2008 Old Vine Carignane - Now Available

Harvested from the low-yielding 120 year old vines, grown in the Evangelho vineyard in Contra Costa County. This wine was slowly fermented after a period of cold soaking and pressed to a combination of French, Hungarian and American oak barrels for 17 months. The resulting wine is a classic varietal bottling from this outstanding old vine vineyard. We proudly hand bottled 217 cases unfined and unfiltered.

This wine is big and beautiful offering an elegant nose and lush plump ripe berry on the palate and a beautiful finish. It's great now, but do consider laying down a case of this wine, as I expect it to improve with another year or more in the bottle.

We've been sharing this wine with customers over the past week and getting great feedback. You can find this wine today in four wine shops on the central coast: Lund's in the village of Arroyo Grande, Tastes of the Valleys, Pismo and Solvang locations, and Monterey Street Wines in San Luis Obispo.

Of course you can also order the wine directly from the winery cellar too. This weekend, I'll be pouring the 2008 Carignane at Lund's during this weekend’s Strawberry Festival. To learn more about this wine and one of the craziest days of my life, read the upcoming June Newsletter.

Toucan Wines Hat Photo Contest...

Where Did You Wear Your Toucan Wines Hat? Official Rules (subject to alteration)

The Photo Contest that encourages fun with a Toucan Wines Hat in one of three categories.

Rules and Legal Jargon: The Grand Champion, as determined by our unscrupulous judges, may exchange his or her valuable right and allow us to exploit the winning photo for a magnum of yummy Toucan Wines.

Photo must depict, in anyway, an official Toucan Wines Hat. You do NOT have to purchase a Toucan Wines Hat to participate..... Submit your photo(s) by posting it on the Toucan Wines group Facebook page by Aug. 31st, 2010 – there is no limit to the number of allowable entries.... Comment on your photo, once posted, telling us which category you're submitting to: People, Provocative or Other..... Please follow Facebook rules of use when posting to the Toucan Wines group..... You may submit previously posted Toucan Wines photos. Examples maybe viewed at: www.toucanwines.com/hat.htm - each category will be judged separately by a team of wine and photography fanatics and others chosen by Toucan Wines at random. Facebook friend’s comments on contestant photos maybe considered by the judges and used to determine a winner.... Winners will be announced for each of the three categories and awarded bragging rights. Only one of the three winning category photos will be awarded the overall contest Grand Champion.

Two New Events and Vineyard Update...

Our event dance card is becoming more and more interesting. This Thursday I'm at Monterey Street Wines with Mojo Cellars sharing our wines with customers - drop in this Thursday and say hello and try a few wines.

On the 13th of June, Toucan Wines has been added to the winery line-up at the Ojai Wine Festival and I look forward to seeing many of our friends there. In the same neighborhood, find our wines at Paradise Pantry and Mary's Secret Garden, both in downtown Ventura.

Today, we're getting a little rain and this could easily be the last rain of the season. I've started hoeing the vineyard and at the same time making my second pass on suckering. The next chore will be tying the longer shoots to the drip wire to save them from tractor damage and the effort somewhat shapes the vines arm position.

The weather has been strange, we've had a cooler than usual year so far and the vines got off to an early start - hopefully this means a longer hang time. We've also had the latest frost (just last week) that I can remember, but fortunately no obvious damage resulted.

Please take a close look at your calendars for any opportunity to visit us at one of the many upcoming events we plan to attend. And remember our special 12 bottle case discount is 20% on any mix of our wines plus only $1 shipping in California.

20% off 12 bottle orders and $1 shipping in CA - read the May Newsletter...

Our May newsletter is now available and I'm excited to offer you a new 20% off offer on 12 bottles of Toucan Wines and 12 months in the Toucan Wines Club which gets you 20% any sized wine orders during your membership - no unwanted shipment - you order the wine when you're ready for it. And no pressure when you're in the Club - you can take advantage of the special discount or not. We also ship every wine order of 12 bottles of Toucan Wines, in California, for $1.

We're also excited about the upcoming pouring events that can always be viewed on our events page.