Where did you wear your Toucan Wines Hat?

Amber Phillips, manager of Tastes of the Valleys, Solvang with her dogs and wearing her Toucan Wines Hat - Thanks Amber. Please send us your picture - WHERE DID YOU WEAR YOUR TOUCAN WINES HAT?

Visit Tastes of the Valleys in Solvang the #1 Wine Bar in town!

Toucan Wines Newsletter - May 2009

Here's our latest newsletter link - enjoy! Also, here's our latest picture of "Where did you wear your Toucan Wines Hat?" This is our friend and volunteer Robert at Piedmont Grocery in Oakland, CA. -- Thank you!

Where did you wear your Toucan Wines hat?

Where did you wear your Toucan Wines Hat? Send us your picture with you wearing your Toucan Wines hat and tell us where and when it was taken. This is a picture of Jim, a Toucan Wines customer, last week in Colle di Val d'Elsa, Italia--about 40 miles south of Florence. He bought a bottle of Colombaia---Chianti Colli Senesi D.O.C.G.

Wine Shop of the Month -- Morro Bay Wine Seller

Morro Bay Wine Seller is, as you might expect, located in Morro Bay on the Embarcadero. Proprietors John (shown here) and Chris offer a great selection of Central Coast and International wines, a great tasting bar, wine club, free parking, great people, and a terrific view of the bay.

A good selection of Toucan Wines is always in stock, you can find them on the web at: http://www.morrobaywineseller.com (the site is being updated right now) and call them at 805-772-8388

Benito Dusi Visit

Last week I was in Paso Robles and enjoyed a wonderful visit with Benito Dusi. His famous vineyard grows some of the best old vine Zinfandel in North County and the State.

The original planting of this vineyard was in 1923, those exact vines are the source for the budwood taken to grow the Toucan Wines Vineyard in the Arroyo Grande Valley (50 miles south of the Benito Dusi Vineyard).

Benito's fruit has for many years been sold to Ridge to produce the Ridge Paso Robles Zinfandel, and smaller amounts to a couple of smaller local producers. Back in the 80's and 90's Ridge produced a late harvest named Essence from the Benito Dusi Vineyard.

Good weather and lots to do...

We've enjoyed a few days of warm weather and still expect a few more. A little hot for this time of the year, but its good for the vines and the garden too.

We've been working on hoeing the vineyard and next I'll begin suckering the unwanted growth on each vine. I made two passes through the vineyard spraying catfish emulsion and I've now mowed the vineyard twice.

We had a very good time at the Taste of Huntington Beach event and met many new folks and now new customers -- I'm looking forward to our next event later this month in Newport Beach.

Remember we still offer $1 shipping and we still have a little 06' Estate Petite Sirah and the award winning 05' Estate Zinfandel ready to ship to customers.

Toucan Wines Slideshow and More

New on the Toucan Wines web site is a slide show page which I continuously update with our winery and vineyard pics.

Welcome to May, I'm working in the winery and staring out the winery window as the clouds move-in to present a slight chance of real rain. I just mowed the vineyard and weedwacked the frontage on Huasna Road. Sunday, I'll hand spray all the new shoots with Catfish emulsion to add needed micro-nutrients and help early development.

Frost and Heat - a Damaging Mix

Frost from the past two weeks has taken a toll on early leafing vines - mostly our estate Petite Sirah. A little damage on early Zinfandel too. This week we face the extreme heat that arrived Sunday and will last three days. This heat may burn young leafs and damage further the vines struggling to recover from frost damage. This is the first real frost damage to the vineyard in several years, last time we had only a few vines burned near the road - this year especially damaged were young re-plants of Petite Sirah that replaced the hard freeze of three years ago.

Warm Days Ahead...

Where did spring go, I'm enjoying the green? Maybe this will just be a heat wave, but were expecting some very warm weather. The vines will love it, 90's over the next few days will also give me a chance to catch-up on winery work, paper work and anything inside. We just finished siding the shed and once it cools down a bit, we'll get a fresh coat of paint on it.

Toucan Wines Club

Our Toucan Wines Club is a buyers program that rewards our customers who purchase three or more cases of Toucan Wines in any year (12 month period) directly from the winery. Enrollment is easy and the benefits include:

20% off all wine orders, and first access to:
Limited production wines
Over-sized bottles (magnums)
Under-sized bottles (splits)
Library wines which become available
Shipping at current rates - right now it's $1
Local delivery is included

Here's how it works: Complete the enrollment form and get it to us, you select the three times a year you want a case of wine shipped or delivered - we coordinate with you the exact wines you want in each case. It's pretty simple. Further, you may order additional wines throughout the year at the same 20% discount, just place those orders directly with us via email or phone.