It keeps getting better

Hola all,

I came up yesterday (Sunday) and enjoyed a mountain bike ride through some of the neighbor's vineyards. There is no more beautiful place to ride a bike than the Santa Rita Hills. It is spectacular.

Today I got up and worked with the crew at 6:00 AM. We were netting the vines to keep the birds away from the fruit. So far, the berries are almost entirely green, and therefore not susceptible to bird attacks, but as veraison occurs the nets are essential to fruit health. Netting involves un-rolling large rolls of bird nets over the vines. The trusty tractor is an indespensible tool for this operation:

After work I ran over to a couple of the nearby wineries - Foley and Melville. Each is just a mile or so down the road. I learned one thing today that I wish I was aware of earlier - wineries give serious discounts to fellow winemakers/wineries/interns. Without going into too much detail, I'll be able to drink my weight in SRH wines for less $$$ than I ever dreamed.

After some significant wine tasting and a wonderful dinner of Thai food, I walked down to the pond for a bit of bass fishing. I caught a bass on nearly every cast. All were small, but it was still great fun. Here's my trophy:

(I have no idea how these photos will look, bear with me...)

Now I'm enjoying a bit of the local Pinot Noir and writing this blog. Here are a few more pictures, including the sheep, the landscape, Winston the pug, and Rosa, the Border Collie. An amazing dog, to say the very least. Enjoy!

"Actually, it only takes one drink to get me loaded. Trouble is, I can't remember if it's the thirteenth or fourteenth." - George Burns

Wednesday July 26, 2006

Hello!

This is my first blog entry ever, so forgive me if it is a bit odd.

I came up to Lompoc about noon on Tuesday; the trip was totally uneventful. After I had lunch with the winemaker, assistant winemaker, vineyard owner, and a couple of other vineyard owner/managers I came back to the estate and unpacked my things. I'm living in a "single-wide" mobile home which is outfitted quite nicely. I have internet, satellite TV, hot water, a full kitchen... basically everything I need. And lots of beer and wine. There are many dogs, lots of lizards (wild ones), and three young sheep to keep me company. I walked the entire vineyard row by row and I think I know my way around now. There is a beautiful pond full of largemouth bass - I'm told that the bass are up to 3 pounds, and are very active feeders.

I worked for 4 hours this morning (Wednesday) in the vineyard doing "hedging" - trimming the vines to stunt their growth. It was quite a bit of fun hanging out with the vineyard crew. I'll probably be able to speak Spanish in a few weeks if I keep this up!

After that we went to the winery and took the full tour, and then barrel tasted the '05s. There are a lot of other winemakers in this space, and they all were eager to share many many many other wines. After what seemed like 75 tastings we came back to the estate (I did not drive...).

The weather has been great: nice and warm in the afternoon (80?) and cool at night (60?), with awesome morning fog. I really like it here. The place is beautiful and the people are wonderful. So far, so good...

Cheers