Barreca Vineyards

Barreca Vineyards

From Vine to Wine since 1986

Posts filed under Blogs

Summer is Gone

Two months and two weeks ago (July 20th) I posted my last blog about what is going on here.  The temperatures were up to 102° and the Williams Flat Fire, the biggest of the year, had just started.  Unfortunately life does not play out like the plot of a cheap novel.  There is no beginning,… (read more)

Work Work work

I keep a journal of what goes on each day and intend to write something about it each month, at the beginning of the month.  A quick review of the last few blogs will show that I have been completely blowing that schedule.  A quick review of my notes for June could be summarized “Work,… (read more)

Spring Happens

I haven’t written a blog since the violets and buttercups were blooming. Now the tulips, fruit trees, dandelions, Quince, Locust, Frittilaria, Iris and Lupine have all bloomed. Is Spring officially over when a bear tears down your bird feeder (5/27/19)? There is a lot to catch up on and nobody needs a really long article… (read more)

Introduction

Most of the posts on this site are about making pure wine and improving the soil. But this is a commercial website. So by way of shameless self promotion. Here are some quotes about our wine: “We sure enjoy your wine. It is the Best!!!” Joe Greco “That bottle didn’t last through the night.” Daniel… (read more)

Sewage Wars

After touring the Colville Wastewater Treatment Plant I met some old friends while shopping. They asked how it was going and when I told them I had just toured the sewage plant, they gave me that “Oh, oh, Joe’s gone off the deep end” look and quickly slipped away. Generally we are not comfortable talking… (read more)

All the leaves are brown

All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray… (California Dreamin, the Mamas and the Papas) Four days after Halloween daylight savings time ends. It gets dark around 4 PM. On the bright side there is daylight at 7 AM. What really closes in is the realization that although winter might not be officially… (read more)

Kinda Yellow

Look out your window That grass ain’t green It’s kinda yellow See what I mean? Bob Dylan, Traveling Wilburys – Inside Out So October was “kinda yellow” from the get go. It involved a lot of chilling out from 62 degrees in the evenings at the beginning of the month to 41 degrees and some… (read more)

Fall 2018

As you could expect, this is a very busy time of year at the vineyard.  So to shorten the blog to a minimum I will just put a link here for an article I wrote in the North Columbia Monthly for October – and have recreated here on this website.  It is called Dirt First and gives the basics of Regenerative Agriculture.  Then I will put in some pictures with captions.

Dried Fruit for the winter

Tomatoes coming on

Filberts from out trees

Hot Lips are still in bloom

Paste Tomatoes

Crab Apples

The Red Oak picture by Cheryl

Marechal Foch Grapes

The Rav4 broke a timing belt on the way to the Farmers Market

Siegerrebe Grapes in the crusher

Cheryl sold her 4 wheel drive Toyota to my daughter April. Maybe James will be able to drive it in 2030.

Lucie Kuhlmann primary fermentation

Friends picking a future French Rocks Red wine

Big Cat Face spider 

Siegerrebe Grapes at Downriver Orchard

Our VW Vanagon cracked ahead – out for the season

Kit and Sharon Shultz crushing grapes with Tom Distler

Amber and Tom helping out

A big Black Lab Cheryl rescued from the highway and found the owners for

Himrod Grapes

3 cords of wood delivered