French Oak

Baby #3: the wine barrel. Quintessa had one-year old used French oak barrels for sale during my paternity leave, so spent one afternoon driving to Napa to pick up one for myself and one for my friend. A week later, I built a stand using a redwood 4x4 and some scrap 2x4. The wine is now racked, and taking on oak in the basement...only 16 more months to go.

Santa Cruz

Our first trip to Santa Cruz together, done on a whim. We stumbled on a mostly deserted stretch of sand and brought Nate's shovel and pail. On the ride home I stopped at one of the only winery shops in Santa Cruz to buy a pump, and ended up in a shop that mostly sold vacuum cleaners but had one a couple of shelves of wine supplies. Did they have a pump? The older lady looked up from her romance novel to reply that had one once, but they sold it.
Photo Album

At the Jenner Inn

We loaded up the car and drove out to Jenner Inn one day during my paternity leave. The house wasn't fancy, but had great views out to the river and ocean, and a nice hot tub overlooking the water. Nate is shown here enjoying a few raisins as the sun went down.