Results matching “Kim Stare Wallace” from Wilma's Wine World

Six years ago, and 229 posts ago, I started this blog using my pseudonym Wilma. It was over lunch with Jim Laube from Wine Spectator that the idea started percolating. I remember it vividly. We met so he could taste new releases while I shared my vision for Dry Creek Vineyard. With my father in retirement, and the second generation firmly in charge, we had a whole new vision plan - driven by a passionate desire to make wines that would command respect and be recognized among the finest in the region. And I wanted Jim to know! Mass marketed brands were my nemesis and I was hell-bent set on doing everything possible to avoid the homogenous vacuum that seemed to be sucking up so many of my family-owned winery counterparts. As I shared my story, I was able to describe firsthand the trials and tribulations of a lifetime in the wine industry since I had literally grown up in it. With each passing sip, Jim became more and more engrossed. His words of encouragement to share my story via a blog did not go unnoticed. Thank you Jim. 

I chose the name Wilma's Wine World because I wanted a separate identity from the winery. I needed a voice to share "an insider's look at the wine country life," a site where I could openly and honestly communicate to readers. I had survived countless family squabbles, distributor consolidations, economic crisis, weather challenges, personnel issues, and just about everything else one will encounter if they stay in this industry long enough. My main source of material was day to day life. Things were a bit crazy then. The Husband was President, I was Vice President, my father was on the retirement sidelines watching with a skeptical eye, and we had a newly established Board of Directors. My son Spencer was a rambunctious pre-teen and daughter Taylor a precocious teenager. I was the poster child for much of the female population: a stressed-out working mom with the Great Recession looming ahead. A decade of hard work had gone into making many qualitative improvements that would re-define the winery including: new vineyards, new wines, new barrels, new equipment, new people, new business practices, new packaging, and new software. Things were more or less in place and it was time to reintroduce the world to the undeniably delicious, exceptionally high quality wines of the NEXT GENERATION! A blog seemed like a good place to begin.  

Today, I'm proud that Dry Creek Vineyard is one of the few iconic, truly authentic brands left in the wine business. I'm proud of the unsurpassed quality of our wines and the dedication of our team. I'm proud of all this and much, much more. Our winery is a recognized leader in the industry with a legion of loyal followers. We are a destination spot for tourists and wine lovers alike. And yet, our job is not done. We are constantly raising the bar, striving for the next brass ring. And, we can never stop or rest on our laurels... not even for a split second. That is why Wilma must retire.  I just can't "do it all" like I used to think I could.

Two years ago I took over as President. The Husband is at my side offering support and encouragement. Grandpa is happily retired with time for his interests in music, art, travel and philanthropy. My wonderful staff is made up of a group of dynamic, loyal, hard working folks who embrace the family business concept, making important and lasting contributions each and every day. It's a system that works as evidenced by the many great press reviews, endorsements, and customers we have around the world. For all of that, I am grateful.

So with the launch of our new website (a project that's been a year in the making!) it seems timely for Wilma to retire from blogging. Stay tuned... a new "winery blog" will emerge in the coming months. In the meantime, THANK YOU TO ANYONE WHO HAS EVER READ THIS BLOG!

Sincerely Yours,
Kim Stare Wallace (aka Wilma)

This is one of my favorite times of year.  There's a chill in the air and everyone seems to be in a festive mood... even if they might feel a bit stressed about the holidays.  Another reason I love this time of year is all the goodies that we get to eat! Family recipes, especially, are important as they carry on the tradition and legacy from generation to generation.  I definitely have my own which I've shared in the past.  This time, I thought it would be fun to share a family recipe from one of our employees - Sara Rathbun.  Sara has a new little one at home so I wonder whether she even has time to make these delicious bars, but the recipe just sounded too good not to share!

Sara:  This is my grandmother Iris' Pumpkin Chiffon Bars recipe. In my family, you are either a pumpkin pie person or a pumpkin chiffon person and there are definite arguments over which side you are on, and who gets the last piece.  It's something that not a lot of people have heard of before, and usually I get asked for the recipe after they taste it. I make this every year in memory of my grandmother, and this year is especially meaningful as my daughter, Mila Iris, shares her name.  

There's been a slow transformation taking place behind the winery and my house these last couple of months. If you've driven over Lambert Bridge you might have even seen it. In a way it looks like a moonscape...or something otherworldly. Tall trees stick out of the earth with their roots reaching to the sky. Large pieces of equipment are scattered here and there. Boulders are bolted together in piles.

The Dry Creek Habitat Enhancement Demonstration Restoration Project is a partnership between the Sonoma County Water Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, and landowners along the Dry Creek designed to build a fish friendly habitat. It includes bank stabilization and erosion control along with the development of environmentally friendly spawning pools for endangered species such as Steelhead Trout and Coho Salmon. So far, they've completed one mile--not a small feat when you consider 1000s of cubic yards of dirt were removed from a once abandoned channel. That's a lot of truckloads. Eventually, the county plans to complete a six mile corridor spanning the Dry Creek.  

This federally funded project is a perfect example of the government and the private sector working hand in hand for a positive outcome. The project commenced some years ago when the county first approached The Husband to flesh out their ideas which included access to our property. Many meetings and negotiations later, access was granted along with an overwhelming endorsement from dear old hubby. At first I was skeptical, but why not? What's good for the environment is surely good for us and there's no doubt this will have a positive impact over time.

As a child growing up on West Dry Creek Road, I remember the fears of flooding and erosion that we had about the Dry Creek. Bank reinforcement was illegal yet farmers who owned land along the creek often placed old car bodies, tires and other material along the edges to avoid erosion. It was not a pretty sight let me tell you!  

Today, we are fortunate that in addition to creating an environmentally friendly fish habitat, we also benefit from the anchored log jams and bank stabilization that will prevent our land from washing away.

The project came to fruition today with the release of 2000 juvenile salmon into the creek. What a sight to behold! By 2020 when the total project is complete, Dry Creek Valley may be known for its wine - and its fish.

I'll remember this year's harvest in one word: fast.  After our first load of Chenin Blanc grapes arrived, so did every other varietal.  Seemingly in the blink of an eye we were discussing our last lot of Cabernet Sauvignon still hanging on the vine.  The initial report from our winemaking team is that quality will be high across all varietals.  Comparison wise, we had very similar growing conditions as last year.  The summer season was dry, with moderate temperatures and during harvest we had almost perfect weather for extended hang time. 

This past week, we had a unique opportunity to come together to harvest the very last of the fruit still hanging on the vine.  Each year we keep our fingers crossed that we will be able to produce a late harvest wine.  For the past several vintages, that has not been the case.  In 2013, however, Winemaker Tim was able to find a small block of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon grapes in our DCV2 vineyard, just behind the winery and bordering Dry Creek.  Having "noble rot", the fancy viticulture term for Botrytis, these grapes achieved remarkable concentration and honeyed characters.  Attaining natural Botrytis is a tricky proposition.  Growing conditions have to be perfect with rain being an important factor at just the right time. In addition, extended hang time is key - the more hang time, the happier the grapes become!

In the early morning hours, our cellar crew headed to the vineyard for some "bonding time" to harvest these beautiful bunches.  Noble rot may not look sexy but the wine that is produced certainly is.  For those that have tried our Soleil Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon blend, I'm sure you'll agree that this sultry wine is intense and concentrated with wonderful honeysuckle and lavender nuances.  I absolutely adore this wine as a finishing course during Thanksgiving when I always make my signature Parmesan Apple Pie.

With harvest now in our rear view mirror, we're all looking forward to some much needed R&R and the warmth of the upcoming holiday season.

I feel like my life has been on hold these past few days. This is a busy time of year in the wine business, and there are so many things I should be worried about right now... harvest, grape tonnage, sales projections during October/November/December, planning for 2014, the list goes on and on.  But oh no...this past week it's been all about the America's Cup!

If someone had told me two years ago that I would be sipping DCV wines overlooking the finish line of the 34^th America's Cup, from the privacy of the Artemis Racing VIP lounge no less, I never would have believed it.  But there I've been, sharing this rare experience with as many people as I could.

Not yesterday though.  Yesterday I hit the streets with thousands of other fans for the unprecedented win by Oracle Team USA.  I've never seen anything quite like it.  Two weeks ago, it seemed inevitable that Emirates Team New Zealand would take the Cup.  In fact, many Americans and even San Franciscans, were generally more favorable toward the Kiwi team than the American.  But something shifted and a winning streak ensued.  To have been witness to this historic event, a first in sailing history, is quite something.

I am extremely proud to have had our winery play a small part in all of this.  It took a lot of work, but it was worth it.  But mostly I'm grateful for the contacts made, the friendships forged and the opportunity to share the excitement with customers, friends and family.  Wow.  It's times like this that I pinch myself as a reminder of how much I love my job, our wines, our brand and all that we stand for here at Dry Creek Vineyard.  Now, I can truly say we are indeed the "Official Wine of Sailors!"

Click photos to enlarge... enjoy!

In my experience, success in the wine industry takes a long term view. From growing grapes, to making wine, to all the sales and marketing expertise that goes into getting the bottles from the winery to the market, well...it doesn't happen overnight. So it was with much pride that I finally experienced the results of nearly 2 years of effort that went into getting Dry Creek Vineyard involved with the America's Cup.  Just last month, we announced our partnership as the official wine for Artemis Racing, Challenger 34^th America's Cup. This was a personal mission of mine as the "Official Wine for Sailors" with over 30 years of sailboats on our wine labels and involvement in the sport.

On Sunday, I entertained a group of handpicked winery VIPs at the exclusive digs of the Artemis Racing Hospitality Club at Pier 27 of America's Cup Park in San Francisco. Talk about fun! We learned the history of the world's oldest sporting event, chatted with legendary sailor and team CEO Paul Cayard and watched Team New Zealand kick the pants off of Luna Rossa from Italy. (I'm not sure that's the language I should be using but you get the point!) In between, we were wined and dined and served none other than an array of delicious Dry Creek Vineyard wines. I felt like a mom bursting with pride. While it's just the beginning of the Louis Vuitton Cup, already I'm feeling good about our partnership with this team. They have worked hard to bounce back from the tragic death of one of their sailors and untimely destruction of their boat. Now, their hope is to begin competing next week in the Louis Vuitton Semi Finals. Are they the underdog? You bet. But in many respects they remind me of our family winery - a team dedicated to the absolute integrity of their product, filled with passion and commitment to survive the choppy waters ahead. And like us, you just never know...they might go on to surprise the world!

So you know how we love to sail...right? Well, we are finally in the midst of our "Wine for Sailors" marketing campaign centered around the start of the 34th America's Cup which, for the first time ever, has come to San Francisco Bay. When I first found out that the world's oldest sporting event would be held in our backyard the summer of 2013, I just knew we had to leverage our longstanding reputation as the official "Wine for Sailors."  Over the years, we've supported all kinds of sailing affiliations, from my father's involvement with the Tall Ship Californian and Nautical Heritage Society back in the mid 80s, to his sponsorship of Sonoma State University's first ever sailing team (SSU student Peter Holmberg went on to become an America's Cup skipper and Olympic medalist) to our long standing partnership with US SAILING and our sponsorship of umpteen regattas and sailors around the country. Heck, we even made a wine called "Sailor's Chardonnay" back in 1985.

Flash forward to 2013. First up to celebrate our authentic love of sailing was to design and trademark a spiffy new logo. Secondly, we developed an assortment of display materials, sailing merchandise, and commemorative bottlings to help draw attention to our wines. A lot of wineries are trying to jump on the ship (pun intended!) but there isn't anyone who has featured sailboats on their labels for over 30 years!  Lastly, was the formation of a relationship with one of the America's Cup teams.  Just last week, we announced our sponsorship of the Challenger of Record-Artemis Racing. CEO Paul Cayard is a Bay Area sailing legend and former America's Cup skipper and Olympic champion, so to be an official supplier of the team is a huge source of pride for us.  Besides, access to yummy Dry Creek wines can only help their performance right?!   

All of these projects have finally come to fruition and I am so proud that Dry Creek Vineyard will have a presence at this illustrious international event.  In addition, we'll be providing an assortment of VIP hospitality activities all centered around our favorite sport. So whether you're a wine club member, distributor, or member of the trade, we've got something for you.  

I'm a bit nostalgic today.  40 years ago, on August 24, 1972, my Dad finally got the permit to build Dry Creek Vineyard at the corner of Dry Creek Road and Lambert Bridge Road.  At the time, I was just 9 years old and preoccupied with making friends in the new town we'd just moved to called Healdsburg.  I recall being mostly focused on Barbies and Batman - not on some silly winery.  However, the now iconic photo of me turning over that first shovel full of dirt with Dad looking on is truly emblematic of our winery 40 years later.  I'm the President now and Dad is enjoying his retirement, albeit with one eye still on the family business.  I know he's proud of our success - the winery is doing well despite some of the economic land mines that we know are out there.  The wines have never been better and with our winemaker Tim Bell on board, future vintages are in very good hands.  I feel really positive about our business for the rest of 2012 and beyond.

So positive, in fact, that we are going to take a day off!  Yep, that's right -the entire DCV crew is heading up to Lake Sonoma today for an afternoon of barbecuing, water skiing and good old fashioned family fun.  We are actually CLOSING our doors for the day - a first for us on a non-holiday.  I figure, what better way to celebrate our 40th than with our winery family and the dedicated employees who have helped make this business possible.

So let's raise a glass to Dry Creek Vineyard and say Happy Birthday - forty never felt so fabulous!

Looking back at my last few posts, I realized that my tone was a tad in the dumps.  It's easy to get frustrated in this business.  Yet, at the same time, I can't overlook the wonderful aspects of the wine industry and all the lasting friendships I've created.  So, rather than focus on what's bad, I want to share with you what's really great about our industry.  I thought maybe a top 10 list would be appropriate.

So there you have it.   That's my list.  What's yours?  Feel free to chime in.  I'd love to hear from you.

Press coverage continues to trickle in from the Screen Actors Guild Awards. That is always the acid test when we evaluate our involvement. Of course personally, what I really want to know is how many celebrities ran out and bought our wines as a result?? I mean does anyone actually run to the liquor store and proclaim, "I simply have to have that Dry Creek Vineyard wine!" Since I'll probably never know the answer, I was excited to see this segment produced for a TV show called California Life HD. It's a short clip, but it gives you a good perspective on our involvement. Enjoy! 

It's that time of year again.  I know what you're thinking...the holidays. Wrong!  It's the dreaded season of budgeting.  While most people are enjoying this short week, looking forward to quality time with family and friends, I am knee deep in our annual fiscal planning for the winery.   Oh joy!  As someone who generally loves her job, the budgeting season is more like a painful trip to the dentist.  Endless meetings, haggling over this and that and presentations to our Board of Directors are pretty much how the budgeting process goes.  And while it's obvious this is not my cup of tea, I do appreciate the process and understand its importance to our business.

You see, 2012 is an especially important year for our family winery.  As the calendar turns to January 1, 2012, it will mark our 40^th year in business.  That means we have big plans that are going to require some significant marketing and sales investments.  In putting our budget together there are a lot of considerations - how much wine do we think we will sell?  What is our selling strategy?  How does our Direct-to-Consumer business look for next year?  All of these are key questions - after all, we don't have a money tree in our backyard from which we can pluck marketing dollars.  Everything needs to balance out and come together like a big puzzle.  It's a system of give and take, pros and cons, and ultimately doing what gives us the most bang for our buck.

So, I'm off again to yet another budget meeting.  There is light at the end of the tunnel though.  Come Thursday, I'm shutting down, grabbing a glass of Heritage Zinfandel and putting my feet up by the fire.  Even this wife, mother, marketer, business owner, and blogger needs some R&R!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

As Dry Creek Vineyard's Wine Club Administrator, this is a question I am asked at least two to three times a week. My usual response is: "It's going well, the grapes are coming in and the juice is happily fermenting in their respective tanks and barrels."  After answering the same way for several weeks, I exchanged my business attire and my comfortable climate controlled office for what I like to call my "grubby" clothes and the outside.

On Wednesday morning the cellar crew did not hesitate to put me right to work. I started my morning assisting our interns with pumpovers, which is the process used to circulate the juice to increase the flavor and color in our fabulous wines.  Then I got my hands dirty clearing the sump (a strainer used to keep the wine and skins away from each other) of the skins and seeds. After pumpovers, I spent the rest of the morning cleaning the floors of all the runaway grapes and miscellaneous debris.

The afternoon brought in a large load of grapes from the Rafanelli Vineyards and I was summoned by the Cellar Master to carry a load of dry ice to the top of the tank to give our new grapes some much needed CO₂.

Finally, I was tasked with rehydrating yeast for one of our tanks. The yeast smelled like fresh bread right out of the oven. Feeding the yeast was an entirely different experience. While taking some wine from the large tank, instead of closing the valve, I opened it all the way and was sprayed from the head down with freshly pressed Zinfandel.  Needless to say, I did not go home as clean as I had arrived!

It was definitely a learning experience and I am glad to have a better understanding of what Harvest entails. I also have a much deeper respect for all of the hard work our cellar crew goes through to produce our fabulous wines. Now, back to what I do best; providing assistance to our club members in my nice clean and comfy office. I can honestly say that I am more than prepared to talk about how Harvest is going. I await your calls!

Salina Littleton, Wine Club Administrator

Note to self: Avoid flying home on 9/11.

Despite a poorly planned departure date, I made it home from my New York sales trip without a hitch. And just in the nick of time! Yesterday we received our first load of ripe grapes. As is the tradition around here, everyone gathered around the crusher to witness the big event. Even my father was there, to ceremoniously shovel grapes into the shiny stainless steel hopper. A glass of bubbles was raised as we toasted the safety, success, and serendipity of this annual event that is the lifeblood of our winery.

The 2011 harvest is important for a number of reasons:

1. The resulting wines help us pay the bills. Duh.

2. It's about time we started, after all it's already mid-September.

3. The 2011 harvest marks several important milestones. 

Now about those milestones...

This is our 40th harvest.  It's also the 35th harvest for longtime employee Gary Emmerich, and it's the 1st harvest for newcomer Tim Bell. Tim joined us earlier this summer as winemaker. Now don't go getting all worried that massive changes are ahead: on the contrary, Tim's exacting nature and attention to detail will help us ensure the continued high quality and consistently delicious nature of our wines. Longtime consulting winemaker Bill Knuttel remains part of the team and will be working closely with Tim throughout the harvest.

We have a few other newcomers in the cellar too. Donovan Ackermann and Kosie Van De Merwe are our latest harvest interns (both hail from South Africa) to add to a long list of international talent who have worked crush at Dry Creek. They are joined by veterans Nova Perrill (assistant winemaker), Jerry Smith (cellar master), Abel Garcia (cellar foreman), Mike Gillian (mechanic), and Tarcicio Garcia (Abe's brother).

To say we have an awesome team is an understatement. Just look at this pictureÂ… there's enough brawn, brains, and bravado to make some seriously hard core wines! As the work on the crush pad begins to pick up the pace, the work continues in our vineyards. Besides the actual picking process, our vineyard crews are busily dropping fruit, eliminating clusters that don't look good and encouraging maturation and ripeness in the remaining clusters. Monitoring sugar levels is a daily to-do while waiting patiently for Mother Nature to do her thing. Harvest generally starts out rather slowly, but nearly always escalates to a frantic pace that somehow everybody manages to survive.

No wonder they call it CRUSH!

Our family is in a state of transition.  My eldest child, Taylor-whom many of you know from the wine named after her, (Taylor's Vineyard Sauvignon Musqué) as well as her annual singing performances at our Summer Lobster Fest, recently headed off to college. Packing her up (three cars full!) was a surreal experience as any parent who has been through this transition knows. Happily, she is loving college life and has made many new friends.  Her grades better be positive too as we sure are going to have to sell a lot of wine to help pay for this! Our family life is slowly adjusting to a slightly less complicated existence with one less person in the house.

The winery is in a state of transition too. We have several new faces around the cellar and we are rapidly gearing up for our 40th harvest. With all the cold weather earlier this year, we're already behind schedule by a few weeks. But most winemakers I know secretly welcome a little delay as they finish up their last minute preparations before the first load of grapes arrive. This year, we will most likely start picking Sauvignon Blanc first. Quality looks good, but yields, especially in Sauvignon Blanc and Zinfandel are light. A bit of last minute scrambling is going on as we search for added vineyards to shore up our estate fruit supplies.

Sadly, I'll miss the arrival of our first load as I'm on a plane headed to New York for a week of market work. You certainly wouldn't have had that forty years ago! Nor, would you have had the overcrowded marketplace, distributor consolidation and a lagging economy to worry about in addition to harvest. As a matter of fact, harvest forty years ago was a very different matter.

The summer of '72 was very hot and dry. A serious wildfire had occurred on Bradford Mountain, just off West Dry Creek Rd. I was 9 years old at the time. The California Division of Forestry Services had set up camp in our newly cleared field- in what would soon become known as DCV 3-the birthplace of Fumé Blanc and the first vineyard planted to Sauvignon Blanc in the region. Dad was fresh out of UC Davis and excited as hell to make his first vintage of wine. The winery itself had not been built, so our first load of grapes was actually crushed over at Cuvaison Winery in Napa where good friend Tom Cottrell was winemaker. Many of the industry's legacy vintners were also getting started that same year—Bernard Portet, Jim Barrett, and Tom Burgess to name a few.

It was an era of trial and error, of teamwork and innovation—most winemakers were new at this, and they were such early pioneers! One of my favorite family stories involves my father using chewing gum to plug up a leaky radiator hose during the long slow drive over the hill to Cuvaison. With 100 degree plus weather, the grapes were at risk of being scorched and a solution had to be found quickly.  A couple of wads of Wrigley's soon repaired the problem and Robert Young's old red truck eventually made it over the hill with our precious first load. Hopefully, we won't have similar problems this year although I'm sure there will be a few snafus...there always are.  

So much has changed in the nearly four decades of our existence. We now have dozens of fermenters, three presses, and thousands of barrels that fill the walls of the winery. Our cellar crew has grown to 9 and we have a full time maintenance man to repair radiator hoses instead of using chewing gum. I've grown up and so has the winery. What will the next forty years bring? Who knows, but I sure feel blessed to have been a part of the winery's early days as well as that very first harvest.

Sometimes I really can't think of what to write. My days are jam-packed at the winery and then at the end of the day, I move into my "hey Mom, look at this!" mode.  Combining a demanding wine business and all of its ongoing challenges with being a good mother is well... not for the faint of heart.  It requires enormous amounts of energy, lack of sleep and patience beyond your wildest dreams. I've also found that generous doses of wine can provide some assistance.  Turn up your sound.....

Don't get me wrong. I do not drink excessively. Nor, do I use wine (alcohol) to sooth my troubled soul, the first sign of problem drinking. However, I do find that sipping very slowly on a glass of wine (yes, it helps when it's free for me!) while sitting outside watching my son perform his latest trick on the trampoline or bicycle is a nice way to transition from the "crisis du jour" at Dry Creek Vineyard to a more peaceful existence in my back yard.

I especially love this time of year. The "Dog Days of Summer" as they call 'em.  The kids are still out of school and the structured pace of the Fall selling season with its yearend business travel, emphasis on OND sales performance (translation: October, November, and December had better be strong!) and the frenetic and unpredictable nature of Harvest nearly upon us, is still a blissful few weeks off. Normally, I'd be in Maine, visiting relatives and chilling out. This year, I had to cancel my plans due to work related responsibilities, and let me tell you, I am feeling a little bit sorry for myself!

So, for the rest of you "End of Summer" vacationers, I thought you might like to know about a special promotion we're running. We call it our "Back to School" special. It's a 2 bottle offering of two of our favorite but lesser known wines, our 2008 Foggy Oaks Vineyard Chardonnay, and 2007 Meritage. They are both perfectly delicious and great accompaniments for this time of year. Save 25% with shipping included (or better still, join our Wine Club and Save 35%).

And, they just might make the end of day transition in your family a happier time too!  

I like dirt.  For as long as I have been in the wine industry, the concept of soil, sun and geography (that pesky word terroir) has fascinated me.  And really, for any wine geeky person like me, why wouldn't it?  How amazing is it that the very same grapes, grown right next to each other, can literally taste different! I've experienced that first hand, walking through vineyards during harvest and tasting different blocks of Zinfandel grapes.  It is quite remarkable.  

One of the (many) cool things about working at a family owned winery is that decisions can be made with an eye toward the future and without all that corporate winery mumbo jumbo.  A prime example of this is what is going on at our iconic DCV3 estate vineyard.  Planted by David Stare in 1972, this was the first vineyard planted to Sauvignon Blanc in the Dry Creek Valley.   Not only is this vineyard historically relevant for our winegrowing region, we also see it as our crown jewel in our Sauvignon Blanc program.  Like any vineyard, eventually it needed to be replanted.  First, we let the ground lay follow for almost 5 years.  Not an easy decision and not exactly profitable but completely necessary to allow the soil to naturally regenerate itself.   Then, rather than plant vines that will maximize yields (and thereby ROI) the family took a decidedly different track.  They planted 3 different selections of Sauvignon Blanc - Sauvignon Musqué, Sauvignon Gris and Sauvignon Blanc clone #378.  Is this the most economically profitable way of doing things?  No.  Is this really cool and going to give us the ability to work with small lots of interesting wines that we could potentially bottle exclusively for wine club members?  Yes.  How fun is that? 

Another exciting project is the new Zinfandel vineyard planted in front of the winery.  Three years ago, when this vineyard went in, I think our neighbors thought we were nuts.  Who in the world plants a head pruned Zinfandel vineyard these days?  Answer:  Dry Creek Vineyard.  Again, this is not cost effective and produces extremely small yields, but this vineyard is a throwback to a bygone era.  It's just about 3.5 acres but it has 4 different clonal selections of Zinfandel all planted on St. George rootstock.  This year we will receive our first crop and our winemaking team is so excited they can hardly stand it!

As the years go on and new vintages are released, I am excited about what the future holds.  I'm not sure any of us know exactly what we will we get from these newly planted vineyards.   But isn't that what makes wine so special?  Finding that unexpected gem or new thing that keeps you learning and appreciating all that the wine industry has to offer!

Bill Smart, Director of Communications

Dear Readers,

Announcements have been made and it's time for a round of applause for the winners of the 2011 Wine Blog Awards. While the blog you're reading didn't make the list (boo hoo, weep weep, sigh, sigh...) a hearty congratulations goes out to all the lucky winners! I know first-hand the commitment and time it takes to be a dedicated wine blogger. Thank you for your efforts. You ARE making a difference in the world of wine!

Wilma

And the winners are...

Best Wine Blog Graphics, Photography, & Presentation: Vino Freakism

Best Industry/Business Wine Blog: Fermentation

Best Wine Reviews on a Wine Blog: Enobytes

Best Single Subject Wine Blog: New York Cork Report

Best Winery Blog: Tablas Creek

Best Writing on a Wine Blog: Vinography

Best New Wine Blog: Terroirist

Best Overall Wine Blog: Fermentation