BLOG
Best of the Fray
All wines are live info@ledgevineyards.com
Harvest time.
Let's make some wines.
While we are still a few weeks out from picking anything up here on the ranch, the grapes are ripening up nicely. As noted in previous posts, we have narrowed our focus to the Adams Ranch Vineyard, James Berry Vineyard (Paso Robles, Willow Creek District) and Bien Nacido (Santa Maria Valley, Santa Barbara County).
We are honored to be making wine from the latter two estates, which rank among the most famous and well reputed vineyards in the world of wine.
These days I am spending most of my time helping out over at Saxum and JBV, although they have assembled such a stellar crew, that I am practically resigned to flipping over records and stacking picking bins.
That's a good thing.
It is with a heavy heart that we pour out a pull for their dog Luna, one of the most beloved vineyard dogs to ever snarf a grape, who passed yesterday. We will miss you.
Bye for now,
Mark (Ciera and Elizabeth) Adams
Below: One of our oldest, own rooted vines, planted in 2005.
Sep 25, 2019 at 11:11 AM
Permalink
Trailer for Sale or Rent
Exciting times.
We're going to purchase a used but sturdy picking trailer tomorrow up in York Mountain. That's a first for our humble farm.
I've been schlepping stacked up macro bins in our two "mature" pick up trucks since our first substantial harvest in 2010. This trailer will allow us to have our picking bins single-high while picking the whole ranch. This is muy bueno.
The fruit is looking good. Really good. We will have our first nice pull from the meter-by-meter Estrella Clone Syrah block, as well as the first real harvest from the Bunk House Block, which is our most geologically complex block. It also houses the widest variety of grapes: Syrah, Counoise, Cinsaut, Roussanne, Grenache and Grenache Blanc.
We are still looking at a mid-October Estate pick. The weather has been wonderfully mild, allowing the plants to rebound from what has been a pretty severe hot spell. The "Brix" or sugar readings around town have been high, but it's all a facade. The vines freak out and the numbers get all wonky when extreme weather happens.
This is one of the reasons why we rely heavily on how the grapes taste and not so much on what the numbers look like.
To quote Obi-Wan Kenobi, "Trust your instincts".
We do.
Sep 18, 2019 at 11:11 AM
Permalink
Maybe I'm Amazed
We have had an intense couple of days up here at the rancho. Some of our friends, who happen to be touring musicians, stayed with us and we proceeded to combine wine and music related actvities. Monday night the boys (Tim Buhm and The Coffis Brothers) performed for a music video shoot at Bethel Road Distillery, followed by a full blown rehearsal up here at the house. The next day we all went down to the Krush FM studio where we poured Ledge wines (2017 Adams Ranch and 2017 James Berry Vineyard) along with Jordan Fiorentini of Epoch wines on a radio show called Liquid Lunch with the "Cork Dorks", Adam Montiel and Jeremy West. The boys sang a few songs as well. The show is archived on their website.
After this show we popped in to say hello to our friends at Bristol's Cider House, where they have started picking apples and making fresh batches of cider. My brother and I are going to take a stab at making a small batch of our own cider (just for fun) here in a few days.
After Bristol's we moseyed up to Firestone Walker Brewery and participated in their annual Anniversary Ale winemaker blending session where we teamed up with our buddy from Saxum, Justin Smith. While we have "won" this friendly competition a few times in the past, this year's honor went to Sherman Thatcher of Thatcher Winery.
After the blending session we made our way to Morro Bay to hear the guys play some music at The Siren. They rocked it - and for a Tuesday night - the place was pretty packed. Way to deliver, Central Coast!
This morning the touring van left the ranch and headed to San DIego where the guys will be performing at The Casbah. You can hear them here at the ranch at our next "Ledge Fest", which is a thank you concert, dinner and tasting for our wine club members.
We are a little tuckered out, but very grateful for this community. It is really special to be able to show a group of wandering musicians how supportive we can be of eachother. My friends and neighbors made me proud to be a part of it all.
Many, many thanks to my wonderful wife and daughter for putting up with a few action-packed days. You rock.
Harvest is right around the corner. Exciting!
Sep 11, 2019 at 11:11 AM
Permalink
Back Home Again
Hey, it's good to be back home again
Sometimes this old farm feels like a long lost friend
Yes, and hey, it's good to be back home again
One of the sweetest thing about going away for extended periods of time is missing home.
I sure missed this place.
That isn't to say that I didn't have an absolute blast showing Ledge wines out the road - or river and Bayou as it were. Both the Idaho wilderness and the Louisiana trips were amazing. It is fair to say that I fell in love twice in two weeks.
Apologies for the lack of blog updates. This one is going to be short as well. The main thing to report is that the wines are absolutely firing and we look forward to releasing them to you next month. We are available to wine club to taste here at our home. As many of you know, our personal phone and email are printed on the bottle. Inquire within.
As far as harvest is concerned, the heat kicked things into gear and some of my neighbors have started picking. We are still looking at mid October but things are ripening nicely.
I'm still getting back into the swing of my "Farmer Mark" role, as my wife likes to call me.
To quote Frank Black of the Pixies, "I've been tired".
Thanks to the wine club folks who came up and tasted at Adams Ranch Vineyard. We sure enjoy meeting you all.
Photos and whatnot to come.
I've got half a mind to get this blog back to regular Wednesday updates.
Make that a full mind.
We'll check in with you all next Wednesday.
Stay Classy San Diego,
MCA
Sep 5, 2019 at 11:11 AM
Permalink