Sounds of Ampelos Summer Update
All the best from Rebecca and Peter!
Be good to yourself and others - and enjoy great wine!
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Hanging out with Pimps at Full of Life Flatbread in Los Alamos
Way over-due newsletter! So much great is going on in our Ampelos World! Where do I begin? Now that I got a morning bike ride through Los Alamos in I am enjoying a coffee from Bob's Wells Bread and its time for an update!
Sta Rita Hills Vineyard Update
Another interesting year in the vineyards - no such a thing as a normal year. As we visit vineyards and talk to our colleague winemakers here and abroad we once again realize how lucky we are with our climate in our valley!
Time to get the refractometer and pH meter in action!
It’s been a warm spring and summer and with early bud break, flowering and now version things are moving fast. As I write this, we just had another heat spike which reached 100F in Lompoc earlier this week! Grapes for sparkling wines are always the first to come in and that started a month ago! We expect to bring the first grapes into our winery around mid-August.
At the winery Jesse and Matt are starting harvest preparations checking, cleaning and organizing all our equipment - just completed the annual press-check Monday! And we plan to squeeze the last bottling of the year into early August.
Regenerative Farming
Rebecca and I always strive to improve our knowledge about farming. As you have heard many times we truly believe that the wines are made in the vineyard. It is all about doing the right framing and be open to constant improvements.
So when I heard about the Mindset Regenerative Symposium earlier this summer I signed up. Three days of very inspiring presentations by some of the smartest people I have listened to in a long time. Creative ways to integrate live animals in grape farming and take good care of them, inspiring ideas about how to conserve critical resources - especially water and best practices ideas for how to take good care of the amazing workers we have. But probably most important understanding the importance of soil and how to improve the organic matter, minerals and nutritional value of the soil.
Very inspiring presentations at Mindset Regenerative Symposium
For me the most important presentation was about how the plants and microbes work to gather to uptake these critical components from the soil and how they communicate. I think this is like a proof of why Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the biodynamic farming principles, through his extensive observations had discovered this amazing symbiotic relationship. Now, if you are a soil geek like us take a look at this great article about rhizophagy:
How plants and microbes work together - Amazing!
Wine Travel and Discoveries
We always love discovering and learning. Being in the wine industry gives us great opportunities to do traveling to interesting wine regions and meet with passionate grape growers and wine makers.
March was Iberia time visiting Portugal and Spain. Four days in Porto heading up the Douro river visiting wineries and enjoying their transitioning from traditional port wine production to more focus on dry red wines - so much potential here!
Beautiful Duoro River
We continued up north into Spain and the Rias Baixas region, where we met with two of their most skilled Albarino producers - truly amazing what their proximity to the Atlantic Ocean can do - weather and soil! After a week with the family in the Sherry region we wrapped up with three days on the beautiful Madeira island learning about grape varietals and production methods that are so different.
Visiting Pedro Mendez in Rias Baixas - Atlantic Ocean in the back
To continue our wine discovering during our summer road trip we visited wineries in Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado - and a peach farm in Wyoming. So great spending time with passionate grape growers and winemakers learning about how it is to do grape farming in these different climates and geographies.
Enjoying New Mexico Winery: Wines of the San Juan
Interesting to try new varietals and creative winemaking principles. Trebbiano and Tannat in Verde Valley, Arizona, Refosco and hybrid varietals in Northern New Mexico and Cabernet Franc and Verona in Western Colorado. So much new discovery and experimentation going on!
Wine & Fire in Sta Rita Hills
August is the month of the annual Wine & Fire events. Time to come visit Sta. Rita Hills and spend a long weekend hanging out with our grape growers and winemakers. This year we celebrate our 25 anniversary with an amazing line-up of events. Check out the whole program on https://www.staritahills.com/wine-and-fire.
All the best from Rebecca and Peter!
Be good to yourself and others - and enjoy great wine!