This past year we have been so busy with our home remodel, I haven't written much about our backyard vineyard, now in its fifth year. With one's own vineyard, life does go on. The grapes need to be tended to, the grapevines do grow, the grapevines flower and tiny grape clusters begin to emerge. The vineyard has its own timetable throughout the year.

We did however, have time to enter three of our wines (and two wine labels) in the "Home-Made Wine Competition" at the San Diego County Fair 2010. This year it was held at the posh "Turf Club" at the Del Mar Race Track within the San Diego County Fair Grounds.

There were approximately 100 participants who entered around 300 wines to be judged in various divisions. It is always a great occasion as we see many wine-making friends, teachers, fellow students from our wine and vineyard classes, and really the who's who of San Diego County amateur and professional wine makers.

My husband, John, and I entered three of our home-made wines, our syrah (our first vintage from our backyard vineyard), a merlot (a wine we made from grapes we purchased from Dry Creek, Sonoma), and a "merrah" (a wine blend we made up of our own syrah and the merlot). We also entered our two new wine labels in the "wine label" contest. The wine labels were created by our friend and graphic artist Robin Dujanovic.

I was a little anxious, especially with our syrah wine, with all of the years of diligent effort that passed to create this bottle of wine. It now comes down to this pinnacle moment. Not to worry, unbelievably we got a silver for our own syrah. It didn't stop there, we had an incredible afternoon with a clean sweep of awards, and much more. It was a "trifecta" of bronze, silver, gold at the fair.

Merlot....Bronze Syrah.....Silver Merrah...Gold (Best of Class), and coveted Best of Division (includes all Red Blend Wines)

Chicken & Wine Glass Label, 1st Place Whimsical Label Garage Label, 2nd Place, Best Story In a Picture Label

Our friends, Steve and Amy joined us for the afternoon, and to cheer us on as the competition unfolded. We wish to thank all of our family and friends for helping us throughout the year, and their enthusiasm in our backyard vineyard and wine making efforts. Salut!

Please comment on your local summer fair? Please share if you enter your hobby at your local fair.

Sometimes the hardest part of a home remodel, is letting go of the old. Soon, it will be out with the old, and in with the new. It really is not that cut and dry. We have carefully thought this through, and tipped the scale in favor of our new barn.

In the above photo, is our revered garage named  "Le Vin de Garage," where until recently we made and stored our Domaine de Manion vintages. My husband, John, cleverly tweaked a photo of our "Le Vin de Garage" for our first label. It placed "Fourth Place" in "wine label category" at the San Diego County Fair a few years ago.

John got the "garage idea," one night, when we were watching the movie, A Good Year (Full-Screen Edition), based in Provence, directed by Ridley Scott, and starring Russell Crowe in one of his only comedy roles. Based on the book, A Good Year, one of the many books written by Peter Mayle, the endearing plot revolves around a tasty mysterious boutique cult wine. These tasty cult wines called "garage wines" as mentioned in the movie, were from small vineyards, small productions, and often commanding super premium prices.

Our home was originally built in 1930, and we believe this stand alone garage was built a little later in the 1960's. It has to be close to 50 years old. A previous unknown owner took the time to enhance its character, with whales, waves, and crossed oars. If only our "Le Vin de Garage" could tell us some of its colorful stories of the past.

Alas, our garage has served us well over the last ten years, and it is sad to see it go. It does have termite damage from past neglect. When we have a heavy rain it does leak a bit. Now with our remodel plans, it is not in the best location.

Actually our "Le Vin de Garage," is not totally going away. We've decided to re-purpose its best materials in the form of a shed, close to our vineyard. In a way, it will live on, and continue to help us with our vineyard maintenance and vintages.

Our new barn is nearly finished. It has our new wine-making room on its ground floor, with a work counter for testing the wines, storage area for our equipment, and a harvest table. We really have come a long way, from the day we got the idea to plant a vineyard.

Please share if you make home-made wine? Please share how you got started making wine. Please comment on what kind of area or space you devote to making wine.

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Most of you know Pat Welsh for her incredibly well-written garden books, and the fact that she is a writer, speaker, and garden guru. Did you know, however, she is also a very gifted and talented painter. Her painting is a passion. My husband and I absolutely adore Pat, and adore her painting style.

A few years back we approached Pat about painting "our little hamlet" here at Domaine de Manion, our home and backyard vineyard. Fortunately, she was very interested in our proposed subject, and soon Pat's painting of our home and vineyard took on a life of its own. Pat did on site visits, sketches, and borrowed photos we had taken to begin her vision of the painting. Despite her very busy schedule, she persevered and enjoyed time for painting.

Her proposed composition was exactly what we were hoping for, a beautiful, yet simple depiction of our first grape harvest in 2008. Pat focused her painting of our vineyard from our lower south west corner of our property. Her painting sweeps upward over our beautiful syrah vineyard to our home on top of the hill.  She was able to capture our enthusiastic friends helping in the harvest, J.Lo our beloved chicken and chicken coop, and the whole essence and excitement of our first harvest. My husband, John, and I, are depicted center-front, holding on to this moment.

We wanted something very special to remember and commemorate our first harvest, and all of our hard work which brought us to this point in time. We feel so fortunate and honored to have Pat Welsh's beautiful painting to capture our memories. Many thanks Pat, your painting is incredible.

Please comment on little celebrations in your life that have big meaning. Please share  if you have had a chance to delve into Pat Welsh's new book.

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San Diego Horticultural Society announces its Spring Garden Tour, Saturday March 13, 2010. Tickets are $15/members, $20/non-members. To purchase tickets and more detailed information, please go to www.SanDiegoHorticulturalSociety.org

Southern California has been experiencing wave after wave of rain storms this past week, complete with high winds, thunder, lightning, and lots of rain. It doesn't take long for innate nettle seeds in our sandy soil to come alive as a vibrant green carpet in our backyard Domaine de Manion vineyard.

This is a point in time where the vineyard is beautiful in its simplicity. Unabashed beautiful bare structure, magnified by repetition of vine after vine exposing groomed cordon arms and last year's upward shoots held high. It is close to the last moment of calm and dormancy before this year's vineyard activities commence.

Soon, my husband John, and yours truly will begin spur pruning each vine along its cordon arms. These all-important cordon arms, host fruit spurs with inevitable buds ready to swell into tiny new shoots. This process begins the onset of this year's awakening of our vineyard.

It is an exciting time for us, considering the many unknowns, and anticipation of our third harvest this coming fall. It is a time to reflect on last year, and this year ahead, both years converging briefly at the same time. What will the weather be like this year? Will it be especially advantageous to our vineyard? Will it be a special year for our grapes? Will we harvest a higher grape yield this year? Will it be a late harvest? Will there be a surprise?

What differences will we see as our vineyard is another year older, and as grape growers we are another year wiser? Will our many footsteps amongst the grapevines this year, translate into producing a great syrah grape, and in turn a great syrah wine? Ah, only time will tell.

Please share if you have experienced the winter beauty of a vineyard. Please comment if you have helped friends in their winter vineyard.

Please welcome new sponsors, TomatoFest and BioBag!

It is an accumulation of hours and days spent tending the vineyard. It is thousands and thousands of footsteps taken through the rows of vines with care. It is the weather and how it behaved throughout the year. It is the vines, and how themselves continue to grow and mature. It is how the grape clusters formed and dangled effortlessly from the vine. It is the end of our fourth growing season, and beginning of our second harvest. Every year is different, and what makes every vintage its own personality. It is our 2009 vintage. Consequently, there are high spirits on harvest day.

With an army of enthusiastic volunteers, armed with garden clippers, we all assemble to get hands-on instructions, and hear a blessing for this harvest. Last year's "Harvest Blessing" brought us great grape-growing weather, and beautiful grape clusters. In the photo above, our just-harvested grapes look so beautiful and luscious, you just know they taste delectable and are going to become a very drinkable and desirable wine.

We suggest to our volunteers to find a row partner, and harvest a row together. In 5 gallon clean buckets the grape clusters are carefully clipped off of the vines and dropped into the buckets. When the bucket is full, the bucket is brought up to the sorting table and crusher/destemmer area. Grape clusters are spread out on a large table and carefully checked for an undesirable grapes or clusters. The sorted grapes are then collected in a 40 lb lug, and dumped into the crusher/destemmer and augured to gently seperate the green stems and break open the grapes. This process creates a thick mixture of grape skins, seeds, and now juice.

This mixture is then poured into food grade plastic barrels, and cooled down with dry ice to mid 50 degrees F. The next day, it is brought back to room temperature, and the desired yeast is added to start the fermentation process.

Once all of the grapes have been processed, all of your equipment must be thoroughly cleaned, rinsed, and sanitized for their next use. This is one of the cardinal rules of wine making, always thoroughly clean and sanitize your grape processing equipment immediately after use.

With the grapes mixture carefully taken care of for the day, the "harvest feast" can begin in earnest, and everyone can rejoice in the newly harvested grapes which will become "vintage 2009". It is a time of celebration and high spirits.

Have you ever been to a vineyard harvest, and vineyard feast? Do you ever think about all that went into the making of a wine, when sipping wine from your glass?

Here at Domaine de Manion, our backyard syrah vineyard, it is late summer and our syrah grapes are showing their true color. Our syrah grapevines have a full vegetative leaf canopy, perfectly formed grape clusters dangle from their shoots, and now the veraison process begins. Veraison is the phenomenon of grapes transitioning in their development from hard to soft in touch, and their color transitions from green to their harvest color, depending on the grape varietal. Syrah, our vineyard grape varietal, is a very dark, inky black color when ripe and at harvest time. In the above photo you can see the color transition happening among the individual grapes.

In this process, the grape's sugar level will slowly begin to rise. Regular testing of your grape sugar content with a refractometer helps monitor your harvest time frame.

When grapes transition from green to their varietal harvest color of yellow, pink, red, or black, it is a signal to birds and wildlife, a food source is available and ripening. Netting your grapevines is invaluable in protecting your grapes from birds, raccoons, deer, and wildlife in general. Even our beloved chickens love the ripening grape clusters, jumping nearly a foot to reach the clusters, if they are not netted.

Our netting system is simple. Measure out netting the entire length of each of your grapevine row, and allow 3' on each end to secure the netting ends. Throw the entire netting over both sides of your grapevine row, and clip at bottom with wooden clothespins at spaced intervals. These nets can be used year after year, if rolled up and secured away in a safe place until needed the following year. Netting your backyard vineyard ensures your entire year's efforts and crop will not be lost. Netting is particularly important to the backyard vineyard, which is generally isolated, versus commercial vineyards where there are acres and acres of growing grapes.

It is an exciting time of year, harvest is in a matter of weeks. Do you have a backyard vineyard? Do you net your grapes from wildlife?

I would encourage all of you to visit your local, regional, or state fair this summer. Fairs are a slice of Americana, a part of our American culture. School is out, and the summer lifestyle has switched into gear. If you have a passion for something, like our wine-making, enter it in the fair, you might be surprised.

There is judging on flowers, garden displays, woodworking, artwork, chickens, cows, pigs, sheep, baked goods, jams, you name it. It is a great way to connect with others in your community with the same passion, and also to stay in touch with what others are doing in your particular area in the community.

Our local fair is the San Diego County Fair, always mid-June through the Fourth of July. There are rides, outrageous fair food, exhibits, judging of all kinds of categories, concerts, in other words something for everyone.

The wine judging contest at the San Diego County Fair is popular, and has a wide range of categories from Cabernet Sauvignon to Fruit Wines. There is also judging on wine labels, and the coveted "Best of Show".

This year we entered three wines in three different categories. We won a "Blue Ribbon" First Prize, for our "Le Vin de Garage" Syrah 2007, in the "Syrah Category", on Sunday, June 21, 2009, Father's Day. It was a total surprise, and a little surreal when our names were announced. Needless to say, it was a special treat for our dads.

These grapes are not from our own syrah vineyard quite yet, but grapes that we purchased from the pristine Guadalupe Valley in Baja, Mexico to practice making wine, until our vineyard was three years old. Many thanks to our friends and family who helped us bottle this wine last fall, and for your ongoing enthusiasm.

Do you have a wonderful summer fair near you? Do you have a "Blue Ribbon" story to share? What are you passionate about that you could enter in the fair next year?

Here at Domaine de Manion (DDM), in our backyard vineyard, we finished our spur pruning in February, and knocked down most of the winter weeds. Spur pruning is cutting last year's grapevine canes down to two nodes or buds at each spur, off of the cordons. It is an individual management practice how many spurs you keep on each arm or cordon, but usually you have at least 5-6 spurs, a fist length apart on each cordon. Please note there are different types of pruning techniques used in vineyards throughout the world. We prefer the spur pruning method in our "syrah" vineyard.

In our Southern California climate, at the 33rd parallel, bud burst is usually around the beginning of March. Bud burst is the awakening of the grapevines in spring, marking the end of their winter dormancy. Bud burst usually occurs when mean daily temperatures are 50 degrees F (10 degrees C). Beautiful chartreuse shoots slowly emerge from the tiny buds on the spurs.

Ideally you want shoots from the cordons, growing upward and as vertical as possible, to reach the two sets of upper double wires, which will hold them in place. This is the very popular and common Vertical Shoot Positioning (VSP) System. This VSP trellis system helps with important air flow between the vines and rows, and proper sunlight exposure. There are many other types of trellis systems used in vineyards throughout the world, and in some cases a trellis system is not used at all. Often times, vineyard management is dictated by your geography location and grape varietal you grow.

At DDM we are just starting our "fourth leaf" or fourth season of the vineyard. Our grapevines and cordons are well established. As shoots emerge that are not in a desirable spot, such as on the trunk of a grapevine, shoots pointing down or sideways off of their cordon, are easily "nipped off" with your fingers.

The canopy is the leaf cover above the grapevine and ultimately the green vegetation above each grapevine that the trellis holds in place. Grapevines, shoots, and leaves through careful manipulation, can be managed for the best balance between shoot and fruit growth. Careful pruning, thinning, shoot positioning, and leaf removal are all parts of canopy management used throughout the year to optimize your grapes.

The warmer, longer days of spring urge the grapevine shoots to grow quickly. Soon the directed shoots are swaying in the soft breeze, and the vineyard has undeniably come alive again.