Uncle & Aunt visit at CHV Gina's uncle Jim, and his wife Cathy, stopped by for 3 days on their road trip around the US. Visite d'un Oncle et d'une Tante à CHV L'Oncle de Gina, Jim, et sa femme, Cathy, se sont arrêtés à CHV pour trois jours durant leur voyage en voiture autour […]

Harvest is over We finished the harvest last Monday, with the help of my fellow firefighters volunteers, just before it started raining again. There were few encounters, 2 rattlesnakes revealed by Diva, and a tarantula. Nobody got hurt, except the snake that became appetizer for dinner. The grapes are very nice this year, although we […]

A Bear Market... Here when we talk about a bear market, we mean it literally. A young bear came through our property and wander around to do its market for food. It destroyed one of our beehive (luckily the empty one), opened the metal barrel and scattered the chicken food that was inside, pushed down […]

Thunderstorms season We had a bad thunderstorm last week with winds at 55 mph. We are still fixing the damages. Happily it was the day we harvested the Syrah and it was safe in the garage. The vineyard did not suffer too much. The house was fine, we didn't loose power, but Portal and Rodeo […]

A thunderstorm coming our way very fast... We had several thunderstorms the past weeks. Too much water for the grapes, and it is delaying our harvests. While the sugar is going down drawn in water, the acidity is going away...Bad! Un Orage vient  sur nous à grande vitesse... Nous avons eu beaucoup d'orages ses semaines […]

Things don't last long here There are things that are made to last a long time but not even 2 years here in the AZ wilderness: The septic tank had to be cleaned after 2 years (it was not installed correctly, vents were missing). Moderate expense. The well pump died after 4 years because of […]

Harvest time We had a crazy weather here, and the sugar is going up very quickly in the grapes. We harvested the Muscat at 30 Brix, and the Viognier at 24.6 yesterday. Tomorrow we'll harvest the Syrah and the Tempranillo. I give a big thank to the fire department who came and helped for free […]

Seafood Pasta and Chenin Blanc Wine: We have a Chenin Blanc 2017 "Petit Zebra" from Western Cape, South Africa. It is crisp, zingy, with citrus (aka acidic) and some tropical flavors. Food pairing: Gina did some pasta with clams, served with a salad of cabbage, mint and pine nuts.. A chenin blanc from the shore […]

Water in the desert is not for everybody There would be enough water if everybody was to share, but big companies using the golden rule (the one with the gold make the rule) have decided differently. Enjoy the water you have today as you may not have any tomorrow. The worst is that Vines use […]

Snakes Galore With the monsoon starting and the rain pouring, snakes are coming out every where. We saw a big Diamond-Back Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox - Venomous) and later a big Gopher Snake (Pituophis Catenifer - Non Venomous) in the vineyard. Both had a length of about 5 feet. Both are enemies and if they meet, […]