Well, its time again for the amateur wine makers competition @ the local County fairs. Live Oak Vineyard will be entering a total of 5 wines in both the San Diego and the Orange County fairs this year. Both myself and my lovely and talented winemaker wife have entry’s . No, we will not be competition with each other luckily. The judging and results will be in mid to late June. We will update you on the results….. 
Welcome to a new monthly Live Oak Vineyard beauty contest. This is our first contestant for the year Miss April.
She is of Zinfandel heritage and is 5 weeks old, in this year of vintage 2012. She hails from Amador County ,Ca is truly a california girl. She stands 6 feet tall and has 15 inter-nodes. She has a total infloresense going in this Pic. Please join me in welcoming Miss April…. Enjoy the pics….. Enjoy Life ,Wine ,Family and Friends….Cheers ..Mike
Petite Sirah, (P.S.) I love you ! Even more than Dragon Fruit aka: Pitahaya . I was so motivated to start growing and propagating Dragon fruit. A upcoming cool exotic rare fruit that touts anti-oxidant characteristically and Yes… you can make wine from it also.
But Tricia , my reasoning and my love for good Petite Sirah aka: Durif won out, and I am glad, because I need to keep things simple in my life.
I am a wine grape grower and winemaker that needs to stay 100 % focused on grapes and wine-making. So we added another 25 Petite Sirah to the Vineyard this growing season.
This will make for great flexibility for blending with the Syrah and Zinfandel and not to mention PS as a stand alone wine. The timing of the planting with mothers earth and nature was in total harmony.
It was warm for a week so that the root stock could make the climattion from deep freeze to spring-time. The previous rainfall helped in the effort of making the soil easier to dig big holes.
Then a couple days after planting a great spring-time rain fall. This should give them a great start to a growing year. Also Some Pics 3 Weeks after Bud Burst/ PS Does anyone read these posts. Please feel free to comment. Cheers…..Mike
Ahh, Time again for the start of another annual Vintage. I’ve been very negligent of keeping up with my posts last Fall/Winter.
I will try to do better this year.
A real typical La- Nina year in Southern California. Our local Vineyard weather station has us @ 6.8 In. Normal rainfall would be 12.5 As of this post. Bud burst is a little ahead of time this year, Wondering what dear ole mother nature has in store us grape growers this year…. Enjoy the Bud burst Pic. My cheers to you and yours to a great year…Mike
We harvested our Syrah grape on 4 Sept 2011. It was a beautiful day with an freak rain storm that hit right after we had finished the crush.
Our thanks to “G” at Curds and Wine, San Diego’s home wine and cheese making shop.
In conjunction with Curds and Wine’s hands on wine making class we had the opportunity to meet and enjoy her students, their friends and family during harvest time.
Thanks to all for a such a successful and safe harvest.
The grape was right on the numbers with no adjustments needed prior to its journey to become wine.
Well we are getting excited about Vintage 2011 harvest. The grapes are looking quite noble with their deep black color. Numbers and taste are maturing nicely. Enjoy the Pics…..
Thought I’d add some pics. The growing season has be great this year. No shatter on the grapes like the Northern part of the state is experiencing. Nice constant heating degree days and the fog in the mornings. Time to start the old lab up and run some analysis on the grapes.
Upper Block Syrah
Well Its June been about 3 weeks since we shot some pics. The fruit set has happened thanks to all the winds this year. Well here we go. Enjoy
Been busy lately consulting and working the land in South Fallbrook. Working on the installation of new late season family vineyard . Live Oak Vineyard Consulting Services teamed with Cedco Construction Co. delivered the design and install to produce a stunning classic Vineyard .The vineyard is framed by natural colored stack stone columns with soon to be grape stake rails and a beautiful sweep in facing wall with planters on both sides. The Vineyard is home to Petite Syrah and Deaver Clone Zinfandel from Amadore Co. Still under construction Hear are a few early pics to enjoy..Heading to the hot tub L8R
Pics will load shortly….
Lower Syrah May
Well its been a month since we shot and posted the last Pics. Vineyard maintenance is in full swing now.
Lots of time towards pruning, thinning, training, spraying and pest and fungal control . The vines seem to be growing almost hourly. The Deaver Zin training has been a challenge. I almost feel that their DNA pattern has embedded itself in the vines over all the years of being head trained. They want to grow downward. Its a daily challenge to change them to Vertical Shoot Positioning trellis life. I have to strong arm them to following the wire in a horizontal plane.
2 YR Zin Training
3 RD leaf Zin Fruit Set
