Blog Entries
Planning for Unified
This week the entire country decends upon Sacramento, CA for the 2018 Unified Wine and Grape Symposium. This is, by far, the largest wine focused trade show in the US. All the suppliers for anything having to do with grapes or wine are in...
China’s Continuing Influence
My time in China continues to influence my life. The most radical aspects have to do with travel. The realization that I could go literally anywhere on the planet and I don't have to get permission to do so. I can just figure out what it takes to...
Harvest Update 2017 – And That’s All Folks
It feels in some ways that this has been a super long harvest and in others it fells so short. We had the rain on and off for the week in early October but since then the weather has been beautiful. Riesling has been very strange this year. There...
Harvest 2017 Update
Harvest is usually crazy but this year seems busier than most. After a super cool and very rainy summer we have had several weeks of warm, dry weather which was much needed. Unfortunately, the four weather forecast models that I look at this...
Winemaker 2 Winemaker: David Parrish of Parrish Family Vineyards
This month's Winemaker 2 Winemaker interview focuses on David Parrish of Parrish Family Vineyards on California's Central Coast. His story began with vineyard trellis work for icons of the Napa Valley such as Robert Mondavi, Bob Steinhauer and...
Do or Do Not. There is No Try: Part II
I have been blogging for the past 7 1/2 years. I have been in the Master of Wine program for 8 yeasrs. Over those 8 years, I have learned many ways to fail the MW exam. If you would like to catch up on all that drama follow these links; Fail...
And The Winner is…
I have just returned from the last trip to China as part of the second Ningxia Winemakers' Challenge. This final trip was so much fun because we were able to finally meet up with the other winemaker contestants, most of whom I had not seen since...
2017 Harvest Update: Veraison
Finally, it has dried out. I can walk in the vineyards and my back yard without worrying about sinking into a puddle. Since my last update we have still had several more storms however it has not been everyday and we have at last seen a return to...
How to Open a Sparkling Wine Bottle with a Broken Cork
This has been an interesting week. I found myself with a serious problem. I had chilled a bottle of sparkling wine to have handy if we found ourselves in need of some bubbles. We normally have at least one in the fridge at all times. Having...