Leslie and I drove to some vineyards in the Eola hills to sample their wine. Amity, St. Innocent, and Cristom. I was also interested in pruning methods. We had been to Cristom in the fall, right before harvest and I had taken some photos of the vines. With all the foliage and growth it was hard to tell what was going on. Now in the spring it looks so bare and simple.
September
March
I’m looking for grapes. I want to do just one type of wine this year. Last year was just overkill, and I’m still suffering from that. Dozens of carboys, so many different decisions. If I can just have one wine to focus on; just as sometimes I wish I had only one cat, who could receive 5 times the love and attention! I checked out Utopia Vineyard yesterday. It’s on the very southern tip of Ribbon Ridge. Looks good. 500 foot elevation, nice slope with southern exposure, no irrigation, no fertilizers. It’s all Pinot Noir on about 12 acres. It’s run by Daniel Warnshuis, who worked in California wineries for 25 years but wanted to get away from the craziness.
I’ll try to look at a few others and then choose one. Harvest should be the end of this month.
I visited the Wealth Underground Farm today. Brooke and Nolan cooked me a huge lunch of fried rice, beans, plantains, spinach, guacamole, and guava juice and then we spent the afternoon tending to the field. I cut grass with a sickle, planted squash starts, and weeded in between the beds.
