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aspiringarmstrong · 6 years ago

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Star vs Destiny - Chapter 11

Marco emptied the boiling water into his water skins. He may be on a suicide mission, but he didn’t need to come down with a case of Montezuma's Revenge.

“It’s odd you only drink boiled water,” BuffFrog said.

“On our world, we have to purify the water so parasite and bacteria don't infect us,” Marco explained. Looking around the swampy forest, he was sure there was something nasty was waiting for him to ingest it.

“Ah, make sense. My grandmother once ate fish with parasite. Six weeks later, her belly burst opened and thousands of bugs covered the table.” BuffFrog reminisce. “It was a great feast for our family.”

“You… ate your grandmother?” Marco asked in horror. BuffFrog let out a chuckle.

“No… no… we ate the bugs. Grandmother still alive.” BuffFrog said. His leaned close to Marco, showing his a rather scary face. “My grandmother… she never dies.”

Marco didn’t know how to take that and turned back to his pot of water.

“Marco…” BuffFrog whispered and pointed up. There was a flying eyeball with bat wings staring at them.

“Toffee watches us.” He whispered.

Marco pulled a dagger from behind his cloak and threw it at the eyeball. It dodged the attack, but its wing was nicked, causing it to careen into the ground.

“Marco…” BuffFrog said with a pleading warning.

“He knows we’re coming for him now, There’s no turning back,” Marco said, recovering the eyeball. He looked dead into its center.

“You hear me Toffee? I’m coming for you! I’ll make you pay for everything you did!” Marco screamed and threw the eye on the ground. It flopped helplessly and let out a squeal as Marco’s foot crushed it.

BuffFrog looked away with a solemn gaze.

“Eyebat was longtime friend.” He said. “I will miss him.”

Marco stopped twisting his foot and turned to BuffFrog.

“I… I’m sorry. I assumed it was just a projection or something.” Marco said, regretting killing the creature.

“Was his birthday next week,” he said, picking up his friend and moved to the treeline. He turned his head to look back at him. “You assume many things Marco, this war… this will happen, but… losing good friend still hurts.”

Marco watched BuffFrog fade into the forest to bury his friend. Marco shook off his guilt and continued with his water replenishment task.

OoOoO

Star, Mr. and Mrs. Diaz, King and Queen Butterfly sat in one of the meeting room with a newly conscious Ludo. Star looked around for Glossaryck all day, but he couldn’t be found. Jackie was in her assigned room with guards outside, and Tom agreed to keep her company.

She didn’t want to even think about Tom right now and the whole mess she’d made with that. Jackie was slightly apprehensive to have him hang out, but if Toffee tried another attack, she would be the most likely target, and Tom was best suited to handle something like that.

At least… the best chance of surviving.

“Are those two insane?” Ludo screeched once he was apprised of the situation.

Mrs. Diaz cried into the barrel chest of her husband. Star’s parents regarded the others with a look of grave concern.

“What are we going to do?” Star asked.

“As much as I regret to say it… we should assemble the guards.” King Butterfly suggested. “I’ll send the word out to the other kingdoms. We’ll need to assault Ludo’s Castle as soon as we can.

“I’ll send word to the Magic High Commission,” Queen Butterfly said. “We’ll need all the firepower we can get.”

“I’ll help,” Ludo said, standing up on the table. Everyone glared at him. He cleared his throat and stood up as regally as he could. “I still have monster contacts who didn’t join me or Toffee. I’m sure I can convince them to join us.”

“I can call Princess Ponyhead and see if she can get her family help too,” Star suggested. She thought of her other friends, but none really had the fighting power they need, and she didn’t want to put them in danger.

“It’s a five-day trek through the forest to get to Ludo’s Castle.” King Butterfly said. “We all know how sturdy Marco is, but I worry he won’t survive that trip. Even in my prime… I’d have difficulty.”

“He’ll be fine,” Ludo said with a grin. “BuffFrog is with him, and if anyone can get him there in one piece, it'll be him.”

Ludo thought for a moment.

“Well… I can’t really tell if that’s good or bad… what’s better? Dying horribly in the forest, or dying horribly by Toffee’s hand?”

“No matter what,” Star interrupted. “We need to move now. He’s got a three days lead on us. Why can’t I just scissor us to the castle and meet him there?”

“Ah..haha” Ludo chuckled. “That’d be my fault.”

Star looked at the green chicken creature with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, only my scissors would let us in there. I’ve set up various portal traps that redirects anyone attempting to breach my borders into the bottom of a lava lake.” Ludo chuckled.

“How can he do that?” Star shouted. “Mom! How can he do that?”

Queen Butterfly shrugged.

“I’ll talk to Hekapoo when she gets here… see if she can figure that out.”

Heckapoo is a being on the magic high council and the creator of the Interdimensional Scissors. Everyone who has a pair has met her and passed her test. Each set of scissors is designed for the owner specifically. She’s a rather aloof person, but Star liked her when she met her.

“I suggest we start getting our forces together,” King Butterfly said. “If Hekapoo can fix whatever Ludo’s done around his castle, then we can portal there quickly, otherwise it’s going to be a long and treacherous march.”

“We’ll get Marco back.” Queen Butterfly said, reassuringly. Her expression didn’t quite seem to match her confident tone.

OoOoO

Toffee watched his screen black out when Marco’s foot crushed his spy. The other monsters around him seemed upset over the loss of their spy. He didn’t understand why the loss of such an insignificant being was affecting morale, but it didn’t matter.

Marco was coming… alone.

He grinned in delight.

He knew that the boy was going to be useful.

Even though BuffFrog survived his attack, it was inconsequential. The creature served his use. Ludo surely had succumbed to the poison, even if he didn’t, It really didn’t matter. Those pieces were off the board.

He has the wand. The Butterfly Army was on their way. He was sure the Magic High Commission was going to be there, along with a force from the underworld and whatever other Mewmans who were stupid enough to join them.

What was the earth term he heard?

Fish in a barrel.

He flexed his right hand, staring at his missing middle finger. Turning his gaze to the right, he smiled at the pedestal that held the wand and toasted his glass to it.

To his future rule… and revenge on Queen Butterfly

OoOoO

Jackie set down her cards with a grin.

“Full house! Aces over sevens!” she declared.

Tom grunted and threw his cards down.

“Sorry that you got stuck babysitting,” Jackie said.

“Nah, it’s not a problem. I get why they asked.” Tom said as he shuffled the cards. Jackie piled up the poker chips on her side and took the cards as he dealt them. “If Toffee used Star’s wand to control you again...”

“Yeah I’d get all possessed and my head will spin around like a pea soup sprinkler.” Jackie laughed. She was terrified by the idea, but she was trying to put her situation in a better light.

“The castle is really well protected. The only reason Toffee kept control was because Marco brought you in.” Tom explained. “But, I don’t know much about this guy. Queen Butterfly said he’s a real mastermind type… and he thinks like ten moves ahead.”

Jackie passed two cards and looked at her hand. It was three of a kind. Not that strong, but from Tom’s bewildered expression, she could make it work.

She added to the pot and gave him a wink.

“I get the rules to the game, but why do you keep on winning?” He said as he fumbled his cards around. He matched her bet.

“It’s more about reading people,” Jackie said and added more chips. “And taking risks.”

Tom matched her bet and chuckled.

“You sound like Star,” he said. Jackie grinned and added more to the pile. Tom raised an eyebrow at her.

“She never really talked much about your history…” Jackie said, adding another few to the pot. Tom seemed visibly agitated with the large pile of chips that had accrued. He changed his hand around a few times before matching.

“Honestly there’s not much to talk about. Ponyhead, Star and I were friends since kids. We dated for about a year, that felt like a lifetime ago but was only a few years ago. She was crazy, I was hot-tempered, Ponyhead… well, she hasn’t changed much.” Tom laughed. “I feel so stupid how I was used in all this, too. Honestly, part of this is my fault… I just, once I found out who Toffee really was, I couldn’t bring myself to really say much about it.”

“Oh?” Jackie said, adding more to the pile. “Do tell?”

Tom chuckled and matched her bet.

“I can see what you’re trying to do,” Tom said. “When I met back up with Star, I was trying to fix my anger.”

Jackie quietly listened. It seemed important, so she didn’t want to instigate another bet just yet.

“I used to have a counselor who would help me out. I thought if I fix myself for Star, she’d take me back.” Tom said. “It didn’t help much, because I realized I was doing it for her… not for me.”

“I see,” Jackie said. “Self-reflection can be good.”

“So, I found Toffee.” He said, ashamed. “My counselor told me he couldn’t do much for me and gave me his contact information.”

“So… this evil mastermind… became your therapist?” Jackie said in shock. “Wow… that’s a lot to take in.”

“I know… I mean, he helped a lot with things. Aspects of myself I didn’t want to acknowledge.” Tom said, setting down his cards. “He helped me talk to Star and get close to her. Showed me how you can plant little seeds, and if you tend them gently, they will be able to grow into something powerful.”

Jackie leaned back and put her feet on the table.

“Yea, I guess I can see that,” Jackie said. “I mean, Marco’s been trying to plant his seed in me since kindergarten… wait… that sounded really bad.”

Jackie and Tom both erupted in laughter. They stopped for a moment and smiled at each other. She felt slightly guilty knowing what was going to happen to Tom once things settle down. He seemed like a really good guy.

“Are you worried about Marco?” Tom asked. He must have seen her worry and assumed it was about him.

“Yeah.” She said, throwing another chip in. “Are you?”

Tom matched her bet and nodded.

“All right, I call,” Jackie said and showed her three of a kind.

Tom grinned devilishly and showed a straight flush.

“What?” Jackie said astonished. “How?”

Tom whipped his hair back in a cool manner and threw on his shades.

“Well… you are playing cards with a devil.” He grinned and took his winnings.

“Oh give me a break!” Jackie exclaimed with a chuckle. “And give me those!”

She snatched the sunglasses off Tom and put them on herself.

“Ohhh, I’m a devil” She mocked him.

“Hey! I don’t sound like that!” He protested and tried to snatch the glasses back.

“Oh, you so totally do!”

OoOoO

Star sat in another meeting room on the other side of the castle. She wondered how many of these rooms there were, and why her ancestors decided to scatter them all over the place. Why not just make a ‘meeting room wing’ or tower or something.

She sat next to her mother and stared at the Magical High Commission members. She had met and even grew up with some of them.

Lekmet: the bipedal goat with bat wings who could only communicate with goat noises.

Rhombulus: A large man who wears fur underwear and a cape, with snakes for arms crystal nipples and a massive rhombus shaped crystal for a head with one eye floating inside. He seemed to be the only one who could understand Lekmet’s bleats.

Omnitraxus Prime: A small floating orb with stars and galaxies swirling about inside the glass, a skull suspended in the center.

Two other chairs sat empty.

“Blaat,” Lekmet replied.

“He wants to know where Glossaryck is.” Rhombulus translated.

Queen Butterfly shrugged.

“Uhhhg,” Rhombulus grunted. “He’s always like that!”

“Where the heck is Heckapoo?” Omitraxus inquired with a small giggle at his pun.

A portal was sheared open near the door and in stepped Hekapoo

She wore a black and yellow dress. Spikes came out from the elbows of her long sleeves, flame red hair, and a golden crown with a flame on it.

“We don't need that dingbat anyway,” she said with a scoff and took her seat. “Let's get this over with.”

Star watched as her mother went over the events that had taken place. Once she was finished, the Magic High Commission all stared at her, mouth agape.

“That Septarian is still alive?” Hekapoo replied. “I thought we took care of him years ago!

“I’ll crystalize him this time,” Rhombulus said, waving his snake arms around.

“You know that won’t work” Omitraxus replied. “He can absorb magic.”

“I know this is a dire event… but,” Queen Butterfly stammered. “I think Marco needs to be the priority. We need to stop him before he gets to the castle and attempts to take Toffee on by himself.”

Queen Butterfly looked to Hekapoo.

“What? Why are you looking at me?” She asked. Queen Butterfly pulled out a birdcage with Ludo inside. “What… is that gross chicken looking thing?”

“It’s Ludo, the original owner of the castle. He did something to prevent any magic teleportation to his borders. It’s a two-day march from any point we can teleport.” Queen Butterfly said. Hekapoo gave the chicken a weird look.

“I don’t remember giving you any scissors.” She said suspiciously.

“Well… I inherited them… from my great uncle’s sister’s cousin.” he said with a nervous chuckle. She glowered at him and grunted.

“What… exactly did you do to block portals for that big of a distance?” she growled.

“Well, you know how portals have a radius. They can’t be more than so much apart or they won’t work?” he chuckled and fidgeted his fingers. “I found out you can connect portals to each other if you overlap them.”

“YOU DID WHAT?” Hekapoo shouted.

“It took me years, but I linked the boundaries of my kingdom with portals from the scissors. They’re not active and open since they’re weaved together like a web.” He chuckled, showing some pride in his ingenuity. “There’s only one spot that’s safe to go through, and my scissors are the only pair that is programmed with it.”

“And… if I were to go there right now?” Hekapoo asked while brandishing her scissors.

“One of two things,” Ludo said nervously. “This room fills with lava… or you’ll be swimming in it.”

“Do you know the spatial coordinate for your hole?” Hekapoo said while glaring at the tiny birdman.

“No… It’s programmed into the scissors,” he said with a whimper. Hekapoo grumbled to herself, slashed a hole in space-time and left. A few moments later she came back with a massive book and slammed it in front of Ludo.

“What one is it?” she roared. Ludo looked up at her and down to the massive book. He gingerly reached out of his cage and opened it to the first page.

“No… that’s not it,” he said and turned the page. “Not this one either.”

“This is going to take forever.” Omnitraxus bemoaned.

“Yeaj… this is volume one of three thousand. I can’t fix what he did unless I know what pair of scissors his ‘ancestor’ bequeathed him.” she said.

“Blaat.” Lekmet said

“He asked; doesn’t your dimension’s time run differently? Like… 12 days per second?”

Hekapoo glared at the goat. Grabbed Ludo’s cage and stormed off through her portal.

“Is Ludo going to be okay?” Star asked her mom. She shrugged.

An hour almost passed. Star was getting worried. The portal tore open again and the birdcage was thrown back through as Hekapoo stepped back.

“Mom… how long…?” Star was about to ask.

“A hundred and twenty years.. Give or take.”

“Can Ludos live that long?” She asked, looking into the motionless figure in the cage.

“He’s fine. I had to regenerate him a few times over the years.” She said. “We went through all my scissors… twice.”

“Snip… snip… snip...” Ludo said from the bars. “They all go snip.”

“The whole trip was a waste of time. His junking up the system like that, I can’t access the history of them from my main book. It’s going to take weeks to clean up his mess manually.” She groaned.

“Umm, Hekapoo?” Star asked, raising her hand. Everyone looked at her. She loved being the center of attention, but not the center of their attention. “From what I understood, it’s like a big web or net right? Can’t you focus on one part of it, and open it up enough to let us in? If it's around the borders, we can port there… walk through… and port to the castle?”

Everyone turned to Hekapoo. She closed her eyes for a moment as if mulling something over.

“Yeah… that could work. If the donk head here only did this to the borders, then inside should be fine. We just can’t emergency teleport out of there until I get the original scissors back.” She said and tossed a tiny fireball at his cage. He let out a small squeak and scooted back. “Yeah… that got boring after the first ten years.“

“I’ll go and let everyone know what the plan is and ready everyone for the first transport.” Queen Butterfly said and stood up. Everyone else agreed and left the meeting room. Star looked over at Ludo’s cage when she was halfway out of the room. She looked up at her mom who rolled her eyes and sighed.

She gave her mom a hug and ran over to Ludo’s cage, grabbed it and followed along behind her. She hoped that she would be a strong and powerful ruler like her someday.

#star vs the forces of evil #star vs evil #starco #star_Butterfly #Marco_Diaz #toffee #Jackie_Lynn #Jacko

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wineanddinosaur · 4 years ago

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EOD Drinks With Bruce Cakebread and Stephanie Jacobs: Co-Owner and Winemaker of Cakebread Cellars

In this episode of “End Of Day Drinks,” VinePair’s editorial team is joined by Cakebread Cellars’ co-owner Bruce Cakebread and Stephanie Jacobs, Cakebread’s winemaker. Cakebread is a family-run business with a history dating back to 1973. In this episode, our guests speak on Cakebread’s modern sustainability strategies, the importance of a family’s legacy, and new technological innovations when it comes to producing world-class wine.

They stress the importance of how sustainability is a journey, not a destination. With the emergence of new technology, wine cellars need to adapt, and over the years, Cakebread has done just that. You will learn the strategies used to improve soil health, and why worms may be the answer.

There are new and exciting developments happening in Napa Valley. Tune in to understand how this family-run business is at the forefront.

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Or Check out the conversation here

From VinePair’s New York City headquarters, this is “EOD Drinks” where we sit down with the movers and shakers in the beverage industry. So pour yourself a glass and listen along with us. Let’s start the show. On this episode of “End Of Day Drinks,” we’re talking with Cakebread co-owner Bruce Cakebread and the winery’s winemaker Stephanie Jacobs. We are going to chat with the two of them about how Cakebread promotes sustainability in the vineyard, the importance of the family’s legacy to the brand, how Cakebread makes wines specifically for food pairings, and how the brand is also embracing technological innovations when it comes to making its wines. Finally, we’re going to discuss the surprising role worms — yes, worms, those creepy, crawly critters — play in the vineyard. Let’s get to it.

Katie Brown: Hello and welcome to VinePair’s “EOD Drinks” podcast. I’m Katie Brown, VinePair’s associate editor, and I’m very excited to welcome Bruce Cakebread, co-owner of Cakebread Cellars in the Napa Valley, and Stephanie Jacobs, Cakebread’s director of winemaking. Welcome, guys.

Bruce Cakebread: Hey, thank you.

Stephanie Jacobs: Hi.

Katie: I’m also joined by my colleagues on VinePair’s editorial team. That includes Cat Wolinski, our senior editor, Joanna Sciarrino, executive editor, Tim McKirdy, our staff writer, Emma Cranston, assistant editor, and Keith Beavers, our tastings director. Welcome, everyone. This is obviously a big group, and we’re excited to all ask you our questions, so we’ll try not to ask you all at once. But because I’m already talking, I’ll go first. I’ve been curious to talk to you guys about sustainability because I know that Cakebread is doing a lot to promote sustainability in the vineyard. I was wondering, what are some of the specific actions you’re taking to support advancements in the vineyard and cellar sustainability at Cakebread?

Bruce: Yes, thanks for the question, and it’s great being here. Stephanie and I are looking forward to this going back and forth. We do sustainability not only in the vineyards, which is very important, but also at the winery, too. We look at sustainability as a journey, and it’s not a destination. We learn through trial and error of different things we’re doing. We learn from others, and we try to get other people to come and see what we’re doing and add ideas to it. As new technology comes on the line, we’re adapting to that. In the vineyards right now, I think the main focus is really on soil health. It’s the microbes in the soil, because you get carbon sequestration is critical these days, and people are trying to measure it. There’s a lot of different research articles about it, not only just in vineyards, but just in agriculture in general. We’re trying to understand that area and what we can do to reduce our carbon footprint on that. To me, you take organic farming or biodynamic farming, all are good practices. They’ve been around forever. I think today you have to look at the carbon footprint. If you look through organic farming, biodynamic, they’re not talking about that. We need to talk about that to have agriculture, vineyards included, make an impact on climate change. Whether it’s cover cropping, no-till composting, vermicompost. How can you improve soil health? The soil microbes are also going to sequester carbon. We think this is important as well. That’s where we’re going today to be able to move forward. In the early days, it was making sure you controlled your runoff. If it’s hillside vineyards, it’s having erosion issues and the same now on the valley floor vineyards, for example. I think it’s eight to 10 years ago, we participated in the Rutherford dirt program that helped set back the river and the Rutherford Reach, to allow it to meander the way it used to, because as agriculture came and everyone planted up to the river, we gave up about an acre of ground there. Now, it’s the confluence between a secondary creek and the Napa River. It’s just amazing how that has helped change the river. You don’t have as much sloping in the banks, which allows the fish to come upstream and have a place to rest where they have this kind of confluence. Those are some of the things we’re doing, but I think it’s how we’re measuring our carbon footprint in the soils is one of the big things coming up.

Keith: That’s crazy. This is Keith. I don’t know if this is true, but your family seems to be one of the most prolific vineyard buyers. You guys have so many vineyards and you picked them so carefully. Over the years, as you’ve picked, you’re practicing sustainability. It’s a massive undertaking to make sure that all these vineyards are in the sustainable realm. Is that a big feat, or are you like, “Oh, no, we got this”?

Bruce: It’s kind of interesting because the Napa Valley Vintners started the Napa Green program, which started out as Napa Green Land back in the mid-’90s. It’s a really good program as third-party certification that was able to come out and inspect your property to make sure what you say you’re doing, you’re doing. Then, it gave you a five-year checkup on things that you needed to do to remain compliant. Then 2008, they started up the Napa Green Winery program, which we’re the second ones to be involved in. That really looked at reducing inputs in terms of electricity or water, increasing or recycling. If it’s a mindset, it makes it so that we can say, “Yeah, we can do this.” It’s more of a mindset to say, “I’m going to change to make sure that we have all the properties up to speed.” We’re very fortunate because each of the different 16 properties is unique and special. Being a family business, it’s a long-term responsibility, a generational perspective.

Keith: Sure.

Bruce: My brother and I hand it off to the next generation. Hopefully, they’ll look at us and go, “These guys did a good job, and we’re going to improve on what they’ve passed down to us.” That is how we look at it. but it is a generational perspective instead of “What are we going to do this year”? I think that really helps us in that area.

Keith: That’s great.

Tim McKirdy: Hey, Bruce, this is Tim speaking. I’ve got a quick follow-up to that question as well. And something I’m fascinated about — because you guys have obviously been in Napa since winemaking was invented in Napa in the early 1970s, as we know. That’s just a joke.

Bruce: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I get it. It’s just, come on, man, I’m not that old!

Tim: I just wonder, with that generational idea of sustainability, have you seen that develop over time in the region? The conversations that are being had and maybe even a loose definition. Have you seen that evolve over time?

Bruce: With Napa Valley, it’s a long-term focus with the whole community, because if you think back to 1968, the community voted in the Ag Preserve. This prevented the lands from being developed into housing and suburban expansion. If you go back and look at the Napa Register, some of the articles back then, it’s fascinating because not everybody was on board. It was a heated discussion about some of the long-term family owners saying, “Wait for a second, I want to give my son or daughter a parcel of land so that they can build their house so they can live here.” That helped set the stage. Then, we have erosion control plans so there are restrictions on where you can and can’t plant. When you come to Napa, these are the rules that everyone plays with. If you don’t like it, it’s no problem. You go over the hill to Sonoma, or you can go somewhere else and do whatever you want. That was a joke, just to let you know. This is the poker table that we’re playing with. These are the house rules. If you accept those, then you want to stay within the house rules and be able to do that way. With the Ag Preserve, with the erosion control plan, winery definition ordinance, Napa Green Land, Napa Green Winery, all these programs are built up over time to get everybody, the whole community, just not a few people. That’s where when you get the whole community or the whole industry going, that’s where you can make a bigger impact. If it’s just us, we’re not going to move the dial. If we can get as a collective, the whole industry or a whole community to do this, then it has more power behind it. You take our Napa Green Winery, for example, one of the easy ones is doing flashlight, battery, and recycling. It allowed the employees to bring their batteries to the winery. Then, we’d recycle it as wine and say everyone is going to put it in their garage. I’ll get to it. Maybe they don’t. That was changing. Behavior is bigger than just the winery footprint. It impacted 60 other employee family homes. That’s how you are able to create a bigger footprint to try and move the dial. I think that we have to do more than what we’re doing today to change the curve on our climate- change challenges.

Joanna Sciarrino: Hi Bruce, this is Joanna. This question relates to that. And to push the boundaries there, on your site, you mentioned that you regularly partner with UC Davis on innovative trials in the vineyard and also in the cellar. Could you tell us about some of those trials and what you’ve learned as a result?

Bruce: I’ll talk about what Davis is doing, and then I’ll pitch it over to Stephanie, and she can talk about what she’s doing in the winery. Over at UC Davis, the Vineyard Geology Department has an amazing, neutral winery. It’s the first in the world as a research winery. They’re recycling all their water. They’re capturing their water. They’ve treated it, recycling it. Dr. Roger Boldon, who was my professor way back in 1977, visited — this was a long, long time ago. Roger, an Australian guy, comes out and says, “Hey Bruce, we want you to sponsor these research fermenters.” I didn’t know how much a fermenter costs. “Yeah, no problem, Roger, count me into it.” Then, he goes, “Well, here’s the price.” “Jesus, I could buy 10 of these, what do you need?” It turns out he goes, “No, no. Actually, these are kind of automated, and then they have a clean-in-place system where you can take that wash water, recycle it. They’re just changed from the current practices in the cellar.” They asked 16 family wineries in the state to each sponsor one of these. The idea is to get the students coming out of there, be able to think differently when they get into the industry. I think that’s really important for us because we get someone who’s working in a neutral winery to understand how that works. They’re valuable to us because here’s what we’ve been doing for 40, 45 years. It’s impressive what UC Davis is doing. We feel honored to participate in that. I’ll pass it over to Stephanie and let her finish up on that one.

Stephanie: Well, we’ve taken the automated pump-overs in-house and are starting to integrate them into our fermentation protocols so that we can have exact frequency and volume to pump over each tank and where it’s automated and controlled into a computer system so that you don’t necessarily have to be moving pumps around cleaning in between each pump or even be at the winery. If, for whatever reason, we have an extreme event or and need to be away from the winery for a little bit, we can still keep making wine.

Bruce: It’s amazing how we’ve changed in a positive way when we make changes. You want to look at the win-win out of them and be thoughtful when you make a change in how that could improve the wine quality. That’s one of the wins. Back in the ‘70s, my father bought a field crusher. Instead of bringing the fruit back in a gondola and doing that whole de-stemming at the winery, they just pick the lug boxes and dump it out in this tank and crusher that’s driven by the PTO on the tractor and stems to go back out the vineyard. We bring the fruit back as crushed grapes or mousse, and with whites, we press it, then we put it in the tank. Today, we’re picking all at night so that we can bring in the fruit cold so we’re not having to pay our utility company to cool down our juice that Mother Nature does for free for us.

Keith: Nice.

Bruce: Then, we get to our trucks and off the highway so we don’t have people sit and we don’t have our fruit sitting on the road waiting for it to come in the winery. The bottom line is: Cold fruit makes better wine. That’s the change that’s happening, and what’s exciting is Stephanie’s been with us for 18 or 19 years now. I think what makes it fun to work with long-term employees, that they’re always looking for the next way to improve what we’re doing. We’re not trying to just sit on our hands, not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but just take those incremental steps to be able to improve and adapt. Since our customer is getting savvier in terms of what they want from wine and what we can measure and how we grow it, it’s an exciting time to be making wine.

Keith: This is Keith again. I don’t know if this is even a question, but more of a comment. It’s just exciting to hear because of your absolute focus with your company in sustainability and not just in the vineyard, but practices around the vineyard. And at the same time able to harness new technology to help you in a certain way to make wine. That technology is being used not to do anything negative to the Earth or to the vine or to the people that you work with. I just find it wonderful that you have this absolute natural way of seeing the vineyard and the people. Then, at the same time, you have an automated system. You could be, I don’t want to say just chilling out somewhere on the phone.

Bruce: Stephanie, is that what you’re doing? Just hanging out, looking at your phone, texting?

Stephanie: Yeah, yeah.

Bruce: I thought so.

Keith: That was just a comment. I just find that amazing.

Bruce: Well, it’s great, because we have a great team that’s focused on this. Because you can’t Lone Ranger this. We have a Napa Green Committee from all departments taking field trips over to Benzinger and see what they’re doing with their biodynamic. I think we have a trip with the vineyard guys coming up in March, going out to look at a vermicompost operation over in Sonoma. The most memorable is we went up to Sierra Nevada Brewing up in Chico. It’s about a two-hour bus ride. We didn’t look so much at the brewing aspect of the tour, but all their green practices and all their sustainability. It was so impressive. I think that when we’re coming back on the bus, you want to be like those guys. Everyone says I want to be “like Mike.” We want to be like Sierra Nevada because they are doing it just an incredible amount. My son lives in Brooklyn. We’re going to Paulie Gee’s, and there’s a little brewpub next door. I stopped in there a little bit early and I asked him about Sierra Nevada. He was able to say all the sustainability practices. To go from Chico, Calif., in Northern California, to Brooklyn, I was really impressed. That was pretty cool.

Cat Wolinski: OK, hold up. Where in Brooklyn does your son live?

Bruce: He lives just outside of Bushwick.

Cat: OK, I used to live near there.

Bruce: Yeah, he’s in the music business. He worked for a band management company, then a side gig with a record label called Exploding in Sound. They just got a new song on NPR, which is pretty cool for them. That’s my plug.

Keith: You hear a lot about family. This is a family winery. I want to talk about the family business. You guys have been doing this as a family for a long time, since the ‘70s. To be able to keep this in the family for as long as you guys had and the place that you may wind and watch it evolve the way it evolved is pretty amazing. You just were talking about rerouting the river, and Rutherford alone is incredible. I just wanted to ask about the family business and how that has affected winemaking throughout the years?

Bruce: Our family DNA goes back to my grandfather, because he started a garage in downtown Oakland changing oil back in 1926. Over the 50 years that they had that business, my grandfather and my father ran it. In 1973, my parents bought the friends of my grandparents’ 20 acres up in the middle of Napa. They wanted to retire, and we’d go up there during the summers and hang out. My grandparents would take my three brothers up there to get us out of Oakland for a while. Then, we ended up buying it from them. My father and grandfather worked together and then both my brother and I worked with our parents until about 2002. We started doing succession planning. They step back and my brother and I have been running it. Then, in 2018, we’re both in that process of stepping back. This is the normal way of how family businesses go. I was in a class out of Kellogg that does great family business work and does Zoom calls for three days a week in February. One of the things I learned: They had a quote from Desmond Tutu: “You don’t choose your family. They’re God’s gift to you as you are to them.” If you take that to the next step and apply that in a family business, you didn’t get to choose your family and you don’t get to choose your business partner. You’re all together, and you have to work through because there’s always going to be challenges to keep working through. I think our strengths, with my brothers and my parents, is we’ve always had that common goal. Here is a vision where we want to be, where each one of us brought something different to the table to get us on that path, to get us to the goal. We’re not all doing the same thing. We all had our different style and different way of doing it. It wasn’t that we’d end up on first base or third base. We all end up on second base. I think that has been really helpful. We’ve gone through the founder or what they call one-generation to what we are today is a sibling partnership. Then, with the three-generation or the cousins. Now, we’re making this kind of transition to what they call a cousin consortium. The cousins are scattered all over the country, whereas Dennis and I live in the same town.

Keith: Right.

Bruce: It takes a different way to communicate and make sure that it’s transparent on what we’re doing. My brother and I were older operators. We grunt at each other walking through the hallway there. We knew what the other guy was thinking or saying. We have to slow down now as we bring the cousins in, because it’s a different way to communicate. Each generation has its own way. We need to be able to keep that blend going from the second generation and third generation. Each stage, each transition, can be treacherous. We have a good foundation of seeing our grandfather and father work and then our parents did for Dennis and myself. I have confidence that we’ve been through this before, and we know what can happen. In a family business, the worst thing is you get too comfortable, and you’re not pushing yourselves, and then life passes you by, the industry passes you by. You have to always be thinking, “How are we going to stay put and get ahead?’

Tim: Bruce, this is Tim speaking again. One of the things that I wanted to ask again ties into that idea of consistency that you seem to be alluding towards — maintaining a family style of wines over time. To my understanding, one of the things that are continuous through Cakebread is this idea of making wines that pair with food, farm-to-table wines before anyone was even putting a hyphen between those words. I just wonder if that’s something you can confirm. Then, Stephanie, if you can follow up by telling me what that actually looks like? What does that process mean from a winemaking and grape-growing standpoint? What are you thinking about when you’re trying to craft a wine specifically for food?

Bruce: I’ll start out as the history of us in the early days. When we bottle, we bottle on Saturday morning, and our parents would invite a bunch of friends up. We didn’t have that much to bottle say, finish about noon and then everyone has lunch and has a couple of what they bottled. It became a standard of “We’re going to Jack and Dolores’s place for lunch,” and then pretty soon all our good friends started showing up around 11:30 instead of 8 to help bottle. They knew they were going to still get fed. That was the beginning of understanding that the best wine is the wine that’s on their dinner table and just fits in.

Keith: This is Keith, and that’s great. I love the fact that, again, this is another comment. I don’t have questions here, but I also think it is great. As Americans, we don’t always understand that food and wine go together. It’s so great that the philosophy here is these wines are made and you can eat with them and it’s going to be awesome. Just a comment.

Tim: I’d love to hear Stephanie’s input. What are the considerations from yourself, as a winemaker, within the realm of this conversation?

Stephanie: I think our wine styles really haven’t changed over the years. We make wines that we like to drink, and that goes back to Jack and Dolores and Bruce and Dennis. Those wines happen to be fruit-forward, fresh acidity, a nice balance of tannin, and a structure that goes well with food. I think Dolores really ran with that and planted the estate garden produce — a garden that’s there on the property — and became a pioneer in wine and food education culture over the years. A real part of our company culture has always been the food and the wine. The style hasn’t changed. The way we’ve made the style has changed a little bit over the years with advances of research and technology, which we kind of touched on a little bit: the night harvesting, a whole- cluster pressing over the years to limit oxidation and prolong aging, then the berry sorting. Getting a shaker table was the coolest thing ever, that we could sort berries and anything that we didn’t like, we could take out, and it wouldn’t go into the fermenter. And then going to the optical sorter, which is even more advanced, where a puff of air would push out a berry that was not quite the right color or a little bit dehydrated. Here we are, improving our fresh-fruit character and our acidity in our wines through technology and without having people bent over a table for hours picking bad berries. Out in the vineyard, we’re looking for real fresh fruit and nice acidity: ripe, dark fruit characters, but not overripe characters. There’s plenty of acidities that go well with the wines and to go well with the food.

Bruce: It’s interesting, the optical sorter Stephanie was talking about, being able to pull out dehydrated fruit, as we go through climate change, this piece of technology is critical to allow the winemaker to hold back, not pick early because of the heat, but they were allowed to go get your mature fruit, and able to sort out the dehydrated fruit. It’s just a tool. You lose volume, but you’ll gain it back in quality. As we look at climate change, before you had to go and you couldn’t wait or else you end up with raisins. I think that’s one of the things as we look at climate change, this type of technology helps us adapt.

Cat: Along with that technology — this is Cat —Stephanie, do you feel with that changing technology, are you also changing the way that you make wines as the consumer palate is changing?

Stephanie: Not necessarily as the consumer palate is changing. Like I said, our wine still really hasn’t changed all that much over the years. We have changed up some of our fermentation protocols to encourage the wine style that we like and to improve it and make our wines age well. I have plenty of color, for instance, in reds. We now can analyze how much color and tannin that we’re extracting during fermentation and can look at those results and change the fermentation protocols to either extract less color and tannin or extract more color and tannin. That’s a recent development in the last 10 years.

Cat: I also love that you’re so excited for the shaker.

Katie: You guys are clearly always evolving from a sustainability and a technological standpoint. What can we expect to see next from you guys at Cakebread?

Bruce: One of my passion projects during this pandemic is understanding more about vermicompost, or using worms. Then vermicompost tea, in terms of the impact on soil microbes. I’ve been looking at that as growing worms. I’m learning a lot. Also, I tried butter-making, making homemade butter.

Keith: How did that work out?

Bruce: Some were good, and some were OK. But what’s good about butter is that you scrape it off and start over again.

Keith: Not with those worms, though.

Bruce: I’m not sure if you guys remember the movie “Ben.” The guy who liked all the rats.

Keith: Oh, yeah.

Bruce: That’s where I attached to my worms here. I’ve been planting lettuce during the winter so we can make good salads, and I always put a little bit of my vermicompost in the bottom of the hole when I plant new lettuce, and we’re rocking. Can we do this with vineyards, too? This sounds really weird, and my wife’s not all that keen on it, but trying to look at using cardboard as weed controls, using a concept that came from no-tilling. It looks terrible. It looks like you have a bunch of cardboard boxes out in your vineyards. I have to work on that, but we did two short rows. As we come to the spring, I want to pull it up. But I’ve been peeking underneath there. We have a lot of the worms that come up, and it turns out worms like cardboard. Well, it’s kind of a carbon source for them. It’s pretty cool to see if we can improve the soil microbes underneath the vine, because that’s always a hard place to get to in a vineyard. Can we do that? Now I have to work on the looks, so to speak, because it’s not very pretty. If you have a pandemic, let’s make lemonade out of it. Those are a couple of things I’ve been working on.

Keith: Wow. That’s incredible.

Katie: Very cool. I don’t know what I was expecting when I asked that question, but I wasn’t expecting worms.

Keith: Cardboard, water, and worms. I thought it was great.

Katie: Well, thank you guys both for joining us today on the podcast. It was such a pleasure having you guys and learning more about Cakebread. We’ll look forward to having you back some time and get drinks in person when Covid is all over.

Bruce: We’ll bring you some compost tea.

Tim: Oh, yes. I’ll bring the worms if you bring the butter.

Bruce: I’m not sure who I want to give up. All of them have names.

Keith: I was going to be the one to ask have you named any of the worms. I was going to ask the question.

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of “EOD Drinks.” If you’ve enjoyed this program, please leave us a rating or a review wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps other people discover the show, and tell your friends. We want as many people as possible listening to this amazing program. Now, for the credits.

“EOD Drinks” is recorded live in New York City at VinePair’s headquarters, and it is produced, edited, and engineered by VinePair’s tasting director — yes, he wears a lot of hats — Keith Beavers. I also want to give a special thanks to VinePair’s co-founder, Josh Malin, to the executive editor, Joanna Sciarrino, to our senior editor, Cat Wolinski, senior staff writer Tim McKirdy, and our associate editor, Katie Brown. A special shout-out to Danielle Grinberg, VinePair’s art director who designed the sick logo for this program.

The music for “EOD Drinks” was produced, written, and recorded by Darby Cicci. I’m VinePair co-founder Adam Teeter, and we’ll see you next week. Thanks a lot.

The article EOD Drinks With Bruce Cakebread and Stephanie Jacobs: Co-Owner and Winemaker of Cakebread Cellars appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/bruce-cakebread-stephanie-jacobs/

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johnboothus · 4 years ago

Text

EOD Drinks With Bruce Cakebread and Stephanie Jacobs: Co-Owner and Winemaker of Cakebread Cellars

There are new and exciting developments happening in Napa Valley. Tune in to understand how this family-run business is at the forefront.

Listen online

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Or Check out the conversation here

Bruce Cakebread: Hey, thank you.

Stephanie Jacobs: Hi.

Keith: Sure.

Keith: That’s great.

Bruce: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I get it. It’s just, come on, man, I’m not that old!

Keith: Nice.

Bruce: Stephanie, is that what you’re doing? Just hanging out, looking at your phone, texting?

Stephanie: Yeah, yeah.

Bruce: I thought so.

Keith: That was just a comment. I just find that amazing.

Cat Wolinski: OK, hold up. Where in Brooklyn does your son live?

Bruce: He lives just outside of Bushwick.

Cat: OK, I used to live near there.

Keith: Right.

Tim: I’d love to hear Stephanie’s input. What are the considerations from yourself, as a winemaker, within the realm of this conversation?

Cat: Along with that technology — this is Cat —Stephanie, do you feel with that changing technology, are you also changing the way that you make wines as the consumer palate is changing?

Cat: I also love that you’re so excited for the shaker.

Katie: You guys are clearly always evolving from a sustainability and a technological standpoint. What can we expect to see next from you guys at Cakebread?

Keith: How did that work out?

Bruce: Some were good, and some were OK. But what’s good about butter is that you scrape it off and start over again.

Keith: Not with those worms, though.

Bruce: I’m not sure if you guys remember the movie “Ben.” The guy who liked all the rats.

Keith: Oh, yeah.

Keith: Wow. That’s incredible.

Katie: Very cool. I don’t know what I was expecting when I asked that question, but I wasn’t expecting worms.

Keith: Cardboard, water, and worms. I thought it was great.

Bruce: We’ll bring you some compost tea.

Tim: Oh, yes. I’ll bring the worms if you bring the butter.

Bruce: I’m not sure who I want to give up. All of them have names.

Keith: I was going to be the one to ask have you named any of the worms. I was going to ask the question.

The music for “EOD Drinks” was produced, written, and recorded by Darby Cicci. I’m VinePair co-founder Adam Teeter, and we’ll see you next week. Thanks a lot.

The article EOD Drinks With Bruce Cakebread and Stephanie Jacobs: Co-Owner and Winemaker of Cakebread Cellars appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/bruce-cakebread-stephanie-jacobs/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/eod-drinks-with-bruce-cakebread-and-stephanie-jacobs-co-owner-and-winemaker-of-cakebread-cellars

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designmeblogss · 5 years ago

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Among One Of The Most Vital Winning Online Poker Publication - Your Journal

Why Have a Texas hold 'em Journal?

On the internet casino poker is a long-term game. It's really not that various from investing, except you can not have somebody else do it for you 토토사이트. You have to make the cash by yourself. Yet you would not spend without having a plan, maintaining records, tracking outcomes, evaluating brand-new possibilities, and also checking out brand-new selections. Right? The very same is true of online casino poker. Poor gamers (fish) never ever before record anything. They never ever before track anything. They don't pick today based on historic truths. They do not recognize the distinction in between playing the website they get on (or the table) and the various other sites in the online texas hold'em world. They just sit down, blind in, and additionally begin playing. Fish do not play texas hold 'em for the lasting. They wager the Now! This hand! This minute! This session! If they win they are thrilled. If they lost they are depressed. They are ... in brief ... PATIENTS!

You intend to be a lot more than that, certainly. Nonetheless, great deals of gamers that intend to be more miss out on the Most Effective Device poker needs to offer - HISTORICAL TRUTH. Historic fact is what HAPPENED. Specifically exactly how it happened. Why it happened. Since, presume what ... It'll happen again!

If you do not maintain documents after that you can't find out as quickly as you require to from your mistakes. Perhaps you will not get from them in all. Perhaps you'll find out for a while and after that forget it again. Your casino online poker journal is how you touch the most powerful texas hold 'em device that exists.

If you do not keep records after that you lose out on one of the most Powerful Device on-line casino poker requires to offer - YOUR MENTAL ABILITY. Your mental capacity is what is probably to take you into the future. It's what's mosting likely to establish the training course for your future success or failing. Considering that ... As a male thinketh ... so is he! The Holy bible: Proverbs

You spend humans resources considering a computer screen, playing hands, making checks out, finding out lessons (good as well as bad). You evaluate write-ups as well as magazines, consult with various other casino poker players, along with observe others that are a lot extra competent than you. Where does all this details go? It can not just enter your head. Your head is a terrible document keeper. It's adjusted by sensations, it has lots of non-poker work to do, as well as it commonly has a tendency to fail you at one of the most horrible times in online casino online poker. So, instead of relying on your head, trust your gambling enterprise poker journal. A casino poker journal constantly bears in mind. You should examine it often. As well as the truth that you have recorded points, will absolutely prompt you to expand them as well as consider them a lot more.

The just how's as well as additionally why's of keeping a texas hold'em journal.

Ideally I have actually encouraged you that a texas hold 'em journal will really include worth in addition to results to your on-line casino poker video game. Basically the HOW is standard. Just start doing it! But, right below are some things I have really provided for years with my texas hold 'em journal. Ideally you can use a few of them.

While you can maintain a texas hold'em journal digitally on your computer, I do not suggest it. As well as additionally while any old spiral note pad will definitely do, I would encourage you to obtain something more substantial 사설토토사이트. Your following time out, take a buying journey for a journal. Concerning electronic journals, consider it by doing this; the number of computer system files can you find from 3 years ago? Very few. The amount of photos do you have from your childhood years? Perhaps numerous. Physical factors are lasting, digital information are conveniently lost, neglected or harmed. So go with the physical factor.

I make use of a refillable natural leather journal cover I purchased Barnes and also Noble. Right below's why. Natural natural leather is exceptional! It offers your suggestions significance as well as heft. Leather is irreversible as well as additionally assuring. When you write in this journal it attracts you to advance. It's additionally refillable and also it comes from maintain a couple pens. Each of this is necessary for me since I need my journal to be all set to go and also stand up to my lifestyle. I undertake worrying 1 refill every 9 months approximately and also I unquestionably maintain the old journals for reference. I haul my journal with me almost all the time, and I make notes in it often.

So, what do you make up in your journal?

Take down whatever comes to mind. I utilize my journal for individual notes as well as objectives along with texas hold'em objectives - to me they are one in the exact very same; because, texas hold 'em makes great deals of aspects of my life feasible along with my life influences my casino online poker. I begin every journal with my life objectives and likewise principles that assist me succeed at whatever I'm doing. That way I identify specifically where to head to obtain my mind right if I begin to rise and fall.

Afterwards I just write whatever I think is important as it comes to mind. These include things like:

- Beginning Hand Graphes

- Online Texas Hold'em Session, SnG, as well as also MTT notes

- Online poker ideas I review in publications, magazines and online

- Summaries of what I believe assists me achieve my on-line casino poker and life objectives

- Personal Enhancement principles as well as additionally notes

- Repeated Sentences - This is extremely important.

On-line poker has a wonderful ability to connect us up in knots when we have negative sessions or make errors. The best way to work out the negative power that gets developed in times such as this is to make up a sentence 50-100 times. That help me work out the adverse feelings as well as redouble my campaigns. Randomly opening my journal I see a pair websites of "I will certainly follow my rules 100% when I play." That's from a few sessions of harmful my really own excellent suggestions and additionally playing like a fool.

So those are some suggestions of what you might keep. I have notes concerning what on the internet texas hold'em short articles I require to produce, time management tasks, as well as likewise problems I use to approach life in a desirable ways. It's all outstanding!! Since the act of composing concentrates the mind, it makes long-term numerous points that you would absolutely shed if you attempted to remember them in your head; it clears up; as well as it supplies you something to look back on as well as additionally see your achievements.

If you want seeing inside my journal, below's an example. A lot of these things don't appear texas hold 'em associated, yet they establish the structures for my gambling establishment poker success.

LIFE PURPOSES:

1. Time, Adaptability, Liberty - I am an independent human being that has 100% control of my time and likewise actions without economic constraints or stress.

2. Method, Demand, Control - I have the strategy and also need to control my really own time along with activities in a way that brings all-around volume for me as well as for my family members.

3. A Transforming Force - I am a beneficial pressure to change those around me for a much better and additionally happier life.

4. Kaizen - I will certainly enhance and increase in massive or tiny purposeful in addition to beneficial methods some aspect of my life daily till the day I pass away.

" We are what we presume. All that we are develops with our ideas. With our ideas we make our globe" The Buddha

" Things do not change. We alter." Henry David Thoreau

Difficulty Solving Questions: (from Anthony Robbins).

1. What is amazing about this trouble?

2. What is not perfect yet?

3. What am I satisfied to accomplish to make it the means I prefer it?

4. What am I going to no longer do to make it the method I want it?

5. Just how can I enjoy the procedure WHILE I do what is needed to make it the means I want it?

Those are simply some fragments from my texas hold 'em journal. Those don't state "casino site poker", nonetheless, for me they are crucial to continuous gambling establishment texas hold'em success. A lot of my journal entries are the basis for stages in this magazine, because they have actually ended up being full brief articles on the subject in question.

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