Happy Birthday

Well this last week our family had a birthday party for Arabella and Omar. It was in celebration of their first birthday. Arabella turned one on April 22nd and Omar turns one on the 29th of April. Here are a few photos of that momentous occasion.

Just a note: The name I chose for my 2009 production of Cabernet was 'Mis Ninos'. It means 'My Children'. I don't think I could have chosen a more meaningful name.

The first is Rick and Omar, the next is Zeke and Arabella and the last is Ana and myself with the two little ones.

New Season of Promise

Like newborn children so comes the new season. Like the vines I've been dormant in my posting, the last being January 13, 2010. Now that the buds are beginning to push out, I find myself rejuvenated and find the need to write once again.

What's happened since our last meeting? Well, at the Little Ranch in St. Helena, a trellis system was put up on the Cab block (about 3 acres). The frost of last year gave the large orange tree at the ranch a rough time of it and the fruit wasn't juicy but very dry. We lost a family member, my uncle Ike and we learned my oldest son Zeke and his better half Kim are expecting another child in June/July. Aribela will be one year old this month on the 22nd. We learned my son Rick and his family are relocating to the east coast (he got a great job). The good news in that is that Omar (Ric's son who'll be one year on 4/29) will be closer to his other grandparents Hilda and Manuel. My son Albert and his better half Kami are doing well and looking into buying a house up in Calistoga. Ana and I are doing well.

Now a little bit about this years preparations for making wine:

1. I will be refurbishing the corking device I used last year. That means I will be sanding it down and painting it.

2. I haven't done much on finding out what it would cost to make the crushing device operable but it is my intent to do so.

3. I'm still looking for another two five gallon containers because I plan to make at least three dozen bottles of wine. I will be making both a Zinfandel and a Cabernet from the second crop. My first year I made a small amount of Zin and last year I made a small amount of Cab. My thought is to make roughly 15 bottles of each so that I can make a blend of both using a fifty fifty approach and getting 10 bottles of the blend in addition to the bottles of Zin and Cab.

4. Remember last year I mentioned that I wanted to cover the cork on the bottle of Mis Ninos with a red wax. Well I tried and it didn't come out very well, so I have last year's production with a great label "Mis Ninos" (My children) but no foil or other cover for the neck and cork.

5. I've rethought the introduction of a commercial yeast. I am going to go with the natural yeast on the fruit. Why? Because I've tasted the fruits of our labor.

This will bring a smile to your face, I sampled a bottle of the Cabernet from last year and I presented my brother Cio with a sample to get his impressions. He thought it had great fruit, good color (deep ruby), and pleasant fruity aromas. He also picked up a little spritzer element. His guess was that it might be that there was some fermentation that took place in the bottle. His next question was if there were any corks pushing out (it's what you would expect from fermentation taking place in the bottle). No corks have pushed out, nevertheless he expects the spritzer element will go away with time in the bottle.

If there is anyone who might know what that spritzer element is, let me know. Until next time we touch basis, be sure and spend time in the bottle.