history and own roots

Recently I bought a little device that converts slides to digital. I can then transfer them to my computer. The other day I found a picture of our first winery building amongst the debris of clearing the land. I am including that here and as I find more "historical" Sierra Vista Winery photos I will show them here.

on another subject more than half of our vineyards are planted on their own roots, no foreign rootstock here. I know from our trial plot that rootstock changes the taste of the grape. I wondered if there were any trials done so I googled own Root grape vines and came up with this URL It is a nice short article that gives more pertinent information than I have. Read it and see why our cabs and Syrahs and even Zins have good ageing potential . Read it. It's not long. http://www.aromadictionary.com/articles/grapevinerootstock_article.html

I am posting this a little late and I apologize about that. A couple weeks ago Sierra Vista participated in a a wine makers dinner at La Provence Restaurant down in Roseville. Both John and Barbara thought it was a success and everyone seemed to have a great time. The food and wine pairing was splendid and I wanted to post the menu for all the foodies out there.

Appetizer-
Petit Pates Au Olives Et Chevre
Nicoise olive pastry with Fleur Vert goat cheese, wild arugula and arbequina olive oil. This was paired with the 2007 Fleur de Montagne, which is a Chatauneuf- Du -Pape style blend of Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, and Cinsault.

Main Course-
Faux Entrecote De Sanglier Au Poivre
Seared wild boar strip loin, pommes Lyonnaise, brandy peppercorn sauce. This was paired with 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon.

Dessert-
Gateau Crepes A L'Orange et Abricots
Crepe cake filled with orange cream, glazed with dried apricot confection. Served with the 2006 Viognier Doux, which is a late harvest viognier.

Still snowing

Here it is April 5t and it is still snowing. We had a trace over night and it is snowing at 11:30 AM. I am glad it is cold because the Chardonnay is leafing out and we have not finished pruning it. This cold will keep it somewhat dormant so that the guys can finish pruning before it all buds out. That will set it back so maybe we can get past the frost problem this year.

We had successful Rhone Ranger tasting with a couple distributors expressing interest in hearing more about Sierra Vista and a restaurant in Walnut Creek will be putting us on their wine list.

Our new 2009 Chardonnay is just about ready to be released and the Fume also. Both are really nice, better than the 2008 maybe. You come taste and decide.

The next two weekends will be hectic with passport coming on.

By the way I am interested in finding a NCAL blogger who tastes and discusses wine on his blog. If you know of one let me know at syrah@sierravistawinery.com.

Thanks,

John