By David J. Lynch, USA TODAY

New doors open

Amid the hard times of the early 1980s, some people carved opportunity from adversity.

In California, a general contractor named Fred Schweiger saw his business idled by punishingly high interest rates. To keep his crew together, he used his savings to pay them to clear 35 acres of wooded hillside in Napa County. His third try for a loan to start a vineyard there was approved, and almost 30 years later, Schweiger Vineyards in St. Helena, Calif., ships 5,000 cases of wine each year.

The early 1980s, Schweiger, 67, says today, “became a situation where something bad turned good.”

Likewise, the recession pushed civil engineer Dave Holman to take a chance on working overseas after the Escondido, Calif., firm he worked for cut his salary by one-third.

To read the entire article go to the link below:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2010-01-06-recession-scars-will-take-long-time-to-heal_N.htm

–John 19:30b

I once worked with a curmudgeon who said harvest wasn’t over until the last lot was finished with malolactic fermentation.

Well “fudge that”! I’m drinkin‘ tonight!

All the grapes are in! That doesn’t mean harvest is over…but at least it’s more under my control. I will be posting more in coming days about the indoors fun of harvest…but for now…phew@!

“Thunderbolt and lightning-very very frightening me”
–Queen, “Bohemian Rhapsody”
“There’s a threat of rain on the dark horizon and all that’s left is a
quarter moon of light”
–Sting, “After the Rain has fallen.”

The astute weather watcher out there knows that Napa went through a bit of a rollercoaster this past weekend. Saturday morning, 2:30 AM, I’m in my back yard in old wildland gear and boots, monitoring the fire band radio, wondering if we’re going to have to deal with the “Napa Wildfire of ‘09″. Fortunately, the dry lightning stayed well South of us.

Sunday evening had very light sprinkles, great for keeping the dust down. In fact, it was just enough to clean the dust off our solar panels, and our array is back up to 100%, no water or squegee required!The system dropped about 0.16 inch of rain to us here at the top of the Spring Mountain District, giving our red varietals a much needed drink…we dry farm here…so this is the first sip they haven’t had to work for since the springtime. This has resulted in both sugar and acid levels droping fairly uniformly across the vineyard…more waiting.

The only serious concern was our Chardonnay, which is still about a week away from harvest. Although we had no signs of Botrytis going into this weekend, we want to make sure our fruit stays clean and mold free. Fortunately, the sun was out, and a gentle breeze dried off most of the fruit quickly. Chardonnay grows in very dense and tight clusters, and these tend to trap and hold moisture…what we needed today was a really large blow drier: enter the minds of Fred and Andy Schweiger…

What you see below is something quite novel this time of year, my father, driving an empty sprayer…it’s our BLOW DRIER! Our spray rig is equipped with a very large, powerful fan, producing about a 50 mph breeze through the vines. Although you can’t see it in the video, droplets of water are blowing out of the clusters, providing us with clean, dry fruit.

Cheers,

Andy Schweiger, Winemaker and blow dry stylist, Schweiger Vineyards.
 

You pick it, You stomp it!

Buckle up those boot straps and get ready to experience the tradition and family FUN-damentals of a good old fashioned wine grape harvest. 

Join the generations of Schweiger’s at their 2,000 ft. mountain top vineyard and winery and be ready to get to work helping with grape sampling, sugar testing handpicking grapes, de-stemming and stomping grapes with your very own feet. 

After we hose down those toes, you will enjoy a full tour of modern day winemaking and tasting of current releases and barrel samples followed by a family style picnic lunch on the lawn overlooking our vineyards, Napa Valley floor views and mountain vistas. 

This exclusive opportunity is limited and will take place on September 16, 23 & 30th and again on October 7th  Each harvest experience will run from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. 

Please telephone the winery to make your reservation that will be on a first come first serve basis. 

The cost to participate for all of the above is $125 per person. Your grape picking lug box and a few other souvenirs will be yours to bring home to help share your unique experience with your friends and family.

For further information please contact us at (877) 963-4882 or (707) 963-4882 or james@schweigervineyards.com

In addition to receiving a number of requests for the names of wineries to visit in Napa Valley, a good friend called the other day and asked, “If I only have one day to spend in Napa, what would you suggest?” and I immediately responded: Spring Mountain.

Anyone who has driven north on Highway 29 through Napa Valley will recall the two-lane highway that is dotted with the entrances to some of the most well-known California wineries such as Robert Mondavi, Neibaum-Coppola (now called Rubicon), Opus One and Louis Martini, just to name a few. Every time I make this drive, I almost feel the exhilaration of using some of those old “E” tickets from the early days of Disney World, but instead of screaming down Space Mountain, I am slowly driving up Spring Mountain.

Just before you reach the downtown area of St. Helena, you come across an old drive-in restaurant, Taylor’s Refresher, which is a destination of local families and tourists alike. Driving just a bit farther north takes you into downtown St. Helena, which has the look and feel of 1950s small-town America.

Turn west off of Highway 29 in the downtown area and you will come to a street named Spring Mountain Highway. After a right turn onto Spring Mountain Highway, you’ll soon realize that it’s anything but a highway, but more of an old, winding country road that leads you several thousand feet up through a very rural area, leaving behind all of the commercialization of Napa Valley and into the realm of the 30 plus wineries that comprise the Spring Mountain Appellation.

At one juncture, you approach an area where it narrows to one-way traffic because two extremely large, tall and beautiful redwood trees have overtaken the pavement that used to allow two cars to pass. The drive takes you through a number of hairpin curves and is lined with giant redwoods in some areas and vineyards in others as you pass the wineries that comprise this appellation.

This drive is one of my favorites in the valley and is absolutely beautiful in the summer, when all the plants and vegetation are a lush green. It leads to stops such as Spring Mountain Winery, Robert Keenan Winery, Schweiger Vineyards, Pride Mountain Vineyards and Barnett Vineyards. Each of these wineries is open to the public, but they require an advance reservation.

Due to the mountain environment, the grapevines struggle for water and other nutrients, causing their roots to travel deep below the surface in search of moisture. Vineyard managers have to be careful just how much their growing efforts “stress” the fruit. They provide the vines with very little water, making the vines struggle to obtain the necessities that allow them to grow in a healthy manner. This creates a smaller crop than normal and also results in smaller grapes, but with much more intense flavors in the fruit. In my opinion, Spring Mountain wineries produce the some of the best-tasting merlots due to the intensity of their flavors.

During a visit to Spring Mountain Winery a few years ago, my party had the opportunity to observe a coyote frolicking in the vineyards. Pride Mountain and Barnett sit at the top of this area and offer visitors the ability to look down upon the vineyards and even see the fog rolling in from below.

There are not any restaurants or stores on Spring Mountain, so you are on your own for food and beverages other than wine. I would suggest putting together a picnic basket at one of the markets on the valley floor, because many of the wineries have designated picnic areas and they can be reserved when you schedule a tour and tasting.

Jim Rawe, a family attorney in Bradenton, is an avid collector of fine wines. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at jimrawe@gmail.com.