4/6 You just got to love perfect days in the low 70's with a bit of a breeze. The vines are growing fast now that most have broken buds. Funny how the newly planted replacment vines and the vines on the very top of the ridge always pop out first. The picture shown here is from May of last year - only the vines I mentioned (on top) have this much growth.Sunday, April 6, 2008
Windy and Sunny Day
4/6 You just got to love perfect days in the low 70's with a bit of a breeze. The vines are growing fast now that most have broken buds. Funny how the newly planted replacment vines and the vines on the very top of the ridge always pop out first. The picture shown here is from May of last year - only the vines I mentioned (on top) have this much growth.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Maybe the last rain
The most recent attempt of Mother Nature to wet the ground wasn't much of a wetting. I'm sure this will end up being a very dry year and we're getting ready.I'm doing a few small, well deferred, tasks in the vineyard and we've starting a few small addition projects to sheds.
Thanks to everyone helping us launch our latest release - our 2006 Toucan Cuvee.
And thanks to everyone who continues to read our newsletter and writes to be with comments. Please share our newsletter or release letters with others by forwarding - see the bottom of the letter for a forwarding link.
Monday, March 31, 2008
2006 Toucan Cuvee Released
4/1/08 -- 2006 Toucan Cuvee is now available - at $24/bottle a great value!
Our 2006 Toucan Cuvee is a beautifully balanced blend of 55% Estate Zinfandel and 9% Estate Petite Sirah, plus 36% of Old Vine Carignane from the Evangelho Vineyard.
Both our estate Zinfandel and estate Petite Sirah wines spent the year in mostly new French, Hungarian, and American barrels before blending. Our 2006 Carignane made from rare old-vine Carignane grapes grown in Contra Costa County also spend a year in fine oak barrels.
To compile this blend, I selected three barrels of Estate Zinfandel from the seven barrels produced, two barrels of Carignane from five produced, and added a half-barrel of estate Petite Sirah. Once blended the Cuvee aged another 4 months in fine oak barrels (a total of 16 months in oak) prior to bottling.
A beautiful deep ruby color; forward black cherry and ripe fruits, vanilla toast, and a bit of spice on the nose; tastes of black raspberry/cherry, and earthy notes. This is a very balanced wine offering a lush full-mouth feel and some good complexity. Having spent sixteen months in fine oak barrels, this wine has mellowed nicely and will continue to develop in the bottle over the next year or two. Drink now or lay down.
The 2006 Toucan Cuvee was bottled on February 28, 2008 with alcohol of 13.9% and only 128 cases were produced. Customers will soon find this wine in mostly restaurants and tasting bars, but it's also available directly from the winery. Click on the ORDER link at the top of this page to have our Toucan Cuvee delivered.
Our 2006 Toucan Cuvee is a beautifully balanced blend of 55% Estate Zinfandel and 9% Estate Petite Sirah, plus 36% of Old Vine Carignane from the Evangelho Vineyard.
Both our estate Zinfandel and estate Petite Sirah wines spent the year in mostly new French, Hungarian, and American barrels before blending. Our 2006 Carignane made from rare old-vine Carignane grapes grown in Contra Costa County also spend a year in fine oak barrels.
To compile this blend, I selected three barrels of Estate Zinfandel from the seven barrels produced, two barrels of Carignane from five produced, and added a half-barrel of estate Petite Sirah. Once blended the Cuvee aged another 4 months in fine oak barrels (a total of 16 months in oak) prior to bottling.
A beautiful deep ruby color; forward black cherry and ripe fruits, vanilla toast, and a bit of spice on the nose; tastes of black raspberry/cherry, and earthy notes. This is a very balanced wine offering a lush full-mouth feel and some good complexity. Having spent sixteen months in fine oak barrels, this wine has mellowed nicely and will continue to develop in the bottle over the next year or two. Drink now or lay down.
The 2006 Toucan Cuvee was bottled on February 28, 2008 with alcohol of 13.9% and only 128 cases were produced. Customers will soon find this wine in mostly restaurants and tasting bars, but it's also available directly from the winery. Click on the ORDER link at the top of this page to have our Toucan Cuvee delivered.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Harvest 2007 Video
I'm adding back a few links that were on our previous site.
I you missed viewing our Harvest 2007 Video
well, check it out!
I you missed viewing our Harvest 2007 Video
well, check it out!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Wow it's been HOT! No Rain?
3/25/08
Where's the Spring rains? We seems to be stuck in a heat wave that won't stop. It's not all bad of course, walking on the beach is wonderful and living in shorts and a t-shirt can't be all bad. But the vineyards needs it's water.
Bud break is everywhere in the vineyard - in some places the vines are at 5th leaf. We're busy working on projects outside and about to mow the vineyard for the first time this season. All is well in the winery - still waiting on ML to finish and then racking.
Where's the Spring rains? We seems to be stuck in a heat wave that won't stop. It's not all bad of course, walking on the beach is wonderful and living in shorts and a t-shirt can't be all bad. But the vineyards needs it's water.
Bud break is everywhere in the vineyard - in some places the vines are at 5th leaf. We're busy working on projects outside and about to mow the vineyard for the first time this season. All is well in the winery - still waiting on ML to finish and then racking.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Welcome Spring
Happy spring! I love this time of year, everything is green, smells great, and the temps seem perfect. I just returned from a couple of days in Southern California - I met some wonderful folks and introduced our wine to a numbers of new locations. I mention in this month's newsletter MAGNUMS. And that yes, we do bottle a few - but not every vintage and not every wine. We have just one 6 pack of magnums left of our 2004 Estate Zinfandel and two six packs left of our 2005 Estate Zinfandel. These are the only ones bottled until the 2007 vintage.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
First Signs of the 2008 Vintage
Well it's finally here, the first buds have shown their stuff in the Toucan Wines Vineyard. It's always the Petite Sirah that pops out first then the youngest vines (replacement vines for those we loss to a hard-freeze and gophers). The weather has been nice, warm, and dry - we've been hoping for more rain but it just doesn't seem to be materializing this year.
Now that the first leaves have popped out, the growth will be fast, soon we'll be suckering the unwanted growth, trapping gophers, mowing the grass in the rows, and spraying to detour any mildew spoors.
Just a reminder - Saturday afternoon 1-5 pm I pour a couple of our current releases at Lund's located in the village of Arroyo Grande. Please stop in and say hello and taste our new wines. Also, to locate our restaurants and retail shops selling Toucan Wines - visit our retail page.
Now that the first leaves have popped out, the growth will be fast, soon we'll be suckering the unwanted growth, trapping gophers, mowing the grass in the rows, and spraying to detour any mildew spoors.
Just a reminder - Saturday afternoon 1-5 pm I pour a couple of our current releases at Lund's located in the village of Arroyo Grande. Please stop in and say hello and taste our new wines. Also, to locate our restaurants and retail shops selling Toucan Wines - visit our retail page.
Friday, March 14, 2008
New Web Site Look for the Toucan
I'm hoping our new site look and feel offers our customers a better experience. The big change is of course the Blogger.com page (thanks to Robert for the recommendation!) - it'll add some interactive fun to the site. Enjoy!
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Amazing Central Coast and Toucan Cuvee
3/13/08
The weather has been amazing here on the Central Coast, I'm starting to see buds swell in the vineyard and all the vineyard preparation for spring is complete. This really is the most wonderful time of year, the green colors, the rest brisk air in the evenings, even the sunsets seems particularly special in March.
We recently bottled and labeled 126 cases of the 2006 Toucan Wines "Toucan Cuvee" - Our 2006 Toucan Cuvee is a blend of 55% Estate Zinfandel and 9% Estate Petite Sirah, plus 36% of Old Vine Carignane from the Evangelho Vineyard. I plan to release this wine in the next couple months.
The weather has been amazing here on the Central Coast, I'm starting to see buds swell in the vineyard and all the vineyard preparation for spring is complete. This really is the most wonderful time of year, the green colors, the rest brisk air in the evenings, even the sunsets seems particularly special in March.
We recently bottled and labeled 126 cases of the 2006 Toucan Wines "Toucan Cuvee" - Our 2006 Toucan Cuvee is a blend of 55% Estate Zinfandel and 9% Estate Petite Sirah, plus 36% of Old Vine Carignane from the Evangelho Vineyard. I plan to release this wine in the next couple months.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
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
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
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