Spring Weather Rocks... Wine Tasting... Vineyard Work

I had a great time at the Taste of Huntington Beach this past weekend and enjoyed the crowd, met new folks and many returning friends and customers. We previewed samples of the 2008 Carignane which was a big hit with the Huntington folks.

This weekend, being the first weekend of the month, you'll find Toucan Wines on the tasting bar all weekend at Monterey Street Wines in San Luis Obispo. You'll also find me pouring our wines at Lund's in the village of Arroyo Grande on Saturday 1-5pm.

I love this time of year - work in the vineyard has begun with suckering, gopher trapping, hoeing and other spring chores. The weather has been consistent lacking the usual spring heat wave or last year's late frost. The vines seemed to taking off a little earlier this year with the Petite Sirah leading the pack. I've already suckered the Petite vines and will be starting on the Zinfandel before the week is out. I forgot to mention mowing, three passes through the vineyard on the mower so far and another day of mowing is in store for me by next week.

Toucan Vineyard Growing Beautifully,,,

Our April newsletter is available and focuses on the new annual growth in the vineyard. Today we had a little late-season frost with hopefully no real damage to that new growth. Weeding, mowing, spraying, hoeing, and more weeding are on on the schedule for the coming days. Now that bottling is complete, I can focus on wine sales and the vineyard...

Tomorrow evening I'll be in Paso Robles with friend and winemaker Linda Stinson from Sunset Ridge Vineyards, we'll both be sharing our wines at the Pony Club at Hotel Cheval. I'm also excited that soon I'll share with you our new label currently in design, it should be ready for the printer next month.

Finally, I look forward to seeing all our friends in Huntington Beach next Sunday at the Taste of Huntington Beach - join us for a great day of food, wine and music.

Toast the Sunset at Morro Bay Wine Sellers...

This Saturday around 4:00 till closing, I'll be hanging out at Morro Bay Wine Seller - join me and the great staff and taste our new releases while watching the sunset from their amazing bay side view.

I love this place and now it's updated and remodeled... the perfect place to begin your evening in Morro Bay. After the event, we're off to dinner and the options are endless.

Hope to see you Saturday and if you plan to attend, drop Chris at Morro Bay Wine Seller a note and tell him to expect you. info@morrobaywineseller.com

http://www.morrobaywineseller.com/

Special Events for the Next Three Saturdays...

In addition to our daytime tasting at Lund's in Arroyo Grande, I hope each of our friends will join us at one of the next three special Saturday evening events featuring Toucan Wines.

Starting tomorrow (3/27) in San Luis Obispo @ Monterey Street Wines a vertical tasting of TW Estate Zinfandel (5:30 to close). Next Saturday (4/3) in Solvang at Taste of the Valleys from 5pm - 8:30 the staff will be pouring several of our estate wines at this happening venue. Then, on Saturday (4/10) I'll be hanging out at with our friends at Morro Bay Wine Seller's and the wine will be flowing from 4pm - close.

So, join me at one of more event and let's enjoy some great wine together.

2007 Estate Petite Sirah Released... and New TW Events

After sixteen months in new oak and thirteen months in the bottle, our 2007 Estate Petite Sirah has finally been released and is available on the TW website. The 35 cases we separately produced from the great 2007 vintage is definitely worth a try. Find it at Lund's in the village of Arroyo Grande and soon at local wine shops and wine bars.

As promised, I'm getting lots of time with new and existing customers this year, here's a sampling of the Toucan Wines featured events coming up: Mach 27th: vertical TW Estate Zinfandel tasting at Monterey St. Wines - April 3rd: TW featured at Tastes of the Valleys in Solvang - April 10th: TW featured at Morro Bay Wine Sellers - April 25th: TW pouring (not featured) at A Taste of Huntington Beach. Of course, every Saturday afternoon you can taste our latest at Lund's in Arroyo Grande. Please visit our events page and please join us soon at one or more of the upcoming events.

Toucan's Vineyard Ready for Spring...

Our Toucan Wines estate vineyard is ready for spring and within the next few of weeks we should see the first buds break into leaf. The fall rains in October helped grow a blanket of cover crop which worked to hold back erosion during the heavy winter rains. In fact we've had above normal rain fall exceeding 26 inches for the season.

I've mowed this blanket or carpet of cover growth twice so far this year. It's so thick that unwanted weeds are struggling to find sunlight and our gophers are enjoying the cover from red tail hawks and owls searching for a meal. We performed our pruning and other care in step with breaks in the rain and now I can say we're ready for the new year's growth. One more large project we hope to accomplish is the raising of the drip wire. We use the wire to tie longer shoots in early summer, this helps me avoid damaging vines during mowing or spraying with the tractor.

I hope to see you soon at one of our many upcoming events - CLICK HERE

2007 Estate Zinfandel Released

We're very pleased to release our 2007 Toucan Wines Estate Zinfandel, 245 cases produced and maybe our best Estate wine to date. Available by ordering from the winery, local retail and restaurant locations, and of course being poured at Lund's on Saturday afternoons. Learn more by visiting us at www.ToucanWines.com

76 Degrees, Bottles and Air Conditioning...

I'm writing this quick note while waiting for our bottles to arrive via truck for the 2008 vintage. Over the last couple of weeks I've been sampling the 08' wines and they are stellar. Last night we tasted the 08' Estate Petite Sirah from the single barrel and it's clearly our best PS to date.

Today it's 76 degrees in the shade at the winery and 57 degrees inside the winery barrel room. The weather has been beautiful the past few days and we're enjoying it.

We finished pruning the vineyard a few days ago and I've already applied to the vines a product used to help burn away mildew spores that weather over the winter season. Soon we're hoping to find time to raise the single drip wire a few inches on every vine.

Also coming up is the release of the 2007 Estate Zinfandel (as mentioned in previous notes), we're getting ready for this release by updating order forms and preparing for the usual orders that come with a new release.

We've had a few people ask about more pictures of the winery and vineyard. I know the winery slide show is a little buried on the website and I'll have to fix that. But, we also have lots of pictures on Facebook which you can see with or without joining.

In addition to the bottle delivery, today we placed the new 3 ton AC system in place in the winery. I'm looking forward to having this production space cooled in addition to the barrel room which has it's own AC unit.

February Newletter... New Release

Our 2007 Estate Zinfandel releases at the end of this month, plan to taste this terrific wine at Lund's on the 27th and on the 28th at the Orange County Wine Society Extraordinaire. Further information in our newsletter and on our events page. This Friday I'll be at Monterey Street Wines toasting Valentines Day with Sparkling Wine, Chocolate, and Estate Toucanet. Join us at one of our events soon!

Vineyard, Rain, New Release Dates and Specials...

We're several days into pruning the vineyard and it's going really well. The mild weather is a pleasure and we've had good timing between rainstorms. We have already reached the average rainfall for the season and the usual big rain comes in February.

We just cleaned out the winery, moving stuff that was being stored and making room for a new 3 ton air conditioner. We will also be bottling soon, so the space made will help with that process. I just tasted through all the wines in barrel and the 08' and 09' vintages will be wines to look forward to. But wait, we haven't released all the 2007 wines yet!

The release date for the 2007 Estate Zinfandel is Feb. 27th at Lund's in the Village of Arroyo Grande and the 28th at the OCWS Extraordinaire at the Anaheim Hilton.

Stop into Lund's for a no charge tasting of our new release and join us in Anaheim for a fun event full of food and wines.

Finally, I ask that you check out our website specials page beginning next week, these specials will be available to all customers.