New Releases

We have a new release coming out this week.  Letters are in the mail.  If you don’t get one let us know.  We have three wines we’re releasing.

2012 Stefania Cabernet Sauvignon, Crimson Clover Vineyard, Santa Clara Valley

Release Price: $45 per bottle.
Total production: 108 cases

We harvested on 9/22 and sorted it in the field before transport to the winery. The grapes were 100% destemmed and crushed into 2 bins for fermentation on native yeast. The bins were moved inside the winery and punched down twice per day. We followed our normal pressing and settling routine and the wine aged in 2/3 new oak for 21 months.

The wine is typical Crimson Clover Vineyard with expressive black and plum fruit framed with spice and floral notes. There are notes of mocha and blackberry on the finish and round tannins. We expect this wine to age very well. Alcohol 13.7%

2012 Stefania Mourvedre, ‘Restitutor Orbis’, Spur Ranch, San Benito County

Release Price: $32 per bottle
Total production: 101 cases

Our second year of Mourvedre fruit from Spur Ranch. Paul had so much fun with the Latin quote on our first Mourvedre that he had to keep the tradition up. This one is about a 3rd century emperor. We had the chance to use whole berries in the fermentation process in 2012 and combined that with 40% new oak for a very round and flavorful Mourvedre.

The wine has everything someone who could defeat the Alamanni, Goths, Vandals, Juthungi, Sarmatians, and Carpi could want. There’s plenty of dark wild fruit to power you on to crush the Palmyrene Empire and Gallic Empire as well. Alcohol 14.4%

2013 Stefania Chardonnay, Chaine d’Or Vineyard, Santa Cruz Mountains

Release Price: $25 per bottle
Total production: 95 cases

We continued retraining to the Guyot method in the vineyard based on the experiments we had done in 2012.  The results were excellent and on 9/14 we harvested 143 bins or 4290 pounds and pressed the must whole cluster in one pressing. The must was transferred to a chilled tank for settling off the gross lees. Brix was 23 with pH 3.36 and TA .82. On 9/15 the wine was transferred off its gross lees into a chilled tank inside and inoculated with QA-23 yeast and yeast food. We maintained temperatures under 65 degrees during tank fermentation but did not super chill the must before transfer.

On 9/22 the wine was transferred to 7 barrels which were filled 2/3 full to finish fermentation. On 10/5 the wine was showing as completed primary fermentation and was reduced down to 5 full barrels + one keg. Lees were stirred at that time. The wine went through Malo with no issues and for the first time since 2008 we did not have to haul the barrels out into the sun in the Spring to finish fermentation.

The wine showed excellent chemistry and we decided to bottle with out fining or filtration. The wine will appear slightly cloudy in glass but is full of ripe fruit and wonderful crispness. Stefania loves this Chardonnay and it’s her favorite we’ve made. There is just 20% new oak and the stone fruit flavors really shine in this wine. Alcohol 13.7%

Anything that does not sell out in from the mailer we will add to the website in mid-April.

Front Yard & Garden Update

The garden had a little bit of frost/cold damage that got to the potato plants.  They are recovering now and everything else is doing great.  I also lost seedlings in the cold so will have to restart my tomato plants and herbs.    I harvested a leek and a few asparagus spears so far.  The lettuce and swiss chard is just about big enough to make a micro green salad or two for us also.

I put in a couple of strawberry plants and I’m making a second try at artichokes.  The first try I started in the clay soil and they did poorly.  This time around I’m starting them in the planter boxes and will move them to the ground when they get mature enough to deal with the heavy soil.  Since an artichoke is permanent I don’t want to leave it in a planter box.

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I should have put these crash pictures up originally of the front yard but I think they were on my work phone and I didn’t have them to upload when I did the last blog.  The front originally had a group of very mature chestnut trees and oleanders along with other trees and shrubs.  There were also some pretty pitiful grape vines on a rickety old trellis.  I removed the vines and trellis right away.  Anyone who would have seen the condition of those vines and trellis would have thought there was no way we know what we’re doing.

This first picture shows the area that was damaged by the two crashes.  The first took out most of the oleanders and damaged the chestnuts.  I had just cut down the chestnuts when the second crash took out most of the rocks and the remaining plants on the south side of the strip.

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This is the car in the driveway crashed into an olive that I’d cleaned up earlier.  It stopped about 100 feet from it’s original impact and flip over point.  One large boulder (about 150 pounds) ended up in the creek 200 feet from where it started.  You can trace the impacts as it skipped across the yard.
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I wanted to get these up so I can put up some after pictures after all the work we’ve done to repair things up front.  There are new trees and shrubs and strategically located 6x6x6 posts, which will also form a fence and eventually gate.  We put in a lot of reflectors also to provide some visual warning as the plants mature.  I should be done with the first round of work this weekend and just have the fence and gate left to do.