Afghanistan

Okay, so what does Afghanistan have to do with Cerro Prieto Vineyard & Cellars? Well, to make a short story long, it has to do with a reminder for us all… and that is, what are you doing to help support the men and women of the armed services over in Afghanistan, who are doing their best to defeat the Taliban, and keep Islamic whackos from doing us more harm? Several years ago, I became pen pals with General David Petraeus, while he was commanding general of US forces in Iraq. It was sometime around the Fallujah surge, and was tense, hairy, and frankly a bit scarey…especially if things didn’t go well. On a lark, I sent General Petraeus two of my hunting and fishing books on Baja…both humorous in nature. I suggested a short story chapter per nite, just before turning off the light. Turned out he enjoyed both books, and when I asked if he would be interested in my sending a couple boxes of each book to the servicemen and women in Iraq, he said yes.

The big question was once there, how in the world did books get distributed? His answer was simple and once stated, obvious…chaplins. The chaplains also serve double duty as librarians, so in addition to bringing the good word, they also brought along books. I have been told my books were read all the way from Basra in the south to Kirkuk in the north. Some readers were kind enough to write email thank yous, and said how much they appreciated the gesture of sending some light and humorous reading material, especially for the times of monotony sandwiched between the times of chaos. The only glitch was the sending of 200 books, which came to over $400. That is where Cerro Prieto came in and picked up the shipping tab.

Now, several years later, we are starting the offensive in Afghanistan, this time in a faraway place, Marjah. As it turns out, a contingent of marines was sent to Afghanistan a while back, one the son of my best friend…marine Captain Mark Braithwaite. His dad had just forwarded me some pictures from Mark, and one is at the top of this blog. In a land of mud and dust, snow and ice, it seemed like a good idea to send the marines several boxes of Best Stories of Baja, and Arriba! Baja. I have hunted with Mark both in the Argentine, Zambia, and along the Rio Grande. As good a shot as his dad is, Mark is better…much better, and his dad is a crack shot with rifle or shotgun. I don’t know if the books will get distributed in Afghanistan as they did in Iraq, but I do know that some folks will read them and get some good belly laughs from short stories about the Baja outback. It is just a little thing, but is extremely welcomed by our troops over in the middle of nowhere, and was both simple and a pleasure to do. If you really want to do a good deed and bring some joy to some of our troops over there, contact the army and marines and see how you can get a package of joy to our men and women in Afghanistan. Oh, I didn’t mention it, but I have known Mark since he was 1 yr old, and he has become a very fine officer of men, plus he received the Bronze Star for heroism in the 2^nd Iraq war. If only a handful of folks who read this blog do a good deed for our servicemen and women far away from home, then the time spent writing this blog was well spent.

We don’t see the every day goings on in Afghanistan, and small little gifts are really appreciated by those receiving them. Regardless of your political inclination re: the war in Afghanistan, I hope you take the opportunity to make some marine or army soldier happy with a reminder of home. You will be surprised how good it makes you feel once you have taken the time, expense, and effort to do a good deed. As stark as the country is, it is amazing how beautiful the rugs they put down for shuras, or meetings, can be. The picture above is an example of how starkly contrasted the beautiful rug is to the barren landscape. A warm and hearty hello to our folks “over there”, stay safe, and thank you for your service. I would wish that when you all return home you will take the time to come visit us at our vineyard and share a glass of Paso Bordo with us. Best regards, Larry Stanton/ Cerro Prieto Vineyard & Cellars

Note: That's Captain Braithwaite at the far right end of photo...not near the "good" rug.

The Ecology of Cerro Prieto Vineyard Part 4

By 2007 we were committed to pruning to 2.5 Tons/acre, and usually had only 8 spurs/ 5 feet of vine. Additionally, we generally have only 1 cluster/ shoot, and the result is all clusters hanging independently, no one cluster touching another. Every cluster on every vine in the vineyard has air and light that reaches every part of each cluster, with more uniform ripening and equally important, virtually no mildew forms because of the generous amount of air and sunshine surrounding all clusters. This low yield pruning allowed us to cut back to a mere one or two mildew sprayings per season, because we prune to such low yields that we are eliminating most of the major reasons for mildew formation...to wit, grape clusters packed and jammed around one another, with clusters virtually intertwined resulting in cluster "clumps" the size of cantaloupes. All this resulted from merely drastically decreasing our crop load. To this day it literally breaks to drive by vineyards and see 10, maybe even 12 Tons/acre hanging on the vines. Actually, seeing even 6-8 Tons/acre is unsettling, because I know how inferior those grapes are to ones of substantially lower yields...such as Cerro Prieto's.

As for the huge pile of prunings in early spring, we no longer foul the air by burning them. Now we exclusively use the shredder pulled behind our tractor, thus eliminating thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide and smoke that would otherwise pollute the air. Furthermore, the shredded prunings decompose and result in returning more nitrogen to the soil. The use of Zon guns and cannons to scare away flocks of birds that descend on vines and literally clean the grapes off in minutes, has been replaced not only with bird netting, but also computer driven bird distress calls. Noisemakers are sound polluters, and with our current bird protection program, we have not only eliminated bird damage, we have environmentally friendly bird distress calls and netting...and nothing else. There is no noise pollution. Yes, these are small things, but overall, when added together, one can appreciate just how ecology influences and can be influenced by not only the beneficial animals and birds, but also by man inspired eco friendly actions.

The above vignettes have shown but a few of the multitude of ecological considerations at Cerro Prieto, and how easy it is to do things in an ecologically friendly manner. Best part is that we are keeping our environment cleaner, and at the same time making the ecologic considerations of the vineyard such that although we are not completely organic, we are doing everything and anything we can to see to it that our grapes grow in an atmosphere, water sphere, and soil sphere where they can be produced as organically as humanly possible. My favorite term for how we farm in an ecologically friendly manner, is "Going towards green". No, we are not there yet, but man have we made up some mileage as far as getting there. We bend over backwards and thoughtfully think our way through to see to it that grapes from Cerro Prieto(and therefore our wines) are produced in the most environmentally friendly manner possible. And it is all based on concerns about our vineyard ecology, keeping our vineyard as close to organic as possible, and never missing an opportunity to improve upon what we have already accomplished. From the perfect grape... comes the perfect wine. Our first bottling in 2009 of our 2006 vintage resulted in 2 International Gold Medals for Cerro Prieto Reserve Merlot, and national recognition for our

92 point Cerro Prieto Paso Bordo. That didn't happen by accident...following sound ecologic measures and "going towards green" have resulted in perfect wines being grown in the perfect place. That's not a bad model for making wine...great wine.

The Ecology of Cerro Prieto Vineyard, Part 3 of 4

Moving along in an ecologically friendly manner, we began 5 years ago to vastly decrease the amount of chemical herbicide we had been using. Pre-emergents were used which could keep an area of ground bare for up to 3-4 years. Without question, these chemicals are applied to and remain in the ground for years. We have now not used any of these pre-emergent herbicides for 4 years. Things don't look any different, but we do know we are not poisoning our water supply for years to come. Fact: one of the known causes of prostate cancer is...herbicide. That alone is enough reason to greatly reduce or completely get rid of pre-emergents. It does, however, allow more weeds to grow, but we hit these with the contactant, Round Up, which doesn't stay in the soil as pre-emergents do. Additionally, we have cut the # of spray nozzles per side of the spray rig to one each, thus cutting 50% more of our remaining herbicide use. Finally, we have cut our concentration of herbicide by half, again greatly decreasing the total amount of contact spray we use. Do the math and you will see we are now using 90-95% less of the herbicide than we formerly used. Yes, we do have a somewhat shaggier vineyard, and yes, more weeds do grow. But it is a small price to pay for being environmentally conscientious and ecologically sound.

There is another spray also used in vineyards, and that is pesticide spray. It is used for fungus, eg., mildew, with which we are all familiar. There can be other organisms that grow on grape leaves, not to mention grapes, but mildew is by far the most common offender. As recently as 5 years ago we were using 6-8 sprays/season, with a 10-20 day interval between sprayings. Fed up with that much spray use, we were looking for ways to either decrease pesticide sprays, or eliminate them entirely. As it turned out, that was the year, 2005, when we made the decision to drastically reduce our crop yields, and to go with 2.5-3.0 Tons/acre, rather than the 4-5 Tons/acre we had previously been pruned to. We had experimented with 5, 4.5, 3.5, 3.0, and 2.5 Tons/acre, and had found our

"sweet spot" to be somewhere in the 2.5-3.25 Tons/acre range. At the lower yields our flavors became markedly more aromatic, more vibrant, and the tastes more remarkable. The lower yields also yielded way less mildew, and pesticide spray was cut by 85-90% of what we had formerly used.

Lower yields don't just affect grapes, incidentally. Look at roses, for example. If you have a bush loaded with rosebuds and then pinch off every other bud, the resultant roses are more aromatic, more intense, richer in color, and larger flowers to boot. Same with a nectarine tree, or any other plant that produces either fruits or flowers. Additionally, we had been losing fruit from some ultra low yielding vines, which were located around the periphery of our Cab, Merlot, and Syrah blocs. This was because the wineries we had been selling to waited until the majority of the bloc was ripe, and then harvested. The fact that several hundred vines around the periphery of each of our 3 acre blocs were severely stressed due to competition with nearby oak trees for not only water, but also nutrients, resulted in those vines ripening 2-3 weeks before the majority of the vines contracted to other wineries were picked. Essentially, in 2006, we for the first time harvested those stressed vines for our own wines, instead of letting them just dry up and go to waste. The resultant wines from those vines yielded only 1 Ton/acre, but holy cow, were those grapes ever aromatic with flavors of blackberry, cherry, raspberry, cassis, occaisonal strawberry, some plum, and, of course, the minerality that our vineyard is known for, because of our chalk rock soil.

Recall that ecology is the branch of biology dealing with living organisms and their environment. Well, if you greatly improve the vine's environment, you likewise improve the vine...and its magnificent fruit. At Cerro Prieto that is our thrust...do everything we can to make the most favorable environment for our vines, and hence...our wines. Continued in Part 4.

The Ecology of Cerro Prieto, Part 2 (of 4)

I mentioned coyotes, which also roam the vineyard at night, and they too, feed on gophers and ground squirrels(another pest that digs up the vineyard and eats grapevine roots). We have literally hundreds of coyotes that visit the vineyard on a daily/nightly basis, and keeping them out with deer fence just doesn't work. Normally I wouldn't mind the coyotes, but they also eat dogs...and Cazadora and Cartucho have no idea of how dangerous these coyotes are. More than anything our dogs are keenly interested in these animals that truly do look somewhat like dogs, and a careless dog who ventures too far away from his protector is very likely to become dinner for a pack of coyotes that stealthily lies in wait for our dogs to come too close to them.

As big as Cerro Prieto is( 73 acres with over 5000 oak trees) it makes ideal hunting ground for dogs by coyotes. Again this is part of the ecologic system of Cerro Prieto, and whereas it is nice to have the coyotes help to keep the gopher, ground squirrel and raccoon population under control, it is nicer yet to have our great dogs around us as constant companions. Given a chance I will shoot any coyote I see, but the vineyard is surrounded by trees, trees, and more trees, which makes a shot at a coyote almost impossible. Occasionally, however, a deer gets under our deer fence (their front shoulders dislocate and they come thru coyote holes dug under the deer fence). It is then that we get visited by a pair of mountain lions, hell bent on catching a fenced in deer. Yes, this is survival of the fittest, but it is also part and parcel of our ecology.

Should a raccoon, a ground squirrel, a skunk or whatever else die, we have an airborne armada of turkey vultures to clean up the mess. Usually they ride the air currents that flow thru our valleys and mountains, but often they can also be seen circling, sometimes as high as a mile or more, where they can smell the putrid remains of a dead animal. Their olfactory system can sense a rotting animal from heights as great as 5000 to 10,000 feet. It is an adaptive change, a special sense they have developed over thousands of years, that allows them to find carrion by smell. They literally are the garbage collectors of nature, cleaning up whatever is left rotting in the sun, whether hit by a cement truck, or killed by another predator. It is fascinating to watch the vultures, coyotes, and yellow jackets all jockey for a position at the table of a dead animal. There is some hierarchy as to who eats what, where, and when, but amazingly, all three carnivores seem to take turns, fill their stomachs, and somehow still manage to coexist. Wasps don't bother the coyotes, the coyotes don't bother the vultures, and the vultures are smart enough to give both a wide berth.

Wild turkeys can frequently be seen in our vineyard, occasionally a flock of 20 or more, and they always visit when there are grapes on the vines. Again these are virtually impossible to scare away, or shoot (because they are in and around the vines), but a pack of coyotes can put them to flight in the blink of an eye. It is rare for a coyote to catch a mature turkey, but they have a field day once the turkey eggs hatch.

With the incredibly wet winter and somewhat warmer days, mushrooms have sprouted and I have been eagerly hunting them. The north facing slopes of all mountains, complete with plenty of shade, have become ideal sites for the mushrooms to spring up. Deadfall---twigs and branches---and especially mounds of leaves that have been accumulating since eons ago, have made a mulch that in many places is 2-3 feet thick, and has become primo mushroom hunting territory. Yesterday morning in between rains, I picked 37 different varieties of mushrooms in less than 3 hours. No, I did not eat them, but yes, I have spent the last day trying to identify all of them. This is not in the vineyard proper, but is definitely part of the vineyard ecologic system, as all mushroom areas are on the border of Cerro Prieto.

Some years back we seeded, reseeded, and then reseeded again, throughout all of our vineyard rows. In addition to wildflowers we established bromes, vetch, ryes, clovers, and filaree, all of which help keep the topsoil in our steeply sloped mountain vineyard. In big rain years such as el nino of 2010, without our ground cover, we would have had terrible erosion and actual loss of entire rows. Even with ground cover the last el nino wiped out over
5 partial rows, costing $1000 per 50 feet of lost row to rebuild. We lost over 500 feet of vineyard rows at a price tag of some $5000. At that stage we had just established our ground cover, but hadn't yet learned that degrees of inclination exceeding 45 degrees or more require that hay or straw be put out by hand immediately after seeding, to insure that planted seeds are not carried away by torrential rains. Now, with ground cover established, we still need to put out hay in death defyingly steep slopes. Altho we know the potential areas of erosion, we still have to put out 90 bales of hay or straw each season. To not do so just invites severe erosion and a mass disturbance in the ecology of Cerro Prieto vineyard. Continued in Part 3.

The Ecology of Cerro Prieto Vineyard, Part 1 of 4

Ecology? We all know the meaning of that, right? Well, maybe we all have a sense of the definition, but essentially it is the branch of biology dealing with living organisms and their environment. So what, you may ask? Well, how about the common threads between:

-barn owls and great horned owls,

-coyotes, ground squirrels, and gophers,

-mushrooms and the floor of the surrounding forest,

-dead trees and leaves,

-turkey vultures, wild turkeys, and the vineyard,

-clover, vetch, bromes, ryes, and filaree,

-barn owl boxes and gophers

-coyotes and our dogs, Cazadora and Cartucho,

-grape vine prunings and their disposal,

-red tail hawks, gophers and ground squirrels,

-rainwater, steep hillsides, and runoff,

-herbicides, weeds, and prostate cancer,

-pesticides

-to name but a few.

Quite simply, all the above are but a tiny part of the ecology of Cerro Prieto. All living things and their environment are what make the vineyard itself, a living, breathing thing. Most folks see a vineyard and think of grapes. Others see beauty, and yet others see an invasion of beautiful countryside, marred by row upon row of vines, end posts, and miles of shining wire. As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Ecology deals with how all items above interact with one another, or in some cases, upon one another.

Let's start with the beautiful heart shaped white face of the barn owl, predators of our vineyard's single most troublesome beast: gophers. Why in the world would anyone put gophers on this planet? Obviously they evolved, but I challenge anyone to give me one teeny tiny reason for why they exist. They are extremely destructive, whether they be in barley fields, almond orchards, or vineyards. We spend an inordinate amount of time trapping the little buggers, yet as many as we kill, 3 take his/her place. Right about now we are swamped with gophers, most living deep down in the soil below our vineyard. Yes, some are up top eating, but others are deep down, breeding, reproducing, and awaiting a break in the cold weather so they can come up and start eating anything with roots...and yes, that means grapevines. With all the grasses, filaree, bromes, and clovers, the gophers have their minds on easy pickings at present, so they are leaving the large rooted vines alone...for now. They will feast upon any replants we have done recently, as these all have the small succulent root systems.

So, where do the barn owls come in ? Well, if we can entice a family of barn owls to take up residence in one of our 7 barn owl boxes, we can then have the one worst enemy of gophers living in one of our judiciously placed owl boxes. It helps to know that for a barn owl to inhabit an owl box, the opening must face due north, away from direct sun and also away from prevailing southerly winds...and rain. Additionally, the owl box must not be near any well-travelled road, as people and vehicular noise will drive barn owls away. Once established, barn owls will sit on a perch outside the box and will notice any motion at all in the dead of night. They have spectacular night-time vision, and this is evidenced

by the mounting pile of gopher skeletons (skulls, pelvises, and mandibles are the most common bones found) directly beneath their box homes.

During the daytime the red tailed hawks circle until they see an easy meal pushing dirt up out of their tunnels, and many a hawk feeds on gophers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In ecology there are countless issues to consider: are there any predators of the hawks? Not really, unless a red tail gets careless and lets a lucky coyote get too close...but that never happens. What does happen, however, is that we also have 4 families of great horned owls , most of whom roost at or near our house, and their favorite meal is...barn owls. I love to hear the great horned owls hooting late at night, but it is a gut wrenching feeling to go out on gopher patrol next morning and find a freshly killed young barn owl, usually somewhere near our home, flat smack dab in the middle of horned owl country. Last year we lost young barn owls on 2 consecutive days, and both were in easy sight of our house. Our house sits atop our vineyard, so it is a natural site for the huge horned owls to set up shop...not to mention nests.

So, in a sense the barn owls are a wonderful predator to have for the pesky gophers. Yet they also happen to be the preferred food for the bigger, higher on the totem pole, horned owls. It is an odd quirk of nature that the beneficial predator...the barn owl...is preyed upon by the king of all owls, the great horned owl. When I first saw those 2 barn owl kills last year, it made me hate the great horned owls, yet I love to see those guys. This is the essence of ecology, though it is just a tiny peek into what ecology is about. Continued in part 2.

Winter's Beauty at Cerro Prieto / Part 2

Our friends, Ruth and Jim, were fascinated by the mounds of gopher bones beneath 3 of our 6 barn owl boxes. One trial box facing south(where our weather and rain come from) remained empty...an abject failure. But a huge pile of gopher bones was nearby, underneath a well worn perch of a Valley Oak, used by owls to view all 6 acres of our valley vineyard. I had the site right, but failed to orient the owl box opening to the north, as barn owls prefer. I've heard it said that north facing boxes are preferred because a) they do not let the rain and wind in and b) because barn owls do not like either the morning or setting sun in their homes. Whether the reasoning is true or not, I do not know. It is, however, well known folklore that has been passed down for generations, and there probably is more fact than fiction...but am I certain? Nope.

The day before our friends arrived we had had another crisp, beautiful afternoon, perfect for walking the dogs. Cazadora was running and hunting uphill 30 yards in front of the truck, when suddenly a hen turkey jumped up, cupped her wings and sailed right over Caza's head. If you've never seen it, a startled turkey who jumps, cups her wings, and sails downhill until becoming a speck in the distance, is a thrilling sight. It happened in the blink of an eye, however, and even Caza, who hunts anything with a heartbeat, merely stood and watched the huge Merriam's hen disappear in the distance, rocketing away using her cupped wings as massive airfoils.

This happened once before, some 5 years ago, when Caza and I were hunting a steeply terraced but unplanted mountainside behind our vineyard. Then, just as now, the turkey jumped, but she jumped right at Caza's feet. Instinctively, Caza leapt up at the huge bird, grabbed a mouthful of chest feathers and skin, and was startled to feel herself suddenly being picked up off the ground. In a millisecond, (but with great reluctance) Caza released the hen and then watched as she flew higher and higher... then abruptly turned and whistled down the mountain, wings cupped for maximal speed.

At the very top of the mountain vineyard we sat for a spell, admiring all the perennial grasses holding our steeply sloped vineyard rows in place. Some of the filaree had reddish tips, indicating they had recently experienced a hard frost. But on closer observation an entire rim of the steeply terraced Syrah was ablaze with early spring buttercups as well as another tiny fuchsia colored flower, whose name escapes me at present(back to the wildflower identification manual).

Relaxing in the warming sun and looking upwards, one could not ignore the billowy white cumulus clouds, interspersed with several dark grey-blue menacing ones. Caza and Tucho, both tired from their long runs, seemed content to sit and watch a 10 second flight of crows, easily 200 or so in number, as they flew along for just the perfect spot on which to alight. Sure enough, they dropped like stones to sit atop end posts of our mountain Cab rows.

Finally the dogs let it be known they were ready to head home by jumping into the back truck-bed, and we hadn't gone 300 yards when a flock of 3 dozen bandtail pigeons dropped from the sky and whiffled into the top branches of the overhanging live oak trees.

Mind you, this all happened in a very short time span, in the dead of winter...that cold, damp, ugly time. So do I love the "ugly" winters here? I think you know the answer to that one. You should come visit us at Cerro Prieto sometime, where even the winters can be special. Barring that, I would recommend a glass of our Paso Bordo around a warm fire at night. If you can't enjoy the beauty here, a glass of our nationally recognized Cab/Syrah would be a close second.

Winter's Beauty at Cerro Prieto/ Part 1

Hate winter? Dislike the cold, wet damp that permeates under door jambs and then window sills? Well, join the crowd, but that sentiment of disagreeable winters can be counter-balanced by our spectacular winter beauty.

Now, we're not talking Vail, the Tetons, or Aspen here. I'm talking about the rolling hills and foothills of the Santa Lucia Mountains...here in central coastal California. Yes, as I write this it is cold, grey, damp and ugly outside. Yet, earlier this morning just after first light, the dawn erupted in pinks, orange/blues, and dark blue/purples that literally painted a sky no artist could ever duplicate. Nary a breath of wind...everything still as a stone.

Gradually, as the sun struggled to light up our little corner of heaven, coastal fog started drifting in and grey clouds covered us up. Yesteday noon, however, the Easterlies blew the fog back to the coast(just 15 miles to the west), and the unwelcome bone chilling damp was replaced by a day that was absolutely crystal clear. There to the SE was Black Mountain...35 miles away with its massive antenna, easy for all to see. Twenty miles due south was the Cuesta Grade, clear as a bell and so close it looked like you could just reach out and touch it. Temperatures suddenly went from the low 40's to the mid 60's and it looked like one of our incomparably lovely spring days.

Our home sits atop Cerro Prieto Vineyard, and within 30 feet of our house I encountered 9 different species of mushrooms(none edible to my knowledge), when I walked outside this morning. Wet winters and blips of warm days spark a riotous eruption of mushrooms. We have roughly 5000 Live Oak trees on our 73 acres, all surrounding our vineyards. Over eons, oak leaves and their rich mulch have piled up, especially on the steep north facing slopes, where neither man nor beast disturbs them much. Last year we identified 31 different species of mushrooms plus there were a dozen more left uncategorized.

Visiting friends(one from high school days 50 yrs ago) commented that what we needed was a "pig that could sniff out truffles...or a dog so trained. Prices of truffles are worth way more than your grapes". In fact, until the recent run up in gold prices, truffles were way more valuable, bringing some $800/ pound. Well, I can't see us getting a "truffle sniffing pig" anytime soon, so if we have truffles, they are just going to have to stay put ...at least for now.

(Continued in part 2)