Everyday Days at the Winery

Once in a while people tasting at the winery will peek into the office, see everyone working (very hard) away, & then turn to me confused, "Why is everyone so busy? Can't you drink wine all day? Isn't it only harvest that much happens?"

Something's always happening. And usually more than several somethings are happening.

There's bottling - when the winemakers decide it's time to rack the wine out of barrel to be bottled (via tanks). It's not just the bottling, though. They have decide on the lots that will be blended together for a final wine, which involves numerous flights of potential blends.

They're prepping barrels, tanks, equipment for harvest.


And checking on grapes, surveying vineyards, talking with the vineyard managers.

Constantly monitoring wine in barrels & in tank - is it ready to go? Is there anything wrong? Testing samples in the lab.

Buying new barrels for harvest. Supplies.

The sales team traveling the country and talking with distributors and stores and restaurants that carry our wine.

Hosting people who've come to taste.

Current information about wines - making sure everyone has the correct, updated information - from vintages to pricing to tasting notes.

Fulfilling orders for wines - making sure our distributors in 46 states and accounts in 16 countries have the wine they need, keeping track of their inventory.

Paperwork. Paperwork. And even more paperwork.

But we also have some very fun opportunities. I shared our C&B Dancing Crow Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc and C&B Pinot Noir with attendees to the National Kidney Foundation's first annual charity polo tournament in Santa Rosa yesterday. We joined other wineries & vendors and had a grand old time in support of a good cause.


I especially enjoyed the Pinot Noir paired with a cheese spread of smoked mozzarella with slow roasted tomatoes. It may even be my new favorite!

The new tasting room!

Lynae in the middle & the Gordon brothers and their lovely wives (one crew from Palo Alto and the other from Chicago, Illinois). The 2007 C&B Paso Robles Cabernet was a favorite!



What you can't see is that we're all looking off into vineyards!

January-ness, No Rain, Wine awards

It's been a crazy January weather-wise! From morning frost to highs in the upper 70s the other week ... I'm all confused, and the wild mustard and grapevines are no different! (Yes, I am anthropomorphizing them, I admit it.)

A few rain drops have just fallen outside, but they're evaporating almost as soon as they hit the ground, "and I start to complain that there's no rain." Any Blind Melon fans out there?

The folks over at Napa Valley Wine Blog had a neat post about January in the Napa Valley - that it's like stepping back in time. My dad prefers to wine taste in Amador and El Dorado Counties, lamenting that Napa isn't like it used to be 30 years ago ... I'll send him the way of some of their suggestions!

Things have been fairly quiet here, though we've had some fun tasting crews, and this past week we released our C&B Reserve Dessert Syrah, which has been a big hit!

Even better, we were thrilled to find out that a number of our wines took medals at the 2009 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition! We were honored to be recognized among more than 4,000 entered wines.

The 2005 Lot 205 No. 1 Red is truly #1! It took Best of Class in Bordeaux Blends up to $14.99.

Our other award-winning wines:

2007 Lot 205 Cabernet Sauvignon, Gold Medal
2006 Lot 205 Merlot, Silver Medal
2006 Cartlidge & Browne North Coast Merlot, Silver Medal
2005 Cartlidge & Browne Red Hills Lake County Cabernet Sauvignon (Snows Lake Vineyard), Silver Medal
2006 Cartlidge & Browne Amador Zinfandel, Bronze Medal
2005 Moser Scharding Sonoma Valley Pinot Noir, Bronze Medal

Saturday, February 28, 2009 is the public tasting for the Wine Competition. We'll be pouring our winning wines, and so will all of the other fantastic winery awardees. Tickets are on sale, and the advance purchase price is fabulous!

Cheers!
Lynae

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!)