Harvest Lunch at Bohemian Vineyard                                                 October 21, 2018


Mat & I have talked about doing a 'lunch in the Vineyard' for a few years. When Tom and Sue Cleary who own Bohemian Vineyard offered us their property for an event, we scheduled it immediately.

We've also talked about having Matt Masera, incredibly talented chef that is part of our Ruxton Vineyard Family, do an event with us. After a few texts and phone calls, the date worked for his busy schedule and thus the Event was born.

Winding down the harvest is pleasant. Knowing that the hard work of crush is mostly over, we start celebrating. A perfect celebration is a lunch in the vineyard three days after it was picked. Great food, beautiful three vintage vertical of wine and a sold out crowd. And of course perfect Fall weather!

                                               
The view from the deck is such a perfect perspective of the property. We decided to welcome our guests with 2017 Gewurz, Gougeres hot out of the oven and this view.

One of my favorite bites ever - gougeres, topped with pear butter, dried prosciutto and shaved Vella Dry Jack cheese. What a yummy treat.

                                           
We tasted the 3 vintages of Bohemian on the deck before any additional food influences. And then continued to taste all three Pinot Noir's with lunch.
2013, 2014 and 2015 Bohemian Vineyard Pinot Noir, none currently available to taste at the Tasting Room.


                                                           
A really great intro from Tom about his family purchasing land in Freestone in 1943 and his property in 1983. I joke that they own half of Freestone. This is not a fact but Freestone is small and the Family have a really nice amount of acres.


Next we head out to sit in the vineyard. Feet from the home is this....

 

 

 

 

                        Chef Matt busy prepping with his beautiful wife Dana assisting him.

 Keeping it simple. Off site events are a lot of work so using recycle bamboo plates and paper napkins helps with the load in and out.

 

~ Salad  is served

 Farro, Apple, arugula, burrata, radish, celery, pecans

 

                 Carrots the color of the leaves turning.

And then the same carrots dressed with fresh chevre, pistachio and shaved purple carrot

 

 

 Slow roasted brick chicken, harissa cous cous and herbs. Photos do not do this justice!

We couldn't have had a more perfect day to be enjoying and celebrating harvest. We finished with an Apple dessert - Apple cider cake with confit Apple, whipped creme fraiche, chervil.

                  The chef explaining the menu and telling his story.

 

The afternoon ended with words of 'perfection ', 'what a treat' , 'please do this again'. Which means... yes, we will do this again. We will try to offer a June "pre harvest lunch" at Ruxton Ranch and a repeat of Bohemian Vineyard in the Fall.

cheers

 

 

                     
                      HARVEST 2018

     
       Leading into harvest is exciting, exhilarating and scary with so many questions unanswered. How will the weather
       patterns this far affect the fruit and will it maintain cool? hot? Foggy?

       The 2018 harvest has been a great one! Mat ranks it 8 out of 10.
       Exceptional quality, low but not scary low yields and OMG this will a great vintage to remember and purchase.

       We started purchasing Gewurztraminer in 2014, Mat's love of the grape drove this decision. This vintage was picked
       on Sept. 4th, our first fruit of the season. And so it begins....

 

                   Ruxton vineyard picked on Friday Sept. 7th. This vineyard location is our highest elevation and often above
                       the fog as seen in this photo. The longest hours of sun exposure lends to it's earlier ripening,
        

 
                Tiny clusters are perfect for producing high quality pinot as seen is this picture from the Ruxton pick.

 

                   TNT Vineyard picked in the wee hours of the morning on Friday Sept. 14th, coming in to the crush pad 
                    by 9 a.m.

 

           Great news that we found some Pinot Noir for Rose', which was picked Sept. 19th. 

           Two of the last four harvests we were unable to produce a Rose'. Mat saw an opportunity to purchase some Pinot 
            from a vineyard on Laguna Road. We bought just enough to produce about 150 cases. Look for it earlier Spring  
            2019!! 

Our first Grenache grapes picked Sept. 25th from the same vineyard we purchase our viognier from.

 

We have been purchasing Cab Franc from Bill and Betsy at Acorn Winery since 2012. This year the fruit picked Sept. 26th

 

 

Rains came Monday October 1st, with two vineyards with fruit remaining on the vine. We received 2 inches over night.

 

Viognier was picked Monday October 8th and our final pick, Pinot at the Bohemian Vineyard in Freestone was picked Thursday October 18th, 1.3 tons arrived of these beautiful clusters

 

Now it is time to clean up the cellar, party, say good bye to the interns and get back to the Tasting Room!Come see us in Graton for more harvest 2018 details.