“And we’ll laugh and toast to nothing, and smash our empty glasses down.”
                                   -Carey...Joni MItchell


November

Harvest is over, the grapes are squeezed, and the start of some pretty cool
wines are resting nicely in their tanks. There’s great color in the reds and
great aromas in the whites again this year, which is beginning to make us
think we might actually know what we are doing.  Everything on the farm
gets one last mowing, clipping, cleaning and then gets put away for the
year.  Holiday season!  Time to sit back, uncork a bottle of wine and say,
“Wow! What was that all about?”

October was a great month.  We had an unbelievable stretch of eight days
with the temps peaking around 80 degrees that brought the grapes to a
beautiful finish.  We decided to donate one dollar for every bottle of Pink
Side of the Moon sold in October.  Following our five busiest Saturdays of
the year in the tasting room, we sent in a check for over $400 to the Susan
G. Komen for the Cure fund.  Nice.

Once we get past October the pace in the tasting room becomes more
relaxed.  The tide of tourism has turned. We are able to spend more time
with our guests and point out the wonderful qualities of our new releases.
The 2010 Stone Temple Pinot has been received nicely and is soon to be
sold out and replaced with our 2010 and a half Stone Temple Pinot.  It’s a
single clone, longer aged version.  STP v.2.0!  Elegant.  If you are a Pinot
Noir aficionado you must try it.  The 2010 Gunzan Rose’ is a big hit, but
won’t be around forever.  It was made from the second crop of Pinot Noir
that doesn’t happen every year.  Our Peace, Love and Bubbles is sold out
already, but we hope to have the next version ready for next spring.  The
2009 Reserve Syrah is nothing short of incredible and one of my favorites to
drink at home. I know I may be partial, but....

Now that farming has slowed down I’ve got time to catch up on world
events and read a newspaper or two.  So what’s up with Greece?  How can
they be broke?  Aren’t they making money on all that yogurt?  And they’re
camping out in a park on Wall Street.  I assume there is gonna be a heck of
a Black Friday sale on stocks next week or else why would they do that?
Quite a sale too, the signs all say 99%!  There is a Super Committee that
was going to save the economy, but it failed and now they will they have to
call on a Super Duper Committee.  It’s gonna take me a while to get back in
the swing of things.

Fortunately for me, the winery will close Friday, December 23rd when Sue
and Keith and I go on our winter hiatus.  We will reopen on Friday, March
2nd, 2012.  It’s hard to believe we survived another year.  Really quite
amazing when you think about it.  Next spring we will be celebrating our
10th anniversary at The Vista.  Can you believe that?  A “decade of
decadence” I think we’ll call it!  What’s that?  O.K. Sue says no to that idea.
No problem, I’ve got a couple months to come up with something better.
Remember, life is a journey....you’ll need wine!

“But let’s not talk about fare-thee-wells right now, the night is a starry dome.
And they’re playin’ that scratchy rock and roll beneath the mantle of the moon.”
                                    -Carey... Joni Mitchell