FALL Wine Club

Twice a year we do our Wine Club shipments and pick up party.

Of course our 2 best months of the year but also our opportunity to toast our members with new wines, food pairings and a social opportunity to cheers each other.

Mat & I are huge foodies and our joy lies with creating perfect pairings and Mat researches recipes.

This Fall we are featuring our 2023 Dolcetto which is fermented with carbonic maceration creating a specific flavor profile. As well as 2 Pinot Noirs from the 2022 vintage that are not officially released in the Tasting Room. Both of these Pinot's are only 75 case production and with this small amount could easily sell out before ever releasing, the joy and benefits of being a Club Member.

In early August I had the inkling to try multiple food bites with our newly released Dolcetto. Two friend coming to visit we offered the task of tasting all these bites with the wine.

I was pretty amazed that all of my food bites did really well with the wine. I was happily surprised how well the wine stood up to some.

We tasted Potato Leek Soup, Smoked Salmon, Duck Liver Pate', Curried Deviled Egg, Smoked Oyster, they all were great together. So for the Fall party, I chose to purchase a local favorite Spud Point Chowder.

This Fall Mat & I were inspired by a day trip we took to Napa Valley. The newly opened bike path from Calistoga to St. Helena was the day's focus and lunch at the half way mark.

Gott's Road side is celebrating 25 years and both Mat & I were their in it's early days. Both our favorite menu item, the Ahi Tuna Burger never disappoints. So Mat was on a mission to get the recipe and make it for our club members.

Our home trials started a few weeks before the party for us to taste test and prepare.

The Day of party is the big work day. Lucky for me that included a drive to the coast to pick up the Chowder. before opening the Tasting Room. A beautiful morning coastal drive to Bodega Head. Stunning calm ocean views, very little traffic and the reward is getting the Chowder without standing in line. For those of you who also love Spud Point but hate the line ups, they open at 9 am, this is how to get the best experience!

Next up, closing harvest and welcoming Fall & Winter

HARVEST 2024

We all expected 2024 harvest to start early due to a warm June, July and August, and it did.

As many know, heading into harvest begins weeks if not more ahead of picking. Mat starts checking on vineyards in June and his visits increase as we get closer. Most people understand the search for the picker ripeness. Many winemakers do it by measuring the sugars with a refractometer. Not Mat, he looks for flavor by tasting the grapes and ripeness by looking at the seeds. He doesn't actually know the sugar level until the fruit is processing at the winery.

    

TNT Vineyard Pinot Noir was the 1st vineyard picked Friday September 5th which I'm certain is the earliest we've ever piked this vineyard. Two acres on Occidental Road about a mile west of our Tasting Room in Graton.

Mat planted TNT in 1999 with Tom of Tom'n Tanya. It is an awesome vineyard for us for many reason's.

     

Tom and Tanya live on the property which makes a huge difference!  They see and act on every daily need plus they don't want any unnecessary spraying, watering..... As vineyard owners, they are very proud and dedicated to super high quality. They farm it themselves. As dog owners, they literally wander through the vineyard every day at least once. When anything isn't perfect, they pull it.

A few weeks later, Mat is talking to our grape contacts, he's searching for Pinot Noir for Rose'. It has been spotty over the last several years where our Rose' juice will come from. Lucky us, this year Tom Cleary of Bohemian Vineyard had a surplus and offered us Pinot from a vineyard off Graton Road near Harrison grade. Super excited about the quality and the price, we committed. This fruit was picked the 3rd week of September.

                                               

Grenache came in that same week as did the Fort Ross / Seaview Pinot and Bohemian picked September 30th.

     

TNT was barreled down September 23rd and Fort Ross/ Seaview a week later.

As per the situation of the wine industry, the economy and the perspective of wine consumption. It appears everyone is being selective and careful of not over producing.

In 2024 we are making 3 vineyard designate Pinot's plus a Russian River Pinot blend, Grenache and Rose'. Keeping it 

I got a little taste test of Rose' which we're both so excited about. Mat is excited about the quality.

                                                         

Pump over and punch downs will continue twice daily for about another week and then harvest will be winding down for us.

We get excited when harvest starts showing us the actual product. Mat sneaks samples from the tanks and we taste them at home while discussing the days adventures.

Our harvest is at this point, mostly done. Bohemian Pinot is just starting punch down mode, Grenache will be going into neutral oak in the next few days and then the final step for 2024.....we're picking a couple of tons of Chardonnay for late harvest.

This opportunity came mid September when a grower we work with asked if we wanted Chardonnay. 

A few tons left on the vines not in contract. Mat went up to view and decided it wouldn't work for a table wine due to the state / condition of the grapes. But then he decided to keep looking at the vines and decided he wants to pick it for a dessert wine project.

We will be going up soon to pick with a group of friends that want the full experience.

After that, we'll keep you informed as best we can.

2024 harvest news, cheers to that!

 Summer 2024

When life happens and you don't have time to check in, you keep on, keeping on.

Summer 2024 has been just that! 

 Our backyard BBQ happens the weekend after 4th of July. For us a celebration with our Wine Family.

Great food, wine, games and laughs. Family style of Mat's favorite BBQ foods including his famous baked beans that everyone doesn't want to love but does!!!

And my strawberry tiramisu.

    

Then we had rounds of family, visiting, going to visit and all while running the Tasting Room.

All the sweet treats lent for our hearts to be full and our bellies with food and laughter!

Not only did we have a bustling summer, we also had a hugely successful library tasting weekend and bottled the 2023 Pinot's.

The Library Tasting we offer once a year is an opportunity to taste and purchase. This  year we offered 8 Pinot's going back to 2014 through 2016. We had a blast doing our tasting notes, tasting again with multiple dinners and then sharing them with our people who so appreciated the opportunity!!!

Our library from these vintages is dwindling but we will also be offering our annual Library Case Special over the Holiday Season.

    

The last break away between summer and harvest we fit in some great treats. Timber Cove, a food and wine pairing at Fort Ross, a concert at Mountain Winery and a great dinner at Madcap in Marin.

    

 

Now that August is behind us and we are in harvest, life is busy with mother nature on our heals. The earliest harvest for TNT Pinot which came in Friday September 5th.

Seeds of the TNT grapes that Mat was checking on two days before we picked. This is how he checks for ripeness.

We also received a little local love from a Tasting Room neighbor with 60 vines of Pinot. They did a neighborhood pick and delivered 4 buckets of beautiful hyper local Pinot for us. 

       

  

Not only is our grape harvest on, our many wine family are also harvesting. Weather it's tomatoes, apples, pears. Oh my, it keeps us going.

Gazpacho which was recently delivered paired perfectly with our 2023 Sauvignon Blanc. We shared the recipe recently, check our web site.

Pears & apples, basil, chives....the bounty continues.

And now for the next few months, we live vicariously through all of you. Who share pictures and stories of your travels. Like this 'love note' from the Sierras where friends brought a little PMV love.

Next up, Fall Wine Club! 

                                                                 FOOD & WINE

As we walk through life, some things appear that are so obvious. With us it's often in the form of Food & Wine. Spaces, events, themes...all the visual temptations that just need food and wine added. Insert here.

We met the owner of a local business at the Sonoma Food and Wine Awards, Mitote Food Park in Santa Rosa celebrating 2 years of business. The conversation was flowing and the idea began; fine wine being served at his Mexican Food Truck Park. And this is the story of how we are introducing people to new ideas of Food & Wine pairing.

Mat & I visited Mitote Food Park days after meeting the owner. We were so impressed with the vibe and then the food. All that we could say was " wow, this would go great with our Sauv Blanc and this would be a cool pairing with Muscat." And we already new that our Cab Franc is a fun wine with intense mole sauce. Which actually means sauce ( so that's double sauce sauce ). But the empanada from Tucamami truck was a AhHa moment. Time to put these to the true test.

  

So the meetings and preparations began early May. And by mid May we had a group of our neighboring wineries game to pour and the Mitote team prepared to host and off we go!

   

With 7 food trucks surrounding the table setting, each guest that attended received 4 food tickets to use as they liked. And 12 wineries pouring 3 wines each. This gave the guests a great opportunity to explore.

My picks were quesabirria, fish tacos, empanadas and sopes. There were really too many option to pick from.

What a fun opportunity and experience! Great food and so many new wines were being sampled, Godello, Vermentino, White Zin and our Muscat Blanc...it was truly a fab event and everyone involved asked when's the next event?

Stay tuned, to be announced.

cheers