Milestones Tag

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2013 was another great growing season, but 2014 and 2015 would not fare as well. After our fifth consecutive year of drought, in 2014, the effects began to show. The stress caused the grapes to raisin before they were ripe enough to harvest. We did so anyway, being

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We finally got back to normal growing weather in 2012. Many have proclaimed it the vintage of the deca­de, even though we are only three years into the decade. In October, we got some fantastic news about our 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon. It received an honorary mention from James Laube

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2010 was the first of two challenging years for farming and winemaking. It was unusually cool, which made getting the fruit as ripe as we like particularly difficult. The 2011 vintage was even more challenging; after a second cool season, starting in September, it rained throughout harvest. Because of

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For the third time in 6 years, the Paloma Merlot made the Wine Spectator's Top 100. Out of over 18,000 wines tasted in 2008, the 2006 vintage placed 65th. Aside from the usual farming and winemaking challenges that we face every year, Jim was diagnosed with cancer in late

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Sheldon finished building his home in late September, just in time to help with harvest. Finally, after two difficult years, we had a good crop; in fact, it was the best crop in term so of yield that we have ever had.

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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