January and February of 2008

2/24/08
We've enjoyed a mix of sun and rain these past few days. The grass is finally growing in the vineyard turning the ground from brown to green and the rain has saturated the soils. I look forward to a mild spring and working in the vineyard when the sun comes out again.

2/19/08
Today were both working in the winery to complete the labeling of the 2006 Toucan Wines Estate Zinfandel. Only 124 cases of this wine was produced, tiny when compared to the 300 cases of the award-winning 2005 Estate Zinfandel.

2/9/08
We finished pruning this morning and picking up the cuttings. As a few of our volunteers know, picking up the cuttings is a lot of work. This year Terrie did nearly all the picking-up of the cuttings.

2/6/08
Please take the time to check out VINOGRAPHY.COM and Alder's take on the ZAP festival including his scoring of our 05' Zinfandel and yet to be released 06' wines. If you haven't discovered Vinography, (you're in for a treat) it's simply the best written wine blog on the planet. And if you missed Vinography's Toucan Wines review from last year - please check it out

OK, enough self-promotion and mutual love - it's 9:30 in the morning and time to prune some vines.

2/1/08
February is here and it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood! Still pruning and cleaning-up from the rains and wind we've had over the past several weeks. We had a good time at ZAP and welcome our new customers from that event. We also had a great time with friends in the bay area - thanks to Robert for putting us up and to Helen and James for cooking the wonderful meals!!

1/23/08
We're back from 10 days in Maui -- More rain this week is doing it's job soaking the vineyard and filling our wells. We're expecting rain for the next five days... we better breakout the Kayaks.

We've begun pruning, but the rain has slowed us down a bit. All is well here on the farm, the wines are coming along very nicely and we're about to start some winter time racking of the 07' vintage and final bottling of the 06' wines. It's always nice to be home, I'm looking forward to getting a lot done this winter.

1/2/08


HAPPY 75TH BIRTHDAY - BENITO DUSI



1/1/08

HAPPY & HEALTHY NEW YEAR
from Toucan Wines