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Pretty Pictures

A collection of 346 posts

Harvest update: perfect ripening conditions dominate late September, but we see signs of fall

The second half of September continued to point our way toward a productive, top-notch harvest. Asking for cool (but not cold) nights and warm (but not hot) days, and ample sunshine, is almost a cliche in wine country, but that's exactly what we got, providing excellent ripening conditions

Pre-Harvest Jubilation

By Chelsea Franchi We had our scale certified last week, which was just one more reminder of the ever-present fact that harvest is barreling down on us (no pun intended). Steaming barrels in the afternoon sun Harvest is what we live for (well, work for) here in the cellar. It

An anniversary dinner of rack of lamb, roasted tomatoes and avocado salad with Esprit de Beaucastel

This is a busy week of celebrations for me. Meghan's birthday was Friday. Sebastian's birthday is Monday. And our anniversary was Saturday. As it's squeezed between other parties, we often keep it low-key, and certainly compared to Friday night's amazing dinner at

A Summer Dinner in Vermont

By Robert Haas One of summer’s greatest challenges for the Vermont gardener is keeping up with the zucchini production. So we need to find recipes in order to benefit from our garden and, of course, wines to accompany them. Here is an old standby recipe inspired by The Victory

What a difference a week makes

I haven't been giving out blow-by-blow accounts of this summer's weather, for two reasons. First, you probably don't care much, and anyway the impacts of mid-summer weather on the quality of that year's harvest are minor. Second, it's been remarkably

An evening fit for a prince (or a Hearst)

I get to pour wine at lots of dinners, and even more tastings. Doing so is a key piece of how we have chosen to market ourselves: not just waiting for people to come and discover us, but going out to where they are and introducing ourselves. It's

An outstanding Outstanding in the Field dinner

In the last decade, the farm to table movement has gone from avant-garde to squarely in the mainstream. (Cue the spoof by Portlandia.) And of course, there are excesses that deserve to be pointed out, and pretense that deserves puncturing. But, at its heart, it's about wanting to

Photo Essay: Spring Cleaning in the Vineyard

Between winter's worries about rain and frost and summer's worries about ripening lies a busy but often overlooked spring season where we have about a month to clean up the vineyard. This spring cleaning mostly involves making decisions about whether to mow, disk or spade our

Budbreak Photos from around the Vineyard

Budbreak may be late this year, but now that it's started, it's happening in a hurry. After last week's cool, wet weather, it's turned warm and sunny, with the last two days in the 70s and even warmer temperatures forecast for later

The powerful impact of our grazing herd in the vineyard

As we get to know our grazing herd out at Tablas Creek, we're becoming increasingly convinced of its effectiveness. A photo will illustrate the impact. It shows the border between two vineyard blocks, on the right one that had the animals in residence for the previous five days,