Happy 2009 from C&B!

Dispatches from the Tasting Room:

All of us at Cartlidge & Browne would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year filled with health, prosperity & great wine!

Thank you all for your support—we wouldn’t be where we are without you. From wine lovers in New York to visitors from Sweden to our lovely regulars from American Canyon and nearby—we love you all!

2008 has been an amazing year here at C&B: Over the months we released several great new wines, gotten settled in our tasting room’s new location (It’s warmer here than the warehouse! We have chocolate daily!) and revamped our wine club. In top 10 retrospectives on 2008, wine writers have hailed this year for the greening of wineries. And we love it! We are dedicated to making eco-friendly decisions when it comes to our packaging (to the point of changing how our case boxes are produced), conscious use of energy, and maintaining a clear vision of our carbon footprint.

We embarked on a new wine venture - Lot 205 Winery. Consisting of six varietals, Lot 205 wines are 100% California appellation wines and sure to please everyone – from novice to connoisseur. Deb Harkness at Good Wine Under $20 enjoyed the 2006 Chardonnay & Gary Vaynerchuk was quite impressed by the 2005 Petite Sirah. Click here for these 100% California Wines with a Twist! And we now have the 2006 Petite here in the tasting room.

RELEASES of 2008!

C&B 2006 North Coast Merlot: Ripe cherry & red currant notes, this wine is velvety with lush cocoa tones. Winemaker Paul Moser called this an ideal Merlot.

C&B 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon - Snows Lake Vineyard, Red Hills Lake County: Hints of cedar, cassis, sweet tobacco and chocolate-covered cherries. Rebecca Scharding Steinschriber, our assistant winemaker, says she can always tell a Snows Lake Cab by the bittersweet chocolate notes. It’s truly a Cabernet lovers’ Cab no doubt! If you haven’t tried a Lake County Cab, I highly recommend this wine. The 2005 vintage is almost gone from the tasting room, and we’ll be moving in to the 2006 in January.

C&B 2007 Pinot Noir: Rich baked cherry, sweet toast with juicy red fruits. Our Pinot Noirs are always sure to please the Pinot lovers’ palate. We are completely sold out of this at the winery, yet if you are looking for another amazing Pinot, you should try our winemakers’ label—Moser Scharding. They produced only 514 cases of the 2005 Pinot, which came from two amazing vineyards in Sonoma Valley – Durell & Parmalee-Hill.

C&B 2007 Chardonnay: Aroma of stone fruits & vanilla oak spice, as well as pear nectar, apple pie & butterscotch flavors. We just released this about a month ago & this may just be one of our best Chardonnays yet.

C&B 2007 Sauvignon Blanc Dancing Crow Vineyard: (ORGANICALLY GROWN) Flavors of citrus, melon, mango & guava. This SB is all about amazing tropical fruit. It went quick—we are sold out of this in our tasting room, but our 2008 is vintage is being released in February.

C&B 2006 Zinfandel Amador County Deaver Vineyard: Ripe black fruit, raspberry high notes. Very generous and rich with jammy lush fruit character and solid mineral core.

COMING SOON! (aka, we can't wait for these fun releases!)

• C&B Dessert Syrah - A delicious port-style wine - we have an extremely limited quantity available only at the tasting room.
• C&B 2008 Sauvignon Blanc Dancing Crow Vineyard, Lake County (ORGANICALLY GROWN)
• C&B 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon – Paso Robles
• C&B 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon – Knights Valley (Totem Ridge Vineyard)

Cheers!
Dylan & Lynae & the rest of the Cartlidge & Browne Team

P.S. What are you going to quaff this evening? Lynae's thinking maybe the 2005 Snows Lake Cabernet with dinner and then a 2005 Domaine Carneros sparkler later on ... Happy New Year's one more time!

December updates

From Lynae:

We've been remiss in posting … there's been lots going on here at the winery, but that's no excuse! Here in foggy American Canyon, the 2007 Cartlidge and Browne Chardonnay is not only bottled but about to be released! Most of the 2008 vintage is in barrel or stainless steel. We went through a lot of Pinot Noir for Thanksgiving … and I'm working on putting up holiday lights.

We sold out of the 2005 Lot 205 Petite Sirah, but the good news is we also just bottled the 2006. It's not ready for drinking yet, though I will say I think it's going to be amazing.

Saturday is the last college football game of the regular season … I can’t believe it’s already over! I'm a Berkeley grad and love my Golden Bears. I've had the great fortune to meet some of the Cal greats (both players and coaches) from Joe Kapp to Mike Pawlawski to Jeff Tedford to Mike White.

Marc, VP of Awesomeness, is also an Old Blue.

A few weeks ago Bob Babbe, our national sales manager, mentioned an investor (and Cal alum) was coming by for a visit … and would we all wear blue and gold one day at the winery?

Well, he wasn't just an alum. Mike Casey played quarterback for coach Pappy Waldorf, who is one of the most storied in Cal’s history.

The fabulous Mike dropped by the office, we all exchanged stories and more than a few "Go Bears!"

He then took Tony Cartlidge to the 111th Big Game … Tony is from Great Britain originally, and this was his first American football game, where we might argue he brought the Bears luck as Cal trounced Stanford 37 to 16. (Disclaimer: While some of us here are huge Cal fans, winemaker Paul Moser did attend Stanford, and where you went to school or who you root for doesn't affect the size of the wine tasting pours here!)

What are you going to drink on election night?

I've gotten a few email offers regarding election night wine specials, which I thought were pretty creative.

And I enjoyed this hypothetical blog post about what the candidates would drink.

But that made me wonder - what are people really planning to drink on election night?

So I started informally polling Cartlidge & Browne employees.

Tony Cartlidge told me friends of his are coming over for dinner - they're bringing wine to go with homemade stew. But he also said if things went well, there might be a 1953 Haut Brion.

"I believe that I am going to be drinking Champagne," says winemaker Paul Moser.

Paul confesses that he's not a huge Champagne drinker, but that he has a special bottle picked out - "Mumm de Cramant." It comes from the village of Cramant in France. Paul explains that in France the government sets the kilo cost for grapes, with certain locations setting the standard at 100% of the cost, which others are measured against and therefore receive less money per kilo. The village of Cramant is 100%, and this particular Champagne comes only from Chardonnay grapes.

Brian Clothier, our CFO, says his beverage of choice will be "either Pinot or vodka."

VP of Awesomeness and erstwhile sales analyst Marc Wittenberg continues in the "Either/or" vein: "Either a bottle of bubbly, or a shot of Old Crow."

Dylan, whom you've met in other blog posts, is planning to go with the C&B Snows Lake Cabernet.

Jim Reed, our Director of Operations, says: “Probably a good Zinfandel. A little spicy, a little high alcohol.”

And me? Well, some sort of sparkly bubbles. Perhaps a Schramsberg Blanc de Noirs. I love that their wines have been served in the White House under various administrations and at state functions. Perfect for watching the presidential campaigns wind down and the returns come in.

What is everyone else going to drink on election night?

On the enology side, Cabernet in the lab - video

Our enologist, Mauricio Livellara, has been with Cartlidge & Browne for seven years. He and the lab staff are constantly monitoring our wine - as it goes from grapes to juice to fermented wine. They test for sugar, acidity, pH. They make sure there are no odd microbes or bacteria growing in the wine ... and they work closely with the winemakers to make sure everything is going smoothly.

Check out the video below for a brief snippet of what goes on in the lab:

Crush video!

So, we just got our last grapes in ... now we've got punchdowns, fermenting, putting wine into barrel, racking, etc. all to go. Of course, some of that is already complete with various varietals. But I know everyone is relieved and will get a brief moment to catch up with life.

And here's a brief video of Snows Lake Cabernet grapes arriving the past month! As we get more edited of crush and winemaking, we'll post them here.

Updates from C&B

Harvest is beginning to wrap up ... Vineyard Manager Chris reports he had his first weekend off in ages and promptly got up and showered and got ready to go ... and then realized he didn't have anywhere he had to be.

Winemaker Paul Moser says this has been an unusual vintage - certainly not an ideal one - but everyone is very excited about the quality of the grapes.

After the little bit of rain the other week, it warmed up some here. October in Northern California! There's nothing like it.

Dylan went to Sonoma's Petrified Forest Road (up near Calistoga) and snapped some photos of our Cabernet getting picked:



Those grapes will go into Moser Scharding Cabernet. Winemakers Paul Moser and Rebecca Scharding Steinschriber produce limited release Cabernet and Pinot Noir - depending on the grapes and the vintages. Right now in the tasting room we have their 2004 Cab (part from Petrified Forest Road Vineyard and another from Mulhner Vineyard) and their 2005 Pinot Noir. The next vintage will be 05 Cabs - there will be two - one from PFR and one from Mulhner. So exciting! We tasted the Mulhner today, and it was swoon-worthy.

I'm currently munching on candy corn (yay fall!) and trying to figure out which wine I'm going to take home - something that will go well with football tomorrow. It's a toss up between the Moser Cab and the 2005 Snows Lake Cab. Decisions, decisions!

Happy Friday!
Lynae

Fall at Snows Lake Vineyard

Chris Walden (our vineyard manager), Marc Wittenberg (Vice President of Awesomeness) and Lynae Anderson. We're standing in front of Cabernet grapes - notice the colorful leaves!

Hello from Lynae, C&B's Tasting Room Manager!

Meet Lynae Anderson - I’m the tasting room manager and marketing liaison.


Fall is absolutely upon us, and we walk into the winery stepping on crunchy leaves. The clouds are quite gray today and it’s a bit windy. We are in American Canyon, just south of Carneros.


We’re anticipating our first rain. It’s been sooo long! The last of our Snows Lake Vineyard grapes were harvested from a steep hillside block up in Lake County. That Cabernet came in this morning and is going to get crushed, following other Cabernet lots from that vineyard, which came in a few weeks ago.

You may or may not have heard of us. We find that we’re known nationally and internationally, and yet not always in our own Golden State.

And about me - I love wine, talking about wine, meeting new people, football, food. So, let's get this started off right with a recipe!

Lynae's sauteed baby artichokes:

They always sound so fancy, and they’re delightfully easy. I originally found this recipe in the New Basics Cookbook, though I’ve adapted it a little over the years. I’ve made it in the springtime when the artichokes first hit the market, but on the whole, it feels much more autumnish to me.

10 baby artichokes

Extra virgin olive oil--enough to cover a skillet

A few tablespoons lemon juice

Kosher salt

Ground pepper

Cut off the stems with a sharp knife and trim the top portion. Get rid of the tougher outer leaves. Quarter the artichokes. Heat the olive oil in a skillet, toss in a little salt and pepper, then saute the artichokes over medium heat until they start to brown a little. Add the lemon juice and a little more salt and pepper, and continue sauteing until they are crispy.

YUM! And if you throw in a little fresh garlic, well double YUM!

And pairing artichokes can be tough, as I’m sure you know. That said, these would probably be lovely with our 2007 Dancing Crow Sauvignon Blanc -- which I shouldn’t even mention, because we just sold out of it in the tasting room. But if you are lucky enough to find it in stores, enjoy! I’m also thinking about our 2006 Amador Zinfandel. That might do the trick!

Join us in the future for photos of crush, bottling, vineyards, more recipes, random musings on wine, and who knows what else.

Salute! Cheers!

Lynae

Welcome from Dylan, C&B's Marketing Manager!

Meet Dylan Elliott - I’m the Marketing Manger for Cartlidge & Browne, and I look forward to sharing the C&B Love with you!

I can't believe harvest is almost over. I'm not ready for the rain that Fall & Winter is going to bring, but I'm more than ready for the cool nights in front of my fire with my bottle of Snows Lake Cabernet. There are even rumors of a tasting room exclusive C&B Reserve Dessert Syrah that will be released just in time for the winter weather.

We are expanding the Food & Wine pairing section in our new web site. I’d love for our Cartlidge & Browne wine lovers to send in a recipe that pairs with their favorite C&B wine.With that I’m going to share a recipe to pair with our C&B 2006 Zinfandel:

Crab-Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

* 4 large Portobello mushrooms, wiped clean. With stems removed and diced
* 5 tablespoons olive oil, divided
* salt
* freshly ground black pepper
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 1/2 medium onion, diced
* 2 garlic cloves, minced
* 6 ounces crabmeat, drained
* 1 cup provolone

1. Preheat your oven's broiler.

2. Brush both sides of the mushrooms with 3 tablespoons of oil. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper, and arrange on a lipped cookie sheet. Broil on highest rack, turning once, until golden and almost cooked through, about 5 minutes. Remove mushrooms and reset oven to 400 degrees.

3. Meanwhile, heat remaining oil and butter in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in mushrooms stems and onions and lightly seasoning with salt and pepper. Cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute longer. Transfer mushroom mixture to a medium bowl and crabmeat.

4. Spoon a portion of filling into each mushroom cap and top with cheese. Bake on middle oven rack until filling is heated though and cheese melts, about 15 minutes.

If you are a mushroom lover, these are nothing short of amazing!

Cheers,
Dylan