All posts tagged: Dry Farming

Dry Farmed 2012 Foxen Syrah

Published by

This week I pulled a bottle out of my collection – a 2012 Foxen Canyon Syrah from the Tinaquaic Vineyard, which had been DRY FARMED. You heard that right. Dry farmed. While dry farming is not a new concept, it’s rarely done. This technique, which uses only the water that comes naturally, has been used for hundreds of years in the Mediterranean and was the only way California vintners grew grapes until the 1970s. The wine that won the “Judgement of Paris” (as seen in the movie “Bottleshock”) and put California wines on the International map, was dry farmed. Currently, only a handful of California wineries dry farm. This is too bad, given that the vines are adept at surviving draught (a common problem in California). However, dry farming typically produced smaller yields (meaning less wine!). I picked up this bottle of wine in 2015 on an impromptu trip to Santa Ynez wine country. At the time, I was very excited to try a dry-farmed wine. I even kept my tasting notes: “rose petal, mint, …

These Vines Are Thirsty

Published by

Spring is finally here!  The grass is green once again.  The dogwoods and cherry blossoms are all in bloom.  It’s gorgeous! All this new foliage reminds me of Spring at the Vineyard.  It’s that time of year when the vines are once again in bud break.  They awake from hibernation and baby green shoots and leaves begin to emerge.  It’s one of my favorite times of year at the vineyard.  It may seem small to many, but it represents a reawakening and new life to me. During the winter, the vines lay dormant.  Leaves are gone and the vines look like deciduous trees when they lose their leaves.  They are brown and barren.  In fact, I once had a guest at an event at the vineyard in December ask me what was wrong with our vines.  I still laugh when I remember this, because he was certain our entire vineyard had been hit with some sort of blight.  Even when I explained the vines are always bare during the winter, he thought I wasn’t telling …