Flavors and Savors

When Spring sprang in March, I didn’t figure on it affecting my appliances. But within a period of a few days in late May, three different clocks in my house just decided to stop working – fresh batteries notwithstanding. Could there have been unusual solar activity, causing an indefensible energy spike? Extremely high-energy signal-jamming pulses emanating from the nearby Blue Cube? Could it be that the dust which had settled on my clocks over the winter was simply too much for their sweep second hands?

There’s no telling. But I’ve since managed to fix my clocks, and for now, it would seem, I’ve got more time.

So I think it’s about time that I blogged a little, even though this post that you’re reading now isn’t about time, per se. Instead, today’s post is a smattering of what’s going on in and around the wine and hiking communities. Pour a glass of something flavorful, sit back and savor the following brief read:

Fleming-Jenkins Vineyard & Winery has recently announced the Grand Opening of a new tasting room. Former Olympic figure-skating gold medalist Peggy Fleming and her husband Dr. Greg Jenkins have steadily been producing some very fine wines under their Fleming-Jenkins label, and now they’re ready for ribbon-cutting ceremonies at their brand-new Los Gatos tasting room this Thursday, June 12th at 5:30 p.m. I highly recommend the Fleming-Jenkins Victories Rosé, a wine from the Santa Cruz Mountain appellation made in a dry style and created, according to the website, to raise funds for breast cancer research and awareness. For those of you who may not have been aware, Ms. Fleming was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998. $2 from every bottle sold will be donated to charities that support the cause. For more information, please contact the winery at info@flemingjenkins.com or (408) 358-4949.

Sister Crow is the trail name of a long-distance hiker who recently embarked on an assault of the Pacific Crest Trail. While many thru-hikers have attempted the arduous hike through the deserts and mountains that span the distance between Mexico and Canada, relatively few have walked every mile. Fewer still are those who have maintained a blog about their adventure. Sister Crow is actually tweeting from the trail! Follow her at twitter.com/sistercrow, where you’ll find a fascinating ongoing account of her epic 2,650-mile hike.

It is the fate of all man-made dams, sooner or later, to cause the reservoirs behind them to silt in and become anaerobic. The news from jacklondonlake.org by way of Bill Myers of Dave and Bill Hikes is no different:

Nearly 100 years ago Jack London built a small dam at the foot of Sonoma Mountain, creating an idyllic respite for hikers, swimmers, and horseback riders. Today, the dam is in imminent danger of collapse, the lake has shrunk to one quarter of its original size, and the surface is covered in algae.

The mission of the Jack London Lake Alliance is to fully restore Jack’s Lake, dam, dock, and surrounding landscape to the refreshing oasis it once was. According to the Alliance, which is a special project of the Valley of the Moon Natural History Association, an estimated one million dollars may be needed to accomplish their mission. The Alliance is raising funds through private donation and through state and federal grants and has raised $150,000 to date to fund an engineering study, site survey, and a CEQA assessment, all of which are now completed. For more information, or to donate to the cause, check out jacklondonlake.org.

From sonomaopenspace.org:

Construction of a 4.25-mile trail for hikers, equestrians, and bicyclists may begin this summer. The new trail will not only link 500 acres of protected open space on the north slope of Sonoma Mountain, but it will be an addition to the Bay Area Ridge Trail, a planned ridgetop trail encircling San Francisco Bay.

That’s just darn good news. Someday, if I ever retire, I’ll strap on the backpack and walk all 500 miles of it.

From Juicy Tales blogger Jo Diaz:

On June 3, 2008, David P. Jones of Wine Works quietly passed away in his sleep from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.”

Shocking news to this winehiker. I had met David in the summer of 2006 when attending a wine soiree in San Francisco and had immediately found him knowledgeable, engaging, and very patient, quickly changing gears as needed to respond to my ad hoc circle’s differing understandings about wine. David was too damned young to die. I still have his business card.

About.com, in their Wine Page post titled Top 10 Ways to Tour Napa Valley and Sonoma County, features two companies that offer a way to tour the wine country “By Foot”. These companies are Zephyr Adventures and my own company, California Wine Hikes. Yes, Zephyr Adventures is a competitor. But I prefer to think of them as a future collaborator. And I look forward to meeting Zephyr Adventures principals Reno Walsh and Allan Wright in October at the 1st Annual Wine Bloggers Conference in Sonoma.* Meanwhile, it’s mighty sweet of author Stacy Slinkard to make mention.

Clairdee is a local jazz singer whose vocal style and artful arrangements of the jazz classics are worth a listen. She’s also a very warm and engaging person. I attended one of her shows in the summer of 2006 and bought her CD, Music Moves, which she was happy to autograph for me. I also joined her mailing list. But it was through LinkedIn.com that Clairdee contacted me to ask if I would allow her to list California Wine Hikes on her Discoveries page during the month of June. Naturally, I was happy to oblige.

~winehiker

*The 2008 Wine Bloggers Conference will be featured in an upcoming post.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 9th, 2008 at 2:28 pm and is filed under grape squeezins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.