Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Open That Bottle Night!

Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher are wonderful - their Wall Street Journal columns are wonderful, their book, Love by the Glass: Tasting Notes from a Marriage, is wonderful, and their brainchild, Open That Bottle Night, is simply wonderful.

This Saturday marks the 10th(!) Open That Bottle Night!
Here's their thought behind it:

"You know that bottle of wine you've been keeping around for that special occasion that never arrives or because the wine is always going to be better tomorrow?

Open that bottle!"

That prompting - along with one of my 2009 goals to drink 25 bottles out of my cellar (closet) before I buy any more wine - means I'll probably be opening a Mount Veeder Cabernet. Nothing too crazy.

Last Saturday our winemaker, Paul Moser, mentioned opening a 23-year-old Mouton Rothschild that ended up being still too young ... at first glance, he would not be a candidate for OTBN. But he too wrestles with: What if the wine is over the hill? What if I'm not around by the time it's ready to drink? What if?

Sometimes you just have to do what you gotta do. And in this case, open that bottle.

What are you opening up?

Friday, February 20, 2009

California sunshine, Napa mists, bottling Chardonnay

It's been a topsy-turvy month! We finally had a deluge of rain, and then everything dried up once again. Supposedly we are in for more rain starting Saturday night. I adore rainy Februarys, so here's hoping.

The Symposium for Professional Wine Writers has been taking place at Meadowood the last few days, and I greatly enjoyed reading NY Times wine writer Eric Asimov's "From the Mists of Napa" post:

Greetings from Napa Valley, where, since I arrived on Sunday, I’ve seen nothing but cold rain. You would think this would be a blow to smug Californians, who generally feel that sunshine and warmth are their reward for living in such a beautiful place, but no. When asked about the rain, they to a person feign sincerity and say, “We really needed it.’’

I blushed. That was me in the tasting room last week. I love the commenters who also pled guilty! But no faux sincerity here and I don't think on the part of anyone else. During the downpours, we could see the lovely swirling Napa mists and the green hills from the tasting room, and with tasters from out of town, I fully meant it every time I said we missed the sunshine but absolutely really needed the rain.

Here at the winery, we are bottling 2007 Lot 205 Chardonnay today! Hooray! (we sold out of the 2006 here at the tasting room a few weeks ago)

Winemaker Paul Moser says, "The wine has a supple, lingering mouthfeel and inviting pear/peach flavors filled out by spicy oak, lychee and butterscotch." Yum!

We just tasted it off the bottling line (no bottle shock the first day), and it's fantastic!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Rain, rain ...

... don't go away!

It was so warm and lovely and spring-like (and dry) the last few weeks that everyone seemed to be in white wine mode. In a quick return to winter weather, we here at the winery were all enjoying the rain last night and this morning.

There was a brief respite of blue sky earlier this afternoon, and we thought about trying to go find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.


Dylan took this picture from the door of the tasting room. The sky has since clouded over and it looks ominous to the west - but ominous in a good way! It looks like it might pour in 10 minutes.

Winemaker Paul Moser says we need rain! With the drought and last year's frosts, many grape growers emptied their reservoirs - and if there are frosts later this season, there's really no where to go. In cases of frost, growers without wind machines rely on overhead sprinkler systems to prevent damage.

And now we just have to wait and see about budbreak.