San Luis Obispo

I made my way to San Luis Obispo yesterday and am staying with the Johnston twins (Daughters of the of family that I rented a house from). They showed me a wonderful time and we partied like only college kids can...beer pong! Today I stuck out on my bike to explore the area and see if I would like to live here for a few years or so. To start, I really liked the drive into the area. 101 curved through the mountains and then dropped down to the valley or whatever this flattish bit is. The town is tiny but seems to have heaps of shops and stuff happening. It was really easy to get all over by bike. The surrounding view is of big mountains and big sky. From talking to people, there are tons of bike trails, hiking trails, rock climbing, and the beach is only 10 minuets away with lots of surfing. So far so good. The campus (albeit empty) looked brand new. Tomorrow ill go visit the admissions office and talk to them about getting in and hopefully visit their wine and viticulture department. Ill also check out the climbing gym since climbers (there is a not-for-profit gym in town) tend to think along my wavelength and see what they think of the area. Tuesday Ill make my way to the coast and take 1 back north to SanFran and stay there for a day with a friend.

Change of Plans

As of this Sunday, I have officially finished my second harvest. This week I worked primarily on finishing and bottling my wine. In the end I have about 5 cases total: 3 gallons skin fermented chardonnay, 4 gallons regular chardonnay, 4 gallons petite syrah rose, and 3 gallons of zinfandel port. Both the chardonnays are fabulous and drastically different from each other (even though they are from the same grapes). The rose is good, but a bit weighty. The port is...well it tastes like the inside of a barrel. I put waaay too much oak into the carboy and left it for waaay too long. But it is still delicious, extreme vanilla-cream with a very long soft, rich finish. It will be fun to see how they change in bottle. None were filtered but all were sulphured since the malo-ferment was either stopped early (in the case of the chards) or inhibited all together (in the case of the rose).

As for where ill be off to now...
I have talked to Jonathan in Sarasota and we have both decided that it would be in each of our best interests that I not head back to the store for the holidays. For me, I am looking forward to moving out to SLC and to spending the holidays with the family. For Jonathan, he has a good crew at the moment and needless to say the sales for this season are probably not going to break any records. So on that note, I will not be returning to Florida immediately. I will spend a week or so traveling around cali visiting schools and then head to SLC. I have decided that I like making wine a lot and that I might as well turn my dream of being a cellar rat into a carrier. Ill pursue several of the schools out here that offer degrees in oenology such as Cal Poly, Napa CC, and UC Davis. I will not be starting immediately though, probably not for a year or so. For this next half year I will either attempt to work in a brewery in SLC and see how that side of the alcohol industry treats me or I will head to South America and work a harvest there. I may even be able to do both since the harvest would only be from Feb-April and then work the summer in a brewery. Then next fall I am hoping to go to Europe for crush there. I would then try for school starting Spring of 2010.

As for Florida, ill most likely be back for a few weeks the end of December/beginning of January. Then I will clean out my stuff, put the house on the market, and say my goodbyes.

and that is where it stands at the moment.

As the world turns

Across America people have spoken out in a firm, loud, and clear voice. We were in the darkest of times and yet there is light on the horizon. From Florida to California in a little bar in Calistoga, I felt the hushed silence as the candidates spoke and the cheers as the first finished to the roars of ecstasy after the victor spoke. Now go hide your guns and spend all your money, tomorrow brings a bright new day when you will no longer need them.