AL: Ok. We have to ask…how are the lambs?!
DZ: They are fine! It was scary because all the roads were closed and we couldn’t get to them. So we didn’t know how they were for a few days. Luckily we had lots of outreach from the community to help find a home for the sheep if the fire got too close. Generally all the outreach has been overwhelming. We are very grateful.
AL: What should we be drinking from this vintage?
DZ: You’d better drink this vintage. It’s delicious and we worked our asses off. You are lucky to have it! The whites did really well. Honestly, they are all amazing.
AL: What role did technology play in quantifying this year of extremes? What role does it play generally at RSV?
DZ: As I mentioned, I’ve been farming these vineyards for fifteen years now. I know the land, and what tools and management practices I like. We use a combination of eyeballs, machines, and data. It is important for technology to become habit if I am going to integrate it into my practices. During the heat spikes, we’d check the data from the Arable Marks to see just how extreme the extremes were. I know our winemaker Jeff was looking at the growing degree day accumulations as we got closer to harvest dates.
AL: When you aren’t out in the dirt, what are you doing?
DZ: Right now I am copy editing for this rad new publication called
Whetstone Magazine. They just finished their first volume of publication which sold out and are now fundraising for their second on Indiegogo campaign! It’s a fantastic publication about food. They recently featured
Michael Twitty, author of
The Cooking Gene. Go support them!