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Pretty Pictures

A collection of 353 posts

Making Olive Oil In-House For the First Time

Our last harvest of the year is olives, which we typically pick in late November or early December. In an ideal year, we might get some frosts before the olives are ripe, but we won't get any hard freezes, because if the olives freeze then they rot and

Photo essay: the vineyard's new green winter coat

It's beautiful out here this weekend. Last weekend's rain has passed through, and a week of sunny weather has meant that the cover crop and the natural grasses have exploded out of the ground. I can't ever remember as fast a transformation in the

What a difference two weeks makes

Two weeks ago, I posted a series of autumn foliage pics, one of which is below: I walked back past that spot yesterday, on an ultimately fruitless quest to take some good sunset pictures. I was stunned by how much more fall-like the vineyard felt after two weeks that

Harvest 2012: The End of the Beginning

By Chelsea Franchi And so it appears, just like that, harvest is over and it is time for a season-end wrap up. While I wish I could tell you there was a wonderful celebration as the last cluster was ceremoniously placed in the last tank, I can't.

Autumn Foliage, Paso Robles Style

I grew up with Vermont's riot of foliage and foliage-watchers each October. California's trees may not burst into flame colors each autumn, but there is about a two-week window, at the end of harvest and before frost, when the grapevines do. Different varieties show

Harvest continues under ideal conditions, with high quality and above-average yields

The first half of October is typically our busiest stretch of harvest, and 2012 was no exception. Between October 1st and 15th, we brought in 107 tons off of our estate and another 60 tons of purchased fruit for the Patelin de Tablas line. That's something like 30%

Harvest photo of the day: Ripening Mourvedre

By the onset of October, the vines are starting to show signs of stress. This is not typically a bad thing; this stress triggers an internal mechanism that pushes a plant to ripen its fruit so it can reproduce. And the outward signs can be beautiful, including fall-like colors

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

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.

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