SO MUCH HAPPENED SINCE WE ARRIVED AT OUR NEW HOME!

We've picked, crushed and pressed the grapes, we've done the punch down during fermentation and we racked and bottled the wine. Phew! That’s just within the first 2 months!

My sister and I went to a biodynamic winery in Healdsberg last week, to get the scoop on how biodynamic wines are made. I have to say it’s exactly the type of life I was hoping for! They don’t use any pesticides or herbicides and they nourish the soil with different types of mulch.

It’s more complicated than that, but it’s basically about making your plants strong enough to fight off pests and disease naturally. I've found a few classes at the Rudolph Steiner school that I want to take. I'll be able to fill you in after that.

I recently learned that Syrah is the 6th most planted grape in the world! Wow! I've been wanting to get more of an understanding about the varietals, so yesterday we had a Syrah tasting just and it was so much fun!

I bought four bottles of Syrah: Wind Walker, Layer Cake (Shiraz), Sierra Ridge and Old World Winery. We also sampled two of my dad’s Syrah for comparison. I printed out the typical Syrah flavor profile on cards and let everyone go for it.

The typical flavors for Syrah:

Chocolate
Red and black currant
Black pepper
Thyme
Bay leaf
Cedar
Sandalwood

In our tasting, we found that across the board—they all had the red and black currant. But that was all they had in common. The chocolate was here and there (Wind Walker and one of my dad’s). There were a few that had hints of spicy black pepper and sandalwood (Layer cake and Old World).

After we sampled all of the wines, I still felt we needed more examples. These flavors were too far apart to feel related in my opinion. I also need to pick up some bottles from the old world for comparison, since France is it’s first home. So, I’ll try again soon. I really need to understand each varietal. More to come soon…