Living in the country is a both a pleasure and a challenge.  It takes a certain kind of person to commit to owning and maintaining the land that we all cherish.  Whether it is 1 acre or hundreds, the country life and work is unique.  In this area, I know of many landowners where one spouse will go into the city to work the corporate job while the other works the land.  I am also seeing more folks telecommuting or running home based businesses from their farmhouse.  Another option that people use is the custom farmer.  There are people that will manage your vineyard, cut your hay, lease your land or truck farm a plot of your land.  Each of these are creative ways to use the land, create real economy and keep people from traveling down congested highways on a daily basis.  We need to look harder at where we live as well as where and how we work in order to make decisions about how this landscape will look in 2 or 3 generations.  In the country farming lifestyle, there seems to be little separation between life and work. Maybe that is an unhealthy thing to some degree but consider that the work environment is totally different than most of the current workforce and much more in tune with what people did for many thousands of years.  Enough of my rantings!

Here are a few thoughts about what is actually going on in the vineyard and cellar of our winery and probably most of the wineries in the area.  The fruit in the vineyards has just set.  The berries are about the size of small peas but growing every day.  The leaves around them are getting rather thick so our task today is to pull some leaves and some small lateral shoots to open up the area around the fruit increasing sunlight and air flow.  This will prevent mildew and other funguses from developing on the fruit as well as help the fruit to develop some deep, rich and ripe flavors at harvest time.  We may come through the vineyard 2 or 3 times to open up the fruit zone depending on how much rain we receive during the growing season.  The other main job is hedging.  As we tuck the long, green shoots into the trellising wires, they will continue to grow toward the sun.  We will trim these so they will not flop over and shade the fruit they are supposed to ripen.  Warm days, sunshine and rainfall all add to this dance we call canopy management.  The work is very labor intensive but also very therapeutic. Knowing that the time you spend will greatly increase the quality of the wine made is a great feeling.

At Fabbioli Cellars, we are preparing to bottle wine next week.  The 2009 Cabernet Franc blend was first made on the bench level.  Samples are taken from each of the barrels and then tasted for attributes and characters that will add to the blend.  Then the wines are measured using graduated cylinders and pipettes to make an accurate sample blend of the wine.  This process can be done numerous times adding or removing barrels or parts of barrels for the blend.  To season a wine to perfection, many winemakers will use a little wine made from other varieties bringing some more character to the aroma or smoothing out the finish.  Legally a winery can use 25% of other varieties and still use the varietal name on the label.  But it is always important that the name on the label reflect the character of the wine in the bottle.  Once we finalize the blend, we pull out the pump, clean the tanks and pump the barrels to make the blend.  Most wineries in the area use one of 4 mobile bottling lines in the area.  These are basically an assembly line inside of a truck.  We schedule to use these well ahead of time and can bottle about 1200 cases of wine per day.  This is one big piece of equipment that we do not have to invest in ahead of time.  

Many wineries offer different opportunities to experience the winemaking process.  Check websites, calendars of events and ask about how you can learn more.  We are all in this business for the long haul and we appreciate all of the loyal customers we have gained over the years.  Be sure to buy local and visit your local winery or farm for a taste of nature’s bounty.  Cheers.

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