A Blooming Hill Vineyard

One of the lovely delights of being married to a vintner is that I get to taste the wine at every step of the process – and sometimes before breakfast!  While most of the world is having orange juice, I got to taste the chardonnay that has been fermenting for about 24 hours!  This morning was particularly soggy in Cornelius but when Jim brought in a tiny jar full of the sweet liquid from the fermenter and I tasted it, honestly I was instantly tele-transported to a spot somewhere in the Caribbean where I might have been sitting under a pale pink orange silver satin sky and gazing at a gentle sea while breezes blew scents of hibiscus, citrus and guava my way.

Usually I don’t talk that way about wine but that is exactly the image I had this morning.  Jim’s chardonnay is like no other to begin with and this year’s will be exceptional, it looks like.  We can pre-sell it right now so we’ll figure out the case price and post it on this website.  In the meantime, here are pictures of Jim, my son Charlie and even me, working the crush over the weekend.  (Okay, I wasn’t really working the crush….I was doing a lot of inside tasks like making tomato juice out of our beautiful yellow/orange heirloom tomatoes!)

Charlie and Jim de-stemming

Yay!  The brix (sugar) and pH (acid) are where they are supposed to be and Jim and crew are picking grapes!

He got about a ton and a half of Pinot Noir grapes out of the first five rows so it’s looking like we’ll get the yield we hoped for.  Jim takes the grapes to one of the local Ag stores in Cornelius to be weighed.  The first step is to weigh the grapes in the container and then, when the container is emptied, to weigh that.  Once you subtract the tare weight of the container, you know the weight of the grapes.  This morning, while I was out doing exotic errands like picking up a cutting bar for the haybine, a water valve for a tire tractor and spending a gold brick to fill up the car with gas, Jim called me to ask if the dog was with me.  He wasn’t – which was unusual as Gemini loves being in the car – but Jim was actually glad since the dog had gone with him for the first weighing and now Jim needed him to find out the tare weight!

Now it’s 9:20 PM and Jim is sitting in the car in the garage listening to the NOAA weather forecast on the radio in the car, the only one that picks up that broadcast.  If he could, I think he would go out and nestle each vine in a soft blanket or a raincoat.

The grapes look terrific and the juice is just lovely.  We’ve tasted it straight – juice from the grapes – and, although we prefer our pinot as wine, we’ve had lovely pinot juice coolers with the addition of vodka.  Very nice!  So we’re off to a good start with the first wines available to the public from A Blooming Hill Vineyard…

Jim and faithful dog, Gemini....probably his best crew member

After several days of really wet weather, it is nicely sunny and Jim is happy, again. Well, maybe not exactly happy, but definitely more hopeful that his beautiful grapes will actually ripen before they become laden and soggy, too wet to support anything but rot. Of course, the sun is only one factor in reducing his worry at htis time of year; keeping the birds and wasps at bay also preoccupy him.

We are taking precautions…I tied red and yellow curling ribbon to bamboo stakes, which have been attached to the tops of the posts at the head and foot of every few rows. These are meant to streak in the wind and frighten off the birds so they don’t peck away at the tender morsels of grapes. I think they make the vineyard look quite festive, too.

Wasps, the other predatory hazard, are being captured in high numbers in the yellow traps set out along the rows. This trap setting is a thoroughly disgusting procedure involving placing bait in the center of the trap – something formerly living and preferably approaching the high state of spoilage – to attract the wasps into a one-way fly-in to a cylinder containing soapy liquid that will prevent their flying out. Ever. And, thus, saving the grapes.

With favorable conditions prevailing, the sugar is rising and, tonight, Jim reported that the seeds have little spots of black in them and are beginning to have crunch. Once the seeds are fully black and nice and crispy, and the sugar is high enough, the harvest begins.

I am, in the meantime, working my way through the forms and procedures so we can properly record and label the vintage.  My latest little dilemma is over how to weigh the grapes as they are harvested.  We have a place to go where we can weigh them but I am uncertain as to what the government needs as to documentation.  In fact, I am unsure as to which government even needs to know as the Feds say it is the State and the State says it is the Feds….And we wonder why the financial structure of the country is falling apart.

Whooooo … We are so excited. Jim McLaren came out last weekend and taped a feature on the vineyard which is airing today, tomorrow and Sunday on www.1190kex.com. Today it is on the air at 12:43 PM and 5:35 PM. AND, IT IS A VIDEO ON THE WEBSITE …. just plug in the keyword GRAPE and the window will open. Jim is SO CUTE….

So, our contest for how many plants will end up in the new Pinot Noir block is still in full swing. Next week the last plants will go in and then we’ll know for sure and have a sure winner. The clue is that there are 69 rows. Here’s a picture of part the vineyard with its little green sleeves protecting those plants already in.

Send us your guesses …. and let us know if you liked the video/radio!