It was a dark and stormy day...

Unlike the weekends, which are non-stop action and crowds of people wave upon wave, the weekdays at the vineyard are rather peaceful and even a little lonely. As autumn moves on into winter, they will become even moreso.

Last week, we had a dreary, cloud-filled day that prompted me to take some pictures. I find that gloomy weather puts more feeling into photographs, gives them that little "Sleepy Hollow" sentiment. It can turn a picture of an old rocking chair into a ghost story.


Up in the loft, I had a little impromptu photo shoot. I hadn't realized the views from up there were so interesting before, perhaps because the brilliant sunshine made it hard to see out the windows.

This building was originally constructed in the 1880's and has been refurbished in the original style. Note the mortise and tenon construction - using tension to hold the puzzle pieces together, rather than nails and screws.

An aerial view of a tasting room table.

View of the front table from the loft.

A few more lofty pictures...

The path leading from the tasting room to the
main house, past the last of the roses in bloom

Someone, possibly the kids of the original owners, carved a picture of a house and a tree, and the words "A Farm House" into the door leading from the fermenting barn into the tasting room.

The first member of my fan club.

Outside the fermenting barn, just to one side of the parking lot, stands an old tool shed which is so picturesque I just couldn't help myself. I opened the door and took the following shot through the window, which gives me the strange feeling of looking out at the modern world from the past.




What is it about barrels that make them so photogenic, I wonder? Is it the beauty of things that are still hand crafted by artisans? Is it the perfect shape, the geometric lines of wood grain, or the steely strength of metal bands holding things together? Or the thought of the wine that has slept inside, dreaming of the bottles to come?



The vineyard also has a garden, and these are the end of season beauties I found there. Golden cherry tomatoes and brightly colored lettuces.






The vines are shedding their leaves fast now, even though all of the fruit has not been harvested yet. The Sauvignon Blanc was harvested two weeks ago, and we are now in the midst of our Merlot harvest. Next come the Petit Verdot and Malbec grapes, and the last to be harvested will be the Cabernet Sauvignon.

Some flowers that neighbors brought in mourning for the passing of the first vineyard dog. I added the bits of lavender for scent. Eventually the whole thing became a fruit fly nest, so it was moved outside onto the deck where it could be beautiful but pest-less.

Some succulents that must soon be brought inside or
lost to the frost.

The view down the ladder from the loft. I climb this ladder many
times a day, as we keep all our office supplies, paper towels for the
bathroom, flyers, pamphlets, and magazines up there.

Early one morning when we had no B&B guests to serve breakfast to, I was invited out to help harvest some grapes. I walked out to the middle of the vineyard, and found the pickers by sighting the farm truck piled high with yellow "lugs", those plastic bins used to carry grapes. I grabbed a pair of clippers and searched around until I found Brenda, who was down on her knees harvesting grapes alongside the field workers, most of whom are from Ecuador.

She showed me how to clip the grapes from the vine, and what to look for. Surprisingly, the grapes at harvest are not the round, shiny, beautiful grapes usually depicted in artwork or photography. Grapes properly ripened for wine are rather ugly. They must be left on the vine until they begin to "raisin", or shrivel up a bit, which concentrates the sugars and intensifies the flavors.

A local farmer lady stopped by the vineyard the other day to drop off some brand new bat houses, which are still leaning in the corner of the tasting room waiting to be put up. With harvest still in full swing, I think it may be a while yet before they are up on poles. The above photo is of one of the pre-existing bat houses on the property. Bats are one of the best methods of organic pest control in the world. They eat millions of insects that might otherwise be feasting on our grapes, and keep down the mosquito population so that visitors don't get eaten alive while trying to enjoy the great outdoors.


The grapes ready to harvest are a bit dusty and wrinkly looking, as I mentioned, and before pitching a bunch into the bin, any grapes with "betritis" (a green mold) must be removed. Moldy grapes occur naturally, as Long Island tends to have heavy morning dews. If a bunch of grapes has one or two offenders, a flick of the hand clippers can remove them, but if there are quite a few bad ones a good hard shake will send them flying, while the healthy grapes remain attached to their stems.

There's a new girl in town

She's very small and very soft, and she's only been in the world for twelve short weeks. She's friendly and smart, and fits right in at the vineyard like she's been there all along.


She also has one ear that sits up, and one that flops down. How cute is THAT, I ask you?

Meanwhile, back at the vineyard...

Some of the incredibly cool things about an old farmstead are the small details that lurk in the corners. Pictured above, the initials of the original owner of the farm, which he nailed into a beam with what looks like furniture tacks.

To try and describe to you how busy this weekend was would be nearly impossible, so instead I will tell you that with only myself and two other people working the tasting room, we sold SIX THOUSAND DOLLARS' worth of wine on Saturday.

On days like that, I don't remember any details - it's all a blur of dirty glasses, clean glasses, greeting, describing wines, pouring, pouring, pouring, opening bottles, putting empties aside, boxing and bagging, ringing up sales, and back to the beginning again. On days like that, the customers all start to look identical to me, and I have flashbacks and think that I've already described the wines to them, even though I know they just sat down and their glasses are still clean.

Happily, the owners were in laid-back mode and did not hawk us, so things went pretty smoothly. The winemaker's dog is now wearing a Halti, which is really intended for training a dog not to pull when you take them for a walk, but which doubles as a muzzle in a pinch. So no patrons were nipped, mauled, or had their clothes ripped. All in all, it was a pretty successful weekend.

I nearly dropped my teeth when Brenda said they had decided to open the tasting room today, Columbus Day, (my first day off after five working days) for two hours, and asked me if I could come in! Let's see... drive one hour to work two hours to drive another hour home?

I think not.

Besides, since my regular work days take up ten hours or more, the only time I have to do anything at all at my own house is on my "days off"!!!

I am going to interview with the other job tomorrow morning. We'll see what comes of it. My face may look haggard and I might be limping, but hell - my new haircut is smokin'.

One for Janan!

"I've fallen, and I can't get up!"

Yesterday I got to the vineyard at 9AM, having stopped on the way in at a local pastry shop to pick up our order of baguettes for the wedding rehearsal dinner that the vineyard owners were hosting for a friend.

Worked breakfast from 9 until 10, then worked the tasting room from 10 until 6, then went up to the main house and worked the rehearsal dinner until 10:30PM. At which point I started my hour-long drive home.

And now, here it is, nearly 8AM again, and I'm going back in for a full day on my feet. My feet are lodging complaints already, and I haven't even put my shoes on. As today is Saturday, AND a holiday weekend, I have a feeling it's going to be a madhouse at the tasting room today.

Give me strength.

Goodbye to our girl - R.I.P.

Daniel took her to the vet this morning to have her put down - it was time. The rest of us wept and tried to keep it from the customers. She will be missed.

They've already picked out a new border collie pup from the same breeding farm, and I think she will be arriving in a week or so. I think Brenda feels it's too soon, but I agree with Daniel, who said today that "this farm needs that kind of love." It's not about replacing, because no one can replace a friend, but it's about continuing with life, and having a puppy to care for and love will ease our hearts while we mourn and make the transition a better one.

I had a rollicking headache all day today, feel as though I may be coming down with something. The barometric pressure is probably screwy due to the rainstorms passing through the area, and that always gives me headaches too.

For the most part, I'm just glad this day is over.

For Angela, Monte, and Ronda

My mom told me that a few of the women she works with have checked out this blog and were especially digging the pictures of Billy Zane that I posted previously. Well, here's looking at you, kids! In case you care, I've screen-captured these pictures off a DVD called "Invincible", which came out in 2001.

Now that I have landed this great vineyard job, and started keeping this journal, do you think the universe has decided to stop messing around with my HEAD?



Why, no, of course not. Now that I am all excited about selling wine, I have received a call back from one of the jobs I applied for a very long time ago. A job which is much, much closer to where I live, which pays a bit more than I'd be making here at the vineyard, which has more job security, and offers better health coverage. Assuming that I actually get offered this other position, making this decision will be like dancing the tango with a two-edged sword.



The vineyard job is emotionally satisfying but not very mentally challenging. The second job is very mentally challenging and involves the security of aircraft over the North Atlantic Ocean. Yeah - see what I mean? Hmmmmmmmmm....................



My artistic soul loves the beauty of the countryside and the freedom of wine country, but my brain craves the learning of new codes, tactics, and skills. My self-worth craves the doing of a job that really makes a difference in the lives of other people. When I think of the timing of all of this, I just have to smile.



The vineyard job could disappear in a cloud of vapor if the owners decide to get divorced or die an untimely death. But the atmosphere there is very nourishing to me. The second job is only fifteen minutes from my house, and I would be able to have occasional weekends off - which I will not have with the vineyard job. There are so many pros and cons to think about, and none of them is all-encompassing or makes this an easy choice.

I have to center myself, get my mojo in balance, put my karma in gear, and decide what the heck I really want to do with my life.

This is serious.

There is no such thing as too much booty beauty.

October - My favorite month!

My mom recently sent me this beautiful little plaque, no doubt because she knows that Autumn is my favorite season, and October my favorite month of all. Being at the vineyard during this season is proving to be as wonderful as I had imagined. Aside from the hustle and bustle of harvest, there are all the subtle changes in nature that are sometimes missed in overly developed areas, but which are accentuated to the very nuance out in the vineyard.



The wind has started kicking up, blowing through the tasting room windows and taking leaves off the trees outside. The winds of October always ignite a wild joy in my heart, and make sweeping the tasting room deck not only challenging, but completely pointless. Because I love getting out in the weather, I do it anyway. Besides, there is something cleansing about sweeping, as one can mentally sweep the cobwebs and problems out of one's mind as the leaves are swept away. And it's always good to keep a broom handy - in case my truck won't start, I can still get home.



On Thursday, the wind was so strong that it tore our nylon "OPEN" flag in half. The boss sent me out to buy a new one on Friday, with vague instructions on how to get to the store. Which wasn't actually a store, but rather someone's house, located on the south side of one of the main roads. Which actually wasn't on the south side, but the north side, and which I couldn't see at all driving in the direction I was going because of a huge stand of pine trees that comes all the way to the edge of the road.

And so, taking advantage of the fact that I had already driven well past the place where this flag shop/not shop was supposed to be, I just happened to pull in and turn around in the driveway of this wonderful haunted house.



Which isn't actually a house, but an old school. There is a sign out front which begs "Help save this school so we don't have to tear it down!" So I did my part - I took pictures. Now, even if they do tear the old place down, future generations can still enjoy the creepiness.

The upper part of the building really caught my attention, as there were shreds of torn curtains billowing out of the glassless windows. In one of the closeup photos I took, I captured the face of a haint looking out! If you half close your eyes, you may be able to see it, too.



Not quite having the cojones to walk around behind the school all on my lonesome, fearing bloodthirsty squatters or toothless pesos with trouble on their minds, I got in my truck and drove it around behind the old place, as I had a feeling it would be just as gruesome looking as the front. I was not disappointed!



If I told you that I drove out of there as slowly as I drove in, I'd be a big fat liar.

Champagne vs. Wine

Today, one of my customers asked me the difference between champagne and white wine. The obvious answer, from a consumer's point of view, is the bubbles. But she was asking me from the winemaker's viewpoint, and I had to tell her that I knew that the winemaking process was different, I knew that the process of making champagne is called "champenoise", pronounced SHAM-pen-WAH (when it is done outside of the Champagne region of France), but I also had to admit that I had no idea what the process actually was.

As harvest time is in full swing, and one of our chillers was on the fritz yesterday (a brand new machine costing in excess of ten thousand dollars), our winemaker has been a bit busy lately, to say the least. But I caught him in between chores, and I asked him the same question my customer had asked me.



In a nutshell, here it is:

White Wine - Grapes are picked when ripe, pressed, and the juice is fermented and bottled.

Champagne - Grapes are picked much earlier than for regular wine, pressed, the juice is fermented and then bottled in super-strong pressure-proof champagne bottles. A secondary fermentation, using yeast and sugar, is then instigated inside each separate bottle. Caps similar to beer bottle caps are put on, which trap the expanding gases and cause carbonation. A settling and cooling process is used to remove the sediment from the second batch of yeast, and the bottles are quickly re-closed with champagne corks to retain the carbonation.

So you see, when you look at the prices of real champagne, you're paying for all that extra work that went into the making. It's more than just pumping some air into a bottle of white wine (which is what you're getting when you buy a $9.99 bottle at Jiffy Wines).