GENERAL HAPPENINGS

On June 4th I left California for a week+ sales trip to NC and MD. I had a wine tasting with some of the staff of a new distributor we acquired in NC as a result of wine tasting with a bunch of sommeliers here in Pleasant Valley. It was on Friday the 5th that was supposed to be the conclusion of a vacation that Barbara and I were going to spend sailing on the Chesapeake with friends but we had to cancel at the last moment due to a sprained back Barbara suffered as a result of a tumble at her exercise class. She is getting better all the time.

After visiting with the new distributor I drove through some very heavy rain in NC to a small town just west of Raleigh to visit a cousin and her family. I stayed over night and then headed up to Md where I stayed with our MD broker. A lovely place right on the Chesapeake with 300 ft of water front. Sunday they arranged an outing with a business associate. His father took us on his 36 foot power yacht across the Chesapeake to have lunch at a waterfront restaurant. He ordered ahead of time 3 jumbo sized blue crabs for each of us plus a crab cake. The crab cake was the best I have ever had and the crabs were really sweet, caught that morning. A great experience.

Monday we started selling wine and covered much of MD and over 4 days visited more than twenty accounts and most of them bought something. A good sales trip.

Monday night my host invited several of her friends over for a salmon and halibut and wine tasting dinner. Had a good time with them. Then Tuesday night she bought 2 1 lb lobsters each that were just great. Fresh lobster and an ear of corn for dinner. Wednesday we had a wine pouring so ate dinner at the place we poured and Thursday our last stop of the day was at an account in Annapolis that had previously ordered quite a bit of wine. We did a short pouring there and then took with the wine buyer out to an Italian restaurant. The food was good but the thing I remember most was the fried mouzzarella he ordered. It was different than any he had had before and I had never ordered it. It was deep fried I think in 1" thick large triangular chunks and then covered with a most delicious mushroom sauce. I ate most of his second one. That was wednesday night so on the way back to Middle River where I had stayed we had to go right by BWI where I was to fly out of the next day. He just let me off at a motel near the airport and I flew home on Friday the 12th.

VINEYARD and WINE

All the vines are growing like weeds. We have had to thin the Viognier, Roussanne, and Mourvedre. We still have to thin some of the Syrah. We actually took off more grapes than we left on. I actually got out there and did some myself and as a result next year we will do our prunning differently. We have cordon trained and spur prunned everything but next year we will cane prune the three I just mentioned and maybe some others.

In 1974 we planted 5 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon on their own roots, not grafted to root stalk that is the industry standard. That Vineyard is now 35 years old and qualifies for old vine status. There are not many Cab blocks that old in California because most vineyards are replaced after 25-30 years because of lower production. Its interesting what the old vine and own roots give to a vineyard, more intensity character, and depth. One Master of Wine who tasted our wine at a tasting in San Francisco asked if our cab was on its own roots. How did he know because not very many vines in the world are planted on their own roots. He said the wine had the character of French Bordeaux(Cab Sauv) prior to the French having to change their vineyards to rootstock plantings.

When in MD I found that many buyers expressed dis satisfaction with the high alcohol wines being promoted by the wine press and were interested that we have wines many of which ware less than 14% alc. A plus for us but still not able to get high ratings in the press because the high alc wines dominate any tasting.

That is all for now. Looks like I will be able to do a blog a month rather than one a week.

John