December 2, 2007
First of all, congratulations to all the Escondido Elementary School PTA auction winners who successfully bid on the Emery-Sphar Vineyard Planting Party. By your efforts, you have helped raise a $1,000 towards an auction total of over $60,000 for our children's school. We are really looking forward to a wonderful day of a little work, great food, conversations, music & celebration with you, our friends & family!
Secondly, as you seem to be interested in vines & wines, I thought I might give you some background information on this project and then keep you posted on the process & progress towards the vineyard planting date. If you do not wish to receive these e-mails, please let me know and I will remove from my list and just send a couple of reminders nearer the vineyard party date, March 1st.
My interest in wine goes back to my childhood (John's), so when Kris found this orchard property, I jumped at the opportunity to have our own grapes. In my childhood, I always looked forward to the traditional sips of wine at family holiday dinners. And then there was the time I brought a little bottle of wine to school in sixth grade to have with my lunch (and got into big time trouble for that)! My family did a lot of local vacation road trips, many to the Napa & Sonoma Valleys or other wine regions and I always enjoyed the historical displays of wine making. I was very fortunate in that by the time I was in high school I had visited most of the major cellars in Northern California.
However, it was my college days, sippin' wine, looking at world maps & reading National Geographic with my buddy Al, that really caught me up in the enjoyment of wine! I took Vitaculture 101 - Intro. to Wine, from Professor Singleton at UC-Davis. Prof. Singleton had written our text and had introduced many innovations in fermentation techniques, although the only one I can remember was his idea about adding oak chips to the huge stainless steel tanks that the bulk winemakers use (actually, not so memorable!).
However, it was my college days, sippin' wine, looking at world maps & reading National Geographic with my buddy Al, that really caught me up in the enjoyment of wine! I took Vitaculture 101 - Intro. to Wine, from Professor Singleton at UC-Davis. Prof. Singleton had written our text and had introduced many innovations in fermentation techniques, although the only one I can remember was his idea about adding oak chips to the huge stainless steel tanks that the bulk winemakers use (actually, not so memorable!).
Oh yeah, I also once had a bottle of Heitz Cellar, 1969 - Martha's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon! I would say that was the best red wine I have ever tasted (visualize a taste of a wonderful combination of flowers & food!!) And so for the past 25 years I have enjoyed what wines I could afford, but I am ready to try the next level, growin' and makin' my own.
From down in the (future) vineyard,
From down in the (future) vineyard,
John Sphar
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