We are down to harvesting our last few vineyards. Tomorrow morning, we will head to Anderson Valley and harvest our new Chardonnay vineyard in the deep end of the valley - lots of fog and, as a result, lots of acid. We will also be harvesting Hog Pen Syrah on Thursday. Friday, we will harvest the last of our grapes from the foothills. Roussanne, Grenache Blanc and Grenache. After this, only one vineyard will remain - Broken Leg Syrah.

Rain is expected, a few inches but Broken Leg is steep and I can't imagine we will see any rot.

In the winery, this year has been great. Wines are coming in with low sugar, high acid and lots of flavor. I am sure many critics will hate 2010 but, for us, it is nearly perfect.

We have had some great recent press - here are the highlights in no particular order.

• New York Magazine -Keg Picks in the City http://nymag.com/ (THANKS CARLA!)
• Food and Wine - 40 Big Food Thinkers 40 and Under http://www.foodandwine.com The photo is from Broken Leg - our last harvest.
• Palate Press - Natural Wine on a Practical Note http://palatepress.com/ It is so nice to see a well written article that focuses on people and their goals as wine makers - not the hype.
  
• The Wine Case - Natural Wine: a more practical point of view http://winecase.ca/
• The Gray Market Report - More Unnatural Wine and Other Notes http://wblakegray.blogspot.com/ I was thrilled to be listed by Blake as one of his missing favorites.
• Eater New York - The Breslin Answers the Burning Question What Does One Drink With Fried Foot http://ny.eater.com/
  

Food

On the food front, one of our favorite places in Berkeley, Gather, just had their chef win Esquire's Chef of the Year. Gather is a good customer of ours and one of our favorite places to eat after a hard day at the winery. A really big congrats to Sean Baker. Esquire

Plum recently opened in Oakland. We ate there Sunday night for our Wedding Anniversary (which is actually today). Our meal was delightful. Reminded me of eating at "Bloom in the Park" in Sweden last November. The service was excellent - front of the house and our waiter (Jason - you were great!). I can't say that every dish nailed it but 6 out of 8 did which is very impressive for a new place. We are moving from Oakland in November (Albany - other side of Berkeley) but I plan to eat at Plum after our next late night at the winery. They are open until 1 am.

On the Michelin front, two places we love got some love themselves recently. The Breslin got one star - Congrats to Carla, Amanda, April and Ken. The Breslin is the least pretentious One Star that I have ever been to.


Wood Tavern got Bib Gourmand - also well deserved. And a late congratulations to Rich and his wife on the birth of the baby.

Okay, off to morning punch down. Photos from our open house will be posted next....