Fall 2010 - Calm Before the Storms
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This was a year that couldn't make up its mind. After a cold Spring and a late fruit set, the chilliest summer in recent memory set the grapes of 2010 on a trajectory for the latest harvest in Salamandre's 25 years. Then an all-time record breaking heat spell in late September scorched the Pinot and blistered the leaves of the others. Not too long after that, it started raining. We didn't know then that the Giants would reach the World Series, but another 1989 earthquake would have fit right in.
My “daytime job” is trying to help healthcare reform deliver its long overdue promise to Americans. Like the harvest, that pursuit has become a conflict ridden endeavor, but sometimes, natural circumstances give us hope in the middle of strife.
My “daytime job” is trying to help healthcare reform deliver its long overdue promise to Americans. Like the harvest, that pursuit has become a conflict ridden endeavor, but sometimes, natural circumstances give us hope in the middle of strife.
As I descended from a tense board retreat at Squaw Valley in mid October, an icy blanket of high cirrus swirled over the foothills , heralding the first serious cold front of the Fall. Snow would soon be coming to the Sierras, rain to Santa Cruz ...and I still had grapes hanging in Monterey County. Reaching the Sacramento flats and turning toward San Francisco on that stressful stripe of crumbling concrete, a full circle sun dog shimmered in the Western sky for a full hour…from the Delta wetlands past Davis all the way to Fairfield. I passed the 505 connector that would take me back to the Trinity Alps, wistfully resisting that familiar tug at the wheel. Music filled my little car, and for a while, at least in my imagination, I wasn't acting my age. That would change as soon as I started lifting heavy harvest objects .
Finally, well into November, they've been lifted. The odd harvest of 2010 is now posturing as a test to the winemakers of the Santa Cruz Mountains, and we'll see if the Salamandres are up to the challenge.
We hope you can visit,
Wells Shoemaker MD, Winemaker
Finally, well into November, they've been lifted. The odd harvest of 2010 is now posturing as a test to the winemakers of the Santa Cruz Mountains, and we'll see if the Salamandres are up to the challenge.
We hope you can visit,
Wells Shoemaker MD, Winemaker