First Grapes - Crush 2009

Our first grapes of the year arrived today: Zinfandel/Primitivo from Snows Lake Vineyard in Red Hills Lake County. More info about this fruit in last week's dispatch.










Last year we grafted over the rootstock to Zinfandel grapevines:










We had 4.3 tons come in today - and are still waiting to get the final stats from the lab as to sugar, pH, etc. We'll update in the next day or so!













The winemaking crew kept a very close eye on things ... and it's on. They're continuing to monitor the other vineyards, sampling grapes, and now seeing this first lot through fermentation. The winery smells like grapes today & we know that in the next few days, aromas of fermenting grapes will waft through the building.

Quick Grape & Harvest Update

Today Mauricio pulled Zinfandel grapes for sampling of sugars and acidity at Snows Lake Vineyard in Lake County. He amended the info, though - it's actually Primitivo (Clones 3 & 4).

The upper blocks are at 25.4 brix and a pH of 4 ... he says the lower blocks are still at 22 brix. It's likely we will hand-harvest the two upper blocks (one on an eastern-facing hill and the other adjacent on a western-facing hill) next week. Later on the lower ones.

The Sauvignon Blanc from Dancing Crow Vineyard isn't as close to being ready - Mauricio's current guess is September 14th or thereabouts.

He's also beginning to look at Merlot and Cabernet from Totem Ridge Vineyard - Cabernet is much later ripening - it will probably be ready in mid-October.

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!

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