It's Summer!

Well, it’s been way to long since I wrote my last blog, leaving me a lot to cover.
This summer has been busy so far – there’s a lot to cover!  I have a new wine broker that I’m excited about as they assist in getting Calstar out in the market. Additionally, I’ve been reestablishing contact with some old accounts notably CAV Wine Bar in San Francisco and the Sonoma Wine Shop in Sonoma and Sebastopol, all great old accounts into which we are happy to return.  

On the production-side, I bottled and ’09 Gewurztraminer for two clients, Londer Vineyards and Halleck Vineyards. Both are done in a dry style (“Alsatian”) and is probably my favorite white wine after Sauvignon Blanc.  Almost all the wines are through M-L (malolactic) fermentation and sulphured.  I’ve been finding that several of my ’09 Pinot Noirs have changed dramatically in the last weeks.  Most of these are to the “good”, but it still confuses blending plans and what vineyards/blocks to include in next harvest’s plans.

Speaking of blending, I have started the hard but creative process of putting together blends for the ’09 Pinot bottlings, with Chardonnay to follow in 3 weeks. The difficult part is to assess blends and try to maintain perspective over a long day’s tasting. The creative/exciting part is that I have some of the best wines I’ve made to date to start with and now it’s a matter of creating blends that accent the positive characters of each lot.  Happy Summer!