Last Chance for 15% Discount
Our 3 current release wines remain available on our website at a 15% discount, if you buy the 3 bottle tasting package or a case.
On April 30, the 15% discount will end, the remaining bottles will be moved to our “library” to benefit from additional aging, and the 3 wines will be shown as Sold Out on our website.
Trust us, our library is neither quiet nor educational, but it sure is a fun place to visit. Our wines are built to age and that’s the only productive activity in our library.
Free Shipping on Case Purchases of Library Wines
Beginning May 1, and until the last bottle is sold from our library, there is no 15% discount, but regular ground shipping (weather permitting) is free for each case purchase. Consider sharing a case with family, friends, or colleagues.
To purchase the Sold Out wines from our library simply email us and tell us what you want. We’ll email you an invoice with a link to PayPal’s secure website. You simply enter your credit card info to pay.
Meanwhile back at the ranch…
For 6 weeks beginning March 1, we didn’t have 3 consecutive days without rain. Since October 1, our rain total is about 70”. The average is 50”. Our resident red shouldered hawk loves the rain. She shows up every day, rain or shine, ridding the vineyard of small varmints.
In mid-March we prepared the vineyard for pruning. Gerry is disconnecting the training wires from the canes and the stakes. Barb is training him to do it faster. We then tie the wires below the canes for safe pruning and mowing.
With the wires out of their way, our vineyard management crew pruned the vineyard quickly and easily on March 29 because they didn’t have to wrestle the canes out of the wires. It was our latest pruning date because of the rain.
In their wake, the crew left about a million piles of canes in the rows. Every year they offer to carry those canes out of the vineyard for us and fervently pray that we decline their offer. We never disappoint them. We love our annual week-long game of Pick-Up Sticks.
This is the first time we used our frost tarps to haul the canes out of the vineyard. As we enjoy our Advil snack every evening, we seek ways to work smarter not harder.
The tarps made the work easier than using Gerry’s modified electric wheelbarrow, but not faster. Stay tuned. We’re not finished with this mousetrap.
That’s about 74,000 canes, but who’s counting when you’re having fun. By April 30, that will be a pile of ash small enough to fit in a 5 gallon bucket. That’s the last day for burning vineyard canes in Napa County.
Frost Protection
Our last spring chore is to hang 25 frost tarps on the mountain sides of our vineyard. Each tarp is 30’ long and 8’ tall. We use the tractor as a moving platform to attach the tarps to the top wire of our deer fence. We used to use a step ladder to install the 750’ barrier. That wasn’t pretty.
Our frost fighting machine has a giant propeller in the cylinder that draws the frost layer to it and exhausts it high above the vineyard. If the machine can keep the frost layer below the buds until the sun warms the ground, we should avoid frost damage. The tarps are a necessary barrier to keep the frost that forms on the mountain from moving into our vineyard.
Maybe tonight we’ll enjoy our Advil snack in our wine library. Aaahhh… Happy Easter!
Cheers!
Barb and Gerry Sieck
Go to our Wine page before May 1 to take advantage of this offer.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.