An extraordinary Saturday in May in the Santa Lucia Highlands last weekend yielded one delicious afternoon. With a dozen or so wine and food bloggers, Hahn Estates was the first winery to establish the Bloggers Block, a 1.5 acre plot of vines, planted in part by said bloggers, dedicated to the work, passion and appreciation of the complimentary relationship among these wine lovers.
Andy Mitchell (Director Vineyard Operations) and Paul Clifton (adorable winemaker at Hahn Estates) and their vineyard team shepharded the noob farmers teaching them about this plot of land, the 720′ elevation in the Santa Lucia Highlands, the soil, the vines (828 Clone/Pinot Noir), the irrigation, the row orientation, etc. All vines may be found on Google Earth where anyone can watch the growth of these baby pinot noir vines. Check out the Google Earth flyover of the winery here.
Essentially it was a day that social media wrought where friends and associates came together to dig in the dirt and laugh together while learning about the beginning, middle and end of wine production. Not bad for just a few hours. After planting our vines, bloggers enjoyed a picnic lunch and wines made from the vineyards where their vines were planted. The pinot noir in the Hahn SLH, among others were featured as the conversation covered everything from vineyard experimentation to your favorite twitter app for the i-phone.
It is still hard to put words to the perfection of the day. It sounds cloying, overblown and off the mark when I reach for the grand adjectives and expressions to summarize this day of planting and connection. One most apt description of all of us is to say that we were like kids in a candy store…and there was a kind of rapt adventure and play about the day’s activities. And still there was learning, out-reach and …well, you probably understand anyway. You seem like a wine lover to me, so I’ll share more photos of the day and leave it at that. I hope you’ll come to the next Bloggers Tasting Forum or host your own.
And who wouldn’t love a romp thru the vines in an open air Yamaha 4-wheeler?
You KNOW the Brix Chicks did!
Links to fellow blogger posts and attendees to follow soon.
Photos courtesy of Philip Woodrow, Hahn Family Wines Director of Marketing and Communications.