2021 Campass Barbera and Lasagne

On the days that we have rain, we have been managing to do a little cooking. Last Saturday, it rained all day so it was a perfect day to try a recipe that my mother in Hawaii has been raving about. It is my daughter's recipe for eggplant lasagna. We chose this Barbera to accompany the lasagna. For anything that has tomato sauce like pizza and spaghetti, Barbera is the perfect pairing. My husband claims that we have had this Campass Barbera before but sadly, I do not recall. It was inky purple in the glass and had flavors of black cherries.
Barbera is one of those wines that is a good value and this bottle retails for about $33.00.
Here is a picture of the lasagna. After making the lasagna, my husband and I both came up with a few tweaks. I used the striped purple and white Italian eggplant which is a milder eggplant than the typical large purple eggplant. The original recipe called for the sauce to be on the bottom which is what we did but we think it might hold together better with the eggplant on the bottom.

Vintage 2024: Chardonnay Buds are Awakening!

My husband and I are working as fast as we can to prune and lay down our fruiting canes. We know that the Chardonnay is the first to bud break and we typically begin pruning there but this year we began in the west where the Auxerrois are planted, followed by 17 rows of Chenin Blanc and are making our way east. On April 8, before we finished pruning all of the Chenin Blanc, we decided that we needed to skip over to the Chardonnay and prune the 8 rows there. It was a good decision! The rain and the warm weather are conspiring for budbreak to occur in the Chardonnay. When we began on April 8, the buds were dormant but today, we are seeing a mixture of buds in the scale opening and wooly bud stages. At the very tips and on thin lateral shoots we are even seeing a little pink!

Fortunately for us, our granddaughter is here on her spring break and came yesterday. Today, she worked a full day and with her help we are making good work through the Chardonnay!
I went to check on the Auxerrois and the Chenin Blanc where the canes have been laid down and the buds there still look very dormant.
I thought of a mnemonic for us: Taxes and all pruning due on April 15!

Vintage 2024: April Pruning, Pruning, Pruning

It's almost mid-April fortunately, we have pruned and laid down the fruiting canes for half of the vineyard!

However, that means that there is yet another half of the vineyard that needs attention!

The sap is beginning to run in the canes and we are seeing the return of lady bugs! Fortunately, even given the warm weather that we have been having, the buds are still in a state of dormancy. We are working in the Chardonnay, which is typically the first of our varieties to awaken from dormancy. We might be seeing a few buds that are in Eichhorn-Lorenze Stage 2, bud scales opening.

It's raining today! Time to do some other things that we've put off for a rainy day.

Here is Our Label

It has taken a while to get the final approvals for our label but with the help of our graphic artists (Michelle and Kimberly) and Susan at Jonathan Edwards, we were able to get the necessary approvals from the Federal and State governments. We are also working with a wonderful team at Niagara Labels who printed our labels. Who knew that the label approval, the final step in all of the approval procesess we have been through, would take this long.
This is our label:

Many of our friends who have seen our label are unsure what they are looking at. My husband designed this from Google Earth. Our vineyard is located on Quoketaug Hill at the head of the Mystic River and the view is toward Long Island.
Our name is a nod to our time in Hawaii. Passionfruit is found in Hawaii and is called "Lilikoi" in Hawaiian. We have chosen to give Hawaiian names to our various wines. This example is our Chenin Blanc and Wai Pua means "natural honey from flowers".

2000 Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste

A few days ago, my husband brought out this 2000 Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste from his wine cellar. I always ask him, "Is this the last one?" because I know by now that if it is, I might demur in drinking it. He said "No", so it was time to open it up! Although the wine is 24 years old now, the cork was in great condition, a good sign. The wine was dark garnet in color and my immediate reaction to the aromas was that it had an herbal, menthol quality to it that quickly blew off, then it was aromas of blackberries and dark cherries for me. It is not an overly fruit-forward wine but it is well balanced and has a soft finish.
We paired the wine with beef pot pie. The beef filling was slowly braised with half a bottle of Lan Rioja. My husband insisted on having a side salad. We had the wine a few days later and it was still drinking well.

Wanting to learn more about the wine, I went to the website of the Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste. The Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste was purchased by Jean-Eugène Borie in 1978. Jean-Eugène along with his wife undertook the renovation of the property as well as the chateau which had not been lived in since the 1930s. It is family owned and the numerous photos on the sight shows their commitment to the land and their craft.

Vintage 2024: April is Here!

It is April! We began pruning in March and are really into the thick of pruning. Our weather forecaster has informed us that this past March has been the second rainiest March since records were kept. We can believe that.
This year, we are doing a few of our tasks in parallel. In previous years, we went through the entire vineyard removing the black Agfast which kept our young shoots upright and in the trellis wire. We followed that up with cutting the wire that held last year's fruiting canes to the trellis wire and cutting the tendrils. Then we trimmed the top half of the canes and then came the final pruning. This year, we are trimming the top of the canes, removing the Agfast, and cutting last year's canes from the fruiting wire simultaneously before the final pruning.
Here is what the vineyard looks like with the netting at the lowest position on the line post and the canes laid down for this season. At this time, we have done approximately 1/4th of the vineyard. The nice thing is, the buds are still very much dormant.

We are in for a few days of rain this week which will put a halt to our pruning activities. Here is hoping for better weather to come!