Fun Times, Hard Work...

I'm on break from working in the vineyard, so I figured I'd write a little update. This weekend is the first of many festivals we've signed up for this spring and summer, I always enjoy the customer response and feedback when pouring our latest releases.

Currently we're raising the one wire that we have in the vineyard to the highest point on each stake (picture). This one wire was installed to carry the drip line, however, its no longer the primary purpose. In fact, we really don't use the watering systems any more, but I do keep it working in the event we have several years of extreme drought. The one wire I referred to - we now use to tie-up the longer vines as the summer growth really kicks in. I know, its a hybrid head-trained style, and forced by the need to drive the rows to spray and mow the vineyard. The vines when tied higher oppose lower, keep the upright shape of the vine as the permanent arms grow.

Ordering wine from Toucan Wines couldn't be easier, I recommend that you simply call us at the winery at 805-474-8514... we can help you with your selection and make sure you're getting the best value! Visit our new Facebook page, and give us your LIKE !!

Spring Events, Tasting, Chores

It has been the wildest winter, but finally spring arrived and the vines have woken up welcoming the new season. The vineyard has never looked better and I'm excited to make grow and produce another vintage here on the central coast. We recently enjoyed a great tasting event in So. Cal. at the Vintage Shoppe in Manhattan Beach, we also enjoyed a wonderful weekend with family, and we've recently accomplished several chores around the farm. A few of those chores included servicing the tractor, mower, sprayer and other equipment, pulled a few weeds, and helped neighbors with fallen trees. Now that April is upon us, I'm getting excited about bottling the 2009 vintage, suckering the vineyard, and getting back to a couple of projects put off by the rains. Lund's shop (and our tasting location) has now closed, so for the time being tasting Toucan Wines will be limited to our special events and the wine festivals we attend. We've begun looking around for a new location to pour and sell our wines... let us know your thoughts! Another good time in April will be the Taste of Pismo, we'll be there pouring our award-winning wines and sharing stories with friends. To see our full list of events, please visit our events page or like our new Facebook page. Use these links to locate Toucan Wines by the bottle at fine restaurants and fine wine shops, and order directly from the winery and receive a 20% discount on any 12 bottles of Toucan Wines.

$1 Shipping in CA Ending Soon!!

Between now and March 31st, order any 12 bottles and get 20% off and $1 shipping in California. Standard shipping rates apply on all orders beginning in April, but the 20% discount offer on any 12 bottles will remain - no matter which state we ship to. Order Toucan Wines directly from the winery, visit our website, email me, or call us at 805-474-8514....

In oher news: I just returned from four very fun consumer events/pourings in Los Angeles, and at every event our wines were highly praised and enjoyed. Everyone was very impressed with the current releases and we sold a lot of wine to new customers. We also just finished raking the vineyard of the dead leafs and other material in the rows under the vines (I'm still sore). Our next project is to raise the wire holding the drip line, a project Terrie's been wanting me to do for a couple of years now. This will better position shoots that we tie to the wire during the summer.

We're sad to say that Lund's is closing after nearly 18 years in business, and I've been pouring Toucan Wines there for over three years. Thank you to all those who have been able to stop to take advantage of their going out of business sale. Many have asked where I'll be pouring our wines, and the answer is "we don't know". I'm sure a door will open and the right opportunity will present itself. Finally, I hope you'll take advantage of the $1 shipping in California this month and as always - let me know if I can help you place an order!

Perfect Gift, Samplers, and Events

Valentine's day is next week and here's my reminder that our Estate Toucanet and chocolate is the perfect gift. We also announced new 3 and 6 bottle sampler packs in our recent newsletter. Here's a picture of Estate Toucanet that arrived in the New York area this week headed for retail stores and restaurants.

Our wine festival event schedule is coming together and we hope we'll see you at the event closest to you!

Here we are in early February and the weather on the central coast has been awesome - spring-like and great outdoor working weather. Terrie and I finished the pruning and all the cuttings are removed from the vineyard. I've started a few of the other small chores in the vineyard and we are gearing up for the job of raising the drip wire in the oldest section of the vineyard. Friend and volunteer Robert has joined us for a week of hard work and we're off to a great start.

Please let me know if I can help you select the perfect gift for you Valentine!

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!

We all reflect a little this time of year, I prefer looking forward to the coming events and make a few commitments to myself, like: 1) spend more personal time at the beach .. walking and relaxing - in 2010, I didn't get to the beach for the first few months of the year and that was wrong. 2) find more time to travel with my wife - we all need to get away once in a while, and an out-of-town trip to sell wine does not cut it. 3) enjoy more small gathering with friends and family - we do our share of entertaining, but I'd like more meals on the porch with a glass of wine, and a central coast sunset with those good people we know. 4) continue our commitment to volunteer for local programs that help the neighborhood and community grow. 5) and spend even more time visiting and being visited by family... who's not getting older anyway? Happy New Year and may your year be filled with joy and passion!

Holiday Shipping & Gifts of Toucan Wines

Order your gifts of Toucan Wines this weekend to assure arrival before Christmas and New Year. We currently offer a great selection and our new releases are awesome (Estate Zinfandel, Estate Petite Sirah and Old Vine Carignane). 20% off any mixed case and we are offering $1 shipping in California.

What else? We still have a little of the value priced 2006 Estate Zinfandel (now three years in the bottle - it's drinking perfectly), and we still have a few of the over-sized bottles we made available for the holidays, including one 3 liter of the 07' Estate Zinfandel, one 1.5 liter of 08' Carignane, 1.5 liter bottles of 07' and 08' Estate Zinfandel.

Order by visiting our Order page, or calling me at 805-474-8514 or email us with questions.

2008 Estate Zinfandel and Petite Sirah Released...

Wines from the 2008 vintage will be very special, this one included - try this wine and you'll be back for more.

The winter season started out as rainy on the central coast with nearly record rainfall, but quickly turned dry. We began pruning in January and cut back the head-trained vines to even fewer spirs (or arms) than usual to curb some of the green growth in wetter years. A dry spring saw first bud break on March 14th and I note still no rain in weeks. In April, the vineyard suffered from a few frosty nights and several vines lost their precious young growth. Generally, growth in the Toucan Vineyard was normal in 2008, more balanced than some vintages, and the dry season yielded our first ripe fruit on September 7th and the last of the ripe fruit was picked on October 26th. The 300 Estate Petite Sirah vines were picked on September 25th.

The 2008 Estate Zinfandel was harvested in seven pickings, plus the Petite Sirah, and in each case cold soaked in small fermentation bins and slowly fermented. Each picking was barreled down separately in a mix of 60% new oak and 40% second and third year barrels. Partially combined once ML was completed in December, we did the final blending determined at racking in September of 2009. That final blend included 14% of Estate Petite Sirah for body, flavor and complexity. One final racking before bottling, and on March 15th, 2010 we hand-bottled 271 cases unfined and unfiltered. A separate bottling of 24 cases of the 2008 Estate Petite Sirah was also bottled from our estate vineyard.

The finished wine

Opulent and balanced best describe the 2008, dark and rich in color with a pop of beautiful complex fruit and a long inviting finish. Big, lush, and inviting sums up the 2008 vintage.

The 2008 Estate Zinfandel is a big, opulent, complex wine that spent 16 months in mostly new French, Hungarian, and American barrels. Dark garnet/purple with a huge nose of ripe wild berry and complex fruits. Lush, ripe berry fruit welcomes your taste-buds with a core of delicious fruit. And the big full mouth-feel and long finish invites your next taste. Best enjoyed 2010 - 2016

Harvest: September 7^th - October 26th

Bottled: March 15, 2010

Acid: .8

Alcohol: 15%

Release: 271 cases (including 375ml and 1500ml bottles)

Order directly from the winery and receive 20% by the case (or and mixed case of 12 bottles). Orders of the 2008 Petite Sirah is limited to 6 bottles - no limit for Club Members.

2006 Estate Zinfandel SPECIAL $20 DIRECT

I have a short stack of this wine and I'd rather see it in the cellars and on the tables of our customers and friends, than in my cellar. So, here's your chance...

2006 Estate Zinfandel SPECIAL DISCOUNT -- $20/bottle (Regular $34) that's over 41% off (for a limited time) - we ship a minimum of three bottles. And we'll still ship a case of 12 bottles in California for $1.

ORDER NOW

Many of you love this wine and many haven’t yet tried it. This vintage was slow to open up, due in part to my inclusion of 19% Estate Petite Sirah – now it's totally opened up to become a big Zin and all the Petite Sirah showing through. I call this our steak wine that tastes as much like Syrah or our 06’ Petite Sirah as it does Zinfandel. Here’s a very recent wine critic’s review of the wine:

2006 Toucan Estate Zinfandel Arroyo Grande Valley; 14.7% alc., $34 -- "Integrated aromatics suggest very ripe plums with some faint tropical fruit components and a hint of smoke. A gentle, mature Zinfandel with nicely resolved tannins and blended flavors." I’ll add that each bottle has a small bit of sediment in the neck, as all our wines are unfiltered – and an earthiness on the nose and structure that holds up to the biggest foods. Again, only $20/bottle.

Order this wine directly or find it at a few local wine shops, email me for locations.

Old Vine Carignane Harvested...

Last Saturday, with Photo Bob our favorite photographer and transportation director, we fetched and processed a wonderful load of Old Vine Carignane - making this our third vintage from the beautiful Evangelho Vineyard.

Compared to 2008, our journey was relatively smooth - we made good time, the weather was mild, and we arrived safely home to find plenty of help to move the fruit through the crush.

We started this year's journey at 11:30 Friday evening, but we had done some pre-planning in the weeks prior. We made new lids and had lining for the bins, and we were much better prepared for transportation issues. This planning helped keep the fruit cool, arriving at 66 degrees after a long day traveling in the sunshine.

We arrived in Contra Costa at 4:30am in time for a quick bite at Denny's and arrived at the vineyard before the pickers. As the Sun came up over this 120 year old vineyard, our bins were getting full. We worked to find the ideal spots within the vineyard and by 9:30 we had loaded the bins and we were back on the road.

Today, the Old Vine Cariginane is beginning to ferment in small bins inside our cool winery. Everything has gone perfectly for this wine so far, we look forward to another killer wine from this old vineyard.

Just Waiting for the Fruit to Ripen...

The netting of the vineyard is done and we have at least 2 more weeks before we start to pick any estate fruit. And we await the right day next week to pick our old vine Carignane - we've made the old vine Carignane twice before (2006 and 2008) and now our third vintage is about ready to harvest.

The title above isn't really true, we're taking advantage of this time to get a few things done around the house. But, it has been HOT out and working outside is nowhere near as fun when its hot. Now, we'll clean the winery top to bottom and prepare for our first crush of the season.

The Toucan Wines vineyard looks good, we did suffer a little from the mid-August heat wave. The result of some burned clusters will reduce our crop, but all in all, the vineyard is holding up well. Thank you to all our volunteers who helped with netting day. I look forward to seeing you all again during harvest. Pictured: friend and neighbor Ray during netting, he's waiting for those of us behind the tractor to catch-up.