And one Pinot too! Dear Friends in Wine, The release of our '06 wines marks our 8th vintage and our 9th year of being in the wine business; a business like no other. The politics and drama aside, we still have fun making the wines; we no longer seek or need assistance from the lobbyist driven media. We've done an end-around, so to speak, on our own marketing strategy by opening a tasting room! Heaven sent! Now the people can judge for themselves, no points, no write-ups, and just real people buying real wines, making their own decisions. Unique, no? The '06 vintage is poised to be our largest production to date. The year was marked by a fairly cool and even weather pattern that produced wines of marked quality throughout our Pinot Noir and Zinfandel production. We also have some new releases: a Zin from the Mendocino Ridge appellation, grown on the old historic Valenti Ranch, a Russian River Valley Syrah* grown in our own neighborhood by a good friend of my father and yes, we made a white too, a French Colombard* from the Russian River Valley! This variety is an endangered species nowadays and we were looking to have something to slide with Tomales and Drakes Bay oysters and damn if we didn't succeed. *Limited quantities, tasting room only. Enjoy these wines in the spirit of which they were produced. Four Zins now and one Pinot, with more Pinot Noir single vineyard wines in the fall.
Cheers! Rants from the Nick side - Full Disclosure You've heard many a controversy in the recent past of manipulated wines and I've got to tell you that what you get from us is pure. Pure in the sense that we don't add anything but tartaric acid, a grape byproduct that helps achieve balance, structure and deliciousness in the wines. We do not use enzymes in our wines. Enzymes, which are also naturally occurring in the grapes themselves, are now produced by several French wine labs to help in fast extraction of grapes to wine. The use of these enzymes, which are probably 1000 times (or more) what is naturally occurring, is prevalent in a lot of the U.S. producing wineries nowadays. (Funny, most French producers don't use these products). This manipulation enables wineries to get maximum extraction in less time, fermentations are faster and they just move them on thru. Time is money and full fermenters are a waste of space if they can't be used 2-3 or more times during crush. Speed. No, we make "slow" wine the old-fashioned way, and are proud of it. Our fermenters are "dedicated" to the particular wine in them; they take as much time as they need. I don't feel the need to speed them along, or to get them more extracted, darker with more color or more weight than they get naturally. Nor do I feel we need to "juice" them with a newer vintage to make them fruitier in the short run; competition driven wineries do this often for medals and ratings. And no, we don't add Syrah or Alicante or Zin, dark varietal wine, to color up what nature gives us. You don't drink color, after all. And no, we don't do bleed offs for concentration's sake, causing reductive, smelly, unbalanced wines. Our philosophy is pure and simple; it is what it is, real wine from real people. We run a family business, which is small, and community based. Friends drive this vehicle and our local food producers as well as our local restaurants are an integral part of the way we live, eat, drink and love.
Thank you for your indulgence! What's New
We have released several new Zinfandels! Food & Wine Magazine's May 2008 issue rates our Humboldt County Pinot Noir as one of the World's Top 30 Pinots! Stop in at our Tasting Room! Tasting room hours are Thursday through Sunday, 10:30 to 4:30. The address is 5700 River Road, Santa Rosa, located one mile west of Slusser. There is a nominal tasting fee.
Make no mistake, our wines are completely handmade. A lot of hard work and our dinosaur methodology make these wines what they are. So when you pay those high prices to the big guys using extreme methods you wonder why the prices are what they are. Our wines speak for themselves and we hope you enjoy them in the tradition in which they were made. Great growers, older vines and patience equal extraordinary wine.
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