Change Of Plans…
OK, we had planned for this newsletter to go out Sunday – but suddenly our plans for the day changed. Sitting on my sofa working on emails as I looked over the sunny valley I noticed a little smoke coming up. Not a good thing at this time of the year. I raced over to 246 and noticed the fire developing. 5 hours later it had burned through almost 1000 acres before the fire fighters got it under control. What a crazy afternoon as I did my best to guide them through John Sebastiano Vineyard. The vineyard blocks survived pretty well, but most of the rest on the ranch burned down. Sad picture – I can see the black field (pic below) from our sofa.
It’s Summer Time In The Vineyard
Things are great in the vineyard: The shoots have been growing fast and have now almost reached their full length. When flowering started a month ago we had some strong winds, but our worries were put to bed as we had a fast fruit set and very little shatter. The tiny clusters are now growing like crazy and it looks like a real good crop level. Jesus and Chencho have just finished shoot positioning and tucking and tomorrow we start leaf pulling. All those delicate and crucial fine tuning tasks that give us amazing grapes at harvest.
Bottling Time
Monday our face masked, good friends joining us for bottling and we got the 2017 ‘Lambda’ Pinot Noir and 2017 Syrache (Syrah/Grenache) to its final destination: The bottles! Always such a good feeling when we wrap up at the end of the day with a glass of wine and enjoy the new pallets of finished wines stacked up at the winery.
We Are Open!This week our governor gave us the OK to open tasting rooms for business as usual. We celebrated with sparkling wine for everyone. Friends and customers joined us and it was great to feel that things are getting closer to normal.Come out and see us Thursday – Monday.
June Virtual Tastings Go On…Rebecca and I have now done over 20 Virtual Wine Tastings over Zoom and are still having a blast. Two weeks ago our good friend, Wine Enthusiast journalist Matt Kettmann joined us for a virtual Pinot Noir clone tasting and blending. We had a great time and together with several hundred wine lovers out there we tasted 2018 barrel samples and created blends from the clones. A very fun time and a great way to stay connected!
In the meantime, Rebecca and I have also started to go out again. Lunch in Los Olivos, dinner in Los Alamos and brunch in Lompoc. With face mask and sanitizer we are connecting with old friends – and it’s a good feeling that life goes on.
Be safe out there and enjoy life and let’s raise a glass tonight!
Cheers!Peter & Rebecca
ampelos blog 