Mark, Steve and Gerich sporting their Anomaly Harvest T-Shirts

Can you believe a year has gone by and it's already time for the Annual Anomaly Dry T-Shirt contest? What will be the winning slogan this year? Last year, the winning slogan was "Anomaly, It's More Than Just A Crush" 2006's winning slogan was "Cluster's Last Stand", and previous winners were Tanks For The Memories; Picky, Picky, Picky; and Think Globally, Drink Anomaly!

The winning slogan-writer gets not only a T-Shirt with the winning slogan, but also a bottle of 2005 Anomaly Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. So put your thinking caps on and send 'em in. You can send in as many as you like, but hurry, harvest is just around the corner! Send your entries to: Linda@Anomalyvineyards.com

Chantico.

We spent the past three days on the outskirts of the town of Chester, which is near Lake Almanor, which is "sort of" near Chico, which is about as close to civilization as you get up that way. Even though it was a mere 48 hours, it was a true get-away. Our friends own a forest service cabin that they have made into their little nirvana. So, 4 1/2 hours after leaving the Napa Valley, we arrived, dressed in style, as you can see! Chantico.

It happened so quickly. One day the grapes were green and the next they were no longer green, but beautiful hues of purple, crimson, and okay, some green. Véraison is a French term, but we have adopted the word into our viticulture language. The official definition of véraison is "change of color of the grape berries." Véraison signifies the change from berry growth to berry ripening . I think the clusters look like a series of rainbows framed in gorgeous green leaves. Take a walk through a vineyard if you can - it is breathtaking. Chantico.

This blog is not winery-related, unless you can count the fact that my friend, Laura Shumaker, loves Anomaly Cabernet! So in that sense, it is winery-related!

I met Laura two years ago in the Wednesday Women's Writing Group. We meet each Wednesday in Rockridge and talk about writing, share what we have written, and sometimes we even write! When I first met Laura, we hit it off as if we had known each other all our lives - some friendships are meant to be, and this was one of those rare ones. She had just finished writing a draft memoir of her family's life with their eldest son, Matthew, who has autism.

Autism has been in the news so much lately, that it feels like the "fad" disorder of this decade. The reality of living with a child who has autism is nothing like reading about it in the news, all technical and statistical.

Laura captures the life of Matthew and the life of their family as a result of Matthew's autism with such humor, clarity and personal grace that when she first share the draft with me, I couldn't stop reading it. I read it in one sitting. The true test, however, was Steve. He's not much of a reader and I can't think of a book that has ever kept him glued to the table reading. This one did.

So without going on and on, I just wanted to share with you Laura's successful completion of A REGULAR GUY which just appeared in bookstores this week. If you are interested in getting a copy, you can find it locally in the Napa Valley at River Books in St. Helena, Copperfields in both Napa and Calistoga, many Bay Area bookstores, as well as Amazon.com and www.LauraShumaker.com.

Thank you for your time in reading this blog. Chantico.

Only in the Napa Valley - well, I'm sure there are other parts of this huge world where one could see the same sign, but not from where we're from originally. So, we are driving up Highway 29 this afternoon following a quite successful Costco run (how can you not be successful shopping at Costo I ask?!). And, on the corner of Zinfandel and 29 (take note, as I'm sure it's still there) is a sign that says, "Fresh Picked Plums, 12 for $1.00" I look around to see where the "stand-keeper" is, and there is no stand-keeper. The plums are in boxes laid out on an old picnic table. There is a stack of old plastic shopping bags (helping our environment by at least re-using the bags), and a box with a hole in the top for the dollar bills. Once again, we feel lucky to live in this beautiful spot called the Napa Valley. Plum jam, anyone? Chantico.

Those of you who have followed this blog know that I am a Dog Person. Not that I don't like cats - I do. Just not as much. Not sure if it's the "needy" vs. "independence" thing between dogs and cats; somehow, I just relate better to the canine species. I'm sure it wouldn't surprise you to know that one of our three dogs goes to work with me each day. I say "me" rather than "us" as if it were up to Steve, the office would remain a "dog-free zone." Thankfully, it's not up to him. He does get points for allowing not one, not two, but three canines to reside in our home (and at night, at least two are on our bed). I know, way too much information.

Cosette was a rescue of course. She has been with us for 8 years and was most likely about 6 when we found her, so she is just entering her prime as I tell her each day. She loves hearing: "want to do go work?" each morning. However, in the past 6 months or so, her hearing has waned. But when I go towards the winery, there's no need for words, she knows.

This morning, I decided to water "Anomaly Farms" (this is what we call the vegetable beds--yes, it's a joke!) as the weather was already heating up. I looked around to see what Cosette was up to while I had the hose trained on the tomatoes. There she was, my loyal little lady waiting in the steps to "go to work."

Have a great weekend. Chantico.

Photo courtesy of two great customers: Bob and Gloria South

I subscribe to many many food publications. Yes, wine and food do go together, so I can justify my compulsion. Yes I can! When this month's Cuisine at Home arrived (a great publication, by the way), I opened it right up and read all of the "aha" uses for items that were created for a different use. These "aha" uses are submitted by Cuisine's readership.

When I read about an alternate use for a wine cork, I just had to share it with you. As Ginny Tower from Bend, Oregon wrote: rather than reaching for pot holders to take the heat from the lids to her pots and pans, she slips wine corks under the lid handles, grabs the corks rather than the metal lid handles, and never burns her fingers.

In a future blog, how to make a lamp from a wine bottle, in particular, an Anomaly wine bottle. This one was created by my dad! Chantico.


Photo courtesy of two great customers: Bob and Gloria South

Each year we do a special event at the winery for members of Calistoga Ranch. One year we did a wine-bottling party. This year we decided to mix it up a bit and do a luncheon in the cellar (prepared by Katherine Grimes, who made such a fantastic feast that it was gone before I could snap a photo). After lunch, we went up to the winery crush pad where a fustino (which you can see is the stainless steel vat in the photo) full of olive oil fresh pressed from Steve's brother's olive trees in Cortona, Italy, was waiting for our 13 guests. Each was given a bottle to fill. After filling their bottles, they corked their bottles, then moved on to the labeling device created by Linda's father which they used to put the olive oil label in precisely the right place. And a bottle of olive oil was born. Now, what can we think of for next year??! Chantico.