It is a very exciting time for the project, in many ways.

Harvest is about to begin.

We?

The Scholium Project is much less a singular affair than it used to be.

At the instigation of colleague and host Christopher Vandendreissche, who recognized that I was about to bite off a little bit more than I could chew, during the summer of 2005 I selected an intern to work with me during harvest 2005. She is Sarah Adkins, who sees the depth of vineyards. We worked so well together that it was hard to think of making wine without her. So Sarah returns this year, an essential collaborator, no mere intern.

The Project was also very lucky to discover a student of incomparable zeal in Jason Berthold. He began helping out late in the season in 2005, and is now the veteran of a filtration, a bottling, and several blending trials and eventual blendings. We three are the spine of the project.

We have a new home. We were the very fortunate guests of Christopher and his Whiterock Vineyards for three years. This summer the Tenbrinks, the Princes of Farmers who grow the Babylon in Suisun Valley, offered to build me–us!– a winery adjacent to their Pinot Noir vineyard. We engaged the gears and put the wheels in motion, but too slowly or too late. So no new winery until 2007.

But the Tenbrinks are not without friends among the other farmers of their valley. Their friends the Lanzas, who have farmed in Suisun as long as there have been grapes there, offered us a home for the year.

And so we feel very fortunate to be making wine this year at Wooden Valley Winery. The Lanzas make excellent wines in a beautiful winery that fits them like a glove– or maybe like a cherished sweatshirt. You can feel their careful and friendly presence in every inch of the place; you can feel the way that they have molded the winery to their habits and the way their steps have worn easy paths throughout. They guide us through their realm, help us at every turn, fix our equipment (and their doors and the other things that we newcomers run into).

So now the Project depends utterly on new friends and collaborators: Steve and Linda Tenbrink, Rick and Ron and Chick Lanza. We are fortunate guests and very happy with our good fortune.

[writen during harvest 2006]