Does humor belong in winemaking?

DATELINE SONOMA From Wine Business Hourly™ April 27th,2022   Seven PROMINENT California Winemakers found dead in an apparent suicide pact.   Residents of the normally sleepy town of Geyserville, California woke up this morning to be greeted by hubris of local, state, and federal officials blanketing the area in search of clues to explain the tragic events that began unfol ...

I did not make any blog entries in 2018 so I figured out I have to end the year with a very meaningful one: all the predictions you need in order to be ahead of the trendy wine curve in 2019. Prediction No.1 : Some wine writer with a good following will come up with a list of the best wines he or she tasted in 2018.  At least 4 of the wines will have names no American can pron ...

The Call of The Old Dead Chicken I have been traveling a lot this year:  In January - a road trip with my young one (Ben) up to Seattle to visit my oldest son (Dean) followed by another 425 miles drive  to the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia where I help a local winery produce phenomenal wines, back home for the Winter-Wineland event, a long flight to Hawaii to work with o ...

Syrah Wine in USA

Things that go into winemaking

Expanding a bit on the email we sent in January… 2012 is now gone and despite the rumors of the planet’s demise, we are mostly here in one or more pieces.  Nature delivered us a great gift this past harvest (Longboard’s 15th); a bountiful crop that was both free of pests and diseases and brimming with developed flavors.  I know, it is boring to hear another winemaker say that ...

I was never good at Math, as anyone who worked for me in the cellar can attest to – I always tell them to assume I screwed up the math on the workorder and to check for themselves that what I wrote down makes sense.  But I think I’m right in calculating that this past vintage was Longboard’s 15th harvest (with 1998 being the first, please let me know if I screwed up this calcul ...

In the beginning there was wine that came forth from the fruit of a vine.  And the people of the Farmers tribe tended to the vines and nourished the fruit till it burst with flavor and sugars and proceeded to deliver it to the folk at the winery. And the winery tribe folk said: “Thanks” and wished the Farmers tribe a joyful vacation while they toiled in the caves and the tanks ...

When asked why I decided to become a winemaker, I answer that to me winemaking is the most perfect union of art, science and agriculture — three things that separate us from the platypus and politicians.  As a winemaker who has lived and worked in California during a time that can only be described as the “Big Bang” of modern winemaking, I find myself emotionally charged and c ...

Last month I had fun talking on KSRO 1350 on “The Drive” with Steven Jaxon and Larry Levine.  I can always count on some “Woodie” jokes to loosen the participants and get to a comfortable place for chatting.  At some point the question about the connection between surfing and winemaking always comes up and since time is often limited, I keep it short and sweet (and true) and ta ...