The above pic of my sickeningly cute son is just one of the many not-so-subtle cues that spring is coming, quickly.

The buds on the vines are beginning to swell, the wild flowers are in bloom (which Jackson likes to pick and stash in a bucket and deliver to either me or his mom upon returning), and Spring training is well under way.

Even Chaizer, our Lab, is letting the optimism of spring infect him. Check out his choice of gnaw sticks. Or should I say logs. Freakin’ weirdo.

The early mornings will be pretty cold for a week or so, but we look to be safe, thank God.

And I am thankful. Really. How wonderful would it be if the rest of the year was filled with more moments like this?

Part 1 can be found here.

The ride to jail was more than a little surreal for the obvious reasons (“Oh my God, I’m actually going to jail,” etc.). But it was made even more so by the fact that my blue uniformed chauffeur was blasting 2Pac the entire ride from Davis to the Woodland hoosegow. It’s hard to think of even a handful of artists that would be more inappropriate for a cop to be rocking out to, and I gave it some serious thought for a good part of the ride. It was David Lynch, backward-talking midget weird.

After check-in I alternately leaned against a puke encrusted wall for support and sat on a strange pony wall extending into the middle of the holding tank. The other gentlemen in there with me, even though they looked comfortable lying on the ground, seemed to be impervious to the noxious smell of stale piss emanating from the floor. I have a pretty high tolerance for filth as I mentioned, but grabbing a few z’s of fitful sleep on the concrete seemed to come at just too high of a cost in terms of overall health and cleanliness.

So when I got a chance the next morning to blearily call the only relative I had in the area, I didn’t think that I would have to explicitly state that discretion was of the highest priority. I did tell Amanda I understood how difficult it would be to get herself out to Woodland, but I knew that she had extricated herself from the fetid embrace of the Sorority Life cameras before. Surely she could do it now as well, when it really mattered.

No such luck. I should have known what was in store when Amanda called me en route and suggested that I walk a bit down the road to meet them, away from the front of the jail.

Amanda pulled up in my Jeep which she rescued after I had unceremoniously abandoned it on the streets of downtown Davis. I was immediately struck by the fact that not only was she not alone, she had inexplicably brought a hot blonde along with her. Lovely.

While I’d been waiting for Amanda I’d picked a small rose for her – you know, for the trouble. I crushed it a little in my hand.

Then a van pulled up behind her and a camera-toting stranger emerged from the back of the Jeep. And suddenly everthing got exponentially worse. I looked at Candace and I remember that she was smiling. How fun for her! For me it was a special slice of hell that is probably best reserved for someone like Paris Hilton. Paris could take it. Me, not so much.

I kicked Amanda out of the drivers seat (I still had my licence in my possesion for some reason) and prepared to make a quick get away. To my horror, the camera operator got in the passanger side seat next to me and pointed the camera right in my haggard, glassy eyed face.

I thought it couldn’t possibly get any worse, but I was wrong. Instead of letting me stew in quiet self-loathing and sudden hatred for my cousin, Candace decided to engage me in some ever-so-pleasant small talk. She asked me about the bass pole in the back of the Jeep. Was it mine? Where did I like to fish? And oh, really, what kind of fish? She either didn’t have a clue, or this was her unique brand of torture. No one should be allowed to be that bubbly and happy. Either way, at that moment, I hated her.

And that’s how we first met. And somewhere, someone has a tape of the entire thing (email me if you’re reading). So weird.

I didn’t talk to Amanda for a week, but Candace called me and explained that Amanda had tried as hard as she could to shake the cameras. Apparently the producers didn’t know the purpose of the girl’s little jaunt into Woodland, and Amanda had been sly enough to avoid the tapped house phones and call me on her cell. I was assured that none of the footage would make it on the air and, as it turned out, none did.

As the quarter wound to a close, I started spending time with Amanda again. Like war buddies that had been through a cruicible together, Amanda and Candace stayed close after Sorority Life wrapped. We all spent the summer together, splitting our time between Davis and Healdsburg. More raucous partying ensued as the girls decompressed, and I did a lot of ride hitching. We flirted and frolicked. It was great.

Then my apartment burned down. Typical, really. It was an electrical fire caused by an old strand of Christmas lights in Amanda’s bedroom. Homeless, I moved in with Candace and her roommates, something I would have never considered doing if not for the fire, and amazingly we’ve been together ever since. We finished up at Davis, got married and even had a kid. That’s Jackson up there on the right. What a cutie.

It’s a crazy love story, and completely unlikely. Still, I think that sometimes people were just meant to be together. I can’t prove it, but I believe it and it gives me great comfort. That no matter how hard we try to avoid them and screw things up, there are gifts in our lives that we ultimately have to receive. Candace is my gift, and she came wrapped in a box of reality videotape, high insurance fees and smoldering apartment debris. That’s all the proof I need.

Stories about how couples meet and fall in love are some of the very best types of conversations to have over wine. Regrettably I can’t offer you a nice glass of pinot to sip while you read this, but I thought it would be fun to share the story of how my wife and I met. It’s fun tale chock full of drunk driving, sex and reality TV, and it pairs well with a heaping side of personal shame. I promise it won’t be dull. Besides it’s Valentine’s day, and I forgot the flowers.

A Davis Love Story*

When I was at Davis I shared an apartment with my cousin Amanda right next to campus. It was a nice, peaceful place with hardwood floors, old plaster walls and a second story view of tree-lined B street. Amanda and I were good roommates. I usually had a little bit of extra cash for the bars so I’d treat her to drinks on the weekends, and for her part she’d keep the apartment spic and span. As a bio major she had a thing for cleanliness. As a future winemaker with an appreciation for Brett, I guess I had a higher tolerance for filth.

I remember Amanda lecturing me once about making sure that the dish sponge dried all the way out in between uses. According to Amanda, if it didn’t the sponge would quickly become a veritable zoo for fornicating microbes. With colonies of bugs crawling all over the kitchen sink, who knows what ghastly health problems we might have to endure? I’d of course point to our trusty anti-bacterial soap sitting on the counter, but that never seemed to satisfy. I just remember her exasperated look and her mumbling something about mutation and resistance under her breath (she would have made a great technical enologist, but a lousy winemaker. Embrace the bugs, I say). I think the whole dish sponge thing is partly why I don’t believe I ever did end up cleaning a dish while we lived together.

All in all it was a pretty sweet deal. But (fortunately as it turns out) all this nice family camaraderie and idyllic college living ended the night MTV came to town.

Sorority Life was the brainchild of some short fellow named Fulvio. He and his wife were the producers, and their grand idea was to follow a group of girls through the process of going from pledges to full sisters throughout Spring quarter. There was just one problem with their plan. Because national sororities had rules which forbid Fulvio and his ilk from filming their rush, the producers had to find themselves a nice naive local charter without all the pesky bureaucracy. They eventually chose ΣΑΕΠ but, perhaps predictably, the turn out on Rush Week wasn’t quite what they were hoping for. So, in need of some camera friendly faces, ol’ Fulvio resorted to some classic social engineering and sent a team out to scour the local pubs. You can’t just leave a reality TV show to fate, after all.

Fulvio found what he wanted in my cousin and our neighbor Jordan down at G Street pub one spring evening. The pitch was something classy, like: “We’ll make sure you get on TV if you go down and rush this sorority.” I’m pretty sure all the girls heard was “TV,” and really, who can blame them. They were going to be stars.

About a week after they agreed I remember pulling up to my apartment complex and watching this surreal train of cameras snake out behind them as the two of them walked down to the Fast and Sleazy. Soon after that my cousin was gone, off to live in the Pledge House the ethically-challenged Fulvio had rented and retrofitted for easy filming of his girls. Not being a huge fan of Reality TV, I kicked back and adjusted to enjoying life with just me and my dish sponge microbes. I visited the pledge house a few times, and a friend of mine even streaked it one memorable evening. I think he managed to get his ass on every camera. He was very thorough. But in general I kept my distance. The whole thing just seemed wrong.

Fulvio, it turned out, was wrong and didn’t end up staying long in Davis. The word on the street was that his wife, the co-producer, didn’t especially appreciate him diddling a certain curly brown haired pledge (no, not my wife or cousin). The questionable ethics of banging the on-air talent was problematic for her apparently. Not to mention the whole issue of marital infidelity. In any event, by mid-quarter Fulvio and his wife were gone.

I’d seen Candace once or twice briefly when I’d helped Amanda move in, but it wasn’t until after my night in the hoosegow that I actually got to spend some quality time with her. I’m certain she was impressed. It’s not often that you get the opportunity to pick up your future husband from jail.

How I ended up getting put in jail is almost as silly as how I ended up getting out. I mentioned that I lived on B street? Well, my watering hole of choice was G Street pub. Great place. Live music, pool tables, and the bartender was my neighbor. Best of all it was close. If my alphabet counting skills are correct, B to G is just 5 blocks. So I really have no explanation for why I decided to drive my Jeep home that night, just 5 blocks from home after drinking until 1 in the morning. But if I hadn’t, and if that sleazy grease ball producer Fulvio hadn’t gone trolling for young lovelies and recruited my cousin, I might never have met Candace, love of my life.

Next: I (futilely) request a discrete pick up from jail, we finally meet, and the actual love part of the story begins.

*Names and some details have been changed to protect the sleazy.

I was talking to a local photographer today on the phone who is starting a pinot vineyard in Graton, and I know a bunch of other prospective growers check in once in a while so this link is for you. It comes from the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service and it outlines the benefits and methods of farming sustainably with cover crops. Bottom line is that it is a cost saver for most areas. Here’s the meat:

Economics of Cover Crops

The most obvious direct economic benefit derived from legume cover crops is nitrogen fertilizer savings. In most cases these savings can offset cover crop establishment costs. Indirect benefits include herbicide reduction in the case of an allelopathic rye cover crop, reduction in insect and nematode control costs in some cases, protection of ground water by scavenging residual nitrate, and water conservation derived from a no-till mulch. Longer-term benefits are derived from the buildup of organic matter resulting in increased soil health. Healthy soils cycle nutrients better, don’t erode, quickly absorb water after each rain, and produce healthy crops and bountiful yields.

For the rest of you non-farmers wanting to do your bit to move towards sustainability here are two cost effective things you can do to both save money in the long run and help protect resources.

Green Dimes

I joined Green Dimes about three months ago and have been impressed with the level of service for just $3.25 a month. Basically what the Green Dimes folks do is to stop your junk mail by removing your name from various mailing lists for you. They even have a custom catalogue removal service and send you pre-printed postcards where a signature and manual removal from lists is required. Less waste (in a year they calculate that you’ll save 280 gallons of water and they’ll plant 12 trees in your behalf), especially in your own mailbox is a great thing, and the time and effort it would take to do it yourself is much, much more than 3.25 a month.

Buy CF bulbs

There’s a meme going around that I think was started by the announcement that Walmart is going cut its energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by switching to CF type bulbs. The benefits of the 60 watt replacement bulbs are many: they will save you money (over $1000 in energy costs over the life of the bulbs for a typical house). Additionally Walmart estimates that

One Compact Fluorescent light bulb keeps half a ton of greenhouse gas (CO2) out of our air. Wal-Mart has over 100 million customers. That means if each customer bought just one compact florescent light bulb, it would:

* Keep 22 billion lbs of coal from burning at power plants
* Keep 45 billion lbs of GHG from being emitted
* Equate to removing 700,000 cars worth of greenhouse gases from the air
* Keep 700 million incandescent light bulbs from landfills

Finally the bulbs have come down in price dramatically. You can pick them up for around $2 each these days and they no longer suffer from the lag associated with earlier generations of the bulbs (click, wait a half second for the light to come on). CF bulbs are now instant on.

Seth Godin has a post on the subject that goes into more detail that I encourage you to check out as well.

Getting rid of your junk mail, saving on energy bills, and being a good steward sounds like a great trio of New Year’s resolutions, and accomplishing them is as easy as screwing in a few light bulbs.

Good times.

Hat Creek Ranch is my favorite place on earth. Each night I’m here I open the windows and let the sound of the rushing water ease me to sleep. Each day I marvel at the natural beauty of this area, sandwiched between Mt. Lassen and Mt. Shasta, both of which are visible from different parts of the Ranch.

I came up here to look at portions of our farmland at the Creek and 45 minutes north up in the small town of Beiber with my Dad, Reynaldo Robledo and his son Jenaro. I’ve written about the Robledos before, and spending a day up here with them both was a real treat. Reynaldo reports that a book about his life is soon to be released and the movie is still in the works as well. The link above has the details of his inspiring life. Very cool.

The goal of the visit was to get a rough idea if any of our land up here is suitable for growing wine grapes. Reynaldo thinks that there is potential for some Icewine cultivars to thrive up here, and I’m excited to see what the future brings. I’m a huge Icewine fan and starting a project that could potentially produce some of that perfumey nectar fills me with joy.

Cabin for Rent

But this isn’t just a travelogue post! I also wanted to let any anglers in the audience know that we still have some openings at the cabin. Fishing season runs into November so there is still plenty of time to plan a trip, and Hat Creek is widely considered to be one of the best trout streams in California.

Most of the creek is public and is under fairly heavy pressure from weekend anglers, but at Hat Creek Ranch you have an entire half mile of private frontage to fish all to yourself. The trout here are wild, wily and big. Reading through the Trout Journal we leave out for guests to write in, visitors are routinely pulling out 3-plus pound rainbow and brown trout – if they can get them to shore without them breaking the line! Here are some quotes from the journal.

7-1-06

Big trout. Beautiful site. Cozy Cabin. Up at 6 – fishin’ the creek. Lunch – fishin’ the pond. Nap – reading – early dinner. Back to the creek until almost 10 pm – because the fishing is so fun and the trout are beautiful! Hat Creek Ranch exceeded all our expectations.

Ken and Chris – Millville CA

7-8-06

Beautiful cottage, idyllic view of the stream. Wandered around taking it all in. Found the lake…hooked and lost several big ‘uns, “wide bodies” as the wife calls them. 5x tippet just doesn’t cut it…Explored the river from one boundary to the other. Who knew the best fishing was going to be right in front of the cottage! Evening action again very slow until we finally found a nymph that worked. Then every good cast was rewarded. Hooked some real monsters. Broke off a 4x tippet like it was nothing. Fished until 9 pm with our wonder fly. Day 3 – On the water by 6 am. 6-7 the most exciting fishing of the weekend…good size, but not the monsters from yesterday. When a big one did take the fly, there was an epic battle, into the backing 4 times before the fish broke off…If I learnt as fast as these fish seem to, I’d be a rocket scientist by now!

Jennifer and Tim – San Mateo

31 July

Beautiful experience! Landed 8 monsters (between 2 and 4 Kgs!), 6 in the lake and 2 in the river, especially with the dry…Great vacation for my family.

Uberto – from Italy

Uberto’s girls are the ones who created the wood art out in front of the cabin in the pics Last one:

What a wonderful spot you have! Thanks for allowing me to experience it. Home is very comfortable – nice porch and BBQ. Below the bridge might be the best water in Hat Creek. Very challenging. We will visit again.

Scott and Rochelle – Carmel Valley CA

We’re really very proud of the ranch and would love to have you visit. There’s plenty to do and see (ATV’s, hiking, Burney Falls, kayaking, paintball etc.) so if you are interested have a look at the Fly Shop’s ordering and information page or give the shop a call at 800-669-FISH.

Last night I attended the second of what will probably be many open forums on the proposed amendments to the Sonoma County general plan. At issue is whether or not the county should extend Riparian corridors 100 feet from each bank of designated creeks, streams, and rivers, whether biotic habitat zones should be enacted where suspicion of endangered species exists, and which areas to add to the designated scenic areas list that protects views of ridgelines and prohibits most building in such areas.

Our vineyard is a designated scenic area and it is intersected by two large proposed biotic resource (BR) zones. You can see a blurry photo of our parcel in the picture. The green circles represent the BR zones.

The problem I have with the new proposals can be summarized with an example: For BR areas where the county doesn’t know and isn’t sure if a danger to some flora or fauna exists, instead of looking more closely into the areas under consideration to determine the danger (or lack thereof) to protected species, they simply increase the size of the protected sphere on the map. Conversely when the county is sure that there is a species that needs protection it is able to properly estimate the area needed and the spheres are much smaller and contained. The number of people affected is minimized by having good data.

The proposed policy however has the extremely undesirable effect of impacting the most property owners (and forcing them to perform expensive environmental impact studies costing thousands of dollars) where there is the least information known. It punishes property owners for the general ignorance of county and state governmental agencies tasked with identifying areas in need of protection. We and other property owners will have to pay for a study where the probability of a possible biotic problem is, paradoxically, the least likely.

It is extremely silly.

And I would have said so since it was, after all, an open forum. We had already heard from an organic dairyman who alerted the committee that if the setbacks from streams were enacted that he would lose 60% of his grazing land, thus putting him out of business. We heard from another farmer who complained about the fencing regulations that call for the lowest wire on a fence to be 18 inches above the ground saying that his heifers would easily crawl under such a ridiculously high fence and “eat your riparian corridor.”

But then Jess Jackson’s name was called. Jess owns a family winery in Sonoma County called Kendall-Jackson. You may have heard of it.

Jess is a large man, and he crept up close to the microphone as he spoke to the committee. He introduced himself as a lawyer, but said that he had been a farmer since he was six. He mentioned that he owned 1000 acres of vineyards in Sonoma County and that he had represented numerous cities, water boards and counties throughout his career on similar property rights issues. He said that he agreed in principal with the goals of protecting our waterways and endangered species and habitats and that indeed, every farmer he knows supports such ideals. Many in the crowd of about 500 gathered for the meeting murmured their assent.

However, because we don’t know about the amount of space we actually need for the proper protection of riparian areas, and due also to our stunning lack of knowledge as to if there are even species in need of protection in areas that will be designated as biotic areas, Jess advised the county to let another district try and tackle such murky legal issues.

And then in a rather deft turn of phrase, Jess, in so many words, threatened to sue the pants off the county if they approved the new plan. Though he didn’t actually utter those words, he was quite clear that he believed that the proposed measures amounted to a “taking” of land without just compensation to landowners – and then he pointedly mentioned that he had already sued the County once before, and won.

“Litigating such matters can get very expensive in court,� he said. “It can cost the county and taxpayers millions.�

After he left and most of the crowd assembled clapped and cheered I knew that, at the very least, the message I had hoped to convey to the council had been sent, but in a much more memorable fashion than I would’ve ever been able to muster.

The committee chairman banged his gavel and admonished those present to “stop behaving like children� as I got up to leave to go back home to my new son and family. I drove home down half-constructed highway 101 to my wife, boy and a late dinner safe in the knowledge that the concerns of Sonoma County farmers had been given voice, and that they had been heard.

So from my family to yours, thank you Jess.

My son finally arrived yesterday morning, which means that the OIV series will have to be put temporarily on hold. I do expect to make tomorrow’s talks on Winery Costs and Profitability, so check back then for info on building and financing inventory, size distribution and market niche and their affect on profitability, financing premium wineries from a banker’s view, and, my favorite “How much does it cost to start a small winery?” The short answer: a lot.

I’ve got a lot of thoughts swimming through my mind right now as you can probably imagine, but the foremost is thankfulness for the health of both Jackson and Candace. Candace labored naturally, with no interventions or pain medication. She was a superstar, taking only 12 hours to pump out our little burrito, and because she and therefore Jackson weren’t numbed and medicated, little Jack was awake and alert. He was able to feed immediately and then bond with us and take in his surroundings. Born at 2:51am last night, we were home by 11:00am the same day. Simply amazing.

This same natural, non-interventionist approach is a big part of our winemaking at Capozzi by the way, and we think it will breed similar results!

Cheers!

The tasting was a great success and nearly all of the wines were wonderful (two were corked unfortunately, one more than we “deserved” given industry rates). As should be expected with a field selected mainly from the Russian River Valley, the appellation dominated the tasting. There were some surprising results from the tasting however, with a wine that most of us had never heard of taking the top spot.

The big surprise, the ’01 D’Agostini Russian River Pinot, which can be purchased online for only $10.00 a bottle, was the consensus top pick (but didn’t make my top 5).

Next was my personal favorite, Moshin’s Lot 4, which sadly is now sold out. This was followed by the ’00 Dehlinger Goldridge Vineyard. All three of these wines were showing great, and coupled well defined red fruit (think cherry and strawberry jam) with sweet, round tannins and vibrant, but not jarring acidity. The Moshin also had a candied rose/violet floral nose and extremely light color that made it stand out from the crowd.

Some other interesting notes from the tasting:

• The most expensive wine in the tasting, the ’02 Rochioli Three Corner Vineyard ($150.00), didn’t make the top 5. Couple this with the $10.00/bottle D’Agostini showing very well, and it seems in this case that you don’t have to spend very much to get delicious, drinkable Pinot.
• My second favorite wine (5th overall), the ’03 Ketelsen Tudor House Reserve, is made by John Pepe of Wine Studio One, the guy helping me design Capozzi Winery.
• Some big hitters placed in the bottom third of our taster’s preferences like Sea Smoke (though one taster loved it), Gary Farrell, and the ’00 Dehlinger’s Estate blend.
• Two bottles were clearly corked: the ’01 Joseph Swan Trenton Estate and the ’02 Robledo. Bummer.

A great time was had by all, the food was top notch and paired well with all the Pinot, and the weather was absolutely beautiful at a perfect 73 with a slight wind. Be sure to click on the photo above for more pictures of the event.

Happy Independence Day!

The Complete List (in order of preference):

D’Agostini
Moshin Lot 4
Dehlinger Goldridge Vineyard
Moshin 115 Clone
Tudor House Reserve
Rochioli Three Corners Vineyard
Merry Edwards
Rochioli Estate
Marimar Torres
Harrington
Rochioli Special Cuvee
Dutton Goldfield
Halleck
Holdredge
Sea Smoke
Gary Farrell
Dehlinger Estate
Robledo (corked)
Joseph Swan (corked)

There have been a number of news stories on the effects of immigration on the wine industry the past few days.

The first story I read, on Sanluisobisbo.com and written by the Associated Press, does a good job of putting a human face on the plight of recently laid off vineyard workers. In an interview with vineyard worker Jorge de Haro, the article explores the effects of Charles Krug eliminating its in-house labor force and moving to contracted labor (vineyard management companies).

After 33 years of planting, pruning and harvesting grapes that make world-renowned wine, Jorge de Haro is about to lose the only job he’s ever had.

De Haro and his co-workers at Charles Krug’s Napa Valley vineyards are being replaced by field hands supplied by third-party contractors, part of a growing trend sweeping agricultural fields nationwide.

The article leaves the distinct impression that the move by Krug is indicative of a shift in the industry; one that may potentially cost laborers jobs and lower their wages. But it seems at odds two other articles, one linked to by Tom at Fermentation, and the second published yesterday in Decanter.

In the former, from the California Farm Bureau Federation, vineyard owner Joseph Ramazzotti is quoted as saying that there is a labor shortage, and that half of his seasonal workers from the past year haven’t returned.

In the latter, Decanter weighs in with an explanation for the shortage saying that “California grape growers are facing a harvest crisis as stepped-up US immigration enforcement limits the labour pool� and that “the problem is that labour costs are increasing.�

My only explanation for the discrepancy is that the AP story was probably influenced by the United Farm Workers Union. The UFW was unable to come to terms with Krug on a new labor agreement last year and many labor contractors are non-union, so they have a vested interest in playing up the move by Krug as harmful to workers. Fortunately, I don’t think this accurately reflects the state of the industry, which is generally very respectful and sensitive to the needs of vineyard workers.

If there does turn out to be a labor shortage, and anecdotal evidence contends that there will be, then Mr. de Haro hopefully won’t be out of work for long. Moreover, most local vineyard management companies do treat their employees fairly. Two I would single out especially are Silverado Farm Company in Napa, which offers a profit sharing arrangement and medical insurance to many emplyees, and our vineyard managers, Robledo Vineyard Management in Sonoma.

The Robledos, who I’ve written about before on this winery blog, are a family run operation. Reynaldo himself is an immigrant, and his daughter Vanessa Robledo is on the board of Directors of Vineyard Worker Services, a non profit organization that facilitates housing development and serves migrants and year-round-resident farm workers with essential services, referrals, and training. I know how they treat their workers (well), and by law we also must know how much their workers are paid, and I can attest that it is a competitive wage.

Much still depends on the immigration bill that does or doesn’t come out of congress. All in all, though there is always room for improvement, the situation in the near term for workers isn’t anywhere near as dire as the UFW wants us to believe.

Eric Asimov writes about Domaine de la Romanée-Conti in his latest post, and relates some of the astronomical prices DRC wines are commanding in New York ($2400 a bottle). The site he links to for information on DRC is interesting and well written, though the author falls prey to some remarkable anthropomorphic hyperbole, even by French standards.

…there is something magical about it…so succinct and refined in its youth, with an bewitching poise that masks its inherent power. After a decade… [they] begin to show their splendor, to conjure up their mystical qualities, their poise intact, complex and mercurial. Some…have to make an effort to impress: great…Conti simply purrs with sophistication and joie-de-vivre. I believe the word banded around of “effortless”.

In an article titled “Talking About Wine” published in the journal Language, Prof. Adrienne Lehrer conducted a structural analysis of the wine vocabulary used by experts and concluded that people talk about wine because they are uncertain of their perception of reality. Talking about wine helps people compare their experience with others perceptions of reality in an attempt to objectify the experience. He says that talking about wine also makes us more likely to remember the experience, something I agree with wholeheartedly.

But what to make of descriptions of wine that read “succinct and refined…with…bewitching poise that masks inherent power?” Lehrer isn’t much help, but he ends his paper with this:

My study of wine words has shown that people do not apply words to things in the same way. Is the domain of wine-discussion an unusual one, or is it fairly typical of speakers’ application of words? If the latter is the case, then speakers probably do not communicate with each other nearly as well as they think they do, since they usually have no way of knowing that others apply words differently. But perhaps they communicate well enough for their purposes, even without knowing.

Do we communicate “well enough” about wine without knowing? I’m not so sure. When I read the description above it didn’t remind me of any wine I’ve ever tasted (sadly a DRC is not among them). Instead it reminded me of my Labrador, Chai (French for cellar), pictured above. As you can tell from the photo, he is the picture of refinement and poise, and he certainly makes no effort to impress. One is simply impressed naturally.

If you wonder where such panache comes from, like fine wine, it’s all in the breeding. We purchased Chai from an upstate New York breeder with impeccable credentials.
Moonlit Labradors is a fantastic breeder and I can’t say enough good things about owners Susan and John Bennington. Just have a look at their questionnaire to get a feel for the rigorous screening process prospective owners must go through to obtain one of their pampered pups.

Candace and I were talking a few nights ago, and we decided we want little Jackson to grow up with a Lab his own age. So naturally, given the lineage we are dealing with, what with the splendor and mystical qualities inherent in the bloodline, we’ve chosen to name our new pup Conti.

I think the French will approve.

EDIT: It seems that I wasn’t the only one blogging on “wine words” tonight. By some cosmic coincidence Anonymous Jeff Lefevere over at Good Grape has some choice words for an overly specific wine reviewer.