Memorial Day weekend is always a big weekend in the Northern Willamette Valley and I am starting to think, an omen at Lenné. Last year, I was buying banquet tables the week before Memorial Day when I got the call. It was a friend who was doing some mowing for me and turned a corner and said he lost tension on the clutch. No problem I thought, must be a cable, after all, my little blue baby, otherwise known as a 60 hp New Holland TN75V, only had about 800 hours on it. Tractors are build like brick sh*#+t houses, or so the theory goes. And I had come to depend and trust, dare I say develop a real affection for that tractor. We had spent a lot of time together. That is me and baby blue in better times. 
That week, I had plenty to do to get ready for our first Memorial Day back in 2007. But when you are living the dream, sometimes the dream isn't like you dream about it. Over the next couple of days I spent about 14 hours under that tractor in the middle of the vineyard trying to install a new clutch cable and restore the tension. But the only thing that was getting tenser was me and I finally had to come to grips with the truch; my tractor done me wrong.
Well about a month and $4500 dollars later I licked my wounds and started rebuilding trust with baby blue. I still wonder about her at times, but so far so good. You wouldn't think a clutch would go out with so few hours, but stuff happens when you are living the dream.
This year was all different. We had a big tasting with our club members on a 95 degree day a week before the Memorial Day weekend. I released the 2006 Lenné Estate "Karen's Pommard" Pinot Noir. The wine represents our two best barrels from the 2006 Vintage and puts the o in opulent. You hear people say about wines, "oh it's a food wine." Well, I know what they mean and this is not a wine you would say that about. It is rich, textured and makes a lasting impression and judging by the sales that day, people agreed with me.
But I digress. A couple days before the big weekend I was feeling good, realizing I had already done much of the preparation for the Memorial Day weekend. On Thursday I decided to weed the landscape at the tasting room and give it a little bit of water. About noon, I noticed the water pressure starting to weaken. I jumped in my truck and drove up to the cistern at the top of the vineyard. Sure enough it was nearly dry. Back to the pump house to see what the problem was. Everything seemed okay, but didn't look like we had power.
Fortunately, I got a hold of my pump guy. When you own a piece of rural property, you have to have a pump guy. As luck would have it, he was in the area and stopped in a couple hours later. Yep no power, that was the problem. You also get to know a good electrician and fortunately, the guys who worked on the building initially were able to come out the following morning. That was good news considering I had a partner and his wife who were staying at the tasting room Friday night and probably would like a shower and the use of a toilet, not to mention the people over the weekend who might need the same relief.
But Friday morning, the electrician couldn't locate the break in the huge 4 0tt cable that stretched some 500 feet through the vineyard. I knew where the cable was as I trenched and buried it back in 2004, but the location of the problem was going to take some additional instruments. The electricians left and by noon on Friday I was a little panicky about the lack of toilets all weekend, but figured I could wire a generator into the pump house. I rented a generator and with a little help on the phone from the electrician, wired it all up and got water flowing to the cistern. Later that afternoon, I was feeling pretty damn smug, realizing that I had reacted on the fly and learned how to wire in a generator and save the day, or at least the weekend.
About five on Friday I was waiting for my partner and his wife to arrive and turned on the faucet,-nothing. Up to the pump house again and I realized that the water was flowing into the cistern, but the immersible pump in the cistern wasn't bringing it out and down to the tasting room. I double, triple checked my wiring, called the pump guy who was probably halfway to Montana by now, being it was now six the Friday before Memorial Day, and when I got his answering machine, I did start to panic even more.
My partner and his wife finally arrived and we stared at it for a while until I finally decided to call it a night and left at around eight. I rigged up 50 gallons of water and a bucket so my partner and his wife could at least flush the toilets. I drove home wondering what the hell I was going to do the next day.
You always hate to get a guy out of bed at 6:45 am on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, but I thank my lucky stars the pump guy who's name is Phil, answered the phone, a little groggy, but answered nonetheless. By 9 he was at the vineyard installing a new panel for the sump pump which had probably fried in a power surge when the power went or when we got it back on. At eleven that morning, water came flowing down the hill and ten minutes later our first customers came in and happily used the toilet. My partner and his wife even got to get a shower in later that day.
I guess small miracles, a little luck and a good pump guy are all big when you are living the dream.
Hey Steve,
I always enjoy reading your blog. Having been there that very weekend it was nice to see how flawless the fiasco's recovery went. Congratulations on yet another learning experience and on another great vintage of wine from Lenne'.
Posted by: gabriel | June 11, 2008 at 11:38 AM
When it comes to tree trimming, farming, landscaping and labor intensive work I always bring out the bad boy toys. After destroying two back ends in my truck I finally decided to purchase some heavy duty equipment to help me on my way. I have found my dump truck and bucket truck to be very helpful with trimming tall trees and removing the debris from my yard.
Posted by: Bucket Trucks | May 13, 2009 at 01:08 AM