The Tour of the East
Mid-August. One hundred degrees everywhere.
Two friends who had spent little time together recently. A Sunday trip from the well-worn paths of Napa, the capital city of an empire of commerce, to the hill-less wilds of vast farms operated on a Nebraska-size scale. The landscape is uninhabited on this hot Sunday, weeks from harvest; but more weeks from pruning or any other activity that might have required humans in the fields. Weeks, I should say, from OUR harvest—but the presence of the remarkable museum-quality skeleton-tractors by the row-sides indicate that someone will harvest soon. The sparkling wine makers, bringing in a little early season orange muscat to season their blends …
This is the territory of the Delta, the home of the Lost Slough vineyard.
In some ways, this trip completely epitomized the work of the Project. Friends working together, playing together. Monitoring the vineyards— and finding that they are excellent, in no need of our surveillance. Working the margins of civilized winemaking, with eyes open, but critical judgment at the ready. Taking the air, because it is Sunday and one has time.