2008 C&B Dancing Crow Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc

It's March 31st, so this is no April's Fools joke! So many of you (and me!) are eagerly awaiting this wine ... it was bottled last Wednesday.

We'll have it in the tasting room on Spring Release Day - April 25th.

Spring has sprung here - from warm temps to Monarch butterflies to the beginning of budbreak. And the Sauvignon Blanc will go so well with it!

Alaska!

It's extremely chilly here in Anchorage, and I'm ensconced in my puffy down coat (600 down fill). But I've seen a few natives in t-shirts and a girl last night was rocking cropped capri pants! Brrrr. Great food here - I had a fresh wild salmon BLT - wow!

Check out some of the beautiful scenery:































Now, off to share some fantastic C&B wines with Alaksans!

They'll get to taste the 2008 Dancing Crow Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc!

Keep your eyes peeled for info about when we'll release that lovely wine.

Happy Spring!

Here in the southern Napa Valley, we've had fog a few mornings this week - on Tuesday it burned off around noon, and it's already dissipating today. Yesterday it must have been about 73 degrees (heavenly for the last day of winter)!

It's supposed to be a bit cooler today, but still oh so lovely. And the first day of spring! There's an extra spring to everyone's step, we have gorgeous sunflowers radiating in the tasting room ... and it feels like white wine weather.

In or around Anchorage on Thursday, March 26? We'll be pouring our wines at Specialty Imports' 10th annual Symphony of Wines, a wine tasting that benefits the Anchorage Symphony.

Upcoming: Spring Release Day! Saturday, April 25th, from 1-4 p.m. at the winery. Join us to try our new releases!

And now off to open the doors - it's too beautiful outside not to!

Tony Cartlidge's paella for a cause

Two posts in one day, good golly! This is time-sensitive, so check it out now!

The one, the only, the Tony Cartlidge is participating in the tenth annual Forever Young benefit fundraiser for the Young School on March 6th. Tickets to the auction (at the Castello di Amorosa in Calistoga, which is sooooo beautiful at sunset!) are sold out, but proxy bidding online is open until noon on Friday. You can email or fax your forms. I'm having to hold myself back from bidding on this one:

B4. Paella, Wine, and Tall Tales at Smith-Madrone

Tony Cartlidge of Cartlidge & Browne Winery will prepare his famous seafood paella for a group of 40 people at Smith-Madrone Winery on top of Spring Mountain. Enjoy the views from the mountain and tales of the wine wars from Tony and Stu Smith, who together have more than 60 years of experience making and selling fine wines around the world. Wines to be enjoyed with the paella will be from Cartlidge & Browne Winery, Smith-Madrone, and Trivium.

Event date: To be scheduled when mutually convenient two months in advance.

Winemakers at work, Wine Club at play

(We had to make this photo teensy-tiny for the email newsletter, and VP of Awesomeness Marc wanted to see it up close) A few weeks ago, winemakers Paul Moser & Rebecca Scharding Steinschriber tasted through wines with members of the C&B Wine Club. The barrels they're next to hold lots of the 2008 Snows Lake Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon - and they brought a barrel sample of that wine in addition to the 2006 Snows Lake Cab. Yum!

Somehow a promised half an hour turned into an hour plus! They talked Austrian wine, working with small lots of Malbec for the first time ever, the aging curve of Lot 205 versus C&B, vineyard sites ...

BTW, on Open That Bottle Night, I saved my Mount Veeder Cabernet (it was a 2005, way too early even for OTBN) but pulled out an expensive Chardonnay (for me! I don't like paying more than $15 for Chardonnay) and cracked it open with our neighbor, who is one of the biggest Chard fans I know. It was a Beringer Reserve and had oodles of creaminess and butteriness. It still makes me a bit nervous to open pricey bottles ~ so, this was the perfect opportunity!