Images of Harvest

Harvest is in full swing! And a good one it is, too -- so far at least. We LOVE going in the vineyard at this time and munching on the grapes; they are the most delicious we can ever remember! In fact, what's wonderful is to see everyone looking so happy: the vineyard guys, Tony and his cellar team, even the office  staff -- and Mom, especially. Sooo different from last year, when all were looking so stressed out and somber.

Mom has been taking tons of pictures and asked us to post them in our blog, so here are a few that we think will give you an idea of how things are looking!

We've had classic Green Valley weather most days: foggy and cool until mid-morning, then sunny through the day. Perfect for picking!	Can you believe how fantastic these grapes look? Best in Sonoma County, for sure, if not in California -- which means the entire USA!

The grapes looked yummy here, but Mom made us pose instead of letting us eat them :-(	Can't tell you how tasty these were -- we ate soooo many of them, we got upset tummies!

Once on the trays, the grapes are off-limits for us. But you can see from my look that I, Bonita,  very much wanted to eat the whole thing	Agustín and Filiberto are our friends! They let us jump on the bins so we can check the quality of the grapes -- which they are rightly proud of

This little green friend on Filiberto's hand is a good bug! He was merrily walking on the fruit.
	Can you see the blimp in the sky behind  Mom? We took this picture, hah! We  know this is a sign of good luck so the  harvest will be the best ever!!

Our Doña Margarita Vineyard in Sonoma Coast is always behind

Today we went to our Doña Margarita Vineyard, which is always behind the Don Miguel Vyd because it is so much closer to the ocean -- only six miles from it. But is was only me, Bonita, since Chico was very sick yesterday and had to rest. You'd never guess from what: he ate something that, in the words of the vet, was "dead, rotten and fermenting"! She had to pump out his stomach and took out, in her words, "a liter of a very smelly liquid"... :-( Tony said that it probably was a dead raccoon -- Yachhhh!  

I had a taste of a few grapes, but they're  not near ripe yet. Good flavors, though!	Tony was checking the grapes but Molly,  his dog, was not interested -- unlike me!

This vineyard looked at least two weeks from harvest. But the flavors are wonderful; and we know from experience that if there is a heat wave, the sugars will jump up and we'll have to rush to pick! So we are following the grape maturities very closely and the vineyard crew is here every day checking things. 

You can see how beautiful the grapes look -- this year we have perfectly formed bunches! They are not too big and not too small, same as the berries. Just Goldilock's size!!	Can you believe this? We found a few Chardonnay vines in the new Pinot Noir block. Obviously they were mixed up with the Pinot budwood, so we'll t-bud them next spring.