Wine Legs – What Can They Teach You?

Winston here!  I took a few weeks break from writing this so Wyatt could take his own turn at blogging, and so I could turn my attention to harvest.  Good news! All of our grapes except ⅔ of our Chambourcin crop have been harvested and have been transported to Michael Shaps for him to work his wine-making magic.  As I am sure you can imagine, the entire world is enamored with Wyatt, his cuteness, and his speed of growing. Heck, I am even starting to love the little guy even if he gets a little more attention than me these days.  I guess that is a part of getting older, and I am happy to let Wyatt share the spotlight with me as long as you all (and especially Mom) remembers who the best boy is (ahem!).

One of the folks who came to visit last week kept saying, “Look at that guy, he’s all legs!”  I wasn’t exactly sure if they were talking about wine or Wyatt, so I decided it was time for the wine dog Winston to do a little sleuthing. Could legs be a wine term too?  Or were they just referring to Wyatt’s long, lanky legs?  

Wyatt and Winston laying next to each other on the rug.

It turns out “legs” is a term used in the wine world to refer to the droplets that roll down the side of the glass when someone gives it a swirl; these can also be called “church windows” or “wine tears”, but depending on who you ask, it is highly contestable that these droplets can actually tell you anything worth knowing about wine.  

Look at the shadows to see this glass of Cabernet Franc showing its legs.

The phenomena itself is an example of the Marangoni effect, and it occurs when the alcohol evaporates out of the wine that has been swirled away from the bottom of the glass and onto the greater surface area of the glass.  When this happens, a war is waged against the remaining water (which has a higher surface tension than alcohol) and the wine. The difference in surface tension pushes the water up towards the rim of the glass to fill the spaces left vacant by the evaporated alcohol. Eventually the pressure of gravity becomes too intense, and the water beads up to roll back down the glass to join the wine.

In sweeter wines, these droplets roll down more slowly because of the viscosity of the remaining water.  In wines with higher alcohol content, there are more droplets on the side of the glass.  

Our Lil Em has slower moving legs than our other wines.

All of this can change, though, based on the humidity levels and temperature in the room, so it is questionable if you can ever really tell anything from these wine legs at all.  If there is any pair of legs I know how to read, though, it is Wyatt’s. When they are getting closer to me, I know he is on his way to cause more mischief; when they have disappeared under a table, I know he is on the hunt for any fallen crumbs; and when they keep getting longer each week, I know he is nowhere near the end of his growing!

Wedding Traditions

Weddings are absolutely beautiful days that represent the union of two people and two families.  Couples often put years of thought into the special touches that they want present on their special day, and they often call on age-old traditions to incorporate into their wedding ceremony. The wonderful thing is that almost all of the traditions have a fun backstory that makes them even more special to use!

Asking for the Daughter’s Hand

One of Stephanie’s favorite stories from the construction of the venue took place during the laying of the foundation for the pergola.  She was washing dishes at the sink and looked out to see a young man approach one of the masonry men. After she saw that the two men were finished talking, Stephanie went out to see if everything was okay.  It turns out, the younger man was there to ask permission of his future bride’s father. The father did give his permission that day, and the couple was married on the same pergola that next year.  

This tradition dates back to the days when bride families were paid dowries and continued when couples began to be allowed to choose their own life partners without their parents guidance. Now more of a formality, this practice shows respect for the life changing move the bride and groom is about to make. 

Burying the Bourbon 

This tradition is a southern one that helps to ward off bad weather on the wedding day.  Since weddings are held outside at much higher rates than northern weddings, they are also much more likely to be the victim of any of Mother Nature’s bursts of rain or cold.  In order to prevent anything other than a beautiful sunny day, tradition says to bury a bottle of bourbon near the ceremony site exactly one month before the couple weds. The type of bourbon doesn’t matter, but the bottle must be buried upside down and be completely full.  

Dad Walking the Bride Down the Aisle

While some margin of this tradition dates back to the idea that a bride is the possession of one family that transfers to another on her wedding day, a more modern take on this special moment is that the father is walking with his daughter one last time before he lets her go into the world of being a full-fledged adult.

Being Married on the Half Hour 

This simple tradition calls for the couple to be wed at a time when the hand on the clock is moving upward towards heaven.  The upward movement symbolizes that there will be many blessings brought forth for the newly wedded couple.

Being Married Under a Chuppah

This Jewish tradition calls for the couple to be married under a four cornered piece of fabric.  The fabric represents the new house they are forming AND calls for the public acknowledgement of them as a new couple.  It is a bonus if the couple can be married outdoors under the chuppah because the stars in the sky will help them to multiply, and they will have many children.  When a couple followed this tradition at our venue, they used a tallit, or prayer shawl, from one of their grandparents and secured it to the pergola.  

Tossing the Bouquet

This tradition came around to relieve the bride of some of the stress she was under on her special day.  In the olden days, folks who attended weddings believed that touching the bride, or even grabbing a piece of her dress, would give them the good fortune of getting married soon as well.  As a result, brides would often leave their wedding in shambles with their dresses ripped to shreds. Enter the bouquet toss. Tossing the bouquet allows wedding guests a chance to grab their own good luck while allowing the bride a much needed escape route.  

“Something Old, Something New”

This poem has been recited more times than any of us can tell.  The origin of it is somewhat vague, but the words themselves urge the bride to gather up items that are old, new, borrowed, and blue.  The “something old” represents continuity by allowing the bride to carry something from the past into the future, and it also offers protection for the babies that are to come.  The “something new” shows an optimistic outlook for the future and hope for all of the new adventures to come. “Something borrowed” is always borrowed for another happy bride who has had children to pass that same child bearing happiness onto the new bride.  “Something blue” doesn’t just stand for purity and fidelity, but it also helps ward off any evil that might make its way to the ceremony. The addition of the “sixpence in the left shoe” brings good fortune and prosperity to the new couple.  We recently commissioned a hand-lettered creation of this poem from local artisan Amberlee Carlson to hang in our bridal suite. 

That last line is especially meaningful to us.  You might remember from our last wedding blog that we named our farm “Six Penny Farm” because there are six Pences in our family, and we named our event space “Six Penny Hall” to reflect those origins. We are excited to pass a little of this tradition on to our brides, as we give each one a sixpence (along with a print of the poem that hangs in our bridal suite) when they book with us!

 

Winston’s Words of Wisdom for Wyatt

Oh boy! Winston told me yesterday that this time of year is when you wait, wait, wait for the grapes to be ready to harvest.  He said he was too busy to sit down and write today because between watching me grow and the grapes ripen that he had enough work to do this week.  You know what else he told me? He told me that one day I was going to take over this job because he was going to retire, so he could spend his days laying in the sun and waiting on Mom to bring him treats.  

Can you believe that a little boy like me is going to have a big grown up blog like this?  He said that if I wanted to practice this week I could. He even said it would be good for me to write down everything I’ve learned, so I can remember it better when I get excited. 

I’ve learned a lot about how to be a good winery dog, but these are the 10 most important rules for me to follow:

  • Say hi to all the people and all the dogs!  My job as a greeter is very important. Winston says nothing makes a person feel better than for you to tell them hello with a tail wag and a smile.  He also says dogs are the only ones lucky enough to get away with sniffing each other to say hi!
  • No barking in the tasting room.  Mom always tells me that I have so much to say, but Winston keeps reminding me that there is a time and place for everything and the tasting room is not the place for barking. He said some old man once said, “The quieter you become, the more you hear.”  The guy’s name was Ram Dogs, or something like that, but I doubt he had as much to say as I do. All I know is that when I am quiet, I just hear more things I need to investigate.  
  • I can’t eat the grapes. Winston reminds me of this whenever we go for a walk in the vineyard, and I start sniffing around too much.  He says they are toxic for me; I don’t really know what that word means yet, but I’m pretty sure it means they taste bad.
  • Stay close by! I’m just a little dog in a big, big world, but Winston says I can’t ever go too far away from home.  He said I can never go in the parking lot because cars aren’t always looking. He also told me that there are these really great stinky, smelly animals that run around sometimes.  He said they are black and white and they like to play chase, but he also said Mom gets really frustrated when he plays chase with them. I guess if I stay close to people who care about me, I won’t get into any trouble I can’t handle. 
  • No food, period.  Let me be clear here.  Winston is all about the food.  I’m all about the food. Do you know who is not all about the food?  Mom! She says that it is really important for us to have this thing called “table manners”.  She says that when we have this, we won’t ask anyone for food. She also says we are absolutely never allowed to put our heads on tables.  This doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, since that is where all the food is, but I am going to listen to her anyway because I don’t like to make her mad.  
  • “Curiosity killed the cat.”  This is one that Mom tells me all the time.  I don’t actually know what this has to do with me because I’m a dog and not a cat, but I don’t know if she’s just confused because she’s not a dog.  The problem with this is that Mom tells me this right before I’m about to make a really cool discovery, so I’m still deciding if this is the best rule for me to follow.    
  • Paw at the door to get back inside.  This is a really great trick, and it doesn’t take me long at all to teach the humans what I want when I do it!  Winston says this world is never going to know what you want unless you speak up, so he told me that whenever I really want to go inside or outside I should just paw on the door to let the world know.  The best part is when Winston plays a game I like to call “in-out-in-out”. When he’s playing that game, he waits for the people to sit down and then he paws on the door. As soon as they let him in or out and sit down again, he goes to another door and paws again.  He keeps going until he feels like they are tired, and then he just stays out and lays in the sunshine for a while.  
  • Naps are really important.  Is there anything better than curling up in a comfortable spot to snooze away?  Mom says when I don’t get enough sleep, I am not well-behaved. This is because when I get really tired I like to do lots of silly things to keep me awake, and this is always when I get put into time-out.  I usually lay down when that happens, and before I know it, I hear people talking to me and I am back to normal again!
  • Chew on toys, not humans or Winston.  I don’t know about this rule. My teeth are growing and they hurt sometimes.  The best way for me to make them feel better is to chew on something soft, but whenever I try to chew on Winston’s soft, soft ears to make them feel better, he growls at me.  When this happens, Mom tosses a toy my way. My favorite right now is a chipmunk that has ropes on it!
  • Sit down when I am asked.  You know what happens a lot when you are a winery dog?  You get your picture taken. Winston says I need to hold very still when that happens, and the best way to do this is to sit.  He told me that one day I would be big enough to sit my bottom in a chair like he does, but until then I need to learn to sit very still when I am saying hi to people or having my picture taken.  He also said I need to learn how to always stay down off of people’s laps because even if I am little now, I will be very big one day, and I will be too big to not listen when I need to.  

This is an awful lot for a little dog like me to know, but I know that if I try really hard, I can be the best puppy ever.  Winston told me that one day, a long time ago, he was just as little as I am now (pictured above!). He said that when he was little, he had a big brother named Vladimir, and Vladimir taught him everything he knows.  Mom even says that Vladimir had better manners than Winston! I hope I can be just as good of a dog as those two; I know with Winston showing me the way, I will have no problems at all!