Shenandoah National Park Views from Above and Below

 A few weeks back I found some time on Sunday morning to take my first trip of the spring up to Skyline Drive.  We were destined for our first sunny day in the 80's, so I thought I might find a view to look down at our lovely Valley.

I settled on Blackrock Summit, which is the southern peak of the little saddleback that hosts Big Meadows Lodge up in Shenandoah National Park.  They say you used to be able to see the lodge from the brick terrace at Hawksbill Cabin, but the trees have grown in now and it is obscured.

That's no problem - a view of the peak hangs over the road into the neighborhood, so I'm reminded of it's proximity nearly every time we visit the house.

As it turns out, the next weekend was the annual spring planting event at our neighbors' Wisteria Vineyard.  While I had some chores to take care of at Hawksbill Hop Yard, Mary wanted to go and work in the vineyard to plant some of the new vines, so I dropped her off and headed over to the farm.

Later, when I came by to pick her up, the group was socializing out in the vineyard, near a spot where there is a great view of Blackrock Summit and the lodge.  So I took a short walk over there and snapped a photo of it, enjoying the symmetry of the experience I'd had, visiting there last week to have a look down at the Valley, and now having a look up at the peak.


One final one - on the way to the summit that day, I stopped at the Pinnacles Overlook on Skyline Drive to take in another favorite view.  This one is of Old Rag, which stands off to the east of the drive.

These days we're keeping too busy to visit the Park as much as I'd like.  Instead, I'll treasure the short time I do get to spend there - and these photos will help me to do that.

Pressing the Vidal at Wisteria

These are Norton grapes - they are a few weeks away
from picking.

On Sunday morning I went over to Wisteria to see if I could lend a hand on wine making chores.  I knew that Moussa had received a ton of Vidal grapes on Saturday, and that they had been crushed that evening.  For white wine varieties, after they are crushed the get stored in the cellar under cool temperatures to suspend the yeast action. 

Moussa uses the Vidal as a blending wine in several of the bottles he produces, notably a summer Rose.  On Sunday our goal would be to press the two tubs of grapes into juice.

So, after Moussa had showed me around the Merlot progress, we set up the wine press and began loading in the Vidal.  By this time, the other volunteers were there to pitch in, so we made pretty quick work of getting the press filled up.  It wasn’t long before the pure sweet juice started pouring out of the press and we took turns sampling it.

One of my favorite parts of all of this is what happens after the press.  You're left with a "cake" of spent grapes that has an interesting texture and structure - it can stand on its own, as shown in that last photo.  Will's in the back, taking a photo.

Here's the "cake" of spent Vidal grapes.

We did this twice and completed our work on the ton.  I think we got about 800 liters of juice from the grapes.  They're in the cellar now, coming up to proper fermentation temperatures before Moussa will pitch the yeast.

As we were completing the second batch, tourists were starting to arrive to visit the tasting room.  The cake is such an interesting part of all of this that several of them came over to the crush pad to have a look at it – by now all the volunteers are fairly well versed in wine making and have a lot to say about the process, so there were some fun conversations taking place, standing around the spent grapes.

Next spring the Vidal we pressed will appear in bottles - as I mentioned, probably blended into a Rose. When that happens, I predict that Mary and I will enjoy some with a nice grilled pork roast!

Volunteer Time at Wisteria Vineyards - 2015 edition

Moussa typically uses the barrels through a few seasons,
progressing from whites to reds, as shown here.

For the first Sunday morning in a while I found myself with some time on my hands, so after the morning coffee dosage I headed around the corner to see if I could pitch in with some of the fall activities at Wisteria Vineyards in Stanley, VA.


As I was driving by yesterday I spied the arrival of a ton of Vidal grapes, so I figured there would be some pressing to do - I got over there at 8:30 or so, knowing that I would probably surprise Moussa in the middle of something.  Most of the volunteers that show up for these things are weekenders like Mary and me, an are inclined to arrive at 10 or so - also like Mary and me.

Pushing the Merlot grapes down into the wine to ensure
balanced and complete fermentation.

Getting there early, the first tasks to be done were to do some work on the Merlot, which had already been crushed and was going through primary fermentation on the skins.  Moussa had three tubs of it, and we went through and pushed all of the grapes on the surface down into the wine.


After we took care of that, we went into the cellar with a sample of the wine pulled from the tubs.  We did a brix test with a hydrometer - the same tool I use for this purpose when I brew, although I work from the gauge's gravity side instead of the brix side.  This wine has been in the tubs for a couple of days now, and the reading showed that fermentation is about two-thirds done - probably only a few more days and this will be ready to press.

Brix testing on Merlot samples.

The volunteers were starting to show up by now, too - the first was Will, a Brit who is traveling across the country on a motorcycle.  He'd met John and Nina on a hike, and they invited him down into the Valley to check out Luray and environs.  He'd made his way over to the winery and had already put in a couple of days on various tasks, so he was ready to pitch right in.

In my next post I'll pick up from here - I spent a good part of the day working on the pressing with the other volunteers, and went back in the evening for a little socializing.

Hawksbill Hop Yards - Location Hint

While we have been making solid progress on the hop  yards these last few months, we haven't exactly let on yet where it is located.  On Saturday afternoon I took a drive over to get a photo of the yards from a distance - to give a bit more of a locational perspective.

In the photo here, the yards is the cleared area in the middle ground.  That's Kennedy Peak on the Massanutten ridge in the background.  Of course, we are just north of Luray and probably about a mile from the Caverns.

That's about all we're prepared to reveal for now, but there will be more news soon enough.

On another note, David told me that our irrigation is in last week - we posted some photos of that as well.  Last weekend the temps dipped to 19 degrees - quite a surprise for March, by the way - so he turned the water on at a trickle overnight to protect the set-up.

The pretty little icy scene at right was the result, but everything was fine overnight.

I hope our friends at Wisteria fared as well in the frost - I'll get by to check in with them next weekend.

First Spring Visit to Wisteria

The vines are gathering their strength for the year.  The
mountain behind is in Shenandoah National Park.

There was still a crisp edge to the spring mornings this weekend, but both days were sunny and pleasant.  On Sunday after a few errands we decided to make a stop by our neighbors Sue and Moussa at Wisteria Vineyards - we had a wine club selection to pick up, and we decided we might make a picnic lunch to enjoy there for a break.

We learned that a photographer had been around researching a shoot later that day, and Sue invited us back in the afternoon so that there would be a few people around in case he needed subjects in the photos.  So we took care of a few more errands and returned, just as the sunlight was turning golden, low in the sky.  I took advantage of it myself for the Instagram photos accompanying this post.

The sheep were a little perturbed by all the people in the pasture,
but they got over it once they made their way to the rations.

There was a good crowd of old friends and acquaintances when we arrived at around 5:30, and the photographer was out in the fields setting up his location.  Just then the sun hit a perfect angle, bathing the entire scene in a golden light, and ten or so of us headed out for the shoot.

Wisteria features a charming little road that runs through the vineyard to Little Hawksbill Creek.  It dips and rises over uneven ground and is marked off from the vines with a plank fence made from cedars that were cleared from the property.  This formed the setting for the photography.

After a few minutes of waiting, the sun was exactly right, and the photographer called us to walk down the road in pairs and threes.

We had a preview of some of the shots - there's no doubt he has a publishable one in the mix.  The results of his work are due to appear in Wine Speculator in June, and some of the other Valley venues will be there, too.  He said he'd likely take in DuCard over in Sperryville and the Copper Fox Distillery in order to complement the work he'd done at Wisteria.

Just another Valley weekend though, when you get down to it - there's always a pleasant adventure out there if you keep your eyes open for it!

Sunny Wisteria

Mary and I decided to take advantage of the sunny day and warm temperatures last weekend to make a stop over at our neighbors', Wisteria Vineyard.  We thought we might take in a walk back to Little Hawksbill Creek to enjoy the stream as it swelled with snow melting off of Hawksbill Mountain over in Shenandoah National Park, and of course we could pick up our fall wine selections from Wisteria's wine club.

The sunny day had tempted the sheep out into their pasture as well.  It turned out that as we walked along the little road to the stream, we interrupted a couple of them headed over to graze.  They stood by, indignant, and watched us pass, with a couple of hens also standing by.





















Turns out the sheep and chickens are featured in a new video about Wisteria, embedded below:

Harvest Time 2

Again I'm borrowing some Facebook posts from a friend, this time Sue at Wisteria Farm and Vineyard.  I couldn't make it out to the start of harvest season at Wisteria, but Mary did and she texted me a few times about how much she was enjoying herself.  So I thought I'd go ahead and make a post out of these borrowed photos.

Wisteria's annual harvest kick-off features two traditions - first, the blessing by a local Orthodox priest, and second, barefoot stomping of the grapes.  Meanwhile, a volunteer force goes out to gather the first crop (I think Seyval this year), which turned out to be a record.

There was a good crowd of volunteers to help with the harvest and the first bout of chores that need to be done - hauling in the crates, weighing the samples to calculate the yield and forecast how much wine will be produced, de-stemming, and then all the cleaning and scrubbing.  That's just the first day of each variety's harvest!







On the second day, the de-stemmed grapes are pressed into juice, and the actual process of fermentation begins.  I like all the parts of the process, but I especially like the work on the second day - probably because it has a lot in common with my brewing activities.

I'm sorry I missed a harvest day though.  The season runs for a few more weeks - eventually it will be time to bring in the reds, so I'll get out before it's over.  And looking forward to it.

A Stop at Navarro Vineyards

 If there is a single winery in the Anderson Valley that symbolizes the region, in my mind that would be Navarro, which has a tasting room right on Route 128 in Philo.  I wrote about the stop Mary and I made last month at Roederer, and that one is very special to us - but Navarro is also a "must stop" for us whenever we cruise through that area.

The first photo here is an example of what many of the vineyards in this area look like - there are those brown hills everywhere topped with oaks and pines.  The vines are more mature and the trees have grown up; otherwise this is a view we remember from the first time we stopped here in 1995!  Nowadays, you often see vineyards climbing these hills - that was a new development for us - we learned that there are a lot of new vineyards in this area.

We stopped for a tasting at Navarro, and while we were there, they introduced us to a new feature at the vineyard, artisanal cheeses.  Many of the families that have vineyards here also have flocks of sheep and herds of goats to help tend the vines.  One of the family members has launched this cheese business as a side line - we may even have enjoyed some of these goods during the picnic at Roederer.

It was here at Navarro that we first learned about the emerging Pinot Noir trend at the California vineyards, and some of the other varieties like Shiraz and Syrah.  Most of the wine here is sold direct, and Navarro keeps an excellent website about their operation - it is a cross between a blog and ecommerce site, in a style that I really enjoy.  We used to order cases of these wines, splitting them with a few friends here in Alexandria - the website is here:  http://www.navarrowine.com/main.php

We had a little chat with the host, and compared the California wine industry with the one we love in Virginia - certainly, we see goat and sheep as part of the farm in a lot of the Virginia locales (especially our neighbors, Wisteria).  But then they told us that Navarro has 1,200 acres in cultivation, and that they are considered a small California vineyard!  That would be an immense operation in Virginia!

Once we'd enjoyed the tasting (wine and cheese!) we were back on the way, headed for Oakland.  We planned to use that as our base for daytripping over to San Francisco for the last phase of the vacation.  Those experiences will make up my last few posts about the trip.

Sheep Shearing at Wisteria

The new arrivals were curious about
all the visitors during the shearing.

Part of the experience over at Wisteria Farm and Vineyard is the flock of Romney sheep they keep on the premises. The size of the flock ranges up to a dozen, and with a few new additions this spring, may even be more than that this year.  Along with sheep, and especially this woolly variety, comes sheep shearing, which Wisteria has turned into an annual event that I went out to watch a couple of weekends ago.

A couple of sheep had already been shorn when I arrived, and Sue was working on skirting the fleeces - cleaning away exceptional dirty parts of the wool that would affect processing it.  At this point, the raw wool is full of lanolins, making it feel a little oily to the touch, but also leaving you with soft hands after working with it.  The exterior side of the wool is often bleached by the sun and weather, while the underside will show the true color of  the sheep.

Shearing the sheep - there is a technique
to holding the animals so they don't struggle.

Sue, demonstrating how to skirt the fleece.

The newly shorn sheep.

I suspect it is a little stressful for them, but it is really a good thing in the end.  Moussa sat near the barn so that the sheep could relax near a person they were familiar with while they settled down.  It's not long before they realize they've lost those heavy coats - a year's worth of wool on these animals can weigh up to 10 pounds!  Once they feel a cool breeze or the warm sun, they actually get giddy.

There were nine sheep that needed to be shorn that day, and the work only took about an hour or so.  After skirting, we took the wool into plastic bags for storage, so that Sue could begin the work of cleaning it so it could be further processed.

(In the original post, I had referred to these activities as carding, and I asked Sue if I had got that right.  She told me this phase is actually called skirting - I've corrected the post.  Sue said that carding, which is very similar to combing hair, happens later in the process when the clean fleeces are ready to spin, and the fibers are aligned to make roving or rolags.)

Meanwhile, the sheep all made their way out to the pasture to shake off the stress.  They were pretty animated, and two of them actually decided to take a walk down the road - which I hadn't seen in a while.

These two decided to take a stroll
down the vineyard road.

After the shearing, a couple of friends from the wine club got together for a tasting and a visit out on the terrace.  I tried the new Chardonnay, aged in steel barrels, and thought Mary might like it too - she didn't join me on this particular weekend, so I brought it home.

Later on, Moussa came around and recruited me to help with the errand for hay - but I've already posted on that a few days ago.

Running an Errand at Wisteria

The vineyard in spring, with Shenandoah National Park in the background.

Wisteria held its sheep shearing event last weekend - I'll have a post coming up on that tomorrow.  After everything was done, I was visiting with a few of the enthusiasts there, enjoying what was turning out to be a fabulous spring afternoon, when Moussa said he needed to go run an errand.

If you follow this blog, you know I'm up for errands - there is a whole category of posts about them:  just click on the label "agribusiness!"

With the forecast indicating five days of rain during the week ahead, the freshly shorn sheep were not likely to get out of the barn to graze, and the plan was to get a few bales of feed hay to get them through the week.  Moussa calculated six bales would be needed, so we headed over to Patchwork Pastures to pick it up.

Moussa unloading the hay.

Patchwork Pastures is one of the Page County Grown farms, and a part of their venture includes sheep as well.  So we piled into the little Ford Ranger (disclosure: I think a compact pickup like this will suit me well in future agribusiness efforts) and headed over to the Mill Creek area of Page County to pick up the hay.  It turns out that the farm was along the route of the Tour de Page County where the cyclists had been the day before.

Patchwork has a lot of activity underway.  There are chicken and beef operations, as well as the flock of sheep.  I understand they do a little rescue work as well with older animals - I hope to follow-up on this and learn a little more about what's happening with this.

We made short work of collecting the hay and were soon on our way back to Wisteria, unloading the bales into the barn.  Moussa was sure to let the sheep know that the hay had arrived and they would be taken care of during the coming monsoon.

Meanwhile, that just whet my appetite for more agribusiness ventures.

Pressing the Seyval at Wisteria

Although we'd missed the picking and stomping by the time we arrived at Wisteria on Saturday, there were still other wine making activities going on, so I thought I might pitch in a bit on the odd jobs.  This put me in the middle of some good photo-blog opportunities, so I'm mainly writing the post today to share them.  There were quite a few people around - volunteers and winemakers - doing the real work of the day.

On Saturday, the grapes had all been gathered into the lugs, and when we got there, they were set up to go into the stemmer-crusher.  There is a random sampling that is used to calculate the weight of the grapes for reporting purposes, which translates to yield in wine - and this all gets reported into the Virginia ABC board for statistical and tax purposes.

Then they go into the machine.  They end up in huge vats that will be stored overnight (with ice and in a cooler, to prevent the wild yeasts from beginning fermentation) and then pressed on Sunday.  As a late arrival I just stationed myself in a spot to collect the empty lugs and then moved them over to where they could be cleaned for reuse.

Sunday came and there was a wine club event, which went on around the pressing activities.  We got there midway through the pressing, so I jumped in to help link the press and fill it with crushed grapes.  The juice is collected into a tub, then a pump moves it into the large steel tanks that Wisteria uses for primary fermentation on the white wines.

Just a few odd jobs here and there, I guess, and certainly I benefited from our experience being out for a few of the varieties last year.  When the 2013 Seyval is offered, though, I'll be able to say I helped with that one.

Quality Time at the Vineyard

We had a couple of events planned for the weekend, centered around activities at our neighbors', Wisteria Vineyard.  The harvest season has begun, and the volunteers are moving through the vineyard picking the Pinot and Seyval so far.  More varieties are coming along, and we're hoping to get back out spend some time working with everybody (and enjoying the vertical tastings that are a requisite educational part of this whole thing).

We were too late on Saturday to be part of the picking in the morning, or the other event that was scheduled that day - the annual picking and stomping, a la I Love Lucy.

http://youtu.be/1vZtU4LdY2E?t=1m34s


That's always a great time, and so far we haven't seen any pushing and shoving - or grapes tossing, for that matter.

In the evening, Sue and Moussa had planned a fund raising event for a local charity and we joined the fun.  In addition to having a good time visiting with friends, I was looking forward to having a few minutes to walk around the vineyard hoping for a good photo opp or two - the quality of light in these late summer evenings is incredible, and the fall colors are just coming out.

As it happened, the sheep went out to pasture to have a last minute graze just as the sun was sinking.  There's a bit of golden light in the treetops, and in the background you can see some of the harvest gear staged for future picking (this is the "white" side of the vineyard - the "reds" aren't picked until later this month, which is when we'll be back to get more involved).

You know, a vineyard is a pretty photogenic place.  I'll have to keep that in mind.

Rolling Grape Leaves at Wisteria

Here's the finish product - ready to eat!

There’s plenty going on at Hawksbill Cabin this summer, but I have fallen a little behind on putting up some highlight posts from the vacation week that Mary and I spent there in late May.  This week I am working on getting caught up this week with a few posts – today is the second of three.

We spent Saturday afternoon enjoying a ‘music under the arbor’ event at our neighbors’ vineyard, Wisteria.  Since we were already out for the weekend, we had the chance to enjoy their annual grape leaves rolling event as well.

Sue and Moussa put together this little annual event – generally on a Sunday in the spring – but we missed it last year due to travel schedules.  I’ve been enjoying grape leaves since my USAF tour of Berlin, where we could get the Greek, Turkish, and Balkan versions within a short walk of the base, and Mary has been making them using a family recipe for all of her life, so we made a point of getting to Wisteria to join the fun this time.

Here's a look at the vegan stuffing mixture.

Freshly picked leaves from the vines at Wisteria!

They use a Lebanese variant of the recipe, making a vegan dish that combines fresh herbs, tomatoes, chick peas, rice, and spices in the stuffing mixture.  Moussa picked the leaves from the vineyard earlier in the week, and they had been blanched before we got there to soften them up for rolling.  (If you’re making them from bottled leaves, you’d need to do a pre-boil to eliminate some of the brine.)

We had fresh made baba ghanoush and hummus with pita while we were working – paired with a couple of wine samples.  After the leaves were stuffed and rolled, Sue boiled them, and we enjoyed sitting around a chatting while they cooked. 

In progress shot, before they were boiled to finish them.

Then they were done, and we dabbed a little fresh olive oil on them, along with fresh Greek-style yogurt.  

That made for a fine lunch – there was plenty for everyone, and then some.

Wisteria's Sheep Sheering

With all the (justified) hullabaloo about the wine, sometimes it's easy to forget that our friends over at Wisteria are keeping up a working farm - featuring the flock of Romney sheep.  Although we didn't make it out in time for the event (we rolled in to enjoy a little tasting at around 5pm), last Saturday was sheering day.

Sue has put up some highlight photos on Facebook, but for this post, I'm combining a photo of part of the flock I took last December with two from the Wisteria home page (link below).  The activity here is called skirting - after the bundle of fleece comes off in one piece from the sheep, it is spread out for a quick and thorough rinse.

From there, after it is cleaned and dried, it can be spun into yarn and eventually makes its way into fine products.

Wisteria has another event planned this Saturday - they'll be planting some new vines out in the vineyard.  We're going to try and be there for that...heading out Friday night so we can join the fun at Oh Dark Thirty.

Wisteria's web site is at:

http://www.wisteriavineyard.com/

Wisteria in Winter

During the winter, our neighbors at Wisteria Farm and Vineyard reduce the days and hours that they are open to one weekend per month, usually a holiday weekend – with the exception that if there’s good weather, they might spontaneously open, as they did during January (their next scheduled opening is Valentine’s Day weekend).  

I made a stop over there with Tessie both of the January weekends they were open, enjoying a glass of wine, a chat with Sue and Moussa, and a walk with the dog out into the pasture and vines.

They keep a flock of Romney sheep at the farm, and when the weather is as good as it has been this month, the sheep spend a lot of their time out of the barn in the pasture.  I’m always curious about how Tessie, the border collie, is going to react to them – I watch for some gene to stir in there and for her to figure out her ancestors would see the encounter as a job to be done.  Not a hint from the dog, but the sheep definitely know what’s up.

They lift, and stand watching the dog for signs that they should react.  They do bunch together in preparation for being shepherded somewhere.  But by the time they’ve reacted this way, Tessie has already moved on out down the path, heading out for the woods and the stream.  Her job is simple, to keep me company, I guess.

There’s no shortage of farm chores at the vineyard, and that’s what Sue and Moussa told me they spend a lot of their “found time” doing during the winter.  They’ll clear some of the back lot, for example, and last year’s canes need to be pruned down to the stock vines.  You can observe the progress in a vineyard by walking by the ends of the rows, where you’ll find a pile of old brush.

During my most recent visits I had a chance ask a few questions I’ve been meaning to get to – one regarding the lugs that we used during the harvest last fall, and a second about one of their vintages, the Merlot Wild. 

First, about the lugs – these yellow crates.  When you pick the grapes, these are used to collect them.  Next, the lugs are gathered and hauled back to the crush pad, where the winemaking begins. 

One of the chores I took on last fall was rinsing them off so that they could be used again for the next variety, or put away, as the case may be.  I noticed all of these vineyard names on the sides of the lugs and was curious about it.  Of course, WFV stands for Wisteria, but what of Mount Juliet, Glendower, Hat Creek, and the others that were mixed in?

I imagined that, like so many things, these were just old names of vineyards that were now defunct, or that perhaps had changed names – this is used equipment that you can find at auctions and similar sales.  

I thought that they might even have ended up here from Napa or Sonoma, or the New York growing area; however, a Google search revealed that these places still exist, and there are vineyards there – still in operation. 

Sue cleared up the puzzle for me.  There are a couple of markets and auctions for grapes, and they’re not always careful about getting the crates back to the proper owner.  So at “WFV,” they’ve ended up with a few odds and ends – note that Mount Juliet in particular has traditionally sold their grapes in bulk, rather than making wine with them.

As for the other question I had, it was related to what’s so special about the Merlot Wild vintage at Wisteria – is it something to do with the grape variety?  For this one, Moussa explained to me that what’s special about the vintage is that the grapes are fermented with the native yeasts that are present in the vineyard where they are grown.

From my brewing experience, I know that different yeast strains can contribute uncontrollable tastes to beer, so we try to manage exposure to wild yeast.  I understood that this was important in wine making too, so it surprised me to learn about an approach that used wild yeast.

Moussa said they are able to control for the yeast by limiting how often the grapes are sprayed while they grow, and especially within the last four to six weeks before they harvest.  This way, each berry collects some yeast, which stays with the juice once the grapes are crushed.  No further yeast needs to be added to ferment the wine, and it’s left to nature to contribute the unique flavor and character of this wine.

As I mentioned, the vineyard is on reduced hours during the winter, but they are opening from February 14 - 18.  There'll be chocolate fondue in the tasting room too - that's something to look forward to!  For additional information check their web page at: 

http://www.wisteriavineyard.com

Wisteria's Harvest Celebration

In the style of my so-called "agribusiness internships," Mary and I volunteered at Wisteria Vineyards a couple of times this fall to help with the harvest.  I've posted on it a couple of times here on the blog - Mary and I really enjoyed our time there working with Sue and Moussa, learning about how the grapes are grown, and then helping with the first steps of making the wines.

By the way, Wisteria keeps a blog on events too - a link is here:
http://www.wisteriavineyard.com/7701.html)

Sue shared this photo of Mary and our friend Nina out in the vines - I took a photo of a photo here, so it's not the clearest.  But I think you can tell somebody's having fun!

That work was pretty much completed by mid-October, when the Valley is already having frosty mornings from time to time.  Sue and Moussa then planned a little harvest celebration for the volunteers and they invited us.  The event was planned for the weekend before Halloween, but with Superstorm Sandy coming up, it was postponed until the first weekend in November.

The second shot here is of the group of volunteers sitting around the fire pit and enjoying our memories of the harvest.  The highlight was a barbecue that Sue and Moussa put on featuring shish kabob and some other specialties, such as baba ghanoush and hummus- followed by a selection of delicious baklava.  The meal itself was enough of a reason to volunteer next year, to say nothing of the wines!

Wisteria Vineyards Harvest - A Wrap

Here's a view of Big Meadows Mountain in Shenandoah National Park,
as seen from some of the new vines at Wisteria.

 Mary and I had a great time during the late summer and early fall getting to know some of our neighbors as volunteer grape pickers at Wisteria Vineyard.  Each weekend morning as we went over to the vineyard, we joined a dozen or so friends from around town who’d come out to pick the Seyval, Traminette, Chardonnay, Merlot, and Norton grapes.

Here's an orientation of the vineyard - the harvest
progresses more or less from right to left.

Although the hour was a little more civilized and there weren’t any stalls to muck out, I’ll chalk up the experience as another “internship” – similar to the one I had last year working with David at Public House Produce, where I learned “up close and personal” about the craft of raising excellent local food and agricultural products.     

I posted about the experience in more detail a few weeks ago (http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2012/09/scenes-from-vineyard.html ), but as volunteers we helped during the early stages of the winemaking process.  We picked, then worked the destemming/crushing equipment, loaded the wine press and watched as the juice or early wine poured out and was loaded in the casks to complete fermentation.  Then we cleaned up – and there was a lot of that, but it was fun too. 

The barn, where the sheep and chickens reside, at Wisteria.
Behind is the Blue Ridge and Shenandoah National Park.

Just as I have learned with my new brewing hobby, cleaning up is a big part of the process for these crafts.  There are estimates that it takes 20 gallons or so of water to make a gallon of wine, because of all the cleaning.  In my home brewing experience, I’d say that I probably use five gallons for every gallon I make, although I may be more efficient when I start making five-gallon batches.  But all of this effort is meant to ensure you have a high-quality, safe, and tasty end product.

And that is definitely what you’ll find at Wisteria Vineyard. 

Red grapes, the last harvest at Wisteria.

For Hawksbill Cabin readers, if you happen to be coming out to visit the vineyard, give a yell – we’re only a half mile away, and maybe we can meet you there.

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.