Vineyard in Rhone Valley

For centuries a dedicated vintner would walk the miles of his vineyards at least twice a year looking for irrigation leaks, failure or worse, blight and pestilence.  Now he can do it from his favorite chair. 

Shorter days signal vines to cease tip growth and leaf production. Now the vines develop their fruit, store root energy for spring bud push and amazingly, they set the crop for next year's harvest in the canes. This may be the last irrigation for the season to keep the vines fit and stress free. .....And, of course, HAPPY

Is there a purpose to growing roses in a vineyard? Does it look pretty? Yes. Do they attract bees for pollination? Probably. The real function is that Roses are very susceptible to mildew which signals the vintner to treat his vines A.S.A.P.  Today, however,  spraying regimes and techniques are such that roses are not as essential as in the years past. 

It's an endemic problem in the Industry effecting roughly 1 in 100,000 corks with a compound of water, chlorine and mold (2-4-6 trichloroanisol) .  Just 1 part per million can taint the contents of a bottle with the smell of wet dog or wet newspaper and it's undetectable until you pull the cork at your table. That's why each and every cork you extract from a bottle should be given a quick sniff for assurance. Besides you'll look so Sommelier-ish.

It takes a thief to get wine out of a barrel. This is a glass tube with an aperture at its pointed base and one at the top with an elbow or swan so the wine can be transported horizontally. The Winemaker submerges the tube into the wine and when a desired level is achieved, he/she places his/her thumb over the hole at the top and creates a vacuum keeping the wine inside, like a pipette. When over or in a desired vessel, the thumb is released and so is the wine. In wineries all over the globe, thieves are always good to have around. 

In Jerez de la Frontera in southern Spain, Sherry is produced by a dual fermentation - one producing wine and the second on the wine's surface producing the classic taste of Sherry. In order to sample the wine a special, flexible instrument is required to part the blanket of floating yeast and remove the sample before it reforms. It's called a Venencia and the skilled, flamboyant operator is the Venenciador (Salesman). Pouring from this three foot tool creates a 3 to 4 ft. stream to the waiting copitas (glasses) and he/she NEVER SPILLS A DROP!!  So much fun to watch and the Sherry tastes .....oh so good.  Olé!

The Wine Country in California naturally glows yellow in February and March as mustard proliferates and blossoms among the vines. The Spanish monks who explored and mapped California imported mustard seeds along with their grape vines because they knew this plant had properties to recharge soils. They were right. Mustard is rich in nitrogen and when disced under it fertilizes the soil. It is also a member of the Brassica Family (broccoli, cauliflour, chicory, etc.), as it organically drives away pests such as nematodes and the dreaded phylloxera (a root louse that wreaked havoc in vineyards across the globe.) Besides being pleasing to the eye, it's hard at work protecting the vines.

Birds, craving sweetness to punctuate their monotonous diet, wait on wires or in trees at the perimeter of a vineyard to commute in and feast. It's not so much what they eat; it's  what they destroy with their feet and their defecation. Vintners have a large arsenal of hazing weapons from lasers to propane cannons; from statues to kites to drones disguised as predators. In wide usage is flashing from mylar ribbons or strips attached to the vine.There was a vineyard that could be seen on a hill from mine that employed the mylar technique and my guests would ask: "What's going on in that flickering vineyard?" I would reply: "Oh, that's a vineyard producing grapes for SPARKLING WINE". If only you could see the expressions on their faces, especially when they figured it out.

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