DVQ, Winter 2022 Ah, the holidays. The frenetic span of days between the moribund gluttony of Thanksgiving and the spastic shopping of Christmas is always a magical time. Too much food, too much wine and definitely too much family. I’m just kidding about that last bit. We had Thanksgiving at the cousin’s house and it was wonderful. Holiday venue selection is a blood-sport in this family; we dodged Thanksgiving, but apparently there is no way we can avert having everyone for Christmas. It is, after all, our turn as all our female relatives have reminded us with presentations, charts, and threats of violence should they detect the least prevarication. At the farm it’s the end of another season. The homestead is buttoned up for winter, the machinery stowed, and awaiting maintenance. The ponies grow hairy, [...]

DVQ Q1 Countrymen, Colleagues, and Customers; I was reading through previous issues of this newsletter in order to remember what I’d written so as to not be a bore. I live in mortal terror of being found a bore. I am of an age that I can reasonably surmise that everyone I know, and some I don’t, have heard every anecdote, war story, and one of the three jokes I can remember at least four times. You need not have the greatest intellect to imagine what poor Dragon Six must have to live through. I have tried to make it a mental habit that before I decide to launch into one of these chestnuts I take a quick survey of my audience and attempt to gauge how likely I am to stupefy them. More often [...]

DVQ Q4 2021 Here it is after Thanksgiving and staring down another December. We are in that liminal space between Turkey Day and Christmas Day. We, as in the royal We, haven’t put up the holiday decorations as of yet, but I did manage to polish off the last of the Thanksgiving cheesecake just this morning. Everything in due time, one supposes.  The vineyard is in that space as well. I’ve not stepped foot in the vineyard since harvest. That doesn’t mean the work has stopped; there’s still a couple of weekends for the tasting room to be open. We are hashing out the last details for the final club pick up party of the season and trying to not think of next year. Next year can take care of itself, as far as I’m concerned. Now is the [...]

DVQ Q1 2021 Well, friends, here we are in 2021.  Speaking for myself, I’m having a hard time differentiating between the two. If anything, it’s like 21 has a bet with 20 that it could be even more tumultuous. “Cute pandemic you got there. I’ll see that and raise you an insurrection.” It boggles the mind. At least it does mine. We find ourselves spending this February much as we did the last. If one thinks about it, it could remind one of a sort of Groundhog’s February. Let us all hope that every month this year isn’t just a replay of the month from last year. I’m sure they won’t be, at least not all of them. There has to be an exit to this tunnel, and that exit will be egressed through this year. Of that I’m [...]