Journal

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Again, we lost half the crop to shatter — two years in a row! We had a PV (photovoltaic) solar system placed on the roof of the winery, which provides enough electricity to power the winery, our home, and the house our son, Sheldon, started constructing this year.  

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The Wine Spectator placed our wine in the top 100 again; the 2002 Paloma Merlot was 54th of over 12,000 wines tasted this year. Another exceptional honor! This year, the Merlot blooms suffered severe damage from “shatter”, which resulted in half the normal crop. Shatter is caused by excessive

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Our son Sheldon, who had been living in Canada for 35 years, joined our business in August, just in time for harvest. Fortunately, he was here when The Wine Spectator magazine named our 2001 Paloma Merlot their "Wine of the Year" for 2003. We were pleased with the

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In December, we had the most snow we have ever seen on Spring Mountain. We got six-inches in a very short time. We had several days without power and the roads down the mountain were blocked with fallen trees. Our old dog is at an age where strange

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Our Canadian grandchildren always visit in the summer and help around the vineyard, but this year our oldest grandson, Caston, 14 years old from Calgary, Alberta, joined us for a strenuous ten days at harvest. He was a lot of help, but I think we wore him out. He

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After a year and a half of filing forms and going to hearings, we finally started construction of our own winery at the vineyard. It was barely finished by harvest, but we got to do our own crush. It was a bit chaotic, using equipment that we had

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This year was the El Niño effect. We fought the weather and dropped, literally, tons of fruit until harvest so the grapes would ripen. The upside is that we hired our first full-time helper - Vidal. What a luxury to have an extra pair of hands out in

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The 1994 Paloma Merlot, our first wine, was released – all 575 cases of it. The wine is a blend of 88% percent estate grown Merlot and 12% estate grown Cabernet Sauvignon. It was a hit with the wine critics and, more importantly, with the public. After three years

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In March, we moved into our home and acquired a new friend, Aussie, the vineyard dog. She is an Australian Terrier who loves to hunt; this trait will put her on a collision course with our local rattlesnake population. The Prides released their 1991 Merlot, which was made

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In May, we finally started building a house at the vineyard. Jim closed his office in Midland, Texas and moved to California full-time. Andy Isdahl, a skilled builder and our close friend, built the house with the help of his assistants – us, and our son Sheldon during