You can’t get much more beautiful weather than we have had in Napa over the past two weeks; particularly if you are growing wine grapes. The nights have been cool with lightly foggy mornings and warm sunny afternoons with highs in the upper 80s everyday. It is shaping up to be a wonderful harvest so far. The two tanks of Pinot Noir I have sitting in the winery looked nearly perfect analysis wise and tasted great when I tasted the juice this morning. They are in the cold soak period right now but already they are starting to exhibit color extraction.

This video is of our first pump over on the first Pinot tank of the vintage. Already you can see the juice turning darker after only a few hours in the tank yesterday.

At home, pear season is coming to a close and we are left with around 40 pounds of very ripe Bartlett pears after giving away close to 100 pounds, eating lots and baking with even more. I’m starting to feel a little bit like Bubba from the movie Forest Gump when I talk about pears. Fresh pears, dried pears, canned pears, puréed pears, pear sauce, pear tarts. You get the picture. Still I am always open to more tasty pear ideas so if you have any suggestions feel free to let me know. This is my favorite pear tart recipe. It’s super easy and delicious. I make a TON of them this time of year.

Next week I anticipate that things will really start rolling with harvest so this weekend I’m going to try to get all my loose ends around the house tied up.