Rancho Azul y Oro ~ Surviving the Dream

Heritage Zin - 2.5 lb. cluster    Heritage Zin       The 2013 Cabernet    

Ready to hit the vineyard at 5:07 a.m. -- wait, it's still dark. The 2013 AyO Dusi Zinfandel The 2013 AyO Dusi Zinfandel The 2013 AyO Dusi Zinfandel The stems, which will go back into the vineyard The must, safely tucked under dry ice and plastic The future site of the AyO olive grove

The rancho wine grapes look the best they have ever looked and the chemical tests bear that out.  Additionally, they taste the way they should and the seeds are brown and crunchy, so are the stems.   What are you waiting for, one might ask?   Ducks are being placed in their rows -- and you know how well ducks work in rows.  We believe our yields will be exceptional this year and therefore need additional bins, and will drive north to pick those up on Tuesday.  In the meantime, the vintner/chemist (and we use those terms very loosely), will run one last set of numbers to see how the harvest will be scheduled.  The balance of Tuesday will be spent cleaning and sanitizing the barrel room floors, the crusher-destemmer, the bins, all of our buckets, all of our picking tools, so we're ready to go at sunrise on Wednesday, September 4th.   We don't know our sequence yet or if it will be concurrent or consecutive for the t...

  Apologize for the hiatus!  As with everyone, some time was taken to bask in the warmth of the summer sun, roast a few marshmallows, go to the fair, watch a few sunsets, and walk barefoot through the grass (only in our minds, otherwise, the rattlesnakes could end the summer quickly).    What's been going on at the rancho, you might ask?  Lots, as always.  The table grapes ripened nicely and surprised us with much more bounty than expected!  The fig tree has produced a serious crop of figs this year.  We're currently producing fig jam, strawberry fig jam -- basically, anything one can think of utilizing figs, as well as our highly anticipated Tequila Jalepeno Grape Jelly and our Ruby Royale Grape Jelly.  Our current cocktail accompaniment is a olive/fig tampenade, with the ranch olive oil, naturally!   It was been a sizzling summer here on the Central Coast, with temperatures over 110 since mid-May through the end of July....

We've enjoyed this salad that we created often over the most recent heatwave.  It can be served as an entrée, appetizer, or as a side, but it's delicious!  Grill some bread, slathered in olive oil, with a touch of Kosher salt and some finely chopped rosemary, et voila, a meal.  Enjoy!   RANCHO AZUL y ORO’S ARUGULA SALAD WITH OLIVE OIL/LEMON   DRESSING   1/4 cup 1/4 cup 2 tsp. 2 tsp. 6 cups ½ cup 1 cup 1 pkg.     olive oil (preferably AyO’s extra-virgin) fresh lemon juice grated lemon peel 1/2 fennel bulb, shredded (I just use the same grater as for the lemon & save the other half of the fennel bulb for the next salad; coarsely torn arugula 1 package of prosciutto Parmesan cheese flakes Croutons Whisk first 4 ingredients in large bowl. Season with salt and pepper.   Heat oven to 350.   Put parchment paper on cookie tray; lay prosciutto on parchment; cook for approx...

In the old days (three or four years ago), there were down times at the ranch, such as summer and winter.  It could be said that it was because the plantings were not so mature and required far less work, which is, in part, true.  Experienced farmers, wine grape growers, and vintners probably know better.  Slowly, it is becoming evident that free time was abundant because we did not know we were supposed to be doing certain things on a regular schedule, such as spraying the vines, olives and lavender (yes, even the lavender) for disease and pests, thinning the shoots and fruit early in the season, regularly testing the grapes approaching harvest, performing regular chemical tests on our wine, adjusting the SO2 level, topping the barrels, then adding inert gas, all the while planning yeast choices for harvest, calculating harvest estimates and ordering barrels for the wine, bottles, labels, and corks for the oil and the wine. With all those lesso...

What an amazingly busy time at the rancho this week!  After enjoying a quick jaunt back to Ohio for a wonderfully happy wedding celebration and a family celebration of a graduation, it was time for the ranchers, technically farmers, to turn their attention back to all things rancho, and that careful juggling act of remembering to take care of each item, incorporating new things learned, while continuing the farming education, all the while, not dropping any balls -- or mother nature can be wickedly cruel. The head rancher spent two weekends at Cal Poly at a vineyard management seminar, which was quite timely, because this is the year the grapes are going to be the lush envy of all Paso (in our heads).  He returned eager to employ all his new-found skills, which worked out perfectly, because in the two weekends his head was being stuffed with information, his grapevines were growing in an out-of-control manner and needed shoot thinning and leaf pulling and spraying....