Topic: Another-Year-in-the-Vineyard

(Another) Year in the Vineyard Week #32 (The Last Weekly Blog for 201) October 15-21, 2010 Wrapping it Up and Looking to the Skies For a harvest that began so quickly behind a strong period of hot weather in late September, the harvest is winding down slowly here in Santa Barbara County.  We would be

(Another) Year in the Vineyard, Week #30 The Beginning of the End, and One Hell of a Scare (all photos this week courtesy of www.bottlebranding.com and Jeremy Ball..thanks Jerms! Mouse over photos for captions..and a secret code that proves Elvis is still alive!) Today is a good day.  A really, really good day.  I haven’t

(Another) Year in the Vineyard Week #30: October 1-8, 2010 Zen and the Challenging Vintage Harvest is an excellent metaphor for life.  Like any difficult cycle in our lives, harvest usually begins with a period of build up and trepidation:  ‘is it going to happen?’ , ‘when’s it going to happen?’, ‘how’s it going to

(Another) Year in the Vineyard Week #29: 9/25-9/30, 2010 From Mellow to Manic in a Single Heat Wave And Why English Majors Make Bad Electricians As you might have guessed, the blogs during harvest will be short and sweet.  The Hemingway novel of the Vineyard Blog scene.  It is currently 2:40 on Wednesday morning, and

(Another) Year in the Vineyard With Wes Hagen, Clos Pepe Vineyard Week #28:  September 17-23, 2010 The Heat Arrives, Harvest Begins with Old Friends, New Friends Well it was bound to happen.  September is traditionally the warmest month in the Santa Rita Hills, so by virtue of the averages we had to get a few

(Another) Year in the Vineyard Blog With Wes Hagen, VM/WM Clos Pepe Week #27: September 10-16 Loving the Weather, Testing the Grapes, Time for a Cocktail! To be honest, I can’t remember being so calm in the 3rd week of September.  Traditionally by this date we’ve already harvested two or three nights/mornings and have at

(Another) Year in the Vineyard, Week #26:  September 3-9, 2010 The Winery is Ready, The Grapes are Not! Welcome, once again to another episode of ‘Year in the Vineyard’.  Well, we’re counting down to the madness that is harvest and crush, but for now we’re a bit relaxed—stuck between the business of bottling and the

(Another) Year in the Vineyard with Wes Hagen, Clos Pepe Week #25: August 27th – September 2nd, 2010 “September Morn: We Picked Until the Night Became a Brand New Day” Damn!  September crept up on us on cat feet!  Suddenly, all in one week, we have bottled our entire 2009 production (last Friday), and picked

(Another) Year in the Vineyard Week #24: August 20-26, 2010 With Wes Hagen, Clos Pepe Summer Arrives Before It’s Over:  Sparkling Harvest Soon! A Week in the Winery:  the Crew Comes Together! Here’s the situation:  it’s 7:33 on Thursday night and it’s very late to be starting my blog.  Tomorrow at 6:00 am I need

Year in the Vineyard With Wes Hagen, Clos Pepe Vineyards and Estate Wines Welcome once again to the Year in the Vineyard Blog.  We continue with our new High Def video blogs, to give you as much visual input as possible.  There’s times when the written word can describe what’s happening in a vineyard, but

(Another) Year in the Vineyard, Week #22 August 6-12, 2010 With Wes Hagen, VM/WM Clos Pepe Welcome back to a Year in the Vineyard, Week #22.  Even though the weather has continued to be unseasonably cool, the fruit is ripening slowly, perfectly, like it only could in the Santa Rita Hills.  Temperatures over the last

(Another) Year in the Vineyard Week #21, July 30-August 5, 2010 With Wes Hagen, Clos Pepe Welcome to the new generation Year in the Vineyard Blog!  Last week I bought a High Def Flip camera, and it arrived a few days ago and I got busy!  Just so happened that the day I received it

Another Year in the Vineyard, Week #20 July 23-29, 2010 With Wes Hagen, VM/WM Clos Pepe The Vintage Tiptoes Forward: At dinner the other night I ran into my first interns, Ariel and Angela Lavie from Lavie Vineyards.  We hadn’t touched base for a while, so we chatted for a while.  Ariel was echoing the

July 16-22, 2010 Wes Hagen, VM/WM Clos Pepe Vineyard and Estate Wines This morning the vineyard’s technology level has been thrown back to 1990, and we’re feeling the sting. Carrying my cup of Kenya to the keyboard early Thursday morning, I tried to check the weather, but the page wouldn’t load. Either would my email.

Another Year in the Vineyard, Week #18 July 8-15, 2009 By Wes Hagen, VM/WM Clos Pepe Vintage:  The 2010 vintage rolls along and gets a bump of heat.  Temps warmed from the mid to high 60’s last week to the mid to high 70’s this week.  The difference is considerable for the physiology of the

Winemaker Magazine (Another) Year in the Vineyard Wine Blog Week #17:  July 2nd-July 8th, 2010 The Theme is Diversity:  Genetics, Critters, Fog, Flavor, and Darwin  (amazingly described in the context of growing and making wine!) What an odd job I have.  In the last 24 hours I have driven to Los Angeles and helped set

(Another) Year in the Vineyard:  The Two Week Edition:  Week 15 and 16:  June 18 – July 1, 2010 San Fran, Big Sur, and Back to the Ranch!   The vintage is proceeding to plan, and the early Summer is slipping away.  After Spring and frost patrol, after the crew has been at work long

Year in the Vineyard with Wes Hagen, VM Clos Pepe Week #14: June 10-17, 2010 The Birth of an American Viticultural Area Let’s take a slightly different view of the wine world this week.  I’d like to leave the nuts and bolts of vineyard management for a few moments and discuss the descriptive system of

WineMaker Magazine (Another) Year in the Vineyard with Wes Hagen, Clos Pepe Week #13, June 4-June 10, 2010 On the Shoulders of Giants, Another AVA, All Things Green, Clustering and Clucking Welcome back, dear bloggistas, to the late Spring at Clos Pepe Vineyards in the beautiful heart of the Santa Rita Hills of Northern Santa

Year in the Vineyard, by Wes Hagen VM/WM Clos Pepe Week #12: May 28- June 3, 2010 Budi-Licious Cuisine, The White Horse, the Green Tractor, Fruit and Frogs   My day has started a bit slowly.  My normal 6:30 – 7:00 am cup of coffee was delayed until 8:15 today, a fairly rare occurrence.  Last

  Year in the Vineyard Wine Blog, Week #11 By Wes Hagen, VM/WM Clos Pepe May 20-27, 2010 (Don’t forget to scroll over the pics for commentary) My trip to Stevenson, Washington was great.  I thoroughly enjoyed all the home winemakers I met, especially those with the guts and lack of sanity it takes to

Year in the Vineyard Week #10 Wes Hagen. Clos Pepe Vineyards May 14-20, 2010 First, let me vent.  I’m pissed.  Really, really really angry right now.  After teaching a five hour class called ‘Viticulture Bootcamp’ and having a great day of teaching and talking with folks from 21 States, Canada and Puerto Rico, I decided

Another Year in the Vineyard, Week #9 May 7-14, 2010 By: Wes Hagen, VM/WM Clos Pepe (Don’t forget to mouse over the images to get a few extra nuggets of useless information!) Greetings, readers!  I’m happy to be reporting this week from the beautiful and cool confines of Clos Pepe Vineyards and the Santa Rita

I plan to take a different tact with this week’s blog. I’m down in Temecula judging wine at Riverside International Wine Competition, getting a little writing in as the judges take their seats. Farmers are always more punctual than winemakers and retailers..may also be that I left the party a bit early last night to

(Another) Year in the Vineyard, Week #7 April 23-30, 2010 Irrigation, Fertilization and Pinot Petioles According to my desk calendar, last week was supposed to be pretty mellow.  On more than one day the calendar read ‘GOLF?’, but I am sad to say the question mark won out and I haven’t moved the clubs from