A Blooming Hill Vineyard

We are snowbound. The vineyard is covered with many inches of beautiful, pure snow. Our curtain of trees is sheathed in snow and it is swirling around us.

It has been like this for a week. Jim hikes out to the winery to test things and swirl things and comes back half frozen. We have given each other the winery as our holiday gift this year and I am very happy with my twelve barrels of wine!

I did my first chromatography testing this week. Luckily, I can do this at the kitchen table in our nice warm kitchen. It is nerve-wracking, holding tiny pipettes that have and inside diameter of 1.2 ml and aren’t very long. Dipping each one into the wine samples – four times each – for 12 samples and two acids takes its toll on my fingers, which get stuck in the pick-up position. The whole process involves laying out a grid on a piece of special paper, dotting it with malic acid and lactic acid at either end and the wine samples in between. Once it’s dotted – oh, each sample has to dry before the next is added so a hair dryer is involved – the paper goes in a jar with the equivalent of a developing liquid. It sits there for 6 hours or more. The wine creeps up the paper leaving a mark that looks like a UFO, as does the acid. Where the wine mark is compared to where the acid marks are demonstrates whether the wine has gone through malolactic fermentation. Jim wants his Pinot Noir to do this as it changes the puckery malic acid into softer lactic acid, a much more desirable taste and feel.

Science in action.

We were planning to send wine to family as holiday gifts but we may never get out of the driveway again. Instead, we are sending Flat Wine. If any of you have or know any third-graders, you know about Flat Stanley, a cardboard character sent around by third-graders to someone willing to take him on adventures, take pictures and describe where he has been; then, send him back to the student who writes a story about what happened to Flat Stanley. Our great-niece, Kate, sent us one a few years ago. Flat Stanley had many great adventures like visiting Pacific Science Center in Seattle, going to an Easter Dinner and a Passover Seder, cooking, sharing space with a couple of cats. Kate’s mom sent my son, Charlie, a Flat Jake when Charlie was at the South Pole for a few months and had to leave his cat, Jake, with us.
So it’s logical that we would send Flat Wine. Given our weather situation, the Flat Wine bottle is going to get to a lot more holiday parties than we are.
No mind…we’re happy in our winter wonderland. One more thing, Gemini now has an assistant dog, Trouble. And that’s another story for another time.

Remember how I’ve written about anytime anyone drinks Jim’s wine and says they like it…he says, “Yes, but they know us”…well, last night we had an experience with about 75 people WHO DON’T KNOW US (at least, most of them) and they tasted the wine and really liked it.  So now he can’t say that anymore.

We were invited by Merrie French at Valley Arts in Forest Grove to pour the wine at their First Wednesday celebration, the time of month when they open their new exhibition.  This was an especially great time to do it because it was also the night of the annual Holiday Lights Parade in Forest Grove so there was a delicious ripple of happiness and expectation in the air.  We put on our pretty clothes (Jim, too) and spent the evening among lovely people who were all in a happy, festive mood.

I had just gotten my Server’s Permit – a process involving taking a 3.5 hour online course with a little quiz at the end of each unit, a qualifying quiz with 50 questions of which the applicant has to get all right to be able to take the final exam; and, the final exam which must be passed with a grade of at least 70%.  I did get only 98%  (I’ll have to find out which question I got wrong) and now I know important things about how long it takes the liver to metabolize one drink (1 hour), how to recognize signs of inebriation (poor judgement, loud and inappropriate talking and laughing, missing your mouth with the glass).  I also know some very clever techniques to take away a drink (wipe and swipe is the best).  That’s how I got to be “your server Holly….”

We had a little raffle for a bottle of wine and tried to get either the kitties or the dog to choose the winner – whichever piece of paper was touched first was the winner.  You’ll see in the attached photo that we couldn’t get them terribly interested

in the process so Jim did the honors.  Note Jim’s belt buckle: a prize from a horse show! 

In addition to the major highlight of having people enjoy the wine, the Parade was really fun.  Every service truck and vehicle in Forest Grove was strung with holiday lights and kids were waving shyly; there was a band on a trailer; boy scouts and girl scouts, veterans, residents from a senior residence – all bundled up in wintery and holiday sweaters and blankets waving and smiling.  A precision marching group of girls came by in purple and there were baton twirlers.  Really, it doesn’t get any better than this.  It got us in the spirit.  Speaking of our spirit, we sell Christmas trees every year, hardly making any money but the same families come back over and over and it is so fun to see them each year.  Jim dreamed up the idea of a Treasure Tree for kids from which they pluck a small gift after their family picks out a tree.  Here’s a photo of our Treasure Tree and also some of the available trees.