More or less this is our Q & A section on questions we get asked about from time to time.
Who do you hire to take care of the vineyards?
This is our favorite. We usually look at each other and point. We do most of the work ourselves. Pruning in the cold wet winter, thinning in the 100 degree heat of summer and everything in between. Our friend Millie Ottinger has joined us part time as Assistant Vineyard Manager. Millie is a journeyman carpenter and she manages trellis construction and repair as well as helping out with general vineyard tasks. Having the experience in the vineyard has actually opened a lot of doors for us with local winemakers who look at our dirty worn boots and know we’re serious about making wine.
What’s with the bottles?
We chose simple bottles. We have a little cellar at home and hate it when a bottle won’t fit, or it takes up the room of two. So we picked a simple bottle that will fit in your cellar.
How come there’s no foil?
The foil was originally put on to keep one’s butler from removing the cork stealing the wine, and replacing it with cheap wine. We only have one friend who has a butler, and we told him we’d put foil on his bottles for him. If you have a butler send us a note and we’ll put foil on for you. Otherwise we decided to leave it off.
How come you used cork?
This was our hardest choice. We know that some wine will be effected by TCA “Cork Taint” and there’s nothing we can do about it, except hope they call us and let us replace the bottle. But we’ve had problems in our own collection with screw caps and synthetics so neither was a clear better choice. We spent a lot of time talking to people in restaurants about closures, and although there always seems to be good awareness of the issues with cork, the staffs really prefer cork. We may change in the future, but for know we felt it was a calculated risk to trade off the good will in restaurants with the risk of TCA.
Who did the painting on the label?
Stefania
Do you have a ‘day job'?
Yes, Stefania works full time as an accountant at a mortgage company and Paul works full time as an executive at a software company. It’s a lot of work, most weekends are spent in the vineyards.
Do you plan on ‘retiring’ from the other jobs?
If all goes well, maybe in 7-8 years. We plan on increasing production a little each year and eventually planting our own vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Do you stomp the grapes?
Not really. They go through a machine called a crusher-destemmer that removes the stems and seperates the berries. We usually set that machine so it does not crush the grapes and they will ferment with whole berries. If not enough juice gets released though, we will jump into the fermentor and tread the grapes until enough juice is released. Since everyone is always curious about this, we do have a grape stomp in our backyard every harvest and everyone has a great time.
Can I get a signed bottle?
The way our storage and tax/bond situation is we can't really sign bottles that will be shipped. We will sign them in person though!
Can I get a magnum or large sized bottle?
We make a small number of magnums for each wine. For right now they are available only as gifts.
Can I buy your wine from a store?
We have a limited amount of wine that is set aside for restaurants and retail sales. This goes very quickly though and your best bet to get wine is to order it directly.
Where can you ship to?
Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming,Colorado, Texas, District of Columbia, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Washington, Wisconsin, and we just added Mass.
Do you have a waiting list?
Yes. We should be able to offer our Fall release to everyone who signs up before June 1st 2007. It's very likely those signing up after June 1st will have to wait until the Spring of 2008 to be offered wine. Our Spring 2007 release sold out in 5 weeks, and we did have a second chance offering to late sign ups. We expect the Fall release will sell out in two weeks or less.
