I say, what I write and the Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Merlot that I grow.

If you’re a Grower and would like me to sell your fruit at fair prices or list it on the Thomson VIneyards website email me at ThomsonVineyards@gmail.com. If you’re a winery I have fruit which isn’t spoken for along with 25 acres available to plant. And God ‘aint creating any more Carneros land. You know my email address.

Until then, I’ll be pumping water from the Carneros creek to the reservoir and coordinating an all you can eat Dungeness Crab and Carneros Chardonnay Feast in honor of the 49ers being serious contenders at this Sunday’s NCF Championship game; alongside my newest recruits helping resurrect the Carneros GROWERS Alliance – neighbors and farmers The Robledos who also have 100 Tons of Chardonnay and 100 Tons of Pinot Noir available in 2012 and I guarantee will cost you more than just a penny.

1. Above Average Winery Partners

I often detail the less than respectable dealings and interactions I have with some wineries and winemakers in this Valley in order to convey actual terms on which some believe it’s acceptable to operate and do business around here.

In the case of the wineries below, I think it’s important they are recognized as entities who actually acknowledge and pay respect to The Farmer’s massive contribution to making wine. Because remember, without The Farmer fruit wouldn’t be able to get to The Winemaker and what would that leave you to drink on Thanksgiving?

Within the week of harvesting nearly 15 tons of Chardonnay for Frank Family Vineyard I received a very nice phone call from the winery’s administrative offices in Calistoga. “Hello, Jennifer, this is so and so at Frank Family and I’m just wondering where to send payment to for the fruit you delivered? If you can call me back with your address, I’d be happy to get this payment in the mail to you.” I nearly rear ended the grape delivery truck in front of me on Highway 29 listening to the voicemail. What!?! A winery, calling me, to see where to, what!?! Pay me. The juice hadn’t even gone through fermentation.

I’m completing invoices this week, but Growers are currently financing hundreds of wineries statewide while paying their own harvest bills, fending off the creditors. So it means a lot to us, when a check arrives without having to do the administrative action on our part of invoicing. I mean after all, we already wrote the contract stating the payment terms. Little did I know MBA actually stood for Mediocre Business Admin work when I footed that bill.

This week, another winery, Kopriva sent their check along for 50 percent payment. Sans invoice. The even better part of this particular story, is that winemaker Myles Monigle hasn’t even finished stirring the lees of his Robert Young Clone 17 Chardonnay from Thomson Vineyards Block 7. But, being a farmer himself, Myles realized someone’s gotta pay the harvest crews. Thank You Myles – truly – from The Farmer.

2. Neighborly Growers

The Farmer goes out of his way, often, to help those out who need it. He’s currently obsessing over one ZD Wines Cellar Master’s residential electrical service panel which needs a bit of work before he can give Chevy Chase a run for his money and really get to work on his holiday lighting plan…

This year there were some very neighborly growers who returned The Farmer’s favors and we appreciate it.

Outside of the media frenzy detailing the especially successful but incredibly challenging season we all had (get a new line); the association spin doctors heralding quality quality quality (please someone shoot me); the hanger on-ers taking me to task via social media for telling the truth (like I’ve said before, you can’t handle the truth); and those of you who even in November continue to recount the wet spring followed by the disease pressured fall (okay, okay, we get it already) what really went on during the 2011 vintage was equivalent to playing a heated game of Tetris.

Stacks and stacks of macrobins laid around for weeks during September with no one to use them. Yet pieces like the Napa Register report by AVA projected that harvest was moving right. along. Then, within and instant, Growers couldn’t find a macrobin to save their lives. I assembled macrobins for one 10 ton Chardonnay pick from Servin Lopez Vineyard Management, Nunez Vineyard Management, Thomson Vineyards, and three rag tag bins I have no idea where they came from marked “XVM” maybe a White Crane Winery bin was in the mix too…

When I wasn’t busy fighting for macrobins, I was busy fighting for chemicals. Ag Unlimited and Napa Valley Ag both sent guys south to the Central Valley to pick up the last of the PHD fungicide. The last pallets of the stuff in the state. Napa Valley Ag had it one minute and in the time it took me to drive up Silverado Trail to pick it up…it was gone. Thankfully my right hand woman (who drives a mean tracklayer) Lucia Hossfeld of Hossfeld Vineyards was with, we were looking fly and somehow managed to sweet talk the Napa Valley Ag  PCAs out of one of the ten bottles I needed to get started spraying. PCAs Andy Wilson (Ag Unlimited) and JR Beatty (Napa Valley Ag), let us know where we can send your Christmas Bonuses…

Speaking of spraying, and along the lines of neighborly relations, I’m very thankful to Walsh Vineyard Management for taking the time to install a spray tank fill station mid vineyard between the Newton Vineyard property line and ours. I mean they weren’t busy either, so they put a guy and one shovel out there installing a faucet while they too waited…and waited…to harvest Chardonnay.

Just one pick ran amiss this year, allowing me, to make up the difference by producing Thomson Vineyard’s first licensed and bonded vintage of Chardonnay and Merlot with the help and assistance of neighborly growers like the Robledo Brothers at Robledo Family Wines.

Finally, Abel Tirado and Mark Greenspan of Advanced Viticulture. Pinophiles, Abel has some delicious Sonoma Pinot Noir available in 2012 and he was generous enough to let me borrow his bin trailers during harvest when we ran short on those too. I sold a truckload of Abel’s Pinot to Mark who was working on behalf of his client David Bruce Winery. We did the deal via Twitter which brings my total tonnage sold via Twitter to 50 or 60 tons over the past two seasons.

The Growers' Broker

If you’re a Grower who is interested in my help in 2012 you can Tweet The Millennial Daughter @ThomsonVyrds. I welcome traditional phone calls and emails as well. Feel free to contact me. Brokers won’t sell your fruit for as much as another Grower can. They don’t have front line experience duking it out behind Laird’s processing facility for the very last macrobin!

3.  2011 Harvest…It’s OVER.

I allowed myself to listen to just one Christmas song yesterday. I’m currently downing my last pumpkin spice latte before transitioning to egg nog. Harbaugh vs Harbaugh football is on today. Alabama is already projected to be at the BCS game come January. Come February I plan to be in Argentina and Chile. Followed up by Tahoe spring skiing. ahem…it’s rumored to be another wet spring…

Meanwhile, The Farmer has spent the past few weeks hanging with the ladies. Racing around in my green Karmann Ghia passing it off as his own. Still working on learning his smartphone. Perusing the online sales at REI for a sick pair of all mountain skis. And searching for his taxes so we can put an offer in on the next chapter of Thomson Vineyards.

All of that aside…2011 Harvest is indeed OVER. And for that we’re very thankful!

To Be Continued and Happy Holidays,

The Farmer & Millennial Daughter

Today, we’re going to play that very game and turn up the heat on the Winemakers.

Would You Rather…

Be delivered 10.5 Tons of sporelating, hot pink, botrytis laden Carneros Chardonnay at 23 brix, 3.5 pH, .6 TA?

OR

Be delivered 10.5 Tons of clean, apples and tree fruit flavor Carneros Chardonnay at 21 brix, 3.5 pH, .6 TA?

It’s not become uncommon for me to receive emails, blog comments, have in-person interactions where people tell me I’m harsh. Opinionated. Feisty. It’s fine, judge away. To me, it’s either one or the other. So, I draw a line in the sand and I stand by it. So should the winemakers.

2011 Vintage: Stand By Your Decision

While the media debates if the 2011 vintage will make or break “California Style” wine programs due to an abnormally cool season, low yields, even lower alcohol…

And the marketing arms of this industry fire back that every single cluster is perfect and every single day is beautiful in the Napa Valley…

Growers are actually in the field – labor, macrobins and sleep are all scarce and they are sweating bullets with sauna like temperatures and 45-80% humidity; canopy that appears to be healthy but brix that haven’t moved off the line in 2 weeks; and most are mixing up potassium nutrients in spray tanks coupled with their favorite fungicide (Switch, Elevate, PHD, Vanguard) to stimulate what little is left in the vines energy stores and kill the developing gray and green mold on most red varietals…all of this on October 19 as morning temperatures dip into the cool 50s.

You Winemakers are being forced to make decisions. All of you need to stand by them and the Growers who are delivering you the cleanest, highest brix, fruit we possibly can.

So I ask you, Would You Rather? Backstory and third-party certified ETS lab results to follow…

It's Good Not To Be Mr. Irrelevant

Yields are so significantly down that every wine grape broker has called me in the last 72 hours. Grower Reps are stalking me. Homewinemakers and microcrush facilities have begun begging me to spare just 250 lbs or a half ton here or there.

Having heard that we may have Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Merlot still available they’ve resorted to multiple voicemails followed up by text messages.

I’ve pretty much started exiting our driveway with one eye on my review mirror looking for an unmarked car.

I’ve also been sporting my “Free Agent” t shirt on an every other day basis it’s getting so absurd…and yes, I’ve taken to calling them back asking just who’s the client and what exactly their price point is before I reveal just how much tonnage I have left. If you don’t hit the magic number, the call is over. Speak to my agent if you don’t believe it.

A month ago a winemaker walked his contracted block, of three years, and asked how the market was. I said I was completely sold out, but not to worry his fruit resided safely on the reserve list.

“So others are waiving dollars in your face?” he asked.

“Not dollars. Hundreds of dollars.” I answered.

“I guess that’s the beauty of the evergreen contract.” he retorted.

I asked multiple winemakers, multiple times, to sign evergreen contracts in 2009. Just one was a smart enough to sign his name to one. Many Growers are now strongly advising other Growers to not sign an evergreen this year, or the next. I agree and have cut off all long term discussions for the duration.

I’ve spoken to multiple Grower Reps over the course of the last three years attempting to gain recognition for the fact that their Carneros flagship brand would be better marketed if their large publicly held company could tout that they continue to source fruit from Old Carneros Family Farmers.  I’ve even gone so far as to point out to those large publicly held companies that Mr. Mondavi’s Chardonnay program and brand would be better represented if they revisited the idea of sourcing fruit from where it all began…

Guess which two Grower Reps have been texting and calling to see if I have any Chardonnay grapes for sale?

Nevertheless prices are well on their way to being up, way up. And God isn’t creating anymore Carneros land. One of those two Grower Reps has been instructed by HQ to buy up every berry he can find of Carneros Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and he’s offering above district 4 average price. He even entered into a preliminary discussion with me related to a planting contract for 30 acres two weeks ago.

A founding member of the newly formed Napa Valley Mexican-American Vintners Association (NVMAVA) told me last Thursday over Mimosas at The Freemont Diner that if their deal goes through in China, they’ll be completely out of the grape growing business and fully into the wine business, significantly depleting some of the major Champagne houses contracted fruit sources…

Some Grower out of Wildhorse Valley posted Chardonnay two months ago for $3,450/T. I thought that was a bit extreme for an appellation with little to no prestige. As far as I can tell though, the fruit is gone.

And then we come to just what price fruit from a “prestigious” AVA can command. In years such as this, whatever price the Grower is smart enough to set it at.

2011 Prestigious Thomson Vineyard Carneros Chardonnay

One would think that as brokerages themselves release market updates, wine industry publications run the headline time and again read by countless winemakers, the message would be getting through: markets are on fire, prices skyrocketing up, and inventories severely depleted.

Since clearly it’s not…with my Free Agent t shirt on and Monday Night Football queued up, let me lay it out for you:

• Those late to the game: There is NO fruit left. Should have had your scouts out earlier, got the go ahead to bid higher, or told your GM to loosen the purse strings before the other teams could get there.
• Buyers who played pricing games in a sellers market would be well served revisiting the basic principles of Supply and Demand…or just get familiar with the draft process and what it means to entertain a Free Agent. Maybe watch Jerry McGuire. Something. Anything to understand how this all works.
• If you’re a commercial grower don’t sign an evergreen this year, talk to your neighbors about what the bottom line price should be for anyone’s fruit coming out of your prestigious AVA and don’t back away from that line. Once you’ve found a team with a climate you can stand and a price that designates your true worth then consider signing a contract. Maybe hosting talks focused on discussing the matter could be a job for all the growers organizations out there. Just a suggestion.
• If you’re a lifestyle grower with 2 acres of Cab – in years such as this your fruit is just as valuable as the commercial growers. Get enough 2 acres blocks of Cab together and next thing you know you’ve got a truckload of fruit. Don’t mistake the fact though that your vineyard management company is probably not as invested in selling your fruit for as much as you would or as much as you could get were you a larger grower and harvesting 2 acres is a pain in the ass for labor crews, therefore when the three weeks of heat coming our way momentarily actually get here – you will 32 out of 32 times be prioritized lower on the list.
• See above. This is how dire the straits are at the moment. And know that I am currently working out my pricing on second crop fruit. You should be too.
• Anyone in the industry who continues to herald how low the yields are, but how excited the winemakers are about the quality of fruit should revisit the old saying, “the best vintage a winemaker ever made is the vintage he’s selling right now.” Then get out of your office and into the game. You’re going to work and pay for any of the fruit you find still remaining out there. Two. Or Three times that of what you paid in 2009.
• If you were one of the lucky ones to get a slice of prestigious AVA fruit with a good grower this year try to hold onto them until they will discuss a long term contract. Cases of beer on the doorstep after harvest, invitations to harvest and holiday parties, are both good starts.
• If you weren’t one of the lucky ones. There’s no better time than now to take a good look at yourself in your rear view mirror and ask yourself, “Who’s Your Farmer?” Then get out your checkbook in time for next year’s draft which will begin early. As in January early.

No, Seriously Who's Your Farmer?

Call me, text me, stalk me. I may tell you what I have left…

It’s good to be a Free Agent.

UPDATE: As of this morning a mid sized lot of Thomson Vineyard Carneros Chardonnay came back online when a new GM told a Free Agent Winemaker that he wasn’t interested in having a high end Chardonnay in his high end program dedicated to Cabernet. Although an evergreen contract had been put in place earlier this year, I’ve gotten the go ahead to sell it, and am now entertaining offers.

UPDATE: As of 9/19/2011 9:45 a.m. Another Carneros Old Family Farmer has between 55-65 tons of well cared for Pinot Noir available. I take no commission and my only objective is to get good grower’s good fruit, sold at good prices. Text your price per ton offer to 707.227.8745

I  had Retweeted the photo with links to UC Extension information on leafroll, eutypa, and virus affected vineyards.

Lovely or Deadly? Virus Affected Vineyard

Early on in my tenure as The Millennial Daughter the Old Farmer pointed out one of my photos and then pointed to a cordon which had failed to put out any leaf area early in the season. He cautioned me to not be posting photos of dead cordons. While I respect his position and others position to “spin” the truth into a positive, I’m no spin doctor.

Old Vines should have a cordon or two which have given up 36 years into their life. Rot and mildew have been persistent issues for growers for two seasons now, forcing them to put more inputs into their production, more material out to prevent or kill fungus, driving costs up, driving organic credibility down. Growers report the abundance of powdery mildew this year from Mendocino to the San Joaquin Valley. Bunch rot is also becoming and issue. Winemakers report that in some vineyards they have to walk three vines before spotting a cluster. A well known Carneros Pinot grower is down by 40%. Extreme mountain fruit will potentially either be full of rot or fail to ripen in 2011 without aggressive thinning. And when your yields are significantly down, there’s not much left to “thin”.

Anyhow, there is an extremely short list of individuals on Twitter regularly Tweeting about actual vineyard conditions, data related to soil/weather/fruit, and attempting to educate rather than market to consumers and the industry at large.

Most of you on Twitter are caught up bitching about receiving sub par wine samples (Oh! Heaven forbid you actually just re gift a bottle to an appreciative friend);  or those of you crying about not being invited to the “In-Crowds Wine Blogger Conference After Parties” (Crash their parties – what are they gonna’ do start a fist fight?) ; or worse, as a winery, you’ve left an outsourced marketing firm or even worse you’ve left your own in-house marketing/front desk/or anyone else who spends 90% of their time behind a computer and not in the vineyard or production facility to push out 20% off codes and tell tourists how lucky they are to have been in your tasting rooms over the weekend. If MailChimp is Tweeting for you. I hope you bring nothing but rotten fruit in this year.

So who’s Tweeting valuable, can’t miss vineyard and winegrape info?

Here’s my unabridged, unabashed, uberauthentic list:

@SJVGrapes

UCCE Farm Advisor
San Joaquin Valley
SJV Viticulture production issues: varieties, pests and diseases, etc.

@srbeckley

Steven Beckley
Woodland, CA
I cover issues of interest to the agricultural input industries and consultants. Including both conventional and organic.

@grapetweets

Matthew Fidelibus
Parlier, California
Extension Specialist in Department of Viticulture and Enology, UC Davis. Extending Viticulture Information to Raisin, Table, and Wine Grape Growers.

@eViticulture

eViticulture
Stillwater, OK
eViticulture is a group of viticulture Extension specialists around the US.

As far as the leafroll, eutypa and the red leaves out there. You can read up about the topic and others related to winegrapes and vineyards at this comprehensive resource compiled by the UC Integrated Viticulture program.  And while selecting good sources of information to direct readers to I came across this UC Viticulture Research doing none other than absolutely tarnishing To-Kalon by calling its heritage clone 31 Mondavi Cabernet out as a “virus affected vineyard”. The audacity. Whether it was split on the Mondavi or Beckstoffer side I don’t know. But you can bet that if it’s on Andy’s side he is selling that fruit at a 30% markup over the block next to it which is most likely a replant showing not a single sign of pretty red leaves.

2011 Old Vine Martini Pinot Noir

In 2009 I attended a seminar dedicated to the split of winemakers who opt out of working with virus affected vineyards and those who actually prefer to work with virus affected vines saying that they produce more complex, interesting wines. And if you are a winemaker who subscribes to the theory that Old Vines, 30 years plus, are favorable over just established vines and vineyards it’s mighty difficult to locate a vineyard that isn’t affected by something.

We’ve got red leaves at Thomson Vineyards. They are some of the oldest Pinot Noir vines in Carneros. They produce some pretty damn good Pinots and don’t seem to be hindering ripening, flavor, or winemakers selling their finished products in the marketplace.

Because after all, to consumers, that’s their favorite part of the visit to Napa Valley. Snapping photo after photo of beautiful orange and red hillsides of rolling  vineyards and posting it to their Twitter and Facebook feeds, tagging the winery as they go.

If you have no idea what DM, Retweet (officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary this week), or tagging means you can take my crash course here.

• Does being a 4th generation wine grower managing the same vineyard site – owned by the family since 1938 – meet your sustainability requirements?
• Does a Mac PowerBook G4 purchased in 2003 – used then to write a thesis on the wine industry and still used today to file online spray reports detailing the application rate of organic sulfur applied in our vineyard meet your criteria for sustainable organic?

Some may counter that answering a question with a question doesn’t really answer the question at all. But I think these two examples do a fair job of getting the job done.

After eight long years of steadfast reliable service, multiple trips through DFW airport in grad school and riding shotgun as my mobile vineyard office the past three years, today I upgraded to a new 2011 MacBook Pro, transferred 2,000+ tracks from my iTunes library, and have absolutely no intention of looking back.

I don’t exactly embody your average and traditional music freak, but I’ve always enjoyed the diversity of radio over an album. With the advent of iTunes, I began categorizing themes of music into playlists, transforming my Napster and LimeWire driven media into well curated libraries.

Little Did I Know I Would Be Forever in Blue Jeans

I grew up lip-synching to Neil Diamond’s Forever in Blue Jeans blasting on The Farmer’s 1950s restored Wurlitzer Jukebox. It took four 30-something grown men to move it to a new permanent location this past weekend. They certainly don’t make ‘em like they used to.

I downloaded like a fiend the first year Napster was available in the Cal Poly dorms. Later losing that collection to an ex-boyfriend who somehow ended up with my computer at his apartment and his Gary Fisher mountain bike and Cannon Rebel EOS at mine. I considered it a fair trade.

While lifeguarding at Cal Poly a much older lifeguard wouldn’t let me off the guard stand before I could name the song and artist of three classic rock songs in a row as they blasted through the massive sound system poolside. Those were grueling shifts. The classic rock genre was before my time.

I now find myself reliant on an iPod to get me through the next mile of a long run or the next row in the vineyard. Recently both my Cannon digital camera and iPod went MIA. Recently is an understatement. It’s been since March that I’ve been without and I’ve found the mobile Pandora App to be exactly what they claim it to be – genius.

Last year I joked that we were playing specific tracks in the vineyard to inspire better absorption of certain viticulture techniques in the vineyard. Last post I lamented that I was having difficulty selecting my walk up song, otherwise known as my anthem, for the year.

Between then and now, I’ve pretty much sold out of all 2011 Thomson Vineyards fruit, we’ve set a healthy crop of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and the Merlot is well ahead of where it was last year, leaf water potential readings came in this weekend between 7 – 9.37 bars, the long cool growing season is here to stay, and The Farmer has taken precision perfect farming to an all new level.

While we wait out the long cool and temperate growing season, I encourage you to legally pay for and download the tracks below from iTunes and load up your iPod or mobile device with the Thomson Vineyards 2011 Vintage Playlist – my anthem resides in the No. 1 spot:

10. Tighten Up, The Black Keys

9. Hell Yeah, Montgomery Gentry

The Future of Thomson Vineyards

8. Little Lion Man, Mumford Sons

7. Moves like Jagger, Maroon 5

6. Money, Velvet Revolver…yes, I am aware this was first performed by Pink Floyd

5. One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer, George Thorogood

4. I Won’t Back Down, Tom Petty

3. Lot of Leavin’ Left To Do, Dierks Bently

2. Good Life, One Republic

1. Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked, Cage The Elephant

If you’re a winery partner in 2011 thanks for selecting the Thomson Vineyards channel to supply your fruit this year and if you’re a reader who follows along with the blog thanks for tuning in once again for yet another vintage.

Next blog post I’ll detail the growing season up to this point and what’s also been occupying The Farmer’s and my time while we watch for verasion. It involves a ’67 VW Karmann Ghia and renovating a historic Napa Farmhouse. Because just like the anthem’s title implies, there ain’t no rest!

While many of you hosted 4th of July parties among the vines, I held an anti wine and anti propaganda lake retreat at Mt. Lassen over the three-day weekend, followed by an All American beer only tailgate at AT&T park on Monday.  While sitting in holiday traffic, I came to the realization that for such a patriotic holiday there sure is an awful lot of propaganda floating around this industry as of late.

It takes a lot of good beer to make great wine

In honor of the 4^th of July, and in the spirit of anti-propaganda, grab an All American Budweiser and settle in for a few truths I’ve recently learned while working on my All American girl tan in the vineyard.

1. Napa Valley vineyards depending on when they were pruned and the location of the site are either suffering or flourishing. Vineyard managers say that shatter it wide spread in valley floor Cabernet, Sauvingnon Blanc, and Chardonnay. Touch a cluster and watch it fall apart in your hand. Sonoma Pinot Noir and Chardonnay shoots underwent significant wind and rain damage which caused a disruption in flowering. Pest Control Advisors (PCAs) feel that specific vineyard sites seem to be more adversely affected, and not specific varietals. Mid to large sized operations who circulate pruning crews through multiple vineyards rapidly – pruned early and on time this year – just as they do every other year. Late La Nina storms were ill-timed during bloom affecting some vineyards ability to set a decent crop. Three different vineyard managers have told me production on the valley floor and in Carneros is down significantly. Thomson Vineyards prunes late every year intentionally. We time our bud break to occur at the latest point possible during the season which reduces our chance of frost damage. Due to our small-scale and focused viticulture practices, we have set a healthy and balanced crop with no frost damage. We also pushed bloom out far enough to avoid the late rains and wind storms. In a word, our crop is flourishing.

2. In 2009 and 2010 there were upwards of 60 listings for Carneros Chardonnay grapes for sale on winebusiness.com at this same point in the season. As of today there are six. I reached out to every other Chardonnay grower listed on the classifieds and asked what their price was per ton in 2011, some responded, most wouldn’t. If you all haven’t been keeping up with the news, NEWSFLASH: we live in a new economy, welcome to the new normal, this aint temporary. For the wine industry this means growers must begin sharing with their neighbors more about their own pricing structure to hold the price steady and brush off the négociants who insist on living as if it’s still 2009.  This means wine grapes really are reaching <gasp> commodity status. See No. 1 Truth, look me in the eye, and tell me you aren’t going to sell fruit to Paso Robles wineries when they call because their Chardonnay crop was virtually obliterated back in April. It’s who you do business with and the value the wine grower brings to the winemaker and vice versa that creates competitive advantage in this market.

Fine Carneros Chardonnay

3. Thomson Vineyards Chardonnay is $2,400 – $2,900/T. If you don’t like those prices, I invite you to head down the road and buy another Carneros Grower’s fruit for $4k/T. Which is what one of the two sons told me it was going for as we poured beer together at the First Annual Wine Country Tractor & Truck Pull. The Napa Farm Bureau raised a good amount of money at the event due in part to my being the lone girl of the Young Farmers & Ranchers crew checking IDs, taking $5 a beer and all the tips you beer drinking gentleman could spare. Thanks for supporting 4-H, FFA and YF&R scholarships this year.

4. There is almost no available land to plant on the valley floor in Napa anymore. Only by spending upwards of $100k/acre blasting out the hillsides to terrace rocky alluvial soil will you find any land to plant. Two winemakers recently showed me a video taken on iPhone, at a high-end Cabernet tasting, of their new “site” being developed with an ample supply of dynamite on the Stage Coach property. I was not impressed. Nor did I give them my number when they asked for it. My unlabeled merlot got polished off that night, well before their commercially produced swill.

5. J Bonne wrote an article going into this holiday weekend. In it I found some interesting points and some fairly ridiculous points. One of which relates to Truth No. 4. Bonne wrote, “One of the most stubborn gaps in California wine is between grower and winemaker. With a new generation of winemakers who very much want to farm, but can’t acquire their own land, now’s the time to reconsider that gap by encouraging winemakers to hop on the tractor.” People. Please do not sell any more land, or lease any more vineyards to the guys who call themselves winemakers, carrying iPhones, with former  Silicon Valley VP titles, who think it is cool to spend $100k blowing up the hillsides of Napa. There are 31 postings for Cabernet grapes for sale on winebusiness.com, buy some of that stuff off the market.

Cal Poly Collegiate Team 2011

5. I’ve haven’t hopped on the tractor so far this year. Mostly because The Farmer has monopolized his three rig fleet, two Fords and an International, dragging a disc, creating perfectly straight lines through the damp soil. For an old farmer this is a lost art. Permanent cover crop and overgrown “organic” farming practices have led to tre chic vineyard practices. In the old days The Farmer assures me this was known as “lazy” farming.  So while he’s on the tractor, I have been doing a lot of hand labor. Leaf pulling, thinning and replacing end posts. A month ago I discovered Gelish manicures. This Truth is for all the women working in the industry. Gelish really does withstand  two or more weeks of vineyard work without a single chip and maintains its glossy top coat for 14+ days. So far I’ve gone through one application of international orange in honor of the World Champion SF Giants and a second application of Barbie doll pink. The more girly the better for working with the men in the vineyard.

6. I was invited to speak at the Mendocino Winegrape Commission bi-annual seminar a few weeks ago where I attempted to cover Thomson Vineyards marketing strategy in under 20 minutes. I subscribe to the theory that you could write a plan about what you’re going to do – or you could just do it.  If Mendocino can manage to put some growing degree days up on the board this season, I suspect that they really are growing some great fruit and have the marketing infrastructure in place to make an impact with their wines in an already crowded industry. I’ve actually dialed back my marketing strategy this year. Last year I averaged one blog post a week, one tweet a day. I am currently averaging one blog post a month 7.5 tweets a day. Two Direct Messages (DMs) have come through this month amongst 1,100 followers asking how much Thomson Vineyards fruit is and if any more is still available. See Truth No. 3. And YES, I’ve got clones 76,96,97 Chardonnay fruit available for a winery interested in making wine from some of the best, and only Dijon clone, Carneros Chardonnay on the market. Clone 809 smells like floral cleaning solvent. Just sayin’

Water rights. Whose right is it?

7. The Farm Bill was vetoed last week. Maybe it should have been more appropriately titled the Big Ag Bill. You can quickly get up to speed about what the bill entailed on Civil Eats Top 10 List of Things You Should Know About the Bill. We’ve got some of our own Big Ag to deal with in Carneros. After illegally building a resevoir, diverting air mass and water, making both properties susceptible to flooding and frost Domaine Chandon, owned by Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and managed by Walsh Vineyards Management is installing a catch drain to collect and fill their resevoir with water designated to Thomson Vineyards by the State of California water rights board. We’ve held the water rights to drainage from Hwy 12 and Los Carneros Creek since 1948. At the same time, UpValley Growers tell me they’ve seen big shop wine operations hauling in cheaper Central Valley day labor on an every day basis. Which pretty much puts a damper on Napa wine associations touting the use of skilled local Napa labor, supporting the local economy and families, doesn’t it? These two examples give new meaning to the terms “corporate” and “social” responsibility in my Millennial eyes. Please keep this in mind as you cruise the Champagne section at your local wine shop and select your next bottle of bubbles or make plans for summer Sunday brunch and mimosas.

8. As of today the USDA is still blocking out of state shipments of Napa fruit in 2011 due to the juice sucking European Grapevine Moth. The Napa Ag Commissioners Office assures me they are working on it. We are one of five growers on the list who will potentially ship fruit to the growing number of  wineries across the US who cannot grow cool climate varietals like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. As one industry old timer told me the other day, with the humidity, extreme climates, and other adverse weather conditions, “I don’t envy any other grower in any other state – I wouldn’t want to grow anywhere but California!”

9. And as tradition would have it, just when the SF Giants get really deep into the season, is just about the time I announce my annual walk up song. It’s the song I play in my head as I supervise crews in the morning, it’s what you can be sure it playing in my head as I throw down just how much you’re going to pay if you want what’s left of Thomson Vineyards 2011 Chardonnay, it’s what @Clivity would call his anthem, except he’ll be sure to tell you to get your damn hands up. I am undecided at the time of this post just what my anthem is. Leave your suggestions in the comments. I’ll load up my iPod.

Carneros: Producing better grapes and better wine since 1976

10. Signage recently went up two driveways away from Thomson Vineyards in Carneros. Positioned roadside, a sheet of plywood has been painted out with the words “NO DUST” Apparently word hasn’t gotten out. If you’re looking to buy grapes in Napa, Carneros produces better Pinot Noir and Chardonnay fruit than any of other subappellation. It’s the DUST that makes our grapes so good!

If there’s any question about the truthiness in this post, I suggest you take a moment and get a good picture of Jack Nicholson in his dress blues in your head. Then fast forward to the line he’s most famous for in a Few Good Men, and imagine he’s talking directly to YOU, “You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth.”  How’s that for the truth?

HOW TO: Talk down a gopher

Although only the farmers seem to be able to painfully remember that this season is getting off to a start incredibly reminiscent of the 2010 season, it’s with that memory that we’ve all dusted off our clubs and enrolled ourselves in the occasional UC Extension class to pass the time.

A farmer like none other – I’ve done both of those things and over-scheduled my social calendar in an attempt to occupy myself as bloom inches from just 45% of the vineyard towards 65 or 70% if we’re lucky this week…and at the same time, hopefully overcome the writers block I’ve  suffered from recently.

For those of you wanting a detailed field report: several of Thomson Vineyards Chardonnay blocks have achieved full bloom status, but several are still mid bloom – including the Pinot Noir and Merlot blocks. Two spray applications of stylet oil and one application of sulfur have gone on thus far. Wind seems to be keeping mildew at bay and is not having an adverse effect on shoot growth, nor has done any damage as reported recently by some Sonoma vineyard owners. Cover crop doesn’t seem to be stunted one single bit by the cold weather. It’s already been mowed several times. Leaf Water Potential (LWP) readings will not begin for several more weeks. But raising wires and top suckering commences Monday.

Anyhow, leading up to the recent Chardonnay Day Soiree, where I managed to get my ruff ‘n tuff VW Passat stuck in a ditch full of mud, and prior to spending a late night playing midnight golf – the highlight of the past few weeks had to be the half day workshop I spent with The Farmer learning about gopher control.

One for the road

There are an infinite number of ways to control the pocket gopher population in your vineyard which include trapping, fumigation with aluminum phosphide, poison baits, and the use of a gas explosive device. Roger A. Baldwin, UC Wildlife Pest Management Advisor discussed several recently at the UC Davis Oakville test vineyard site. There were three front runners:

1. Trapping and fumigation. Ranges  from 74 percent to 90 percent effectiveness.

2. Baiting control. Ranges from 30 percent to 56 percent effectiveness.

3. A gas explosive device known to farmers as the Rodenator. Rodenator control ranges from zero to 55 percent effectiveness.

Going on a gopher hunt...

And while it may be cool to light off explosives in the back 40, Roger was quick to point out that it’s highly ineffective and YOU are BLOWING things up in the vineyard! The most success has been seen in clay soil types.

The time required to apply each treatment is relatively similar between baiting, trapping, and Rodenator treatments (90–106 seconds).

Trapping plus fumigation is estimated to be the most cost effective treatment, at $252 per acre, compared with $396 per acre for the Rodenator, and $420 for baiting.

Presently, trapping and fumigation appears to be the most effective and efficient method for gopher control according to UC Extension Advisors who’ve tested each system feverishly.

So what if Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, and Bill Murray can’t get a handle on the pest back at the Country Club? As one of The Farmer’s Twitter Followers, Dan Kessler of KH Vineyards & Wines in Lompoc, California, pointed out we can’t afford not to. A vineyard on 8×4 spacing, for every 1 vine lost=~1btl wine at 2.5t/ac. Lost yr+3yrs for replant to prod=4btls wine, $30/btl=$120/vine, per every vine lost. How many vines you gonna let Clifford to pocket mole excavate now?

What a way to spend a day on the job site

After spending much of the morning looking over my shoulder for the PETA administrators who would surely want a piece of me for Tweeting about the No Gopher Guts No Glory Clamp 5000 The Farmer and I headed out to do some tank sample tasting of the 2010 vintage with winemaker Rudy Zuidema and assistant winemaker Michael Andrews at White Cottage Ranch. Upon arrival at the winery, we confirmed that winemakers are doing exactly what the farmers in the valley are doing – golfing.

It was nice to find Kopriva winemaker Myles doing something a bit more productive later that evening, shucking Hog Island oysters – paired alongside his crisp 2009 Sonoma no-oak Chardonnay. He was sure to give The Farmer a good rousing about getting on the tractor later that night and applying another spray of sulfur before his next unannounced visit to the vineyard.

Speaking of the Carneros Chardonnay vineyard. It’s looking damn nice. Just about as nice as a finely manicured golf course. So nice, I’m toying with the idea of hosting the next midnight scramble there.

Until that day and while we’re all patiently waiting for the heat wave we need to tee off the 2011 season you can catch me perfecting my swing at SF Giants Winefest, Taste of Mendocino, and Pinot Days.

And on off days you can find me at one of the several greens highlighted in this month’s 7×7 magazine. Maybe I’ll let you buy me a drink at the club’s bar and we can talk the current grape market, if you’re lucky.

The Farmer & Kopriva Winemaker Myles talking about perfecting their swings this summer

With that challenge on deck, here’s a raised glass of Chardonnay to all you winemakers holding off on buying fruit in 2011, stalling the market with your indecisive ways…from the Napa Valley Country Club bar. Bottoms up.

*Late ripening vineyard sites: Thomson Vineyards has just one. The Merlot vineyard in Napa Valley on Hwy 121 at 1500 feet. Which has already been shoot thinned aggressively, will carry just two clusters per shoot  in 2011, and will not be sold to any winemaker who does not sign, honor, or comply with a written grape purchase agreement. This ‘aint 2009 anymore boys and Bloomberg news has proclaimed the juice off of this vineyard epic. Unlabeled bottles of it are the first to be drank at high end parties held in the Up Valley Cabernet shops. It’s obscure, and you’ll want to have it if you can get your hands on it.

More importantly though, this content signifies the extensive work I’ve done over the course of three years carefully selecting the right wineries to make wine with The Farmer’s famous fruit. It’s evidence that wineries and wine growers – working together – can not only grow better fruit, but they can garnish more attention for their efforts, sell more wine, and in turn each benefit from a relationship which is more often known in grape purchase agreements as “buyer” and “seller” and not the partnership – which perhaps should be referred to on paper as “wine grower” and “wine maker”.

I’ve received several phone calls in recent months from distributors requesting cases of the 2009 Black Sheep Finds, Hocus Pocus Thomson Vineyard Pinot. Maybe that’s because the wine recently scored 90 points in Wine Enthusiast. But honestly, what’s in a score!?! Score or no score, I enthusiastically refer them right back to Black Sheep Finds Winemaker, Peter Hunken. Although one distributor is still in my voicemail waiting for a call back from me, I’ll get right on it – and this is why:

My theory is that the wine grower and the winemaker who work together, not only in the vineyard, but who also work the room together will be far more successful in this economy than the next winery. And in the end, for every case of Black Sheep Finds, Hocus Pocus Thomson Vineyard Pinot Peter sells, that’s just one more ton I can sell him in 2011 – as demand for the wine continues to grow. Not to mention, just as Wayne points out, Peter is very nice; and just as Peter points out the Thomsons are very nice….it just seems to be a really nice match.

For more about my strategy you can attend the Wine Institute & CAWG event Friday, May 13, 8:30 a.m. at the Meritage Hotel. May 25 & 26 the event will be held once again in Monterey and San Francisco. The event is FREE and does not require membership to either organization to attend.  Those of you who know me, know I no longer subscribe to wine industry paid membership associations and believe that education to benefit the industry as a whole should always be free.

As usual, I’ll be the girl you think is the tasting room chick, but who is really The Farmer. And as usual, never satisfied with the status quo – I’ll cause a ruckus about the “Vintners Track” and the “Growers Track” format planned for the program i.e. segregation of information and separating the “Vintners” from “Growers”. Because if you’ve read this far, and are smarter than a winery dog, you too are beginning to pick up on the fact that there is no I in Team, two are stronger than one, and winemakers cannot make wine without a grower. Furthermore, the people – consumers – want an authentic story about the vineyard, the farmer, and then the winemaker. Don’t worry, I plan to point that out when I offer my comments that morning.

Now, get yourself a glass of Black Sheep Finds, Hocus Pocus Thomson Vineyard Pinot, available at Black Sheep Finds website, sometimes the Wine Garage in Calistoga,  and saddle up for a good one. Wayne writes long. Like me!

-The Millennial Daughter

Black Sheep Finds – By the Will of the People

November 18, 2010

It is human nature to respect great efforts of time. Be it a work of art, the sculpted beauty of a National Park, or a long overdue title win, we value more so what takes longer to achieve. For those wine enthusiasts with a larger vocabulary than “mmm grapes!” we too value and esteem great efforts of time. We respect the Grand Cru vineyards, the storied Chateau, and even the great vintages. We do so because we respect the time they represent and the effort, determination, and foresight behind them.

This respect of time is evident when considering wine regions and the importance we place upon them. France is the undisputed King of wine and for many it will always be so. It is more difficult and subjective to crown a Queen, but for now, France still has a powerful monarch named Wine and his influence is strong and his dominion wide.

Black Sheep Finds Office. Site of Winemaking and Grape Purchase Agreement Signing.

France’s kingly rule is established not on a claim to all the best wines, although they make many of them. It isn’t that King France has pioneered all of the newest practices of viticulture. No, France is King because few other places have accumulated the same depth of wine wisdom. It is the accumulated wisdom amassed over hundreds of consecutive vintages and bound together by generations of vintners that creates an elaborate and complex understanding of wine. We love the freedom of California winemakers. We love the quality and bargains from South America. However, France demands our respect.

Knowledge though is becoming easier to access, even for the peasants living in the shadow of the King. Given the enormous capacity for information sharing today, the vast history of wine is available to any that are willing to search it out. Where winemakers were once students of a region, even of a single vineyard, they can now be students of World oenology.

With some study and patience, in goes the knowledge of Rhône and Burgundy. In goes Bordeaux and Alsace, Piedmont and Tuscany. In goes Germany, and Spain, and Chile, and Oregon, and California. In go hundreds of years of collected wine knowledge. Younger generations of winemakers, like Peter Hunken of Black Sheep Finds, then take this mass of collected knowledge (holus-bolus) and sift from it what is right for them. In the end, what they produce is a continuum of everything that came before, yet entirely new.

I first came across Black Sheep Finds, a small producer from Santa Barbara County, a few months back. I was at a local haunt in Santa Barbara called The Winehound. “I want something new Bob, what do you have?” Bob, from behind his counter, pointed to a shelf well endowed with local Santa Barbara Rhône varietal wines, some of the most praised of the region. “That,” he said, pointing to the 2007 Hocus Pocus Syrah sitting on the third shelf. “That’s the best Rhône style I have in here right now.” Bob loves Rhône wines so I took the compliment seriously and at $18 it was a bargain considering the low production. I took it home eager to enjoy its enchanted juice. The label with vintage influenced artwork reminiscent of an 1800’s circus poster was enticing, as was the name, Hocus Pocus. At home, the purple black potion poured from the bottle into my glass. It was lush, it was balanced, and it was beautiful. Hocus pocus, I was hooked.

Black Sheep Finds, which produces a Hocus Pocus Syrah and Hocus Pocus Pinot Noir as well as wines under the Genuine Risk label, comes from the husband and wife team of Peter Hunken and Amy Christine. Splitting their time between Los Angeles (where they sell much of their wine) and Lompoc, the story of Black Sheep Finds is in many ways the story of the young California winemaker. Peter is a student of Old World wines, favoring the finesse often found at lower alcohol levels to the ultra ripe and high octane wines that have become a trademark of California. But orthodox he is not.

For a guy making a Pinot Noir sourced from Carneros when he is literally ten minutes from one of the most praised Pinot regions in California, I asked him if the choice made him a renegade.

“Probably I guess. We just released the wines a few months ago, so not too many people have really said anything. There are defiantly great Pinot Noir sites in the Sta. Rita Hills, no question. But the fruit tends to be pretty expensive. I’ve made some expensive wines and its been really hard to sell [them], at least for us these last 2-1/2 or 3 years.”

With such wide choices in Pinot fruit available throughout California, I was interested in how they decided on a vineyard from Carneros. It was a choice of both style and economics. “I am not a fan of the ripper, cola-y, full bodied Pinots that I taste a lot from the Russian River and some from this area for sure. I find that style even less pleasant than New World Syrah. I much more enjoy a Pinot that has some acidity naturally, has aroma and spice, wines that don’t have a ton of alcohol. So [I was] looking for a place that could do that and Carneros seemed like a good option.”

While the choice to source his fruit from Northern California is somewhat unorthodox by local standards, the vineyard was as well. “It’s a fairly old vineyard,” he explained, “it’s 30 to 35 year old Martini clone. You can talk to people and they say Martini is like the worst.”

Wine Wizards at Black Sheep Finds Produce Hocus Pocus Thomson Vineyard 2009 Pinot Noir (background)

ALP: “To work with?”

PH: “It’s not like all of the newer clones, like 667, all the French clones that have smaller clusters and darker color and bigger flavor. But those are not the kind of wines I am interested in. I find it intriguing that here is this kind of funky old clone that’s probably originally from Switzerland, so it’s just kind of weird and different. So that was part of it. Obviously the affordability of the fruit and then the people we work with, the Thomsons, they’re super nice and even though they are 350 miles away I probably have more communication with them because they are owners and growers. So it’s just a really nice fit, a nice feel.”

In addition to the Pinot, which they have not produced for several years, they are introducing a white to the program; a Roussanne sourced from the McGinley Vineyard (formerly Westerly) in Happy Canyon. “We wanted to make something other than Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc,” he said of his choice to work with a Rhône white. “I really like interesting Rhône whites, Châteauneuf whites that have some Roussanne in them usually. So I am looking forward to that.”

In winemakers like Peter, I find a particularly poignant parallel between two of my passions: wine and music, particularly the LA indie scene. A band I came in contact with five or six years ago, Red Sparowes, is a perfect example of what I mean. Made up of members from Pleasure Forever, the Nocturnes, and the now sadly dormant ISIS, nearly all of the members have other projects. At one point, a few years ago before the retirement of ISIS and the departure of one of the members, the list was longer. Like Red Sparowes, it is not uncommon for indie bands especially in LA, to consist of members from multiple projects, sometimes from different parts of the Country.

Such has been the way for Peter and a growing number of young winemakers who are finding success in a multitude of projects.

The one time assistant winemaker at Stolpman Vineyards, Peter collaborates on a label with Sashi Moorman called Piedrasassi. Another project which started out as Peter and Sashi as well as Chad Melville of Melville Winery & Brewer Clifton, and Jim Knight of Jelly Roll resulted in a Syrah program called Holus Bolus.  Black Sheep Finds is the label he manages with his wife Amy which includes Hocus Pocus, Genuine Risk, and an Italian collaboration with a friend back in Chianti.

Much of the collaboration in music and wine is economically based. For Peter, working out of Lompoc’s famous “Wine Ghetto” has meant close contact with some of the most talked about producers in Santa Barbara County. In the same way it is natural for bands that may share studio space or tour vans to work together, collaboration is natural for winemakers accustomed to sharing both space and equipment. The cramped wineries of these up-and-coming winemakers find a fitting comparison to the cramped and aging Dodge Ram “tour vans” and half-rusted tow behind trailers many of my friends traversed the Country in. While superstar wineries have the funds to enjoy climate controlled mega-wineries, and arena rock bands have air conditioned mansions on wheels, our young winemakers and musicians must toil and sacrifice to get by, hoping they have just enough gas to get them to the next show or harvest. It is hard to chase our dreams.

But it is the struggle and voyage that many find rewarding. For the winemaker, the long hours on the road spent by touring bands is substituted for long hours in the vineyard and winery, where it is often cold and damp. While it provides a rewarding lifestyle and even a comfortable one for some, more winemakers travel by Jetta than private jet.

But where does all of this sharing of ideas go for California winemakers?  In Los Angeles, the collaboration across bands and genres has resulted in a more dynamic, creative, and stable music scene. It’s why indie bands from all over the country flock to LA, even from other established music scenes. More music happens in LA or New York because more is going on there. It is shaping up the same way for California wine.

In Santa Barbara County, the collaborative spirit has already led to the birth of some exciting projects like Holus Bolus, as well as Thread, a collaboration between Dave Potter of Municipal Winemakers, Larry Schaffer of Tercero Wines, and Blair Fox of Blair Fox Cellars (all winemakers for Fess Parker). It will no doubt lead to more.

Home Sweet Winery. When He's Not Flying To Carneros For a Vineyard Visit, Winemaker Peter Hunken.

Trends change, in music, in fashion, in wine. Ska was the next big thing for awhile, until we decided it wasn’t. Swing then took the Country by storm, until we decided it shouldn’t. So far, boots over jeans and stretch pants has lasted longer than I thought it would, but its day is coming too. Syrah was the savior Red, the next big thing, the future of wine in much of the New World. And then it wasn’t. Although Peter makes several wines, it is Syrah that is his workhorse. So with all the debate over the last few years about the future of this bold flavorful wine, I thought I should ask Peter where he thought it was all headed.

PH: “I think a lot of damage has already been done. You don’t get a lot of second chances with the public. So there is a lot of damage that’s been done with poor Syrah from the Southern Hemisphere to be very broad, or from the Northern Hemisphere, from California. There is a lot of pretty average Syrah from California, Washington, and Oregon. But I hope that the styles will change. That’s the thing, there are a lot of really great Syrah producers in California that run the gambit of styles… We still sell more Syrah than anything else in our portfolio. Hocus Pocus is still our best seller and maybe that’s because it’s the cheapest. I am not going to be a fool to economics.”

“People still like Syrah, but I look at the market place and as great as wines from Hermitage or Côte-Rôtie are, I don’t see those flying off the shelves. They’re expensive, $75-100, and those are great wines and they will last as long as anything will. [But] I feel like all over you see a lot more interest in less expensive Syrah…People are happy paying $25 for a bottle of wine. I hope that people will realize it is a good wine not only at the value level but also at the premium level.”

For any winemaker playing the odds to build their own project, all the numerous factors and challenges that conspire against them make the endeavor a genuine risk. You can imitate the best and fail. You can do everything right only to be ignored, for it is the people who will decide “who gets to win and who gets to loose” as Peter puts it. So how does one proceed? Does one chase trends that are in constant change and hope they get the timing right? Or does one follow what is right for them? “You kind of get to the point where you want to make the wine you like,” Peter has concluded.

For those who have the determination to chart their own path, who follow their own vision, there is no magic formula, there is only hard work and dedication to their goals. At the end, it will be the people who decide who is genuine and who is not. No magic, no trickery, no hocus pocus.

Black Sheep Finds

Peter has become one of my favorite winemakers in Santa Barbara or anywhere. Although his portfolio is not massively large like some, everything he makes is spot on. His Pinot Noir is the way I want  Pinot to be and it is the same with his Syrah. I will follow his developing career with much interest. He is also very nice.

- Wayne Kelterer

Thomson Vineyards Frost Damage Potential

We call it “Off The Grid” at Thomson Vineyards. In the corporate world they call it “Out Of Pocket” and The Old Farmers call it “Fightin’ Alligators” or “Puttin’ Out Fires”. Whatever you call it – it’s where I’ve been since February.

Since I’ve been Off The Grid, the entire 30 acre vineyard was cane pruned by The Farmer and his guy, plus two more acres of Merlot. My Uncle and his guy did 50 acres. Four guys, two electric pruners, two electric tyers – just about 90 acres.

Throughout those 90 acres we micro managed several Chardonnay blocks, pendelbogen pruning just the northern half of the rows to balance canopy vigor where the water table is more evident in the topography. We’ve mowed twice. Knocked twin buds off of a couple blocks to manage crop volume early on and reduce labor later in the season. It’s now exhibiting uniform shoot growth between 1-3 inches. The vineyard was also weeded and the Shurfarms Cold Air Drain run 4 days out of 7 during the freezing temperatures the second week of April.

We bought the nearly brand new Shurfarms Cold Air Drain in March from Justin Miller of Garden Creek Vineyards who manages about 100 acres in Alexander Valley and a high end label of his own – or two, if you count the verjus business he’s diversified himself into. After twisting The Farmer’s arm we loaded up cold air drain on the flat bed and took it home, rather than the Bear Valley Wind Machine which was going to cost $1k just to move from Big Ranch Road to Los Carneros Avenue in Napa! The circa 1986 machine had a hefty $4-5k price tag and came with a propane engine that would have needed a fair amount of ongoing upkeep. Given the facts, I made the executive decision to no longer rely  “On a wing and a prayer” frost protection and made a deal with Justin – farmer to farmer.

The new technology was worth every penny. On April 12 weather.com reported 44, but temperatures dipped well below freezing. The Farmer – being the great man he is, anticipated it beforehand and arrived at 2 a.m. to turn his new toy on in the Carneros Chardonnay blocks 5 and 6. He saved everything but one vine in row 102. How did he do it? Old Farmer wisdom. Because there is no Frost Alert App for Android on the market yet. Hey Vintank, I think I may have discovered a hole in the market.

Kickin' the tires & hooking the Shurfarms Cold Air Drain up to PTO is a two man job.

The new frost protection is PTO driven and takes just a gallon of Ag Diesel to run it per hour. FYI John Tuteur the county tax assessor apparently cares deeply about sustainability, so much so he’s taken a real interest into just how long the average farmer is keeping equipment around nowadays. He’s requested that I, and every other farmer, catalogue every single piece of farm equipment we own and turn it in to his office for assessment. Correction. He wanted me to. It was due April 1. He shouldn’t consider himself special. I didn’t submit my federal or state taxes to the IRS until 11:45 p.m. April 18. And I haven’t given in to Tuteur’s request because Thomson Vineyards has 57 pieces of equipment on its inventory list. All equipment is categorized into “Non-op” “Semi-op” aka Needs Service/Repair or “Operational”

There are two pieces of equipment in the “Operational” category. Both are pieces of equipment I bought. But, The Farmer and every other true farmer in The Valley will tell you, “you may only need it once in awhile, but when you need it, you need it and if you don’t have it…”

I'll Show You Easy

In all fairness to The Farmer, the tractors are fairly operational and he’s working on the spray rig this week. One of two tractors is nearly up to my satisfaction level with a new battery and push button start that rivals the Staples “Easy” button. Because I drove to Kragen, came back to The Ranch, and put a new battery in it. See a pattern…

So while I may have been Off The Grid for the better part of Q1… farming still goes on. And if you thought The Farmer was farming up a storm last growing season, just wait for this one. We pendelbogen pruned and tyed just the north half of the rows! Row, by row. Of at least three blocks. Only a true viticulturist or meticulous winemaker can appreciate a grower who farms row by row and understand the labor intensiveness behind that kind of process.

Prices went up this year too as a result of the high end hand farming going on and the deep deep discounts we’ve afforded to wineries in the past three years. In exchange for our “generosity” Thomson Vineyards has ended up in the red and the wineries somehow in the black, hence our semi operational tractors and their sold out finished wine.

So, those who won’t pony up for hand farmed fruit or are more trouble than they’re worth are out. And I’m picking and choosing who we’re selling to. Call me up. I’m back On The Grid and taking offers. You can see me ‘n The Farmer at the following events and he’ll tell you about puttin’ out fires, I’ll tell you about the field blend of proprietary clonal selection Chardonnay that I’ve got for sale:

April 27 Vineyard Soil Nutrition Seminar – Mineralogy and wine quality, nutrient cycling in vineyards, leaf, petiole & soil sampling

April 28 10th Annual Wine Industry Conference: Turning point those who are shaping the future of wine

April 28 Building a Green Tech Industry in the Silicon Valley – Is it Real or Hype?

May 4 Cheers to Taste! @ Mondavi Winery

May 13 & May 26 Marketing For California Wineries & Growers

May 26 2nd Annual #Chardonnay Day – grab a bottle of White Cottage Ranch Thomson Vineyard Chardonnay and have yourself a party, we’ll be celebrating those wineries making Chardonnay from The Farmer’s fruit in 2011!