VIGNERON

In the wine industry, there are farmers who grow grapes but do not make wine, and there are wine makers who buy grapes rather than growing them.  Then, there are the vignerons.

The vigneron (veenyuh-rawn) grows the grapes in the vineyard, spending the days
prior to harvest among the vines with the soil under his fingernails and pressed between the treads of his boots.  He cares for the soil and decides what varietals to plant and where.  He prunes the vines, determines irrigation strategies, and keeps an intimidating host of pests at bay.  Every effort being made to ensure the health and growth of the vines and maintain the quality of the grapes to the maximum of their potential.  In the end, he will decide the precise moment when the fruit is to be picked.
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Now the vigneron carries those grapes into the winery and goes to work making them into wine.  The vigneron believes that the wine is made in the vineyard and doesn’t try to change its character in the vinting.  He takes care to create a wine that expresses the unique qualities of the vineyard from which the grapes came, his land, his unique vineyard, his terroir.

That is the best way to make wine.

Property Update(s)

*This post originally appeared elsewhere on 28 May 2013.

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Things have been happening at the property that I have failed to record here. A bit of a recap…

Trenching for electricity:

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Installing the (first) panel:

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Nine-hundred feet of trenching with Papa:

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Of course, power companies and county inspectors being what they are, we made a second trip to “fix” the panel. Here’s Michael hard at work on the new panel:

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Between you and me, the cowboy hat…  well, it works for me…

Babies filling in Papa’s trench:

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I’m not sure those children have ever been as dirty as they were that day…

And the new panel:

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The power company says it looks good but the county won’t approve it until there is a well attached… But that’s nine-hundred feet of conduit, nine-hundred feet of wire , a sub panel, a pump, and two holding tanks away. Woo!

Trees

*This post originally appeared elsewhere on 5 December 2012.

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Before Thanksgiving we took a trip to the property. We had hoped to be able to do some work toward installing electrical service, but that wasn’t to be. Of course, Michael couldn’t wrap his brain around spending a long weekend there without anything more to do than install an address post, so he hatched another plan… Trees.

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Check out that happy man…

Ever the perfectionist, Michael researched oak tree varieties until he found one likely to do well in our little valley.  The interestingly named “valley oak” was the one he settled upon. He found a local nursery that sold them and came home with four oak trees; one for each of us.

Once on the property, we spent the morning in the rain tramping around to determine the proper placement of our future oak trees.

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Michael and I decided to plant our trees near one another on the eastern slope of the swale.

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Some day these trees may grow so large that their canopies may entwine and serve as an enduring symbol of our love for each other. (How’s that for cheesey romantic…?)

Magnus, who remains a man of few words, was adamant about his tree choice. He claimed this one before anyone else did:

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And here’s Hunter with her Lockwood BFF, Levi:

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These two had two tremendous days tramping all over eighty acres of prime imagination space. We let Hunter wander around because Levi’s mom didn’t seem to think it was a big deal and it turns out Levi’s mom let her son wander around because we didn’t seem to think it was a big deal. Yeesh.

We also put up an address post so that when the power company comes to hook up our electricity they’ll be able to find us.

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Isn’t it pretty?

I’ve never been much of a visionary. I tend to see things only as they are, not for what they could become. But when Michael wanders around this vacant, weed-covered property, waving his arms, (“[This] will go here, [that] over there…”) I see it. I see it the way he sees it. The rustic barn. The tree-lined drive. The potting shed.

I see it. And I want to be there now.

The Property

*This post originally appeared elsewhere on 17 July 2012.

On 6 July 2012, we closed on forty acres of farmland on the Central Coast of California.  Part investment, part retirement plan, part dream, the property is located thirty miles northwest of a town we love, Paso Robles.

What we do with this property is still the stuff of dreams…  Michael dreams of a rustic barn nestled among acres of red wine grapes and his daughter’s wedding day.  I dream of organic vegetables and chickens.  Sometimes cheese made from the milk of a cow I milked by hand.  But who knows what will actually happen?  It’s all so nebulous.  So far away.

I didn’t realize when I married him that Michael was a dreamer…  but now, it’s just another of the things I love and admire about him.  To be fair, it’s also one of the things that terrifies me about him, but that is a discussion for another day.

Last weekend, we visited the property for the first time as official owners.

We had big plans to gain access, build a gate, and clear a nice flat spot for the trailer on a return trip.  As we drove north on the 101 last Saturday morning, I said a silent prayer: Please, Lord, don’t let today be as awful as I fear it will be…

We arrived in Lockwood, population 297, and the site of the property, a little after 9:00am.  As we drove down Martinez (pronounced MART-IN-ez…  By us anyway…) Road to the corner of the property, we were on the lookout for a point of entry.  We drove past the flat, open part of the property into a swale that was larger than we remembered, but no less charming, and we saw the property rise at least a foot above the road into lose, dry soil.

As the road rose up out of the swale toward the eastern corner of the property, the soil melted once again into the road,  and we saw it.

A cattle fence.

Not nearly as nice as the one Michael was planning to build that day, but a cattle fence nonetheless.  Instant access to the property at the exact point we would have built it ourselves.

What would have been the work of the morning, very possibly the entire day, was already done for us.  Relief is the best way to describe what we (read: I…) felt then.

As we pulled onto the property with our trusty jeep and the U-Haul trailer that U-Haul paid us $2.00 to use (that’s another story…) full of fence-building equipment we no longer needed, we began to make our plan.  A slight exploration led us to a nice flat spot on the east side of the swale, over-looking the whole valley.  Then Michael pulled out the mower and made hay while the sun shone while the kids and I explored a little.

Did I mention that I bought Hunter a Little House on the Prairie-style sunbonnet before we left for the property?  It was a big hit, to say the least.  Our property ends where that golden field in the distance begins.  That gold is an actual crop, our land is covered with weeds and dead grass.  And star thistle.  An apparently insidious weed that will take us some time and effort to abate.  I will likely document that process here.

Magnus, possibly the least romantic of us all, was less than impressed with the property.  Let’s just call him ambivalent:

He’ll warm to it eventually… especially when he finds himself spending all of his vacations there.  Ha!

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The View From Our Future Back Porch

*This post originally appeared elsewhere on 23 June 2009.

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Would-be Back Porch

Here’s a picture of the fifty acres that may change our lives.

The gentle slope of the low rise gives way to several acres of flat, usable land, bordered by a neighboring vinyard.  There is even more acreage stretching out behind this vantage point, and in the distance, (fewer than ten miles away) there is Lake San Antonio, from which the river valley takes its name.

The land is very nearly in Steinbeck country, about twenty-five minutes north of El Paso de Robles, California, and another twenty minutes west of Highway 101 in an area called Lockwood.  I write “area” because we did not see an actual town.  There are mountains to the west, the storied Coastal Range, and past them, the Pacific Ocean.  Only twenty miles away as the crow flies.

I loved it the moment I saw it, and I know that Michael did too because I felt ill as I watched him walk around the little hill, staring off into the distance, plotting.

It would be something to live in such a place, to build something from the ground up, accountable to no one but our creditors.

I want this for him.  I really do.  Who follows their dreams anymore?  Who follows their dreams?

My Husband, the Farmer

*This post originally appeared elsewhere on 8 June 2009.

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Michael still wants to be a farmer.  A grape farmer.  Specifically, a wine grape farmer and wine maker.  To that end, he has been scouring internet listings for acreage suitable for that purpose.  And last week, he thought he found something.

So on Saturday morning, quite at the last minute, we decided to drive up the coast to the very top of Santa Barbara County to look at twenty acres in the emerging Santa Maria wine country.  Luckily, Hunter was able to spend the day with my sister.  (Eight plus hours in the car would have been a circle of hell for us as well as for Hunter…)  And we took Magnus with us.

A word about that kid…  he really is the best baby ever.  Handled the whole trip like a champ.  Sleeping most of the day and still knocking out nine hours when we got home that night.  But this is what he thinks about his Dad farming grapes:

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Anyway.  We got up to Santa Maria around three in the afternoon, met the realtor and proceeded to look around.  The area is beautiful and temperate.  Wide open land with rolling hills.  But the property itself was less than ideal.  Only about fourteen usable acres out of twenty; a large ditch cutting between two swales, one of which was too steep to plant.  The adjacent property was also for sale, and, talk about not recognizing a piece of land from that which was presented on the internet…  A good reminder for us in the “buyer beware” department.

So we hiked around the property a little, filled our shoes, socks, and jeans with foxtails, hopped in the car, and headed back home.

The search will continue…

All Dreams Die

*This post originally appeared elsewhere on 20 May 2009.

My husband is ready for a change.

He’s been talking for years about cashing out and moving to the middle of nowhere to grow grapes or avocados or, as the rest of the joke goes, send special letters to people.

He goes through fits.  He’ll scour the internet for land listings.  He’ll research everything there is to know about growing this or that.  He’ll talk to realtors.  Make plans to sell machinery.

Recently, he found a piece of property that he really wants.  Beautiful.  Northern California.  Wine country.  Lake views.  A real investment opportunity, but, out of our price range unless we are (read: I am) willing to do something drastic.  He wants to do something drastic.  I can see it in his eyes.  And if I couldn’t, well, he said as much.  He also said that we wouldn’t because he didn’t think I could “handle it.”

Is hard to say whether that is an honest assessment or not.  My husband seems to be at the point where he wants to follow his dream, but he’s married to someone who is not a risk taker.  Of course, I am also fairly easily manipulated, so he could have just been trying to push me in the direction he wants me to go by telling me that I wouldn’t.  Hmm.

But I am a big chicken.  I might go so far as to say that I won’t do anything unless I know I am going to be successful.  Just the thought of cashing out for the unknown makes my stomach ache.  But I don’t want to be the dream killer.

“All dreams die,” he said the other night.  It was in acknowledgement of the fact that he may never own a vineyard.  He wasn’t bitter, just matter-of-fact, but it was horribly depressing to hear him say such a thing.  Sure it might be true… I never went to the Olympics, he isn’t a race car driver, but is that the sort of thing we’re going to tell our children?  I think not.

Wouldn’t it be something to really pursue a dream?  I want that for him.  I really want that for him.

I also think I need an antacid.

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A Brief History of Wine

Are you curious about the origins of wine?  Or, give this a scan to pick up a couple of facts to wield when you find yourself in proximity to a snobby wine conversation.

Archaeologists tell us that man first began to make wine 8000-9000 years ago, but our modern knowledge and appreciation of wine originates from the history, art and culture of wine in Europe.

I found a brief and concise history of European wine at wineinmoderation.eu.  Enjoy!

 

The culture of wine in Europe predates the Romans: in ancient Greece, wine was praised by poets, historians and artists, and was frequently referred to in the works of Aesop and Homer. In Greece, however, wine was considered the privilege of the upper classes. Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, represented not only the intoxicating power of wine, but also its social and beneficial influences. He was viewed as the promoter of civilization, a lawgiver, and lover of peace — as well as the patron deity of agriculture and the theatre. Indeed, according to ancient Greek historian Thucydides, “the peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learnt to cultivate the olive and the vine”.

Wine has evolved as part of European life, culture and diet since time immemorial. Wine making emerged in Europe with the expansion of the Roman Empire throughout the Mediterranean, when many major wine producing regions that still exist today were established. Even then, wine making was a precise husbandry that fostered the development of different grape varieties and cultivation techniques. Barrels for storing and shipping emerged, bottles were used for the first time, and even a rudimentary appellation system developed as certain regions gained a reputation for fine wine. As wine production became progressively refined, its popularity increased, and wine taverns became a common feature in cities throughout the Empire.
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With centuries passing , the art of wine making spread to France, Spain, Germany and parts of Britain. By that time, wine was considered an important part of daily diet and people began to favour stronger, heavier wines. European appreciation of wine endured throughout the Dark Ages. Partly because drinking water was still unreliable, wine was the preferred alternative to accompany meals. At the same time, viticulture and viniculture advanced thanks to the husbandry of Church monasteries across the continent, which gave rise to some of the finest vineyards in Europe. The Benedictine monks, for example, became one of Europe’s largest wine producers with vineyards in France’s Champagne, Burgundy, and Bordeaux regions, as well as in the Rheingau and Franconia regions of Germany. The merchant and noble classes had wine with every meal and maintained well-stocked cellars.
During the 16th century, wine became appreciated as a more sophisticated alternative to beer and as wine products began to diversify, consumers began to value the concept of varying their drinking habits. People began to discuss the virtues and vices of wine with greater gusto than in previous centuries. Elizabethan England celebrated bard Shakespeare remarked that “good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used”, implicitly commenting on the misuse of wine at this time. The Shakespearian era saw the availability of fresh drinking water in London, a breakthrough that moved the wine industry into a new age.

The golden age of wine
Improved production techniques in the 17th and 18th centuries resulted in the emergence of finer qualities of wine, glass bottles with corks began to be used, and the corkscrew was invented. The French wine industry took off at this point, with particular recognition being given to the clarets of the Bordeaux region by merchants from the Low Countries, Germany, Ireland and Scandinavia. Bordeaux traded wine for coffee and other sought-after items from the New World, helping to cement the role of wine in emerging world trade.
While the 19th century is considered the golden age of wine for many regions, it was not without tragedy. Around 1863 many French vines suffered from a disease caused by the Phylloxera aphid, which sucked the juice out of the roots. When it was discovered that vines in America were resistant to Phylloxera it was decided to plant American vines in affected French regions. This created hybrid grapes that produced a greater variety of wines.

Wine today
Over the last 150 years, wine making has been totally revolutionised as an art and science. With access to refrigeration, it has become easy for wineries to control the temperature of the fermentation process and produce high quality wines in hot climates. The introduction of harvesting machines has allowed winemakers to increase the size of their vineyards and make them more efficient. Although the wine industry faces the challenge of meeting the demands of an ever-larger market without losing the individual character of its wines, technology helps to ensure a consistent supply of quality wines.
Modern wine appreciation pays homage to the timeless art of wine making and demonstrates the importance of wine in the history and diversity of European culture.