OK, before I get myself into trouble for being sexist, here, womanly women do also take the lead in making marvelous house wine in the true garagiste fashion, and very proficiently, too, may I add.
It's just that here within the Petaluma Gap, it's largely the fellas who are finding the pull of the garagiste's lair hardest to resist. This is not to say that there aren't just as many fine, female assistants to the garagistes of the Petaluma Gap, but hey, someone has to have clean hands to post the blogs, promote the region, keep the day jobs fully-functioning (right, Gretchen, Teela?!).
Friends and neighbors Mike and Teela of nearby Ridgeway Family Vineyards represent today's current economic climate's realistic growers of top-notch, cool-climate pinot noir. The Ridgeways have sold their fruit to some highly prestigious purveyors this fall, taking a break from their own custom production of Two Pisces Pinot just for a season or two.
So what better way to utilize a little premium fruit left hanging on the vine than to clean out the garage (let's face it, we all need to do that anyway!),roll out the vintage Italian crusher, sterilize a fermenting bin or two and get to grips with the grape like nature intended?
There's something very sexy about man (or woman) handling the fruit of the vine right there at the foot of the vineyard, don't you think? In these days of increasing appreciation of local produce, what could possibly be more enticing than a bottle of handcrafted vino grown, crushed, fermented, barreled and bottled on the private, West Petaluma premises?
Now the competition's really going to heat up amongst the garagistes, who really do enjoy nothing more than a glass of one another's cool climate offerings come the end of the busy harvest rush!
Comments