Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone!
We typically begin the year taking a break in January and February from vineyard duties and then begin work in the vineyard in March. That was true in 2025.
Here are the vintage notes for 2025:
Vintage 2025: It's March and That Means It's Time to Prune
Vintage 2025: April Showers!
Vintage 2025: May Day!
Vintage 2025: June Update
Vintage 2025: Flowering
Vintage 2025: It's July!
Vintage Notes 2025: The Auxerrois is at Veraison
Vintage 2025: Labor Day Activities
Vintage 2025: Auxerrois Pressing and Statistics
Vintage 2025: Chardonnay Harvest and Pressing
Vintage 2025: Chenin Blanc Harvest and Pressing - Part 1
Vintage 2025: Chenin Blanc Harvest Part 2
Vintage 2025: Red Harvest
Vintage 2025: Late Harvest Noble Rot Chenin Blanc
Vintage 2025: Last Harvest of 2025
All in all, while the weather began with a cold spring that turned into a very wet late spring and early summer, by late July and August the weather turned into one of ample sunshine which was good for ripening grapes. While the vines seem to still be recovering from the 2023 February freeze and May frost, the quality of the harvest was outstanding!
A big take home lesson from 2025 for us, is to be more on the ball with pruning so that our canes are laid down earlier. That will give us more time to begin mowing sooner and avoiding the manual weed whacking that my husband endured during the growing season.
If you are interested in what our various vintages were like, please check out this link to Vintage Notes
Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!

Wine and Friends

We usually go to Long Island to visit the Massouds and our annual pilgrimage this year occurred in early December. This time, winemaker, Kareem and his family were visiting us! They were on their first leg of a trip that would take them from Rhode Island to Florida with a few stops along the way. The impetus was to take their two children, ages 10 and 8 to the Polar Express Train ride in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. Our home is on the way and we were delighted that they were able to spend the evening with us.
The train ride ended around 8:30 and they were at our home a little after 9:30. We had a late dinner with them that my husband made. Leg of lamb grilled and braised so that it was tender and falling apart, Greek lemon potatoes and a Greek salad. We had a wonderful evening, the children hung in there and after having a nice meal of buttered spaghetti and a side of parmesan cheese, which they ate with gusto, hung out in our livingroom.
My husband brought out two wines, a Philip Togni 1995 and a Cascina Ballarin Barolo Bricco Rocca 2001 to pair with the meal and they did not disappoint.
Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the meal, but here are the wines that we drank:

The first wine that we had with the meal was a 2001 Barolo. We have learned by watching the show "V is for Vino" that nebbiolo, the grape used to make the Cascina Ballarin Bricco Rocca, is a more masculine expression of the nebbiolo because it is grown in Barolo, which made it an excellent pairing with the lamb.
As with all good wine and food pairings, the Barolo disappeared in the course of talking, eating and general enjoyment of the evening. Next, my husband brought out this 1995 Philip Togni Cabernet Sauvignon. The last time that we had a 1995 Philip Togni Cabernet Sauvignon was in 2011. At that time we had the wine with cowboy steak. I wrote that the wine stood up to the steak and although it was at that time, 16 years old, I felt that it could still be cellared. Fast forward 14 years, the wine was still tasting youthful with fruit and soft tannins that made it the perfect complement to the lamb.
As is the case with good wine, food and good friends, the conversation flowed and in no time it was 12:30! For us, this is what wine is about, sharing with friends and creating memories to be cherished and remembered!

2025 Annual Harvest Party

Our 2025 annual harvest party was held on December 14. This will be the fourth year that we have used our industrial space to hold this event. We look forward to seeing all of our harvesters and hosting this party. However, this year, Mother Nature was having a big say in the attendance. At the beginning of the week, we were debating whether we should postpone the event due to the inclement weather headed our way but as Sunday approached, the forecast was for light, fluffy snow with perhaps an accumulation of 1 to 2 inches. Crossing our fingers, we decided that we'll still have the party.
This year's theme was Hawaiian food and make your own sliders. For the slider there was a choice of teriyaki chicken, salmon burger, and kalua pulled pork.

We also provided yaki soba salad and Hawaiian mac salad. For dessert we had a trio of mini pies that included pecan, apple and pumpkin. After the feasting was well under way, we held our traditional drawing of the prizes. Every year we include some kind of champagne and sparkling wine and try to complement the bubbly with other local foods.
Here are our three winners:

We think that everyone who came had a good time. We were glad to see new faces and familiar faces at our annual harvest party!
As we left the industrial space for home, Mother Nature provide a winter wonderland for us to marvel at:

Our heartfelt thank you to everyone who braved the weather to come and be a part of our harvest party!

Vintage 2025: Last Harvest of 2025

On Sunday, December 7, we brought in our last harvest for 2025, our late harvest chenin blanc. When we went to the vineyard, we saw a bit more devastation as we got to the middle of the vineyard. In spite of the damage, we were able to harvest 6 lugs of organza bagged botrytized chenin blanc and brought it back to our winery space at Taugwonk Spur.

In the past, we have taken out the grapes from the wedding bags to put into the basket press in a mash bag, but this year, we put the grapes into the press, bag and all. By doing this, we cut out one step and got the process of pressing going.

We were able to fit two lugs worth of organza bags before we began the press. We learned from using the press last year that the blocks that go into the press must be paired properly since they were of various sizes.

The juice that came out of the press was slightly viscous and golden yellow in color. We took the Brix reading with a refractometer by taking 5 mL of juice and diluting it with an equal amount of water. The Brix was 32 degrees!
We let the juice settle in the glass carboy and on December 9, we rehydrated the yeast to inoculate the juice. My husband did some research into the proper yeast to use in fermenting a late harvest, high Brix juice so this year, we are trying SM102. This yeast is a slow fermenter and is easily stopped when the alcohol levels reach 12%.
The photo on the right shows that the fermentation is going!

We will continue to monitor the fermentation during the days to come.