I would encourage all of you to visit your local, regional, or state fair this summer. Fairs are a slice of Americana, a part of our American culture. School is out, and the summer lifestyle has switched into gear. If you have a passion for something, like our wine-making, enter it in the fair, you might be surprised.

There is judging on flowers, garden displays, woodworking, artwork, chickens, cows, pigs, sheep, baked goods, jams, you name it. It is a great way to connect with others in your community with the same passion, and also to stay in touch with what others are doing in your particular area in the community.

Our local fair is the San Diego County Fair, always mid-June through the Fourth of July. There are rides, outrageous fair food, exhibits, judging of all kinds of categories, concerts, in other words something for everyone.

The wine judging contest at the San Diego County Fair is popular, and has a wide range of categories from Cabernet Sauvignon to Fruit Wines. There is also judging on wine labels, and the coveted "Best of Show".

This year we entered three wines in three different categories. We won a "Blue Ribbon" First Prize, for our "Le Vin de Garage" Syrah 2007, in the "Syrah Category", on Sunday, June 21, 2009, Father's Day. It was a total surprise, and a little surreal when our names were announced. Needless to say, it was a special treat for our dads.

These grapes are not from our own syrah vineyard quite yet, but grapes that we purchased from the pristine Guadalupe Valley in Baja, Mexico to practice making wine, until our vineyard was three years old. Many thanks to our friends and family who helped us bottle this wine last fall, and for your ongoing enthusiasm.

Do you have a wonderful summer fair near you? Do you have a "Blue Ribbon" story to share? What are you passionate about that you could enter in the fair next year?

Here at Domaine de Manion (DDM), in our backyard vineyard, we finished our spur pruning in February, and knocked down most of the winter weeds. Spur pruning is cutting last year's grapevine canes down to two nodes or buds at each spur, off of the cordons. It is an individual management practice how many spurs you keep on each arm or cordon, but usually you have at least 5-6 spurs, a fist length apart on each cordon. Please note there are different types of pruning techniques used in vineyards throughout the world. We prefer the spur pruning method in our "syrah" vineyard.

In our Southern California climate, at the 33rd parallel, bud burst is usually around the beginning of March. Bud burst is the awakening of the grapevines in spring, marking the end of their winter dormancy. Bud burst usually occurs when mean daily temperatures are 50 degrees F (10 degrees C). Beautiful chartreuse shoots slowly emerge from the tiny buds on the spurs.

Ideally you want shoots from the cordons, growing upward and as vertical as possible, to reach the two sets of upper double wires, which will hold them in place. This is the very popular and common Vertical Shoot Positioning (VSP) System. This VSP trellis system helps with important air flow between the vines and rows, and proper sunlight exposure. There are many other types of trellis systems used in vineyards throughout the world, and in some cases a trellis system is not used at all. Often times, vineyard management is dictated by your geography location and grape varietal you grow.

At DDM we are just starting our "fourth leaf" or fourth season of the vineyard. Our grapevines and cordons are well established. As shoots emerge that are not in a desirable spot, such as on the trunk of a grapevine, shoots pointing down or sideways off of their cordon, are easily "nipped off" with your fingers.

The canopy is the leaf cover above the grapevine and ultimately the green vegetation above each grapevine that the trellis holds in place. Grapevines, shoots, and leaves through careful manipulation, can be managed for the best balance between shoot and fruit growth. Careful pruning, thinning, shoot positioning, and leaf removal are all parts of canopy management used throughout the year to optimize your grapes.

The warmer, longer days of spring urge the grapevine shoots to grow quickly. Soon the directed shoots are swaying in the soft breeze, and the vineyard has undeniably come alive again.

A few months ago, I wrote a post called "Rest, Repose, and Replenish", the dormancy time in a garden during winter. This time of year has a different kind of beauty, and a peaceful mood beckoning everything to slow down and replenish. The same beautiful dormancy happens with a vineyard, too.

After the culmination of the grape harvest, the vines begin to slowly shut down. Their leaves turn a rainbow of autumn hues and eventually drop off the vine. The skeleton of the grapevine or "bones" is exposed, showing their trunk, cordons (horizontal stem-like arms), and their canes that have grown upright and been tucked carefully into the upper wire trellis.

There is "much ado" in the winter vineyard. For every vineyard, whether backyard or commercial, there are certain tasks within certain timetables over the calendar year which must faithfully be done to ensure a healthy vine and optimum grape growing.

We have a backyard vineyard which my husband, John, and I have named, Domaine de Manion or (DDM). We have about 300 syrah grapevines on 1/3 acre that are spaced 6 feet between grapevines and 5 feet between rows. Our rows are planted east to west to catch the natural cleansing of the Pacific Ocean's breeze one mile away. DDM is on a sunny western slope in sandy soil, on the 33rd Parallel. In 2009, our vineyard is beginning its fourth year.

The winter months of January and February begin the calendar year of tasks. The grapevines are dormant now, and show off their structure left from the previous year's growth. Winter pruning of each grapevine is done during dormancy and before bud break, the initial new leafing of the plant's beginning leaf and vegetative growth. Here in Southern California, pruning is usually done the beginning of February through mid-February, depending on the grape varietal you are growing and weather.

Pruning is a task that is done by hand, and rather carefully. There are different types of pruning methods used in vineyard management. At DDM, we use the "spur" pruning method, which keeps the established horizontal cordons or arms in place, off of the grapevine's trunk. Each cordon is further trimmed to approximately six spurs on each side. Each spur will renew itself, beginning at bud break, and grow a new fruiting shoot for this coming year's grape formation.

Pruning is an extremely beneficial tool in a vineyard for managing the growth and shape of your grapevines, managing your optimum grape production, creating a healthy balance between your vegetative growth to fruit production ratio, even delaying bud break if you are in a frost prone area, and physically removing any disease, if needed. Using a wheelbarrow we walk the rows, pruning and removing the grapevine clippings. The clippings are then bundled and recycled with our green waste.

This is also a time of close inspection for the health of the vines, cordons, trellis wires, end posts, and drip irrigation for anything a miss. It is important to to take the time now for close inspection as you can see everything so easily, and ensure the year ahead is smooth.

Weeds from our winter rains can quickly get out of hand fast, and need to be knocked down and away from the grapevines. Weeds can hold moisture and humidity close to the grapevines, which is not a good thing. In some vineyards, a cover crop is planted between the rows to keep the weeds down, and provide nutrients back in to the soil.

Each task now, and throughout the coming year will affect the growth and health of the grapevine, and the grape harvest this coming fall. Mother Nature will play a huge part with the amount of rainfall, daytime and nighttime temperatures, and overall weather. There might be unforeseeable events such as wildfires, winds, drought, and frost which will be a factor, too.

This is also a time of much anticipation, and optimism for the growing season ahead, and the rewarding harvest in the fall. It is a journey that the vineyard takes you through together, changing with each season.

It seems just like yesterday, that my husband and I had this idea to put in a vineyard. We had about a third of an acre that was fairly flat, sunny, and western sloping toward the ocean. We overlooked this area from our home, so I wanted it to be pleasing to the eye. I had enough garden vignettes to be content. It was important to us to reap from our land, a sort of "thank you" for being able to live here and enjoy daily all that it gives us. That was nearly six years ago.

Holding that vision of a vineyard, we sought help from professionals to install one. We contacted people in Temecula and Sonoma County, to no avail. Then, on Sunday, October 9, 2005, I opened the Homescape of The San Diego Union-Tribune, in it an article called "Vine Street" highlighting successful backyard vineyards in Point Loma, Clairemont, La Jolla, and Mount Helix, including a listing of professionals locally who install vineyards. We were ecstatic!

Everything clicked from there. We sought professional advice for the best grape varietal to grow for our location, if indeed this was a good location for a vineyard, ballpark costs, and where to buy the bareroot vine plants for Spring planting. Ironically the next Spring, our local community college offered their "Vineyard Management and Production" class, www.miracosta.cc.ca.us/ for the first time. We enrolled in the class, met other fellow wine and vineyard enthusiasts, and started getting vineyard knowledge under our belt. It was a real coup when our class came, as part of the Saturday lab, and helped measure and stake out our vineyard, plant, and construct trellis for a few rows, over a three month period. It had been worth the wait!

Around the third year (or harvest) of a vineyard's life, one can make wine from the grapes. The first couple of years all of the fruit is dropped early in the year, to focus on establishing the grapevines and their roots.  During this time we continued to take classes on winemaking, wines of the world, and even joined a group called San Diego County Amateur Winemaking Society, www.sdaws.org.  There are a number of basic books such as From Vines to Wines by Jeff Cox, Vineyard Simple by Tom Powers, A Wine-Growers Guide by Philip M. Wagner to get you started.  We felt that growing a vineyard is a hands-on experience, rather then something learned by theory, and taking practical classes was very beneficial.

We made some misstakes and had some pitfuls, such as underwatering our vines their second year, losing three vines to gophers, and not taking into consideration the competition of our young vines with mature macadamia nut trees. A vineyard is a huge time investment, and it has it's own timetable for maintaining it throughout the year.

With all that said, it is with great satisfaction as we walk our rows of Syrah vines, with their magnificent black conical-shaped clusters, soaking up their final sunny autumn days. I'm reminded of the adage, "It is not so much the destination that matters, but the journey".

One important step in the process of making wine is transferring your "barrel ready" wine to individual bottles to be corked, labeled, boxed, and further aged in a proper storage environment until the winemaker deems the wine ready.  The process of doing this is simple using a self-primed pump, three-bottle bottler, corking machine, ready-to-fill clean wine bottles, and a lot of enthusiastic help from your friends.

Have you ever heard the expression, "garage wine"?  Sometimes wine growers and wine makers have only a garage or a non-traditional building to make their wine in.  Don't knock "garage wine",  some can produce exquisite wine with cult following--generally from smaller volumes and relentless attention to detail . Did you happen to catch the reference to "garage wine" in the wonderful, Provence-based movie, A Good Year starring Russell Crow.

My husband and I are proud "garage wine" makers, hence our label, Le Vin De Garage. We made a Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and a 60/40 blend of the two from grapes we purchased from the pristine Guadalupe Valley in Baja, Mexico last year.

We are emptying our barrels and transferring to bottles, because it is time, but also, we must prepare the barrels for this year's harvest. Last year's wine is put into bottles, the inside barrels are pressure-sprayed  with water, and sulfured for storage until the 2008 harvest in a few weeks. When done all of the hoses, equipment, tools are cleaned, sanitized, and stored ready for the next time.

The newly bottled wine in boxes is best placed cork down for a week or so to wet the cork. Boxes are then turned right side up, and left to recover from bottle shock for about six weeks. Bottle shock is a temporary condition of wine characterized by muted or disjointed fruit flavors. It often occurs immediately after bottling or when wines are shaken in travel.