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!

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!

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!

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!