Scott's Vintage in California: Post 3. What was that?

Hi All,

This morning I had a very weird experience. Ive been waking up at midnight since I got here and lying awake for a couple of hours. This morning was no different except that when I finally did fall back to sleep I was rudely awaked again by my bed shaking........... Enough of the jokes!!!!! I thought a big truck had driven by but I'm in a very solid hotel and it was going on for a bit longer than it should. Then I realized, "Holy Crap, this is an earthquake". Yep, that's right, northern California experienced an earthquake this morning (see 1st photo below for proof). It was pretty cool. it lasted for about 30 seconds after I woke up. Now that's a Californian experience not everyone gets to go through.

I've been inducted to the American vineyards and I've been trained on the software in use over here. Vintage for Managers over here seems a bit less involved as far as scheduling goes than Australia. Over here the winery find the slots for the fruit once the winemakers decide to pick whereas in Australia the managers need to fight and haggle for slots. Another difference is there are no booking numbers. The process is, the managers fill out a live spreadsheet of when the blocks will be ready and the winery's find the slots (no fighting for slots or last minute changes Marty!). I'm yet to strike a blow as far as harvest goes but I'll be in the thick of things thurs morn at North Canyon Vineyard. Apparently we'll have three Pellenc Selectiv's SP's and two Tow UR Vinestars. It look's like they are Pellenc all the way over here.

Today I hung out with the director for grape resources for the day and had lunch with the two Napa Vineyard Managers and the 1 assistant manager. I will be occupying the vacant assistant mgr's role when I come back up here in 4 weeks, running picks. Nige and Ben, remember Harinder who visited a couple of years ago? He and I will run the pick for Napa South. For lunch we went to a Mexican place and I had a beef burrito. This thing was as big as a new born baby filled with beans, chopped up steak and heaps of sauce and salad. It was awesome, but all through the meal the guys were saying "this isn't real Mexican, its Cali-Mexican. Wait till you get down to Paso. That's where the REAL Mexican is"
Well, if lunch wasn't real Mexican, I cant wait till I get down there and try the real thing.

Two of the managers at lunch I knew from previous vintage exchange programs, and get this, the winemaker I met this morning was the old Rosemount winemaker I used to deliver fruit to when I was in Orange! The wine industry world can be small sometimes.

I looked at a number of vineyards today and I'll post some photo's below. The overall impression of the Napa is it is a very slick and polished place. You have Bordeaux style vineyards with 1m*1m plantings beside Aussie style 3m*1.5m. There are a lot of redevelopments going on and I've seen a couple of things they do here that interest me. I also went up into Knight's Valley and had a look at a Stag's Leap vineyard (or Ranch). Jake and Rex, Have a look at the pictures of the workshop ute's (trucks). Make Coonawarra's look like toys in comparison.

Anyway, Enough of the Napa for now. The next post will be from the Central coast.