Archive

My Grandpa Jim (Jenny’s) ran a roofing business with my dad and loved his Scotch.  He’d say after work, ‘I think I need a drinky-poo,’ like one would say to a child.  Strong words coming from a 6+ foot man.  We’ve got some drinky-poos to get you through this year’s holidays. You’ve got too many […]

Fall vineyard colors. Something about them makes you want to grab a bottle of red, put another log on the fire, grab a blanket and someone to get under it with…. No? Maybe just us. Yellows, oranges and browns are the tell-tale signal of fall. Each year, the bright, green reminiscent of spring and summer […]

Opus One. The legendary combination of one of the wealthiest in France – Baron Phillipe de Rothschild and pioneer American winemaker Robert Mondavi, who joined together to form the first ‘ultra-premium’ winery in the Napa Valley. In a crowd, the mention of the name may bring any reaction from eye rolls among those who believe […]

After six days straight in the vineyards, I started to dream about rocks, slate to be precise, so much so that I wrote my my maid of honor speech for my best friend’s wedding around the theme of rocks for her big day the next weekend.  Don’t ask… Slate. It covered the ground, in many […]

After almost 48 hours awake, 14 hours of sleep, and a big Deutsche breakfast, we were ready to check out the vineyards. I should clarify, we had one breakfast at 2am on Saturday, accompanied with a glass of Riesling halbtrocken, when we woke up and couldn’t fall back asleep… It’s been a relatively dry summer […]

Home Sweet Home   Harvester; totally power rangers, right? Ten tons of Gewürtztraminer – first fruit of the crush in the middle of the night   The Office     Johannes – Crush Control   Jenny – Punchdown Princess   View from the top of the 5-ton fermentors, trying not to breathe too deep. CO2 […]

We pulled the slightly dirtier-than-when-we-left Falcon into the dirt lot by our double wide.  The winemaker and our new boss, Stefan, was probably slightly surprised to see us return (alive), although we looked a bit battered, bitten by sand flies, unshowered, and slightly hungover.  Your interns are back!! We started the next day, 60 TONS of […]

Queenstown is an adventure junkie’s dream. The place has every activity bound to get you outside and shoot you up with an adrenaline high. I mean, it’s the home of bungee-jumping for Pete’s sake – and they are damn proud of it. On a lake surrounded by mountains, Queenstown is full of both winter sports […]

We only stopped off the road for Pegasus Bay on our way to Queenstown and Central Otago. We walked through the door and into a German conversation between our host and her cousin. Sometimes even all the way across the world can feel like home. The first wine, a Sauvignon Blanc/Semillion was done in the […]

The 18 months in between was a long and short time. Johannes finished studying, granting him a major in Viticulture and Enology from Geisenheim, and went on to work for a large winery in the Mosel Valley as a general manager. Meanwhile, I went to manage a small tasting room for a Sonoma-based winery in […]

We initially started this blog to document our story, travels and wine adventures, but many followers later, we’ve got a reputation to hold up!  *No slackers please* Over the course of the next several posts, we’ll tell a story of how we met, and the one August, at which part our two journeys became one. Undefinable, […]