Weird Weather!

I have to say that in my 20+ years of working with grapes, this is one of the weirdest years I have seen for growers. Every year is a challenge, but this year Mother Nature is pulling out the stops. About two weeks ago I was told it was the worst frost in over 60 years. Then as we began to assess the frost damage, a heat spell hit. Checking for frost damage in 102F heat- that will mess up your brain! Reminds me of when my husband and I were in Maui sitting in a Taco Bell, listening to Christmas music.......
Now we are waiting for 'fruit set'. The grape clusters are in bloom now, another critical time in a grapes life. Wind, rain and heat can effect how the clusters are pollinated.
(Pics of Bloom)
About three weeks after bloom begins it finishes and then an estimate for harvest can be done-at least it is a start!

Lots of fun events for the Mustang Winemaker the last couple of weeks. I have become a guest taster for the Petaluma Post's wine review -http://www.petalumapost.com/wine.html
A great group, formed by Von Hurson, she has come up with a way that wines are not rated and they are not compared to each other. She really works to make sure that each wine reviewed gets a fair shake. A great lady and she is doing a good thing for those looking for honest reviews- check her out!

Then off to the city of San Francisco where The Spanish Wine Cellar and Pantry have an incredible event where the wines of Spain can be tasted by prospective retailers. It was a chance to taste wineries that I had not heard of and varieties I had not heard of- a great educational experience.

From there I was off to Wine 2.0-http://www.winetwo.com/
Met a lot of great people, many I have known throught the web, but not actually met in person. This was also a chance to promote Tempranillo-can't pass up a chance to do that no matter how late the event or how early in the morning you have to get up!

This was all followed up at the Healdsburg Library with a conference about Wine 2.0- what is the technology out there, what should we as online wineries be doing to bring ourselves and our wines to the world? I want to thank Tim Elliott http://winecast.net/for all of his insight and just bringing to light what is out there for those of us who might not be as technologically advanced or have the time to be.

I hope you all are having a great holiday weekend- remember those that this weekend is about. I have a nephew who is in the trenches- Hi Jason-be safe!

Cheers from the Mustang Winemaker

WBW and Other Wine Fun

There has been so much going on the past couple of weeks: a lot of new construction with my day job winery, work in the vineyards, a few wine events, and the grand tasting of wine for WBW, or Wine Blog Wednesday (www.winebloggingwednesday.org/).-theme this month was old World Reisling.

The 2006 Max Ferd Reisling was the wine for review-part of the 3-pack order from domaine547.com - Thank you!
The bottle sells for $13- $15 dollars according to my limited search of this wine. What a fun label from this German producer and you do not need a cork pull.
As usual I did have to come up with a food to have with this wine and decided on a grilled shrimp and scallops that had been marinated in a little olive oil and hot spanish paprika.

This was a really interesting wine for me as I haven't had that many German reislings. The first aroma out of the glass was a little fusel oil and then citrus flower, light spice, and kiwi with mango that really burst out of the glass. In the mouth- pure pink grapefruit. Really fun- though a little one dimensional in the mouth for me- no mid or finish, but at 10% alcohol, well it was pretty pleasant. I had a kind of love/hate with this wine as the 'fusel' aroma was a little much for me, but I loved the other aromas and I loved the grapefruit flavor.

This was not a bad match with my skewers- the scallops better that the shrimp, in fact excellent with the scallops. I kept thinking that I should have done a grapefruit buerre blanc with the scallops- might have been fun.

Tomorrow I will talk more about the events I have gotten myself to the last couple of weeks.
But before I go- Bloom has started in the Tres Palmeras vineyard here in Cloverdale! Harvest is around the corner........

Cheers to good food, good friends, and family,
The Mustang Winemaker