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Pretty Pictures

A collection of 346 posts

An excellent beginning to the growing season, strange smoky weather notwithstanding

With two big fires burning to the north of us in Monterey County over the last few weeks, including the Indians Fire that has burned nearly 60,000 acres in three weeks and the Gallery Fire (just south of Big Sur) that has burned over 13,000 acres since Saturday,

Vineyard Photos of New Growth

I love going out into the vineyard at this time of year to take pictures. The yellowy-green color of the new growth is beautiful, and the cover crop is in full flower. Plus, the hills are gorgeous. Note that you can get full-screen images of all the photos on this

Planting new vineyard: getting ready for more Mourvedre, Grenache Blanc and Vermentino

We realized a few years ago that our demand was growing, and (as we took a break in planting after 2000 to get our marketing in order) that if we didn't start planting soon, we'd start running dangerously short on wine. It takes three years in

Frost Damage

As I'd feared when I posted about the early budbreak a week or so ago, we got a frost Sunday night. And not a little one, either. It got down to 27 degrees at the weather station in the center of the vineyard, which means that the coldest

Budbreak is terrifying (but hopeful)

With the recent warm weather, we're starting to see budbreak in our earlier-sprouting varietals, particularly Viognier and Grenache. A Grenache vine pushes, below: As usual, we're seeing earlier budbread at the tops of the hills, which are less often frosted because the cold air slumps down

A sweet sweet-pea photo

The weather here has been beautiful over the past two weeks: warm and sunny, with days in the 70s and even (in the past couple of days) into the 80s. On one level, this is scary; we're already seeing the first signs of bud break in some of

Limestone in Paso Robles

Yesterday, I was over for a Paso Robles Rhone Rangers meeting at Halter Ranch. Halter is a beautiful property just across Adelaida Road from Tablas Creek, and both were parts of the old Macgillivray Ranch through most of the 20th century. After our meeting, Ranch Manager Mitch Wyss took me

Pruning Mourvedre - an excuse to go out walking on a warm winter's day

We're experiencing a warm, sunny interlude in the middle of winter, and are taking advantage by getting out into the vineyard to begin pruning. As usual, we're starting with our latest-budding varietals, since the act of pruning the vines encourages them to begin to push for

Rain... finally!

We're in the middle of a true Pacific winter storm, with driving rain and 20-30mph winds. This is badly needed; we're coming off a winter with only about 35% of typical rainfall, and we've only had about two inches so far this year. This

A little reminder of why we're in California (and a look back at Vermont)

Many of you probably know that my dad's wine career started in the Northeast. He was born in Brooklyn, grew up in suburban New York, and moved back to Manhattan to work at his father's wine shop M. Lehmann. Even after my grandfather sold that shop