OK I HAVE TO CONFESS I was a little nervous when my sister mentioned that a car manufacturer wanted to film us in a promo piece for a new car. Automobiles and alcohol should not be a perfect pairing, but she is the creative and I am the technical so I rolled with it…
As with most winemakers, Tina Mitchell’s interest in wine developed early, while she was attending the University of California, Davis, as a premed student. During her third year, a friend from her hometown of Ukiah, California, opened a winery, which introduced Tina to wine. After taking a class in enology and viticulture and working a harvest in Paso Robles at Estrella River Winery, Tina knew she had found her new career path.
After marrying in 1981, Tina moved to Napa, where she worked a harvest at Rutherford Hill Winery. After harvest, she finished her last quarter at U.C. Davis and earned her degree. She then worked at Louis Martini and Niebaum Coppola, where she was able to make wine alongside celebrated winemaker André Tchelistcheff. “I feel I was very fortunate to work so closely with such a legend,” she says. “André taught me the importance of being a hands-on winemaker.”
WINEMAKING HAS A REPUTATION as a sleepy, traditional, and almost boring industry – but in recent years, high-tech has hit the wine world, and hit it hard.
Want to know whether your grapes are thriving? Check out Halter Ranch, where networked vineyard sensors have helped it to reduce water usage by more than half while informing vineyard managers when it’s time to harvest. Chateau Lynch-Bages, one of the most noteworthy wineries in Bordeaux, is testing a technology to continuously monitor the conditions of wine aging inside its barrels. And vineyards of late are covered in flying drones, with California regulars like Hahn and Kunde deploying the autonomous aerial eyes to determine the right time to harvest.
THE HONOR OF BEING nominated for the IBPA Benjamin Franklin award was enough to send us into a state of bliss. Christian and Florencia travelled to Salt Lake City on Friday to attend the 28th Annual Benjamin Franklin Awards knowing they were amongst the finest. The IBPA, or Independent Book Publishers Association, along with almost 200 book publishing professionals varying from publishers to bookstore owners, administer the Benjamin Franklin Awards.
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TO THE NAKED EYE, this 1,877-foot mountain along Napa Valley’s eastern edge seems like any other. But deep in the belly of Mt. George, there’s a five-level, high-tech winery, with a sophisticated computer system and display that rivals NASA’s Mission Control Center.
FOR ALMOST NINE DECADES, the Henry Hagen House in Napa, Calif., lay in a state of neglect. Nestled at the foot of Mt. George, the old Victorian manor sat abandoned, presiding over an equally forsaken estate where the old Cedar Knoll Vineyard once operated. Turn-of-the-century farming equipment rusted away, lifeless in the middle of a field of vines. A time capsule of the Great American West, the estate’s future seemed bleak–until the Palmaz family discovered and unearthed its beauty.
SHIVANI VORA, a travel and lifestyle writer who is a regular contributor to the New York Times, included Palmaz Vineyards and winery’s tour and tasting in her most recent biweekly column, “Today’s Travel Hotel and Tour News.” Vora has also written for publications including the Wall Street Journal, National Geographic Traveler, T Magazine, Condé Nast Traveler and Departures.
In late January, Palmaz Vineyards had the distinct pleasure of participating in this year’s Naples Winter Wine Festival and auction — a gala event in Naples, Florida, that raised more than $11 million for children in need.
CERTAIN PLANTS HAVE PARTICULAR TALENTS THAT ADDRESS A VINEYARD’S NEEDS. Generally speaking, a single vineyard can support anywhere from three to six different seeds mixed between the rows, depending on that location’s needs. Here are a few of the more interesting characters we sow, and the talents they possess:
Next week, the tasting-room table will welcome a new addition: spittoons in the form of charming, quirky tumblers that will make you giggle when you hold one. Last year I had the pleasure to make the acquaintance of Justin Parr, a talented glass artist out of San Antonio, Texas. While enjoying a glass of wine at his studio, I fell in love with the small free-form tumbler he had casually handed me. Not long after, we began developing a line of colored glass containers to use as spittoons in the tasting room.
