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.