Escafeld Vineyards: Vineyard Diary

AlaWine.com

There's a nice review of our 2004 Escafeld Petit Verdot over at AlaWine.com today.

Home of 100 Top Wine Blogs, The Wine Blog Tasting Room, 100 Great Wines and the Wine Blog Search Engine, AlaWine.com is a top portal for wine news, reviews, blogs and commentary.

Visit them online and read their latest reviews at AlaWine.com.

Elsbeth
Escafeld Vineyards

Rattlesnake Season

The weather is warming up quickly, which means that the rattlers are emerging again. We've encountered two beauties near the vineyard just this week.

Last year, Star the Dog decided to take one on, and received a nasty strike to the nose for her trouble. She obviously hasn't learned her lesson, as she went straight for our latest visitor, pouncing and barking and generally getting it nice and riled up--coiled and sizzling--just in time for us to have to deal with it.

Coming from the UK, where the most dangerous animal I ever encountered was a large cantankerous swan, this whole rattlesnake thing is quite daunting. Where's Austin Stevens when you need him?

Elsbeth
Escafeld Vineyards

Labels: rattlesnake, vineyard

Montrio Bistro

You'll soon be able to enjoy a glass or two of Escafeld's limited production Double Gold winning Petit Verdot with dinner at Monterey's famed Montrio Bistro.

Inspired by the best European and American cuisine, and dedicated to organic and sustainable ingredients, Montrio's executive chef, Tony Baker, has created a distinctive and innovative menu, packed with delicious dishes such as wild salmon with green peppercorn cream, beer braised veal cheeks, and a "Small Bites" selection featuring one of my all time favorites, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

A fellow Brit, Tony's career began in the UK at several Michelin-acclaimed restaurants. These included the Luckman Park Hotel, England's 1991 Hotel of the Year, and Hintlesham Hall. In 1991 he was the recipient of the Frank Hawley Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Culinary Arts.

The award winning Montrio Bistro promises you great food, great service, fine wines and an unforgettable dining experience. Ready to reserve your table? Visit them in downtown Monterey at their historic 1910 firehouse building: 414 Calle Principal, call them at (831) 648-8880, or log on to www.montrio.com.

Elsbeth
Escafeld Vineyards

Vineyard Pedicure

The Twin Vines vineyard has had its winter makeover. Our seven-year-olds describe this as the vines having their toenails clipped--grown ups, however, use serious technical terms such as pruning.

Pruning even a small vineyard can be very painful work unless you've built up a fair amount of strength in your hands. When we first started out, we would prune the entire Twin Vines vineyard ourselves, and consequently suffer for days afterward. These days we call in the professionals!

Twin Vines is now four years old, and we're hoping to harvest about four tons of fruit from it this year for a Bordeaux-style field blend we've been planning for some time. It'll be an interesting and fun experiment, and we'll keep you posted as harvest time draws nearer.

That's provided the huge wild pig Star chased out of the vineyard a few days ago keeps a healthy distance--time to keep those gates shut tight! And speaking of wild things, here's a picture of a couple of small bucks we recently found wandering though the vineyard...

Elsbeth
Escafeld Vineyards

Labels: field blend, pruning, vineyard

WineQ

Escafeld wines are now available online through WineQ!

With WineQ you can queue up wines to create your own personal wine club. It works similarly to the delivery queues at Netflix, except you get to decide how often your shipments are sent, and how many items are included in each shipment, all with free shipping on orders over $35!

With new wines added every month, you can queue up wines from top artisan producers such as Deerfield, Twisted Oak, Lava Cap, Croze, Steven Kent, Ceja, Smith-Wooton, la Rochelle, RustRidge and Peterson.

You also have the option to review your wines, and read all about them in the WineQ blog--their most recent post includes a great write up about Escafeld, so check it out...

Elsbeth
Escafeld Vineyards

Labels: queue, wine club, wineq

Wine Relief - Red Nose Day

The final day to support Wine Relief in the UK is March 16--this year's official Red Nose Day.

From Jan 31st - March 16th, the UK's biggest wine retailers are donating 10 percent from the sale of selected wines to help tackle poverty and social injustice in the UK and Africa.

Wine relief, part of the larger Comic Relief initiative, has raised a staggering 2 million pounds since its launch in 1999, with this year's Wine Relief effort promising to be the biggest yet.

The project is driven by Jancis Robinson, who has been something of a hero of mine ever since I saw her presenting my favorite show, Channel 4's The Wine Programme, back in the early eighties.

UK readers can support Wine Relief by rushing down (preferably wearing your red nose) to the following stores and purchasing select wines--just look out for the comic relief and wine relief logo: Majestic, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Somerfield, Tesco, Threshers, Waitrose, Cafe Rouge.

As a native Brit, this is an event I would love to be involved with on some level. Perhaps when Escafeld wines become available in the UK!

Elsbeth
Escafeld Vineyards

Labels: comic relief, red nose day, UK, wine relief

Vineyard Diary

Monday, March 26, 2007

AlaWine.com

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Rattlesnake Season

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Montrio Bistro

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Vineyard Pedicure

Thursday, March 08, 2007

WineQ

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Wine Relief - Red Nose Day