Scenes from the Vineyard

I still have a few more photos that I took at Wisteria that I want to share, so I'll put them up today as a wrap for now on my posts about the harvest.

Mary and I have frequently vacationed in Northern California, and that often meant trips with good friends to the vineyards in Napa, Sonoma, or even the Anderson Valley.  But I never expected that someday we'd find we were lucky enough to settle in so close to one, as we have with Wisteria.  It's just a special place, and we appreciate Sue and Moussa's hospitality so much.

Between some of the harvest and grape pressing tasks, there were some opportunities to take a walk around the farm and check things out - Tessie was getting her share of attention from our fellow travelers there, and that is her primary form of exercise, but she really had some fun adventuring around the farm as well.

So we walked out the little road into the vines.  The fencing and some of the trellising comes from old cedars that were found on the property.  Here and there you'll find something that reminds you of Moussa's family vineyard in Lebanon.  But mainly what you'll find is that the everyday worries and cares have dropped away.

During the harvest it was pretty hot and humid - and part of the tasks involved moving stuff in and out of the wine cellar, which is kept pretty constantly cool. I took a few minutes break in there on Sunday morning and checked out winemaking in progress.

Here are some carafes of chardonnay standing by to be bottled or blended into a white, and here's a photo of one of the oak casks that already has a long history of vintages.  I'll find out next time I'm over how many vintages they think they'll get out of a cask like this - the fact that it is oak means it's durable, and I'd think you could get some more mileage out of it, even though this one is well used.

At the end of the day, it could always be recycled into a whiskey casks for a few batches.  And then...a flower pot, I guess.

So that's a wrap on the harvest post.  I may revisit the topic later this month - we did look on as they used their manual grape press for the Chardonnay and Seyval harvest, so I have the potential for one more post on the topic.