The 4th Annual Lum Eisenman Ramona Valley Wine Competition awards banquet was held on Sunday, 11 July 2010, where 61 winemakers, judges, and guests learned how Ramona Valley vines were evaluated by a panel of nine area wine experts.  See the update on the event at ramonavalleyvineyards.org.

Pamo Valley Winery received to Bronze medals at the event. First for it’s 2008 Merlot, made by winemaker John York from Pyramid Vineyards grapes.  Second, for a 2008 red blend originally titled “Temptation”, also made by winemaker John York with grapes coming from Pyramid Vineyards and Paccielo Vineyards. “Temptation” is a blend of 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Syrah, 17% Sangiovese and 5% Melrot.  I like to call this our “Hodge Podge” blend.    This wine has not yet been labelled.  19 cases were recently bottled.  Temptation is a name that has already been used or taken and legally we are not able to use a name that has been trade marked.  Hmmm, I should see if anyone has trade marked “Hodge Podge”.

I can’t say whether bottling is my most favorite part of being in the wine business or not.  It takes a long time and there is lots of cleaning involved.  It’s hard to get into the mood but once you are doing it, it’s alot of fun!  Mike and I have it down packed. No fuss no mess.  We can get a couple of barrels done in a few hours.  Here we are bottling our 2008 Indian Princess and another blend that we have to come up with a name for.  Any suggestions?

That’s me and my sweet dad who didnt want to miss being a part of the planting so he came to Ramona from San Dimas on Sunday to help tidy up the irrigation and finish any loose ends.  We also planted extra plants in conspicuous places around the property.

Planting day was executed at 7:30am on Saturday June 26th!  The planting crew consisted of Me, Mike, Mom, Jeff, Salea, Joseph, Robbie and little Jeff. Salea and Joseph are children of my friend Andrea from work.  Robbie and little Jeff are grandsons of Susan and Al (very nice neighbors from across the street) who were visiting from Illinois on their summer vacation.  We all participated in laying out the grow tubes, stakes, putting in potting soil, placing the plants, and adding fertilizer to each plant.  Amazingly, we were finished by noon.  At which time, Grandma and Don (or as they called themselves, “the food wagon”) pulled in with lunch to feed us all.  They made yummy potato salad, chicken nuggets, coleslaw and cake!

Time for grub!

Grandma and Don, the most appreciated food wagon!

First let me say I got a little behind on my progress posts and now I’m trying to catch up!  This was more like June 26th than July 6th.  Here’s a neat picture of Mike digging.  He has a nice friend who let him borrow the auger.  He sure knows how to operate that thing.  No wonder where he gets his muscles!  After Juan and Joey dug the 440 holes for the Sangiovese, it was Mike’s turn to dig the 125 or so holes on the other side of the swail for the rest of the Cabernet Sauvignon.