What is that apparatus in your vineyard?

All was quiet on the eastern front when I arrived at the winery early this morning.  It was around 6am (my circadian rhythm was disrupted by last night's full full moon), and the tranquil foggy vineyard was calling me.  There's something so comforting about the white blanket that covers up everything around us, even our magnificent view.  I started snapping pictures.  I didn't venture too far from our tasting room because I wasn't wearing proper shoes; heels actually (Yes, I'm in denial that I work at a vineyard...)  After snapping a photo of our amazing "view," I noticed a curious briefcase at the head of one of the rows of Cabernet Sauvignon.  


"Ah," I remembered, "It probably has to do with the water-monitor thingumabobs that Alan ordered."


Back in February under the direction of my mother Delia and my brother Alan Viader, we commissioned Fruition Sciences (www.fruitionsciences.com) - a cutting edge viticultural support company that uses innovative technology to study the vital signs of our vines.  We are learning what makes VIADER vineyards such a unique growing environment for premium quality wine grapes, and the results are fascinating. 



In the picture you can see the monitoring apparatus is powered by the sun, and reviews two vines at once.  Those vines are shown here completely wrapped in a foil-like material.  Sensors are placed throughout inside, and a computer captures data of how much water is getting to the vine and where it is achieving the best saturation.  We conduct this survey while our irrigation system is running to get the most accurate data.  For us science geeks, it's exciting!


It has been a great learning experience for Alan, and we realized just how efficient vines truly are as an agricultural product (compared to other products like artichokes, etc.), given their extensive root structure and water retention abilities.  I'm sure my brother can explain it in a lot more detail, but he's not here today!  It was his day to survey our friends' different vineyard properties where we have future grape-sourcing contracts.  


And more importantly, it's his younger son's first birthday!  Off to celebrate!   Cheers!


Note: Fruition Sciences has its headquarters in Montpellier, France, and an office in Oakland, California.  


Happy Thursday,


Janet Viader of VIADER Napa Valley

Cool Reflections

Foggy mornings on Howell Mountain. There's something incredibly enchanting about this fog that appears on select winter days and summer's warmest mornings. I've grown up on this mountain but it is no less beautiful to witness this shroud of white covering the commotion on the valley floor.

Everything is all covered up in a white blanket, and the peaceful silence at our family estate is even more surreal. In this photo, the morning mist even covers our western view of Diamond Mountain in the Mayacamas Mountains Range, which climbs up to over 2500 feet directly across from us.

As a child, I used to walk down the hillside trying to get in the middle of the fog, but really it's not much different from being above it... you just get colder! But you warm up quickly with the steep climb back to the top of the vineyard.

My mother Delia, was a visionary and chose to plant our vine rows straight downhill in a European design versus the horizontal terracing method. The rows enjoy western exposure that is sun baked in the afternoon, giving us the mature and concentrated Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot for which we are known.

If my family has learned one thing in the past 25 years of farming on Howell Mountain, it's that our vineyard site truly excels in cooler vintages, like 1998 and 2000. Delia says those are the years where the human component of terroir - the decisions of the winemaker - is most important.

We're also very excited about our 2010s and 2011s! The 2010 vintage was featured this weekend at our local trade wine auction, Premiere Napa Valley. I was speaking with my friend and colleague Chris Howell of CAIN on Spring Mountain about the vintage who agreed, "You could not have a better vineyard site for a cooler vintage." Other sites in the Napa Valley fared very well too, which was proven by the excitement at our record-breaking Premiere event. I really enjoyed the 2010 wines I sampled at Premiere, and know that my contemporaries in Napa Valley will continue to produce stellar wines even if Mother Nature throws a little fog and summer rain at us.

Happy Leap Year everyone.

Cheers,

Janet Viader, sales & marketing at VIADER

VIADER has been busy!

Forgive me bloggers, it has been over six months since my last confession...

I'll give you an update through photos.

Back in April, our winemaker Alan Viader was teaching his young son about pruning in the small section of Syrah & Shiraz that we have growing on our estate.

We also applied our annual allotment of fresh compost at the beginning of the year, using the mulch from our leftover grape skins & seeds from the 2010 harvest. Delia a.k.a. Mom, does not appreciate having the compost site right next to her home at the top of the vineyard, but Alan swears we don't have any other place to put it! NIMBY!

Springtime flew by, and we enjoyed warm evenings and beautiful sunsets, without the threat of frost up on the mountain. A typical saying is that if you make it to Mother's Day without a big frost, you're in the clear. Although we have great sun exposure and constant breezes, I try not to mention the "F-word" (frost) for fear of calling it over! Just like "R-word" (rain) around harvest time... Call me superstitious.

In the summer, we were all things "Auction Napa Valley," preparing our "Black Label" Barrel Lot and participating in multiple events. Alan took a little creative license to decorate our barrel for Friday's Marketplace event, which was a special blend full of "black" fruits. We had all hands on deck for the Marketplace event, with Alan and Cante, our hospitality director pouring at the barrel. Delia was out front pouring our current release of the VIADER "Black Label" and our signature VIADER Proprietary Cabernet Blend, and I was out promoting the E-Auction with my iPad and fellow "E-Squad" volunteers.

Despite the weather, we had a wonderful Auction Napa Valley and raised $7.3m for our community. Mom had a fun interview with her buddy Jean-Charles Boisset and Gavin Newsom under the tents at Meadowood on CRN Radio's "What's Cookin' with Mike Horn." I'm not sure how much of the conversation was actually centered around the wine auction, but I know it was interesting nonetheless!

Fast forward to Harvest 2011. Here are the highlights:

Happy Holidays everyone!

Sincerely,

Janet Viader, Sales & Marketing at VIADER

Knock, knock. Hoo's there?

Mr. Owl joined us a few years ago, and has a hoot in his little box. We invited him to watch over the vineyards throughout the evening and keep the vermin population down. Occasionally we catch him in flight, and spot his massive wing span against the backdrop of the twilight sky. He feasts on those pesky ground squirrels, gophers and moles - the same pests that ruin your home garden. A vineyard is just a massive garden after all.

My brother Alan has been carefully tending to the vines, which are just starting to wake up from their deep winter hibernation. We've got fuzzy little bumps on the vine canes, which were pruned down to a few inches at the end of January. Budbreak is coming very very soon. Right now they're just soaking up the delicious composting material we applied, and enjoying the warm Spring weather that has graced us this past week, with summer-like temperatures.

All the excitement is really happening inside the cellar, with Alan and Delia finalizing the blends for our 2009 DARE by Viader Cabernet Franc, which can't be bottled soon enough to meet the demand! We also racked the 2009 VIADER Proprietary Red Blend (Cab/Cab Franc) to clean out any sediment from the barrels. Our mother-son winemaking team is closely watching the development of our 2009 vintage, and are super pleased with the results. Bottling may occur sometime in the summer, if not post-harvest. TBD!

Warm regards,

Janet Viader, sales & marketing at VIADER

Just Another Day in Paradise

This is my favorite time of year in the Napa Valley. Beautiful sunsets over the acres of vineyards changing colors from green to gold, with hints of red and brown. Once all the leaves hit the ground, you know the vines are peacefully sleeping, dreaming of the great vintages to come.

Underground in the cellar, all the VIADER wines have been pressed and moved to barrel to quietly undergo the usual secondary fermentation (malolactic). The only evidence remaining from the chaos of the harvest time is a great heap of grape must which will be taken to use in compost. Delia and Alan have tasted through the different lots and are looking forward to the further development of this enticingly aromatic and balanced vintage.

Amidst all this quiet, I can't stop thinking, finally we can have a social life! With the endless hours of harvest time coming to a close, I now see much more of my family (which is a good thing)! And at this time of year, we spend most of our time enjoying the "fruits of our labor" over dinner.

Happy holidays to all,

Janet Viader

sales & marketing at VIADER

While you were sleeping...

An ambitious Alan Viader showed up with our harvest team this morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 3AM. I came over to catch them while they were picking the "A-Block" Cabernet Sauvignon which is adjacent to Mom's house, so it turns out all three of us were up early!

The entire west side of the property has now been picked, and the remaining 7 acres on the east side will probably be picked on Tuesday. (All are red varieties.) So besides doing about three daily pump-overs, Alan now has time to catch up on his sleep... and Delia too!

Our crush pad has seen a lot of activity, processing several tons of fruit already. Usually towards the tail end of the picking, around 7AM, the winemaking team meets Alan at the crush pad to go through the game plan for the day. Some lots require pump-overs, and others punch-downs. All the concrete tanks are in use, with the stainless steel fermenters filling up fast, and the occasional T-bins (one-ton MacroBins) also holding exciting goodies.

Cheers,

Janet Viader
sales & marketing at VIADER

Berry berry good!

This year, we're slicing and dicing our vineyard blocks even smaller - picking smaller sections of the vineyard separately - which now requires a bit more berry sampling than years past (37 to be exact). I'll give a more detailed report at "Crush Time" about how many individual fermentations we get going. It will definitely beat last year's 22!

Our cozy lab is nothing to write home about, but it gets the job done. Here Alan measures the sugar levels (degrees Brix) in the berries, and also can check pH, TA (titratable acidity), sulfur (free SO2) and the fancy microscope is used so Alan can get a closer look at any bugs to determine if they are harmful pests or beneficials.

For berry sampling, individual grapes (or berries) are collected from different clusters to get a sense of ripeness in one area. The grapes are then stored in little sandwich baggies and lightly pressed to allow the juice to run.

In this photo, Alan was just starting his berry sampling in a few sections, and had nearly a dozen more to go!

Results? Wait, wait, wait. There are a few sections that passed the "taste test" and are reaching phenolic ripeness. For many other sections of our mountain vineyard we're close, but no cigar.

Sincerely,

Janet Viader, sales & marketing at VIADER

Clinking, Clanking, Rocking & Rolling!

This month we're bottling everything from the 2008 vintage, starting with the DARE by Viader Cabernet Franc, made from 100% estate cabernet franc. Our small bottling line can do over 650 cases (close to 8,000 bottles) a day, but today they're only doing a half-day.

Here's a shot of the boys - Maurilio, Efrain and Alan (in order of appearance). The music choice is Alan's.

We're making room for our 2010 vintage! It's ideal to have our bottling completed well before harvest when things really start getting busy. We are going to be getting a labeling machine, but until then our Quality Control manager, Blanca, will delicately hand-label each and every bottle with the cellar crew.

Teamwork makes the dream work!

Best,

Janet Viader, sales & marketing at VIADER

A Bug's Life

Alan's got 2500 new "pets" roaming the vineyards. Last week on a 95-degree day, we spent an hour walking up and down the vineyard rows on Block B (one of the steepest parts of our vineyard!) dispersing tiny wasps named Anagyrus pseudococci. Each vial holds about 100 adult females that will combat the Vine Mealybug, a parasite that can be harmful to grapevines.

This fascinating little bug will multiply and contribute to a more balanced ecosystem within the vineyard - a key concept of sustainable farming. Introducing these wasps is an alternative of using insecticides, and Alan was happy that his "pets" finally arrived!

On other news, flowering has finished throughout the vineyard, and we had great berry set. The 2010 clusters look very balanced, and we have had healthy shoot growth and a full canopy due to the April and May rains. Pictured here is a cluster of our estate Syrah. What I find most interesting about this stage of development is that the skin of the green berries has chlorophyll and acts much more like leaves, photosynthesizing sunlight and gathering a small amount of energy.

Happy 4th!

Janet Viader

sales & marketing at VIADER

Forever Tango at VIADER...

A little taste of an Argentine classic: "Volver" by Carlos Gardel.

As Auction Napa Valley approaches - NEXT WEEK! - the many Napa wineries and families involved will be opening their doors to host small groups for parties, dinners, and fun. These hospitality parties are scheduled on the days leading up to the main events on Friday and Saturday, and are offered to guests with tickets to the full weekend's festivities. (Get your ticket!)

Our winery decided to go back to my mother Delia's roots in Buenos Aires, to create a look and feel of a colorful cafe in the tango neighborhood called "La Boca." A traditional Argentine dinner will prepared by my sister-in-law, the ever-fabulous Chef Mariela Viader (there's more to it than just grass-fed beef!). For ambiance, a pair of dancers will take cues from Mariela's immensely talented cousin Alfredo Caceres, who will be playing tango classics on the guitar. There may even be informal tango lessons!

Professional dancers

Remember, if you cannot seem to make it in person, you can participate online via the E-Auction. Select lots will be featured during four consecutive weeks. We already have two down, and two to go! VIADER's E-Lot #488 will go live with Week 4 on Sunday, May 30th at 6:00pm.

Hasta luego che!

Atentamente,

Janet Viader, sales & marketing at VIADER

"Racking" up Wines

Racking is a procedure used to remove sediment from wine. It's as simple as removing the "clear" wine (free of sediment) from each barrel, cleaning the barrels, and refilling them once the barrels dry. Here's a shot of my brother Alan with the "bulldog" racking device pulling out the wine. He uses a flashlight on the hose to ensure he's not taking up any solids or sediment with the wine. Our 2009 wines have finished malo-lactic (secondary) fermentation, and so this is the first time they will be racked.

Everyone's philosophy is different when it comes to racking. We usually "rack to tank," meaning we move the wine from several barrels into a tank, clean a whole slew of barrels before refilling from wine stored safely in the tank. The wine is more homogeneous and it is more efficient since we don't have a huge staff on hand (my brother has two helpers and about 200 barrels per vintage). The wine may undergo some more movement with this method, depending on how close the barrels are to the tank, so we reduce the number of times we rack to about 3 times in the two year winemaking process.

Another way to rack is "barrel to barrel" - cleaning one barrel at a time and refilling it with the next barrel's wine. This minimizes the agitation of the wine and exposure to oxygen, keeping more of the trapped C02 which serves as a preservative, but also allows for barrel variation, possible reduction smells, and sometimes you get a slight "spritz" in the finished product which usually blows off with decanting as do any notes of reduction. There's also the copper in the cellar trick, but that's another story...

Great wines are created using either racking method, so it is really up to the winemaker to choose his or her winemaking style and priorities.

Cheers from Alan and Delia, mother-son winemaking team! Here they are putting together a mock 2009 VIADER blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc.

Warm regards,

Janet

Janet Viader

sales & marketing at VIADER

Here Comes the Sun...

After a hail storm yesterday and quite a chilly night, I'm looking forward to spending a few days in Southern California in a couple weeks for the NVV's "Taste Napa Valley" tour. With several events planned for both wine trade and consumers, we're really hitting all the marks and painting the town red!

Good-bye Howell Mountain!

Hello LA traffic!

I spent my morning making travel plans - reserving plane tickets and renting a car to scoot around LA, Orange County and San Diego. (Anyone need to carpool?) I sent out a dozen or so personal invites for the trade tasting to the restaurants and wine shops which best support VIADER & DARE by Viader wines. I've counted every bottle needed and the NVV is collecting it all tomorrow. Have I forgotten anything? Hotel, maybe?

You can come taste wines with me too! I'll be participating in a few consumer tastings, including a wine dinner at Spago's Beverly Hills on Monday March 22nd, and "Nightlife Napa Valley" in Orange County on Wednesday March 24th.

Here's a photo from a tasting event last year:

Janet Viader & Alison Burger

Besides tastings, I will also be "teaching" at a couple wine education seminars. In the LA area, I was invited by Master Sommelier Elizabeth Schweitzer of "Wine, Wisdom and Wit" to speak to her class of wine enthusiasts on "Napa Night" on Tuesday, March 23rd. I'll be pairing up with another vintner, Barry Wiss of Trinchero Family Estates, to discuss Napa Valley's geography and various appellations, and also the important people and historic developments in our local wine industry. I have to credit the NVV for putting the great presentation together. They even gave it a nice whimsical name: "Napa Valley Rocks." I'm also bringing wines to taste from our single-vineyard DARE by Viader wines: Tempranillo from Chiles Valley and Cabernet Sauvignon from St. Helena.

Cin cin!
Janet Viader, sales & marketing at VIADER

Precise & Professional Pruning Prior to Premiere

Precise pruning is a job for professionals. On my recent travels, I learned a lot about the various pruning methods. In Rioja, 100 year-old Tempranillo vines are shaped into "Gobelet" training systems, in Burgundy they favor "Single Guyot" for their Pinot Noir, and Bordeaux is a mix of Guyot, and "Bilateral-Cordon" which you traditionally see in Napa Valley and on our estate.

Yesterday at VIADER, we finally took to the vineyards and started pruning with an army of about 15 men. Pruning is an essential part in the management of vines, and has very specific timing needs. I'm not a viticulturalist, but I'll do my best to explain it the way I understand it. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!)

Typically, once the cold weather settles in after harvest, the vines lose their leaves, cease photosynthesis and go dormant for about 2-3 months. Unused energy in the form of carbohydrates from within the canes is slowly pulled down for storage in the trunk. These carbohydrates are later needed for bud-break and early canopy development. Pruning the dried canes as the weather warms up gives the young buds the extra push to break through and pull that energy into life.

Each bud, like our estate Syrah vine pictured here, will produce a shoot that may have 1-2 grape clusters, so pruning is important for gauging and controlling future yields for that harvest year.

My brother Alan commented, "This is when you create and set the balance for the rest of the year." We'll have a better idea of yield as we get closer to bloom, usually in late March. There's still more fun to come beforehand, so stay tuned!

All the best,

Janet Viader

sales & marketing @ VIADER

All Staff Meeting!

Our first meeting of the year we decided to have a little fun. My brother Alan opened a bottle each of our estate blends -- 2006 VIADER, 2006 "V," 2007 VIADER and 2007 "V." Our VIADER wines are blended with about 60-70% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Cabernet Franc, while our "V" features Petit Verdot, usually about 65% blended with Cabernet Sauvignon. However, our 2007 "V" blend has 92% Petit Verdot. I repeat, 92%! It's a labor of love to work with the challenging varietal of Petit Verdot, but it's so deliciously worth it! As you can see!

FYI, I'm off tomorrow to explore the wine regions of France and Spain, so you won't be hearing from me for a couple weeks.

A bientot! Hasta luego!

Janet

sales & marketing for VIADER

Handle with Care

After the nice holiday break it seems like there is no time to waste in the cellar! We have at least 2,500 cases of 2007 vintage wines that need to be hand-labeled by our dedicated team, headed by Blanca Avina, our Quality Control & Shipping Manager since 1996.

These rare beauties were just finished yesterday. Only five cases - 60 bottles! - of 2007 Petit Verdot from the VIADER estate were privately bottled for Meritage Wine Market in Encinitas, CA which purchased the lot at Premiere Napa Valley last year. This winter wine auction is attended exclusively by members of the wine industry (wine retailers, distributors, restaurant owners, etc.) to raise funds in order sustain the various outreach programs of our non-profit trade organization, the Napa Valley Vintners. During the event, all wines specially selected for this auction are tasted directly from barrel. Recent years have included up to 200 rare barrel selections from different Napa wineries offering 5, 10 or 20-case lots (Note: there are roughly 25 cases of 12/750ml bottles per barrel).

With the 2010 Premiere Napa Valley around the corner, we're in the planning stages for our Open House on the evening of 2/19, which is attended by people both in and out of the wine industry. Last year, we had fun and displayed a pirate theme in our Tasting Room, and this year we're hoping to get people excited about the "Roaring Twenties!" My brother Alan chose his favorite barrel of 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon to pour at Premiere. The 2008 vintage represents our 20th harvest on the VIADER estate, and we've chosen to offer the full pledge of 20-cases. (Alan's also turning 30 this year!! But don't tell him I told you...)

Sincerely,

Janet Viader

sales & marketing at VIADER

Holiday Gifts Galore

Disclosure: I have no idea what's been going on in the cellar the past two weeks. :-S I saw some wine being pressed in the basket press last week, but I can only assume it was our Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon since it was the last of the fruit to come in during harvest. Our winemaker has been hard to track down lately!

What's he been up to? Let me introduce my new nephew, Matthew Alan, born on Saturday, 12/12. He's been keeping Alan & Mariela very busy lately! I overheard a friend saying to him today, "It's like harvest all over again," referring to the loss of sleep, long busy days, constant cleaning...

Matthew will be the only one not enjoying a glass of wine with my family's Christmas dinner this Thursday evening. His parents will definitely be toasting to 2010!

On other business, we have completed almost all of our holiday shipping. One part of our caves is dedicated to our shipping department, and our shipping manager is now on vacation. So my morning involved packing a few "DARE-ing Collections" for people who ordered over the phone and off our website. We'll probably get some calls tomorrow from people trying to find gifts for their friends and family -- to be sent before Christmas of course. We'll do it if they pay 2-Day Air! (Otherwise, the wine sits in a freezing warehouse all weekend, and it could possibly ruin the wine.)

Make sure you all stay warm out there!

Happy holidays,

Janet Viader

sales & marketing at VIADER

Season's Greetings

Work in the cellar was cut short this morning because all the water is frozen! The holding tanks next to the winery were not drawing any water during the night when the temperatures fell to the low 20's. All we can do is wait...

I suppose our fountain could act as an indicator of when the temperature get's back above freezing. It's 9:15am, and sunny, yet still in the 30's.

This is typical weather this time of year. Since the vines are now dormant, they are able to endure the extreme weather with no issue. Not until February will we treat the vines to some "TLC" with our pruning team. For now, they can just relax and dream of all the wonderful grapes they will produce for us next year.

Sincerely,

Janet Viader of VIADER

Life on the Crush Pad

Pressing; pressing; pressing. Shown here is our basket press, gently squeezing the remaining juice from the Tempranillo grapes. One complete cycle for this press takes 24 hours.

Alan says we have only about four lots to go before everything is pressed and "barrelled down" (transferred from tank to barrel). The remaining wine is happily contained in the stainless steel tanks inside the winery at around 70+/- degrees. On average, the skin contact was around 50 days for all the wines - that's a lot!

And in the middle of everything, we bottled our 2007 VIADER Proprietary Cabernet Blend, and the 2007 "V" Petit Verdot Blend last Monday. Since our own bottling line only does about 500 cases a "day" (read: a very loooong day), and our 2007 VIADER is about three times that, we hired a mobile bottling line to get it done in one day. Well, I guess the large formats and half-bottles were bottled over the weekend, so it was more than one day! Today our friend Valerie Lenhart waxed the tops of all the big bottles (3L, 6L and 9L). She has to wear a back support belt!

As the holiday nears, we will break for Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately the whole family will not be together, as I have a trip to the East Coast... Wine will definitely be served with Thanksgiving dinner on both coasts. :)

Sincerely,

Janet Viader

Sales & Marketing at VIADER

Did I Mention We're Done?

Well, we're almost there. We're waiting for a few tons (1 ton = 145 gallons, and a barrel is 60 gallons) of Cabernet Sauvignon from Howell Mountain. Monday, October 5th was our last harvest day for the VIADER estate fruit (See post about "Alan's Got Some Major Skills") -- well before the rains.

This past weekend was quite eventful at the winery. On Saturday our crew finished the pump-overs by noon, and we hosted our annual "Futures" Gala & Casino Games in the caves (read: glorified harvest party). With 42 people we were quite cozy in the tank room, and we later moved into the caves on the other side of the curtain to barrel taste our available futures from vintages 2007 and 2008 as we hit the casino tables. My brother Alan even gave people a taste of our two-week old 2009 Cabernet Franc pulled directly from the tank. It's quite a different animal before malolactic fermentation is completed, but it was showing so well.

Occasionally there's a slightly less glamorous side to owning a winery. Today, I had to wash our vineyard dog Lady, because she decided to get sassy with a skunk. (I forgot to mention we have those critters around here too). The weather was perfect today, but a dog never likes a bath...

This Sunday we're having our annual "family day" at the winery where Alan gives our employees the day off and we take over the cellar responsibilities. My little brother Alex, who is just in town for the weekend is going to be put to work processing the Howell Mountain fruit that will just be coming in. I volunteered to help too. What jeans go best with rubber boots? ;) Here's a picture from a couple years ago showing Alex covered in grape juice, with Mariela (Alan's wife) and Alan looking on.

Happy Friday,

Janet Viader

sales & marketing at VIADER

Alan's Got Some Major Skills

Hey, he's my brother so I can brag about him... This morning, 7:15am they were almost done picking the Petit Verdot, but I managed to catch Alan's superior tractor skills.

Having the large bin on the rear of the tractor allows our harvest crew in the adjacent rows to just reach over and fill the bin. The alternative is to run each bucket to a large bin at the top or bottom of the row.

Did I mention we are on a slope of 32 degrees that is comparable to a double-black diamond ski run? We could probably ski if we got more than an inch of snow and we removed all the rocks, but that's rather unlikely.


Seems like we almost have all our fruit in, except for one little block of Cabernet Sauvignon. There was talk about the weekend winds causing some water loss in the berries, but our fruit was in great condition this morning. Alan was here checking the rows on both Saturday and Sunday to be sure.

Just look at that! Impressive, no?





Currently in the cellar, we have about 18 independent fermentations going on at the same time—some are in stainless steel tanks, some in concrete tanks, others in individual barrels... Thank goodness the Viaders were all born with acute attention to detail. Alan has been holding down the fort, and our mother Delia, self-proclaimed "Chief Bottleneck," will be back tomorrow after a short trip visiting the youngest Viader in high school. She has a lot to catch up on when she gets back in! She'll probably want to taste through each one. Let the games begin. :)

Fondly,

Janet
sales & marketing at VIADER