Deviled Chicken

Last night or this morning, I had this dream.  And as usual, it made no sense as far as the logical sequence in time.

My dream was that I was witnessing this chicken, full regalia of brilliantly colored feathers, being slaughtered.  But not really I knew it was going to be slaughtered when it was grabbed by some energy. I didn't see it being killed.  And I didn't feel anything good or bad for it.  I knew it was part of a ritual.  I was in another area and didn't see the blood shed or hear anything.

Still in my dream but later, I see that same chicken, or the aura of that same chicken.  This time its feathers are dull colored and it has no tail.  In an otherworldly fashion, instead of typical hen eyes, its eyes are a bright white light.  It is alone with nothing in the landscape and standing in front of a doorway filled with white light.  There is nothing but that chicken and the doorway filled with light.

I am filled with terror.  The chicken is saying "Come with me through the light."  And I say quietly, "No you can't take me to hell. I am not going to where you are".  The chicken, moving towards the doorway says "Well, either way, you'll eventually be here".

In my dream I am feeling extreme terror.  I don't remember if I woke up or I dreamt it through, but it was very emotional and memorable.

Then later today I see a chicken, with no tail feathers, in our yard.  Our neighbor has chickens so not completely off base but still freaking weird.  The feathers have been pecked out by its chicken coop roomies.

Whoa!

It's a Miracle?

So for all my miracle believing friends, I'd say this was a miracle.

Now it's New Year's Eve 2013.......

When I sleepily awoke in my hospital bed, I was happily dreaming in Spanish.  The nurse walked into the room and said "Good morning."  I responded in Spanish.  She looked at me puzzled and flipped into Spanish as well and asked me how I slept. "Muy bien."  As I became alert, I continued to speak to her in Spanish and we talked about my breakfast to come.  As she took my right arm to take a blood sample, she continued to speak in Spanish but as I became fully alert, I was no longer fluent in Spanish and could no longer understand all that she said without great effort.  I said "Sorry, I'm not fluent."  She looked at me puzzled again and flipped back to English.  As blood was draining from my body in a very controlled way, I was thinking "Whoa! This is cool what else can I do?"

Since the seizure, this is now one of the things I can do now that I couldn't do in the past two years or ever in some cases is:

I am now able to add, multiple and divide large numbers in my head.  So far I can multiple 3 numbers by 3 numbers without too much trouble.  I can add 6 digit numbers up to 4 in a row without thinking about it. Division is a little more complicated, so I can only divide 2 number up to 3 digits each.  I have never been able to do the division in my head before like I can now.  I can remember the number Pi up to 20 digits past the decimal point.  And remembering phone numbers, even the out of the country numbers, is a piece of cake.  You may think, what is the big deal......I can do that in my sleep.

The big deal is........after the stroke I had in 2012, I couldn't remember anything.  Adding 2 numbers together was an amazing feat.  Phone numbers?  Thank god for speed dial.

Feeling Better

Well it's a crazy world I feel better than I have in years.  Thanks for all the well wishes.

I think my brain did a defrag and I'm creative again!

This is amazing.  I can write and paint and dance.

Talking about recreating reality.

On a pragmatic note.....I'm taking anti-seizure medicine and staying full of electrolytes and eating right.

Happy Sunday!

Happy 2014.......whoa!!!

Hold on to your hats folks!  Another wacked out adventure with KB. 

It all started so quiet....so happy.  Kenny and I were coming back from Santa Barbara (highly recommend visiting if not living there....it's Mecca).  We did lots of bike riding and I drank an appropriate amount of wine drinking.  Only the good stuff....yummm. All good.

Then on the 30th of December.....I'm feeling strong, fit and confident so I go on a killer bike ride....as killer as you can get in the Oakland hills.  While I was riding I didn't drink much water and didn't eat much because my body was fine....I thought.

I got out of the shower and I was confused.  Kenny was sick as a dog so he was in bed and I was alone with my thoughts....and with everything else.  Whooo boy.

I was not able to work the TV/DVD apparatus.  But, I hated to say that it was not unusual when I was feeling normal.  Hmmm....Whatever... But now I was not able to heat up soup or read the words on a bottle.

We go to the emergency room not far from our house.  Kenny told the emergency room receptionist that I was having a stroke.  The poor girl was now in a conundrum.  A poster on the wall right behind her stated that a person having a stroke needed to be treated ASAP....Meanwhile there was all these other emergencies pathetically sitting right next to me.  So I upped the ante.

I started to stress.  If I was having a stroke.....I REALLY NEEDED HELP NOW!  My body started to react without my knowledge.

My right hand started to shake uncontrollably and then the clincher.  While I sat in the wheel chair waiting to be taken to the ante treatment room, the right side of my jaw opened so far that I was wailing in pain, and drool was pouring from my mouth like a bad horror movie.  I was watching myself like I was watching a movie and it was completely grossing me out.  And I was in so much pain I blacked out.

The rest of the seizure I am telling 3rd person from Kenny's perspective.  I was about 2 yards behind Kris who's sitting in a wheel chair and wonder where that wailing was coming from.  It was coming out of from my wife!!  Holy shit.  The emergency room nurse now hopped to it and rushed Kris into the treatment room.  Meanwhile Kris was clenching her teeth and straightening out as stiff as a board.  All hands on deck and we lifted her onto the table.  She was wailing and shouting out "It hurts, it hurts."

The ER doctor was trying to inject her with an anti-seizure medicine but she was trashing about like a wild animal kicking and screaming.  I held down her legs while two nurses grabbed her arms and the intern grabbed her head to keep her down.  The ER doctor gave her the injection in the stomach and she settled down in seconds.  The banshee had left the building....thank god.

Meanwhile I was so sick and I had such a bad headache I was going to pass out at any moment.  I asked for sugar and the nurse gave me a tuna sandwich instead.  That worked.....whatever.

Now I was conscious again......They asked me if I wanted to stay in the hospital overnight or be released that night.  REALLY?!!!  I just had a grand mal seizure and I should be out of experienced medical care?!  How about we have me drive a car home too?!  Of course I stayed the night.  This was also for Kenny's benefit too.  The poor dear was sick.....major sleep drugs needed to be on his agenda that night.

The next morning I was feeling creative and artsy.  Whoa? Like a crazy brain scramble.  Ok.....A new reality.

Stay tuned.  KB

Pinot Noir anyone

Our new place when it's ours has a good amount of land to have grapes again. This time I think Pinot Noir would work best. With the rain and the fog, those humidity loving vines will do just fine. We'll have to work the land but like we didn't in CO. But maybe this time we won't go as high as 1500....just enough for a case or two.

Bottling in Palisade

Well Kenny and our friend Cindy bottled half of the wine last weekend. A good time had by all.

Frost and Death

The time has come once again. The grape growing season has drawn to a close. I find it fascinating that just one frost makes the lush, hardy, green grape leaves shrivel into brown aged ones.

One day the leaves are hardy and healthy. Frost steals in overnight. The leaves are all brown and shriveled.

It is just one example of how delicate

life is on this planet. It is best never to take things for granted. I'll bid adieu, leaving you with this poem by the famous Robert Frost.

Desert Places

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast

In a field I looked into going past,

And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,

But a few weeds and stubble showing last.

The woods around it have it- it is theirs.

All animals are smothered in their lairs.

I am too absent-spirited to count;

The loneliness includes me unawares.

And lonely as it is, that loneliness

Will be more lonely ere it will be less-

A blanker whiteness of benighted snow

With no expression, nothing to express.

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces

Between stars - on stars where no human race is.

I have it in me so much nearer home

To scare myself with my own desert places.

Remember enjoy and imbibe!

Winterizing the Vineyard

Glass Tasting.

Yep. Glass Tasting. If you've ever been with me at a decent to high end restaurant, you know that I always ask the server for a red wine glass. I don't do it for the snob factor, because believe it or not, it actually makes a difference.

About 10 years ago, Kenny, our friends ,Bob and Cindy, and I went to a wine class weekend in the Hyatt at Beaver Creek. It was great. The first class we went to was glass tasting. At first, I thought I misread the agenda. Don't they mean wine tasting? No glass tasting. It was being sponsored and led by Riedel, the makers of expensive wine glasses. Aha! I get it. We have to sit through this spiel so they can get a few suckers to buy their wares. Right. I'm so on to them......so I thought.

We sit in front of a water glass, a mug, a Riedel white wine glass, and a Riedel red wine glass. They do their little routine about how the shape of the glass is the key to how the wine tastes, and blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, yeah, right, right.....let's get on with the drinking. It's almost 1030 in the morning.

(For emphasis, another friend Cindy illustrates the feelings I felt when drinking wine at the class)

Finally we get to the important part. We are told to pour white wine into the mug. I pour it into the mug, take a sip and think "this is okay wine". Then they tell us to pour the wine into the Riedel white wine glass and take another drink. I drink from the glass and think "wow"! Is that the same wine? I can't believe it. I repeat the mug drink "Hmm, okay". I sip from the Riedel glass "wow"! Okay, okay. It's a fluke. A glass can't make a difference, can it?

In order to really prove their point that the type of glass is important to enjoying the "real" taste of the wine, they bring us new Riedel glasses and tell us to pour our white wine in the red wine glass. Now taste the white wine now. It's just a little better than the mug. Short finish, one flavor. We do the same with the red wine and pour it in the white wine glass. Eh. Whatever with this wine.And then we repeat the whole process.

White wine, white wine glass. Red wine, red wine glass. Heavenly.

After everyone in the room is thoroughly impressed, they tell us why it is so.


The bowl of the glass allows the oxygen to mix with the wine, so a larger bowl works well with the red wine because it lets the tannins and oak flavors release. A white wine glass does not have a big bowl because it doesn't have tannins or oak. The design of the lip of the glass is also important. It positions where your tongue first touches the wine and positions the wine on various places of the tongue. As you can see from the picture, we have four different major tastes - sweet, salty, sour and bitter.

If the lip is thick, the wine will go more towards the back of your mouth were the bitter area is located. A thin lip will allow the wine to enter the center of your tongue where there is a mix of sweet and salty, giving the drinker a pleasant experience. Then the shape of the glass near the lip is important. A rounder glass will give the drinker more time on the tongue. More time on the tongue allows for all the complex flavors of a red wine to come forward. A straighter line at the lip of the glass will "throw" the wine on to the front of your tongue. So even a pinot grigio may seem sweetish.

With all that, we bought some glasses! Who could not buy with all that cool new information?

Right now I'm drinking a red table wine, J. Moreau & Fils, from France for only $6.45. I'm drinking out of a stemless, pseudo-Riedel glass with a medium size bowl with an average line near the lip. Perfect for the type of wine.

Remember imbibe and enjoy!

Yum.......Wine......Our Wine

Here's where we are in the whole wine making process. We picked the grapes, we destemed the grapes, we killed the wild yeast, we added tame yeast, we mushed must (grapes with skins) for 10 days, we racked the must into the glass containers. There it stayed in our winery (aka ground floor closet) for three weeks and a day.

Thus, it is time to rack again (move the filtered wine to another container). In order to see if it is worth it, I open the little glass container first. Because for the past three weeks, the yeast is sitting there. The yeast has been eating sugar, making alcohol and pooping out carbon dioxide. And we have a vapor lock on the top of the container because the juice reacting with the oxygen in the air is not good for the wine making process. The vapor lock allows CO2 to get out and air to not get in.

Thus, I have not been able to smell the wine or taste the wine. For all I know, it could have been sitting there making vinegar as we speak. So I cautiously take the vapor lock off the 3 gallon carboy. I put my nose to the neck. Hmm, it smells good. I pour myself a glass. Hey alright, not bad for only a month old. Tangy (too tangy), berry, and a hint of tannins. If I am desparate I can pour myself a full glass right now. I've had lots worse from wineries that say their wine is done. Ours is not done. So it can only get better.

No vinegar, so we move on. We take the inital 5 gallon glass container and put the auto-siphoning tube about 3/4 of the way into the bottle. This is so we can avoid sucking up the lees. The lees are the dead yeast that lay on the bottom of the container. You can see them in the photo. They are the lighter color in the container on the right. Pinkee color. The beautiful red juice moves from that 5 gallon container to another container just like it, sans lees. But this time there is no room for air. The juice is filled all the way to the top. The vapor lock is put back on and more sitting continues. Next it will sit in the winery for 2 1/2 more months. And I haven't figured out exactly why as far as chemistry goes, but one book says 2 months, the other says 3. So in the middle it is. 2 1/2 months will be around in the midst of the holiday season. Perfect. I think I'll celebrate with a glass of wine.

The 2008 Gascon malbec is one of my favorites. When you take a first sip of this wine, you don't have to brace yourself. It's smooth. It's berry. It's fruity with a hint of tangy. Just like I like my malbec. I can only hope our wine tastes that yummy.

Remember imbibe and enjoy!

Fluorescent Orange Alien

So now the wine is sitting in the winery (closet) becoming......wine. No work required for that.....now. Thus, it's time to pay attention to the ever changing vineyard. Geez, it's like a kid.

Thus, I'm walking on the south side of the vineyard and I see a bright, fluorescent orange. Shoot, you can't miss it. Oh-h-h-h-h no. It truly is fluorescent orange, super bright orange. It's weird. It's unnatural. It looks like that 70s silly string in the can, remember? You spray it on people, but it doesn't stick. It's just like that. Super- duper orange.

And even more unnatural is its super hero action of starting from a small, unobtrusive bunch white buds into a spider-webby big pile of choking death in a mere couple of hours. It wraps around the vine like a python, killing whatever it touches.

This spurs me to action, not so superhero, unfortunately. And thus, the job of the day begins. I walk up and down the rows with shovel in hand attacking the orange alien creatures. You have to dig down to get to the roots, otherwise they'll pop up again. Like the aliens. Fortunately, the roots are shallow.

I thought I'd look it up on the internet what this alien creature is for kicks, and I can't find any information about it. Anybody know? Everytime I search for fluorescent orange climbing vine, the internet comes up with something having to do with marijuana. Marijuana? I hope not. Otherwise I'm digging up my cash cow. Geez, who needs grapes? We got pot. Producing alcohol and drugs?! Alright.

While pondering what the heck this superhero vine creature is I'm drinking 2008 Santa Rita 120 Carmenere, $6.99. Carmanere is my favorite wine from Chile. It's always super cheap and never disappointing. Dark red and lucious, with great legs. It has strong tannins, but the fruitiness is so also strong. Thus, they compliment each other. Yum

Remember imbibe and enjoy!

Okay I got it.....for now

Once again I was clueless as to what to do for the next step in the game of wine making. The Ye Olde Winemaker said wait three weeks, then rack again. Well, okay but why? Your tired, just give it a rest or what?

Then came the ah-ha moment. It came when I was watching the small carboy's vapor lock dribble sterilized water into the grape juice. I saw that dribble leak into the red juice with panic.....again. That water may kill the yeast in the juice. It will kill the yeast.

And then I took a good look. Wait a minute. The yeast is already done. How do I know? The vapor lock top on the top of the container wasn't floating. And on the other two they were. That means that all the CO2 that the yeast was producing is gone.

Thus, those little yeasties are no longer of this world. Okay, okay I get it. When the vapor lock top is flat on the plug then the yeast is done doing its thing. Yeah!

Time to celebrate with a nice Valpolicella 2007 by Zenato. I'm a big Valpolicella fan anyway and this is a big wine. The blend of smoothness of berries and chocolate with a hint of tannins is a perfect wine with the raviolis I'm having tonight.

Remember imbibe and enjoy!

Racking Wine

Measuring the specific gravity of the juice last Saturday showed that it was time to rack. Yeah! Wouldn't you think that would be the perfect pick up line? Hey baby, you want to come back to my place and rack? Who could resist.....once they figure out you're not some kind of weirdo masochist that is.

Ye Old Winemaker said that once the juice got down to 1.0 that it's time to rack. So the SG went from 1.3 down to 1.0 in just 3 days, and that seemed fast. But the juice was in the pfvs for 6 days which is normal so it's all good.

The kitchen (see mess above) was the perfect winery to perform racking, as you can see. This involved the primary fermenting vessels, secondary fermenting vessels, trash cans, trash bags, grape juice, grape juice and more grape juice. The only thing that didn't get covered in grape juice was the ceiling, thank goodness.

The saving grace in this whole event was the auto-siphon device to move the juice to the carboy. The first transfer I didn't figure out that I should raise the 40 pound pfv at least a couple inches above the other vessel. But after I got a nasty blister on my thumb, I figured I need height. And the cat stand, see to the left, was the perfect height. Now the crazy, I almost spilled it, event of raising 40 pounds up to that height was something to see. Grape juice, grape juice, and more grape juice. On the floor, on the walls, and on everything else. This new height worked perfectly. No more infinite up and down. The juice went from the bottom of the pfv smoothly to the next level....the secondary fermenting vessel.

I realized that there was a good amount of juice still left in the pfv so I took matters into my own hands. I raised the pfv up again, and squished grapes in the can while the juice ran slowly into the bowl. This "extra " juice was dumped into the subsidiary A/B buckets. Waste not, want not I always say. And anyway we only have 13 gallons of wine. Definitely no waste. More juice everywhere...counters, cabinets, and walls. More fun.

Now the beautiful juice is in the glass containers, secondary fermenting vessels, bubbling away. On it's way to being wine.

I think we'll celebrate with a unique wine......Mokelumne Glen Vineyards 2006 Lodi Dornfelder, Zinfandel. It did exactly what I love about wine. When it was first opened, it smelled like wine you wouldn't want to drink willingly. Then give it a couple of hours and it became tasty. Now today, a day later, it tasted like the best Zin in the world. Life is like an open bottle of wine. It changes, becomes complex, smooths out, and hopefully getting better with time.

Remember imbibe and enjoy!

It's Time to Make Wine!

We've harvested and now the berries are in the primary fermenting vessels (pfv's) (aka trash cans). We have about 20 gallons of juice in our winery (aka kitchen corner). You have to add yeast to the juice to get things going. So we bought already mixed yeast, Merlot yeast, so that we'd get the best fermenting results. The yeast was put in the day after we sterilized the grapes.

The grapes have to be punched with a puncher (aka manual dry wall mud mixer) twice a day. Once in the morning and once in the evening. Here I am punching the way-full pfv. The grapes float to the top. So in order to "mix" up the liquor and break the skins of any non-bruised grapes, I push them with the mixer back down to the bottom.

Initially, when we put in the yeast nothing happened. Oh no, this sucks....but the the next day EVERYTHING happened. The yeast started doing its thing big time. So much so that it oozed over the pfv rim in the middle of the night. In the morning there's grapes oozing down the sides of the pfvs like some over carbonated soda cup. Which I guess technically it is. I took the two extra food grade 3 gallon buckets we had and put the extras in those two. Now we have four pfv's. I'm not quite sure what I'm gonna do....either keep it as two batches or four. It all depends on how much I can get in the 5 gallon carboy for the next fermenting step.

With the help of the Ye Olde Winemaker I was able to figure out what tests need to happen to move on. We did an initial acid test and the test went great. .65% acid. Perfect. No adjustment necessary. Next I took specific gravity (sg) measurements every other day. The initial test measured around 1.1 give or take. When the sg gets to 1.0, it's time to move on. Shoot! This is so easy! Why didn't they say so. Yesterday all the buckets measured 1.0. It's now time to rack the wine.

We talked to a local household winemaker yesterday, asking him what he thought. And he said we should keep it in the pfv for at least two weeks to get the color. As you can see from our pfv above, the color is just perfect. The color of burgundy. Yum. So this week I rack the juice to the secondary fermenting vessels (sfv's). Stay tuned.

Yesterday was Winefest. Always a good time and I had a marvelous Malbec. Grand River Vineyards served a 2009 Malbed that was perfect. Light tannins. Tangy, but not too much. And easy to drink. It's a little pricey, as all Colorado wines are when you compare it to California prices. A good local wine. Try this.

Remember Imbibe and Enjoy!

It's Time to Harvest!

It's finally time. The grapes are at 25 Brix and tasting yummy. We are harvesting tomorrow. At a bright and early 10ish. It'll maybe last for one hour. Two hours, tops if we drink while we cut. Hey, it's noon somewhere!

Even at this late stage in the game of making wine, we're not quite sure as to what to do. After cutting off the grapes and sticking them in the bucket around your neck, it's still a little foggy.

We bought a wine kit from the Wine/Beer Making Shoppe in downtown Grand Junction and the guy was really helpful. Too helpful, really. After about 10 minutes of the most minute detail of everything you have to do to make wine, I went into this glossy-eyed, blank stare of a phase. I just couldn't keep up. Geez, I should brought a notepad and took notes. So I looked like I was paying attention. And he finished with "Ok, so now you know everything I know. Have fun." Meanwhile, I don't know squat.

We get a book with this kit. I'm one of those dorky people who likes to read the book first before jumping into most things. So I devoured the book one day when I'm voluntarily trapped on a flight from Grand Junction to my next work gig. I read through the whole thing. Not too bad, it's small. But after all that, I still don't know stuff.

Like what do we measure to go to the next step after we've put the grapes in the trash cans (I mean primary fermenting vessel(PFV))? How do we know when to take out the juice from the PFV and move it (I mean rack it) to the secondary fermenting vessel (aka. car boy)? Same thing on the SFV wrt to measuring stuff. Ok, now when do we bottle?

I'm sure it'll all become clear when I start really doing it, but for now I'm somewhere way out in the middle between a winemaker and a grape picker. Hopefully, I'll make it to winemaker before I need to do something serious. I do not want vinegar.

But for now I think I'll drink a glass of 2008 Dancing Bull Zinfandel, winemaker's reserve, for only $6.99. A little much for drinking alone, but it has a strong jammy flavor that makes it nice to drink without food. No problem.

Remember imbibe and enjoy!

Refrac.....what!

I was told that we need a refractometer even if we weren't going to make wine. Now that we're making wine we REALLY need this thing. This thing measures brix.

I give a blank stare. Right. Sure. Brix. Uh-huh.

So I leave the winery and find myself a computer to google all these things that I must know.

Brix. "Symbol Bx is a unit representative of the sugar content of an aqueous solution. One degree Brix corresponds to 1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams of solution and thus represents the strength of the solution as a percentage by weight." Hmm. Okay. Hmm. Bottom line, it is the measurement of sugar in the grape.

Ok. Now we're getting somewhere. What's the Brix supposed to be for Malbec? More google. Well, some say 22. Some 25. Some 26. After reviewing about a dozen of totally unacademic articles, blogs, and chat room responses, I think between 25 and 26 should work.

The refractometer measures the Brix of the grape. When the measurement is at that magic number of 25 or 26 (whatever), we should pick. Okay, now that makes sense....sort of.

I order one of those refractometers (see above) from our neighbor who owns a hydroponic supply store in town. Funny, a number of those stores sprang up after using medical marijuana became legal. Hmmm. That aside. Finally, the expensive, needed device comes to our doorstep.

It comes in this official looking case which I guess makes it worth the 100 bucks alone. The refractometer allows us to measure those Brix with just 2 or 3 drops. What's not to love? The directions say I should go out in the vineyard and pick a representative sample and mix them together.

I pick out 4 precious grapes from four rows and squish them together in a cereal bowl. Maybe I should of squished them right on the glass because getting any drops out of the bowl is pretty impossible. Thus, I take my handy, mostly clean right index finger and dip it in the bowl. I bring my saturated finger to the refractometer glass and spread it around. This does not look scientific. I close the plastic cover on top, bring the refractometer up to the light to see....something. Nothing. Nothing.

I now review the one page of directions that came with the case. Seems alright. I do it again. Nothing. Bummer, I'm starting to run out of precious grape juice. Then I notice something different on the actual refractometer versus the picture. There is a dark , peel off cover on the clear plastic cover. For protection I guess.

Okay, now I do it again. I put my eye to the eye piece and hallelujah, I see something! What do I see, it's all blurry. I focus the lens and see the bluish half on top and clear on the bottom. Yeah! What's it say? 21.5 Cool. We have time.

How much time? I have no idea. I'll check it again next week.

Meanwhile, I think I'll indulge in Sterling's 2008 Vintner's Collection Meritage. It's a yummy blend of cab sav, merlot, cab franc, petit verdot, and malbec. And quite a bargain at only $7.99. Go get yourself some.

Remember imbibe and enjoy!

Ye Olde Winemaker

So after netting last week, we got a full look at how many grapes we are going to have this year.


To get a feel for how many grapes we think we're going to harvest, listen in as I mimic our phone conversation with our potential buyer....

Buyer: Hey, I'm really excited to have your Colorado Malbec to bottle this year. When should I bring over the half ton crates? Do you think five will be enough? I scheduled the semi to come the evening you harvest to bring them back over to the Front Range right away. How's that sound?

Seller (Us): Well, we think one crate should hold everything pretty well and I'd cancel the semi if I was you. Your crazy uncle's beat up pickup truck should be able to haul the grapes back to the winery just fine.

Buyer: Huh?

Seller: Yeah. We were a little optimitic on the output this year. We're thinking we're looking at about between 100 to 200 pounds of grapes.

Buyer: (click and dial tone)

That really didn't happen, but it's what I imagine could happen. But by the way, we really ARE only going to have about that 150 pounds of grapes.

So what do we do? What do we do? Because we don't have anything else to do, we decided to go into the wine making business. Well, not really a business because that production is only going to produce about 48 bottles of wine, but the wine making hobby all the same.

We bought our own "all you need" wine kit (see pic above) from a friendly fellow at the beer and wine making store. And it looks like we can intially ferment it in the kitchen. And let it sit and age in the closet downstairs.

We got a fermenting bin (aka trash can), 2 car boys for final fermenting, and all the stuff that goes with it. Including a book telling us step by step what to do. That's good since we have no IDEA what to do.

Now we need to save 48 wine bottles so we can reuse them for our wine. We should have that in about 4 weeks or so.

Have you tried the 2007 Bolla Pinto Grigio? Nice, crisp, fruity but not too fruity, lemony and grassy. Just right. I highly recommend it.

Remember imbibe and enjoy!

The Birds!!!!!

Ack!!!! Ok, ok, ok, I totally need to vent here so bear with me. After weeks of cutting, mowing, pruning, training, repeat, repeat, repeat, the vines are happily producing the final product we put our blood, sweat, and tears into for the past three years.

Our grapes, for whatever reason decide to ripen early. We were the only game in town with purple grapes. And THAT was the problem. Is the problem.

Well, there's another problem too. What you ask? We have a freakin' neighborhood bird "sanctuary" in the yards just south of the vineyard. Lots of big, leafy trees surrounded by always full bird feeders and bird baths. Sounds like heaven if you're a bird, doesn't it? With that kind of nirvana, why the h#ll are they pouncing down on these grapes?!

Because they taste SO-O-O-O good. Like little sugar candies. All of our final product going up in smoke, or in those little birds' stomachs. We had to do something quick.

Thus, we had an emergency netting event on Sunday. Never having netted before, it was quite an experience let me tell you. We borrowed pieces of netting from our neighbors who have the perfect vineyard. This amount of netting available was just right for us because we only have one row that is fully in bloom anyway. The others are a vine here, a couple of vines there. So piecemeal was perfect.

Laurel & Hardy (aka Kris & Kenny) grabbed those nets and made our way to the grape producing beauties. How hard can this be? I see old ladies doing it, what's the big deal? Well let me tell you, with this netting, you just think about it getting tangled and it's off to the races.
Here's how it went.....we untangled everything in the yard. And made piles of short, medium, and long lengths. Then we took those 3 bundles in three separate trips out to the grapes that needed the nets. We surmise we need a short net, for example, and pull a neatly folded net from the......hey wait a minute all the short nets are back in one tangled mess. Same for medium and for long.

Still determined, I take one side and Kenny takes another and we begin the journey of re-untangling the nets. Ahh, ok let's put it on the vine. I on one side throws the net over the 8' trellis wires, and in the process the net tangles with the leaves and branches. Kenny is taller than me so he begins to untangle the net from the branches, ripping the netting in the process.

This defeats the purpose of putting on nets because the birds can now fly through the holes in the nets. Not to worry, we clip, or use clothes pins (handy for laundry too) to close the gaping holes. After a couple more we don't rip the nets, but we still can't look at those nets funny without them tangling. Even when one of us would hand over the net, it would tangle. Imagine a Laurel & Hardy comic routine for sure.

Tenacious we are and the nets are on! The birds are still loitering about at the bird baths trying to think up ways to get under that netting. Thus, things are all right with the ways of a vineyard.

Ok now that the grapes are under control....for now, it's time for some 2005 Bin 70 Lindman's Chardonnay Riesling. Chardonnay Riesling? Yep, that's right. I got it at World Market for $5.99, so I felt gutsy with the blend.

It's nose is unique with the distinct aroma of honey. The flavor has the weight of a Chard with the tanginess of a Sav Blanc. It is very similar to a Viognier which is one of my favorite whites. I don't normally EVER want to drink sweet wines. I wouldn't call this sweet, but there's that honey essence throughout your palate. Not overpowering though. In a good way. Try it if you find it, shoot especially for the price. You don't like it, use it to thin a white sauce.

Remember imbibe and enjoy!

Premature Veraison

Veraison. The time has come. No, no, this is not a subsidiary to the cell phone giant, it's a phase of a grape. Why they just don't call it "the grapes are ripening now" is beyond me. It's all part of the secret club. The secret grape growing club. Shhh.

Veraison is a viticulture term meaning the "onset of ripening". It is originally French but has been adopted into English use. The official definition of veraison is "change of color" of the grape berries. Veraison represents the transition from berry growth to berry ripening, and many changes in berry development occur at veraison.

The berry ripening signals that its sugar concentration is increasing. In addition, malic acid degrades and there is an increase of tartaric acid. This acidity will decrease the pH and help in aiding the degradation of chlorophyll.

That said, the only problem is that our grapes seem to be ahead of the curve. Until a couple of days ago, everyone else's red grape were green.

Being a head of the class is not good in this case. It means our grapes will mature too early, and the tartaric acid will not have enough time to degradate from the vine. Meaning the grapes will be very tart.

Sitting back drinking Malbec from a nice open-mouthed Ridel wine glass staring at the vines, I realize there is absolutely nothing we can do. I think we'll just watch them be over achievers and turn that beautiful dark purple color I love so much.

Remember imbibe and enjoy!

My Kingdom for a Contract

Ok the initial pruning of the vines is complete. Yeah! I'm praying all that doesn't have to be done again. It would be the fourth year in a row. Geez. Give it a rest will ya?

The grapes (the photo is not our grapes, I just want to imagine it'll be our grapes someday) are growing and ripening as I write. Yeah!

We won't have a huge crop, but a crop none the less. And it gets even better.

When we went to the Colorado Mountain Winefest last year we tasted the wines and the wines that we liked we talked to the winery about buying our grapes. We figured that if we didn't like what they were doing to the current finished product, why would we want them to ruin our grapes too. Thus, we came up with about 4 wineries that we liked and they liked that we were growing Malbec. We really liked one winery in Denver because besides making good wine, they have a good marketing program. Key to selling more wine, and thus they need more grapes. Aha!

So we have this winery that want to buy our grapes. Whatever we can give them. That makes me way nervous......in a good way. What if something happens?

Maybe we'll have nothing after the birds pick everything off the vines. Maybe we'll have rot with "all" the rain and "cool" weather we've been having here. (Yes, you midwest people would be WAY jealous of the past couple of days) I'm having nightmares about being late to put the nets on the vines. I dream I get out there and they've picked away everything, even the leaves. (I definitely need a better sleep dream coordinator.)

But all that aside, I imagine we'll have something. Thus, we need something more than a firm handshake and a hardy pat on the back. We need a contract. I figured our local vintner and vintnerculturist organization would have a library of buying and selling contracts for every flavor under the sun. But no.

So off to the internet I search. There's contracts....kinda. There's no real template but then there's no actual grower's contract either. The information somewhat tells you what to do, but suggests this is only an example, not one that should be used in any legal environment. Now that lingo was written by a lawyer if ever I read one. Thus, it'll be an ask around process. Partially putting together what info I did gleam from the internet with the trials and tribulations from others in the same boat.

I think I need a drink. And this 2007 Blackstone Merlot from California is just the ticket. Priced at only $9.99, you can't go wrong. Drinking it along side a plate of lasagna (yum) or by itself, the wine can stand up to both challenges. It's hint of oak and light tannins are just right, and it's finish is smooth. It's spicy with a taste of berry but not jammy. We definitely need to buy another bottle.

Remember imbibe and enjoy!