After a couple days of non typical rain/gloom for Orinda, the sun was out Saturday (10/4/25) morning for our 2025 harvest. Not sure what the Brix ended up at as when I went to test on Thursday, October. 2, the weather was gray in the morning and I couldn’t get a reading. Hannah happened to Continue reading

The good – we took possession of 9 cases of our 2022 harvest – a Syrah/Grenache blend that Bill English made with who knows what other vineyards. We have lots of fun photos of visiting Bill at the commercial winery that’s slowly taking shape in Lafayette for tasting the wine during the aging process. It’s Continue reading

Plentiful friends who came out for our October 14th harvest, and our one niño Hudson who is still at home, made quick work of harvesting 885 lbs of grapes. That’s about a 25% increase from 2022’s harvest of 692 lbs. And with some Mourvèdre we purchased with our wine makers, Bill and Greg, should give Continue reading

July 2023, Craig and I met with Greg and Bill at their under construction winery in Lafayette. Our wine is in two barrels, a smaller one and then the “normal size”. We just tasted our blend, and must say the smaller barrel, being a little further along in the aging, is delicious now. I’d drink Continue reading

Yes, we’ve been shattered…. to learn we may not get the big harvest we had hoped for this year. Some of our berries, likely the Grenache, are not quite developing as hoped. Here is the explanation – straight from vinepair.com. Continue reading

I had been out of town during the big heat wave so was shocked when I got back and our grapes had gone from a Brix of 22 to 26 in the blink of a week. 26 is over the suggested harvest goal of 24/25 so we needed to get on it. Fortunately, Bill and Continue reading

Craig and I are hoping our Brix is on track for a Sunday, Sept. 18th harvest date. If you want to help us just give us a call. We’ll make sure to have your favorite coffee beverage on hand for an early morning harvest. Between Craig’s travel, our travel, too much fun, this is the Continue reading

Craig and I have decided to bring in “the professionals” to help us with this year’s vintage. Bill English, a long time wine maker in Lamorinda, and his assistant Greg Moffitt, have agreed to share their talents and efforts in exchange for a percentage of the wine. They came out last week to see the Continue reading

Craig and I were not looking to buy a vineyard. In fact, I had been researching agave production in California with the thought that with global warming and drought, and our love of tequila, that agave was the future in California and in making “Mescalifornia” , I could continue my love of gardening and nurturing Continue reading

Heads up that we expect the grapes to be ready to harvest around Sept. 24th-25th, 2022. We’ll be inviting everyone – call us if you do not get an invite! Includes lunch and then a bottle of our vintage after it’s bottled. Continue reading