A few weeks ago I was so excited to see that iTunes was down loading a podcast. I was so surprised to see that it was a Cellar Dweller podcast. It is great to hear Dave and TOG back together again. I ahve enjoyed listening to the older podcasts. Now there are new ones that I can look forward to. Keep up the great work you two.

I am fermenting Cab right now that was picked last week outside of Lodi Ca. The vineyard is owned by someone who grows under contract for a rather large winery. We were a… Continue

Glad to see this page is here. I've been listening to the backlog of shows and love them, and was glad to hear eventually that the community had been enhanced via this website. I guess I'll write whatever I feel like in this blog, but mostly it'll be on topic discussion of my latest wine experiments. Right now I've got a pale of juice, half pinot grigio and half chardonnay, that I hope to start fermenting in a few weeks. The delay is only because of previous plans for memorial day weekend and th… Continue

Here is an interesting video about how the effect of climate change has altered, and will alter in the near future, California's wine fortunes:

Napa Wineries Face Global Warming

I was wondering if my fermentation's are happening too fast for my reds. My wines go from 24 ish Brix down to 0 in under five days usually. The cap still forms so there is still sugar fermenting so I dont know if I just need to get a more accurate hydrometer for measuring the lower Brix. If you go to my website http://www.vinetowine2008.com and go to the logs page you can pull up a PDF file of my fermentation's and see the measurements. Are others seei… Continue

The harvest has begun! Yields are down this year due to low rainfall and frosts. This doesn't really impact quality, but it does impact quantity of fruit available. This also means that most vineyards will see higher quality due to small berries that yield more concentrated wine. With the recent warm and dry weather and a very small crop, fruit is ripening quickly... sometimes up to 3 brix per week (up to twice the normal rate). Expect phenomenal fruit!