skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Pinch me. Pinch me again. Kick me. Kick me hard. Shove me. Knock me over. Drop a wine bottle on my head. I am awake. This is my life. I am not dreaming. I had the very good fortune of falling onto the wine trail during harvest with none other than Kirk Venge. I know they are always saying that Brad Pitt is super nice and Megan Fox, ok, bad example, not as nice. George Clooney, good looking, charming, sexy, funny and wow, nice guy. And Bruce Springsteen, super sweetie, accomplished musician, wizard of sound, financially solvent, tune-making genius that has spanned the decades and still continues to churn out popping music year after year, from one decade to the next. Sort of like Bono, but without the burly Irish accent. I bring all this up because I predict a similar path for Mr. Venge - only vino instad of music, though I hear he belts out some kicking tunes at Anna's after a night of bocce. While I don’t really posses authentic crystal ball caliber skills despite what my former articles might lead you to believe, I do have a mighty powerful gut instinct about these sorts of things (I knew that the Internet would have great promise one day!). So I will go out on a wine branch and predict that Kirk Venge, winemaker, everyman’s good guy appeal, may just be the Springsteen of the Napa Valley wine scene (if your not a Springsteen fan – insert another legend). Year after year from as far back as his days in diapers he has been steadfastly building his cred, honing his winemaking skills, and surpassing many of his peers (young and old) in the process. And I hate to bring age in the picture, but I am old enough to do so. Most guys that I know that are his age are still trolling city streets looking for America’s ne
xt top model and the “new” Jagermeister bomb. Instead of succumbing to such a fate, Kirk has quietly laid down the bones (wine vines) and added the fleshy grapes on top to produce and make smashing wine, up and down and all around this valley. For this installment of my “day in the life of a wine master” I will dub him the Pluck Meister, for now, knowing that his nickname will change as we transcend into the different segments of the wine making process. The rain has slowed things down just a tad so I escaped picking grapes today, much to my own devastation. But we did something that I could argue was just as fascinating. We galloped from vineyard to vineyard, region to region (because he lays claim as the resident wine maker for vineyards all over town) plucking a grape here, a grape there, a grape just about everywhere, all in the sport of “sampling”. In layman terms that’s taste testing grapes to determine how close those roly poly delights are to being ready to be picked. Some will tell you that sampling and making the perfect wine is all about science. How many brix, how much acidity, tannins, yada, yada, yada. Others kick it more old school style by relying strictly on the good old fashioned taste buds. A slurp here, a gobble there, a suck there, all to get an assessment on how close those plumpsters are to being prime for the picking. But for the Pluck Meister (keep up! it’s code for Kirk Venge for Christsake!) it’s a hodgepodge of many things, including a smattering of science plus a whole lot more. I was lucky enough to watch him squash grapes, baggie them, preen juice, and then dump a little bit of many things into some beakers, followed on by a thorough examination of said contents underneath a winemakers microscope gadget. That process was more interesting than the sum total of one-too-many years in my high school and collegiate science programs. And while all of that business is well and good, he says a lot of it comes down to instincts as to “when” prime-time picking hour has arrived. The key to good wine is the grapes, right? Even I know that much. But according to the Pluckster it actually comes down to “getting the pick” (my translation: part science, part instinct, part magic) as he calls it. Maybe my picky nature will finally serve me in life? His “getting the pick” has garnere
d him a fruitful wine career for many years to come. The secrets to his "picking" mojo are going to stay between him and his happy hound Lucy, for now. It is sort of like good hair. Either you have it or you don't. You can't really teach it to grow hip and stylish, it just is. I hope I have made you salivate, or perhaps caused you to seriously consider a mid-life career change to the field of wine making, or, if nothing, else maybe I have enticed you to open up your mind, your wallet, and your palate to slurp some wine, or at a minimum to pop open your keyboard to learn a bit more about the making of that sinful delight we call wine. Today’s ramblings represent about one (1) hour of a day in the life with the Pluck Meister. I don’t want to give away all his secrets in one post. So stayed tune. I dare you. I challenge you. I invite you to pinch yourself. When you confirm that you are alive and awake and not dreaming with the sandman, log on and get your winemaking fix for the day at Wacky WineSense. Come along for this wild grape-filled ride as Kirk and I “chase grapes” all harvest long (his words not mine, how thrilling does that sound?) You’ll be glad you did. And if I am worth the weight of my electronic pencil you’ll learn a thing or two about this glorious time of year we call harvest in the Napa Valley. Fall is life changing on the East Coast, just another day in LA, spellbounding in the Rockies, and well,l I have run out of references, but here in The Valley fall is a snap of time that transports you to somewhere you will never want to leave, in smells alone.
Pinch me. Pinch me again. Kick me. Kick me hard. Shove me. Knock me over. Drop a wine bottle on my head. I am awake. This is my life. I am not dreaming. I had the very good fortune of falling onto the wine trail during harvest with none other than Kirk Venge. I know they are always saying that Brad Pitt is super nice and Megan Fox, ok, bad example, not as nice. George Clooney, good looking, charming, sexy, funny and wow, nice guy. And Bruce Springsteen, super sweetie, accomplished musician, wizard of sound, financially solvent, tune-making genius that has spanned the decades and still continues to churn out popping music year after year, from one decade to the next. Sort of like Bono, but without the burly Irish accent. I bring all this up because I predict a similar path for Mr. Venge - only vino instad of music, though I hear he belts out some kicking tunes at Anna's after a night of bocce. While I don’t really posses authentic crystal ball caliber skills despite what my former articles might lead you to believe, I do have a mighty powerful gut instinct about these sorts of things (I knew that the Internet would have great promise one day!). So I will go out on a wine branch and predict that Kirk Venge, winemaker, everyman’s good guy appeal, may just be the Springsteen of the Napa Valley wine scene (if your not a Springsteen fan – insert another legend). Year after year from as far back as his days in diapers he has been steadfastly building his cred, honing his winemaking skills, and surpassing many of his peers (young and old) in the process. And I hate to bring age in the picture, but I am old enough to do so. Most guys that I know that are his age are still trolling city streets looking for America’s ne
xt top model and the “new” Jagermeister bomb. Instead of succumbing to such a fate, Kirk has quietly laid down the bones (wine vines) and added the fleshy grapes on top to produce and make smashing wine, up and down and all around this valley. For this installment of my “day in the life of a wine master” I will dub him the Pluck Meister, for now, knowing that his nickname will change as we transcend into the different segments of the wine making process. The rain has slowed things down just a tad so I escaped picking grapes today, much to my own devastation. But we did something that I could argue was just as fascinating. We galloped from vineyard to vineyard, region to region (because he lays claim as the resident wine maker for vineyards all over town) plucking a grape here, a grape there, a grape just about everywhere, all in the sport of “sampling”. In layman terms that’s taste testing grapes to determine how close those roly poly delights are to being ready to be picked. Some will tell you that sampling and making the perfect wine is all about science. How many brix, how much acidity, tannins, yada, yada, yada. Others kick it more old school style by relying strictly on the good old fashioned taste buds. A slurp here, a gobble there, a suck there, all to get an assessment on how close those plumpsters are to being prime for the picking. But for the Pluck Meister (keep up! it’s code for Kirk Venge for Christsake!) it’s a hodgepodge of many things, including a smattering of science plus a whole lot more. I was lucky enough to watch him squash grapes, baggie them, preen juice, and then dump a little bit of many things into some beakers, followed on by a thorough examination of said contents underneath a winemakers microscope gadget. That process was more interesting than the sum total of one-too-many years in my high school and collegiate science programs. And while all of that business is well and good, he says a lot of it comes down to instincts as to “when” prime-time picking hour has arrived. The key to good wine is the grapes, right? Even I know that much. But according to the Pluckster it actually comes down to “getting the pick” (my translation: part science, part instinct, part magic) as he calls it. Maybe my picky nature will finally serve me in life? His “getting the pick” has garnere
d him a fruitful wine career for many years to come. The secrets to his "picking" mojo are going to stay between him and his happy hound Lucy, for now. It is sort of like good hair. Either you have it or you don't. You can't really teach it to grow hip and stylish, it just is. I hope I have made you salivate, or perhaps caused you to seriously consider a mid-life career change to the field of wine making, or, if nothing, else maybe I have enticed you to open up your mind, your wallet, and your palate to slurp some wine, or at a minimum to pop open your keyboard to learn a bit more about the making of that sinful delight we call wine. Today’s ramblings represent about one (1) hour of a day in the life with the Pluck Meister. I don’t want to give away all his secrets in one post. So stayed tune. I dare you. I challenge you. I invite you to pinch yourself. When you confirm that you are alive and awake and not dreaming with the sandman, log on and get your winemaking fix for the day at Wacky WineSense. Come along for this wild grape-filled ride as Kirk and I “chase grapes” all harvest long (his words not mine, how thrilling does that sound?) You’ll be glad you did. And if I am worth the weight of my electronic pencil you’ll learn a thing or two about this glorious time of year we call harvest in the Napa Valley. Fall is life changing on the East Coast, just another day in LA, spellbounding in the Rockies, and well,l I have run out of references, but here in The Valley fall is a snap of time that transports you to somewhere you will never want to leave, in smells alone.
No comments:
Post a Comment