Bordeaux - Chateau Mouton

Hey guys!  It's me in France.  Bordeaux.  Puillac to be excact.  Visiting Chateau Mouton.

Why?  Why not!

TK came too.

Went to France for 10 days of vacation.  The main focus was to show TK Paris but made a quick stop in wine country, because you know, french wine is pretty good ;)

Inside the newly built winery.  Top of the tanks.

 The tanks below the wooden floor.

 Large wooden tank with plexiglass stave to see fermentation.  First time seeing this, love the idea.

 Stainless steel tanks.  Looks like shiny soldiers.

Barrel room.

Prettier barre room. Holds approximately 100 barrels.

 Glass bungs.

 Time to taste the wine!

 Tasting from 3 properties.  Chateau d'Armailhac, Chateau Clerc Milon and Chateau Mouton all 2012 barrel samples.

 Enjoying wine by the mouton fixture.

Fortunately we had a sunny day in Bordeaux, before coming over we heard it had been raining non stop.

Watch out, a lot more France is coming your way the next few weeks.

-L

Random February Activities

This week was pretty random.  A few different and unrelated activities happened.

 Flamingo Hotel in Santa Rosa.  

 I was in Santa Rosa for a management seminar at the Flamingo Hotel.  

 The seminar was great, but not much to write about.  The Snoopy sculptures in the hotel on the other hand, were great!  There were a bunch of them all over.  Santa Rosa is home to a Charles Schulz museum and I am a fan of Peanuts and Beagles.

My beagles Max and Mila.  The resemblance is obvious.

 I also spent an afternoon in the vineyard for a tractor demonstration.  This time of the year the vines are dormant and the main vineyard activity is pruning.  Pruning creates a lot of dead plant material.

 The rotabo chops up and incorporates the brush (dead plant material) into the rows.  This is more efficient than collecting it and it puts some nutrients back into the soil.

 I have passed this sign everyday for the last 7 years working in Napa and never stopped to take a picture.

We had visitors from France that wanted to stop and have their picture taken at this sign (this is their rental car), and I took the opportunity to finally have my picture taken at this iconic stop as well.

The we went to lunch at Lucy's in Yountville with our guests.  Lucia, Lucy, you get it.

Table at Lucy.  Fire pit surrounded by a waterfall.  Love it.

So it was a random, weird week but pretty great.  Next, I am off to France for 10 days.  Bordeaux and Paris, looking forward to sharing that with everyone!

-L

Lobster Monday

Usually the end of January has my favorite work week: Unified Symposium in Sacramento.  

Last year's annual visit was really fun, so I was bummed to miss out this year.

However, I did find some fun times in Napa:

Last Monday Demptos invited us to lunch at their storage facility in south Napa.  Demptos is a cooperage that we buy barrels from.  They put on this lunch as a thank you to their customers.

 All the invited wineries brought wine to share.

By the time I got there, only a few oysters were left, which was fine because I'm not a fan of oysters.

But mermaids are right up my alley.

 Also, I did eat all the cheese.  All of it.

 I love cheese.  I liked how the used the heads of barrels to serve the cheese.

 Then we stood back as they dumped lunch on the table.

 Get your bibs on!

 It was a really long table.  And there were two of them!

 Then you sit down and just dig in with your hands. Lobster, artichoke, garlic, potatoes, onion, corn sausage and lots of butter.

 This made me laugh.

 My lobster friends.

It was really fun!  I mean, eating a lot of food is always really fun for me but this was eating + activity.

I think the act of grabbing food from the center of the table with you hands and tearing it apart made it taste better.

Great way to feed lot of people.

The bummer part of these days is that you have a giant, rich lunch with wine that makes you want a nap and you still have to go back to work and be productive!

-L

January Blending Sessions

First, I have to include this.  Over the weekend Matt and John came to visit Napa and we went out wine tasting.  I have very tall friends.

 Also this week we continued a series of Olfaction sessions.  Alexandre Schmitt is a former perfumer turned wine-consultant and aroma educator.  A few times a year he brings his vials of essential oils and tries to teach us the difference between Tahitian, Mexican and Madagascar Vanilla.  Or to be more specific when describing a wine as "floral".  Is it violet, hyacinth, lilac or gardenia?

 The other thing we do in January is blending.  We taste every lot several times to decide what will make the cut to the final blend.  This takes a lot of glasses, bottles, space and time.

 The counters are packed with sample bottles to make preliminary blends.

 At least 3 out of 5 days of every week in January, the table looks like this.  We keep revisiting and tasting blends to make sure that we are consistent.  

 Fortunately for me, I was able to bring back intern Joanna to help during this busy time.  Joanna and I set up two tastings at once.  The front section is one tasting, the middle glasses are a second tasting.

 Here we are tasting the front glasses.

Then we cleared away the front row to reveal a second tasting behind it.  So efficient.

So far no winery visits this month.  I need to hurry up to keep my new year's resolution!

Honestly though, when you taste this much wine during the week, tasting on the weekend is the last thing I want to do.

-L

Happy 2014 and Back to Work

Happy 2014 everyone!  This is exciting for me because it's the 4th year of writing this blog.  For me personally 2013 was an Ok year, with a lot of room for improvement so I'm determined to make 2014 really great.  This is the year I really need to get my wine sold and my garage cleared out a bit.  

Also, last year I made a resolution to visit more wineries and did well the first few months and the pooped out.  I'm going to bring that resolution back, but start with a more modest goal, "1 new winery a month."  And if anyone wants to visit my winery, let me know!

So now, a little about the last few weeks . . . .

 To me the Holidays aren't complete without a trip to San Francisco.  I love seeing all the decorations and lights downtown.

Tree at Union Square.  I had 2 weeks off work and made 2 trips to the city for last minute Christmas shopping.

 I also spent time with Deluca, a lovely Mastiff.

And I took Max to Home Depot.

And I put him in the cart.

 And then I spent time with some humans, like my lovely and dear friend Meredith, who came to visit from Oregon.

 The I came back to work this week and found this yummy growth in my favorite mug.  I don't remember what tea I drank last but maybe I should try a new brand.

And now it's time for blending!  Which is honestly one of my least favorite times of year.  It's tasting 30 to 60 wines per day, everyday of the week, for the next month.  We start early in the morning and its a lot of set up and clean up, and frankly pretty exhausting.  If the stars align and the quality is good, maybe only 3 weeks.  More on all the details of blending coming up . . .

-L