WHNetwork Blog

This weekend was truly filled with all things wine. On Saturday afternoon I attended the 3rd Annual Sonoma Valley Home Winemakers Celebration, hosted by VOMDES & the Sonoma Valley Boosters Club. The proceeds from the benefit went to the SVHS so it was a great reason to get together at 3 in the afternoon to drink wine!

Over 30 home winemakers brought some of their finest hand-crafted artisan wines, as well as some finger food to whet tasters' appetites. My in-laws have a vineyard on the eastside of Sonoma. Most of the Cabernet fruit is sold to Benziger Winery but a few hundred vines are reserved for a harvest party each year. We poured an '05 Sangiovese and an '05 Zinfandel at our table and paired with figs from the 100 yr old fig tree on the property, topped with some Vella Blue Cheese. It was a delicious combo! We had a lot of people dawdling at our table...

Sunday was harvest - a day of picking, crushing/stemming and bottling. Friends and family showed up at 2 pm and went right to work! Everyone gravitated toward a different task. Those wanting to pick the grapes headed in to the vineyard, while others got the bottling line ready. The crusher was ready to go, the pumps were in place & production began almost immediately.

It's really an activity that people of all ages can enjoy. The youngest crew member was only 6 years old, while the oldest was 86! Naturally some tasks are best left to those somewhere in between, particularly when knives and crushers are involved. Corking, packing and labeling pose little risk however and the youngest even ran the bottling line for a while (with a little help).

But it wasn't all work and no play. There was plenty of wine and beer, numerous tasty snacks and of course, more figs.. grilled this time with gorgonzola & prosciutto. With everyone working in shifts the job got done with ease. Once the sun went down, we lit a fire and sat around chatting before dinner in the stone barn. Dinner conversation was full of anticipation for the next harvest and of course the chance to taste the end result of the '08 harvest. I'm particularly looking forward to tasting the Rosé, something we haven't tried before.

I've added some pictures to my page if you want to check them out.

Next month it's time for olives! Cheers..

~michelle