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Rain! I don’t feel like working yet this morning so I went outside to capture some pictures. The nearly full copper bowl is one we use for chilling beverages, it’ll hold six bottles of wine comfortably with ice and look, it’s almost full of rain water!

Then I went out front just to see how much damage the rain is doing to the mini-vineyard…er, post garden. No vines yet, still another month or so before we put the plants in.

You can see a couple of low spots there in the foreground where the water is puddling up, but not too bad otherwise considering the slope and amount of rain we’ve been getting. Really, it’s been non-stop for several hours now.

I did manage to connect an extension to the drain spout since the last time it rained I noticed a river going through part of the vineyard. We haven’t put down any seed yet for a cover crop, but we’ll do that this spring around the same time the vines go in.

It doesn’t look very rainy (I don’t think), but the contrast between front and back yard is huge. The lawn in the back is LOVING this rain and the rest of the trees and roses are too. It’s like a tropical oasis compared to the front…which will be green in time.

These are the vines along the hedge around the patio, they’re going to look really awesome when they send shoots and fill in the empty space of the wires.

We had some really warm days back in January, the temperatures hit into the high 70’s and I watched the vines closely. I captured a couple of close ups today showing the swollen buds. A couple of years ago we had bud break as early as March 5th…I love watching that first little leaf pop out.

Stefania’s sugar cookies. The pink icing is made with Port.

She wanted to mail this out to everyone, but Yahoo was not cooperating.

Tomorrow we’re hitting the gym early for a long workout then relaxing in the afternoon. The weather is rainy which will keep us out of the vineyards, and we’re all caught up in the winery.

Tomorrow night we have a special dinner and wine pairing planned with a few friends. Seven courses and ten different wines are on the agenda. We’ll try and take pictures and notes.

Yesterday as we worked in the winery we tasted sample of each wine before sulfuring it. After adding sulfur it will take a few weeks for the wines to recover so this was our best chance to try the 2008’s for the next few weeks. This was the first time we’ve tried samples since they came out of the press after harvest.

First up was the Chaine d’Or Chardonnay. This wine was sulfured around Christmas so it was time to check on it. This is by far our highest alcohol wine this year at 15.3%. pH is 3.62 and the wine shows a nice crisp feeling. It’s very rich with soft peach and fig notes. This is really unlike anything from the Estate vineyard in the past. Much richer and fuller with more stone fruit notes. Stef and I both really like this wine.

Then on to the reds.

Estate Cabernet Sauvignon; 13.2% alcohol and a record high pH for the estate of 3.80. The wine is dark purple and has huge super ripe tannins. It’s not picking up any oak yet, just a black hole of dark fruit. This will be fun to watch in barrel.

Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet Sauvignon; 14.1 alcohol and a 3.76 pH. The only 2008 in the cellar over 14% alcohol this year. This is showing lots of ripe fruit and some of the minty spice notes we usually get. Tannins are very ripe on this wine. I’m expecting this to just have tons of fruit as it ages.

Elandrich Merlot (65%) / Cabernet Sauvignon (35%); 12.5% alcohol, yes, really 12.5% and a 3.64 pH. Ripe cherry notes right away from this wine. It’s starting to show some oak notes also. Very fruity. The tannins here are not as big as on the Cabernets. We always keep this vineyard separate for at least a few months before blending. This will likely go 50% in to the Haut Tubee and 50% into the Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet Sauvignon. If we do that it will lower the alcohol in that blend to about 13.8%.

Pinot Noir; 13.7% alcohol and 3.59 pH. Darker than the 07 at this stage. Shows the effort we made in the vineyard to increase concentration. Fruit is just starting to come out with lots of red fruit under the ripe tannins. I expect this wine will get darker and really explosive in the coming months.

Haut Tubee ; 13.8% alcohol and a 3.72 pH. Wow. Wow. Super ripe fruit is showing already. Plush in the mouth with perfect tannins. Right now this wine is the sexiest red in the cellar. Stef says: “you need to charge $75 for this, not $20.” We did just a little blending trial with the Elandrich and the combo was excellent. This will be another popular Haut Tubee.

The Crimson Clover Cabernet Sauvignon and Eaglepoint Ranch Syrah are at Big Basin, so no notes on those.

2008 looks like it will be good. The wines seem to have the ripe fruit of the 2007’s with the colors of the 2006’s. The low alcohols are cool. We had a little rain about three weeks before harvest and that seems to have kept the sugars lower and refreshed the vines. These wines might end up being the longest lived we’ve made so far.

Today we spent a full day in the winery racking and sulfuring our 2008 wines. We just received the lab reports back and the wines had all finished their malolactic fermentation. We inoculated all the lots with malolactic starter during fermentation. This process converts and softens the acidity in the wine.

In an older winery like Chaine d’Or we probably don’t need to inoculate. There is enough yeast present to start the process naturally. In fact we totally forgot to do the Elandrich lot and it started and finished on its own. Still it’s not something you want to risk. Because sulfur would stop the process, you can’t add any until it’s complete. This means the wine is unprotected from spoilage while it is going on.

That’s why we monitor it closely. As soon as it’s complete we want to get a good dose of sulfur in the wine to protect it. I’ve been following a trend that a few other winemakers have been doing lately of adding a larger dose now, with the hope I’ll have smaller doses later. I used to add 30-35 parts per million (ppm) now I add 50-60ppm.

It’s the normal process for us. First we empty the barrels into a tank. We keep each lot separate of course. We add the sulfur in the middle of the process so that it can mix into the wine well. Once the barrels are empty we rinse them and clean out any gunk that has settled.

Jerry usually handles the barrel cleaning and mans the part of the hose that empties and fills the barrels. I move the barrels and man the tank connections. I also run the pump and put in the additions. Stefania prepares the additions and takes the readings then helps us with the hoses. Above Jerry is cleaning two barrels on a special rack that lets the barrels spin freely.

Above both hoses resting in a tank. This was the 2008 Chaine d’Or Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. The sulfur had been added and the barrels were still being cleaned. In other racking we’ll let the Cabernets settle for a couple days before returning them to barrels but on this first racking we go right back into barrel. We don’t have the tank space to store all the wines for 2 days and it’s more important to get sulfur on them and prevent bacteria or spoilage.

One of our great challenges is the small space we work in. Above you can see barrels spread everywhere. Some are empty, being stored for this year. Others have wine, and the standing upright barrel we use as a table. The drains on the floor take away all the water we use.

Everything went well. Only two minor problems. I over ran about a gallon of Pinot Noir and we had one barrel I wasn’t happy with so we switched that one out for a different barrel. We got to try the wines too. Notes on them tomorrow!

We’ve been trying to increase the amount of fish we are eating and lower the amount of beef. Part of the training program we started before harvest last year that worked so well and kept us going through those long hard days. The hardest part though has been finding good fresh fish.

The selection in our local Nob Hill market is absolutely horrible. Farmed and dyed salmon, frozen things, farmed things, and nothing local or fresh. The really bad part is the selection is actually better than Lucky’s or Safeway. Whole Foods is an option. There’s one about 10 miles from us, and one that is off the freeway between home and the winery.

But really, scallops should not be $23 a pound. For $23 a pound I want Selma Hayak to come over and cook them for me. Sadly that’s not going to happen.

There is an option though. Ranch 99 Markets. I, like most non-Asians I think, was completely intimidated to go into the Ranch 99 Market. Lucky for us though we found a great solution. A tour. Our good friend Ingrid took us one Saturday afternoon on a ‘tour’ of her local Ranch 99 market. Patiently translating things for us from Chinese and guiding us through the process to select and purchase fish from the amazing display of seafood.

We told her she could easily charge people for a tour like that. Put together a ‘field trip’ at $75-$100 a person and then cook an authentic hot pot dinner after the shopping. She thought we were insane. Kind of like my uncle thought everyone was insane for telling him in the 1970’s he should bottle the fresh spring water on his New Mexico ranch. “Who would buy water?”, was his puzzled reply.

Back to the plot. We’ve ventured out on our own now a few times to the Ranch 99. At first, still hesitant I stuck to the packaged fish. Still fresh, cheap, and far better than anything from the ‘white peoples’ market. Scallops, creamy, with a deep sea smell and only $10 a pound. Stefania ventured into the lobster tanks over Christmas. $8 a pound for live lobster. It’s $24 everywhere else.

Yesterday though I decided to take on the whole fish section. I remembered Ingrid’s instructions. Pick out your fish. I know how to look for the right one and selected a fine Branzini. You then take one of the bags at the ends of the iced section and grab the fish. Hold it high and soon one of the fish mongers will come to you. Call out your number. “3” means clean, scale and remove the head. Just how I wanted it. There is a helpful sign with a picture of each of the six services. “5” will get you cleaned, scaled, head and tail removed, and steaks made.

It occurred to me as the monger approached me with some reserve; he’s probably as afraid of the coming exchange as I am. His English is no doubt just a bit better than my Chinese. That moment of realization made the entire event go so much easier. A few minutes later I headed back to work with my Branzini ready for baking last night with onions, fresh herbs, olive oil and lemons from our tree.

Today I think I’m going back for some live spot prawns!

The Wine Spectator Forums

We use a points system to figure out who gets offered what wines and how much. The allocation size is based on the wine we have available and the number of points a person has on our mailing list.

You get points by buying wine. One point for every dollar spent. We also have given points for people who have set up or hosted dinners for us while we travel. If you buy our wine from a restaurant or retailer and fax me a copy of the receipt, I’ll give points for that as well.

At each release I sit down and divide up the number of bottles that we will offer based on the points pool. Right now we have a few people over 3000 points and one over 4000 points. There are about 70 people with more than 1000 points. The higher the points, the higher the allocation you get.

We have also started a futures program for our most loyal customers. That gives them the chance to buy our hardest to get wines before they are released and secure an allocation in advance. The first futures offer went out to our top 48 customers or about 10% of our list. 30 of those people bought futures and they will qualify for the next futures offer in the summer. The remaining 18 spots on the futures list will go to the next 18 highest point totals on our list. That way new people have a chance to enter the program. Right now we are planning on keeping it at 48 people total.

If this all seems a little complicated, it is, but it also seems to be working and getting wine out to the people who want it. The first real tough time I think we will have is with our Spring Release. After we offered our 2007 Pinot Noir on futures, we have fewer than 90 bottles left. That means that it will take more than 1000 points to get an allocation. It doesn’t get much better in the near term future either. We’ll only have about 60 cases of the 2008 Pinot Noir, and we should have about the same amounts in 2009 and 2010.

As I said on the Wine Spectator forum, if you sign up now, and buy every bottle we offer you, you still might not earn a Pinot Noir allocation for some years. I wish we had more wine, but we are so picky about the grapes we’ll use I’m afraid it will stay this way for some time.

A lot of people have started to share allocations and divide them up. I actually support that idea. I think it’s fair to everyone and gives people lower on the list the chance to try a bottle or two of wine. If you let me know who is buying what, I even assign out points to each individual. I hope that all not to confusing, and I’m glad that people like our wine so much.

We’ve done a redesign again on our 2007 labels.

For the 2005 labels we were not happy with the artwork on the label. It captured just a portion of the water color painting and was missing the radar tower on Mount Uhmunum. That was something I really wanted on the label because I thought it was a distinct Santa Cruz Mountains sight.

For the 2006 wines we switched to a wrap around label that captured all of the original art work. Unfortunately it didn’t work well on the bottling line. It was prone to wrinkles and failures that required us to manually apply about 25% of the labels and made for a very unpleasant day of bottling.

For our 2007 wines we think we’ve finally got everything together. The artwork was condensed. The scale is not perfect, but we got both Mount Madonna and Mount Uhmunum on the label. On the first bottling of the year things went perfectly with no issues at all. I shortened the ‘romance’ on the back label to just a short bit about the vineyard location, drinking windows and the case count.

There’s one typo on this version of the label that we corrected before going to print, otherwise this is what you’ll see in our 2009 releases.

Sunday morning Stef and I got a chance to head to Calero park for a hike that took us about 2 hours. We haven’t been able to go hiking as much as we used to with the weekend demands on our time, but this Sunday was a good combination of free time, and good weather.

Calero is just about 15 minutes from our house. 5 miles actually, but there is no real direct route. The park is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains and our hike starts out at about 300 feet elevation. A quick 3/4 mile climb brings us up to about 1100 feet. These pictures are from the high point of the climb, just as we clear one ridge line.

You might recognize the mountain and tower in the background from our label.

Despite clearly being in the Santa Cruz Mountains, this area is not in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA. When the original lines were drawn up in the 70’s, the people drawing the lines wanted to leave out a couple of low quality producers who were making wines in this area. They drew the line so that those wines could not say ‘Santa Cruz Mountains’, even though as you can see, this is area is by altitude, geography, geology and every other factor, except wine, part of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

This is another picture that should look just a little like our label.

This section of the mountains is where our Uvas Creek Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced from, as well as our new offering the Crimson Clover Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. Those wine carry the Santa Clara Valley AVA, even though they are not really in the valley section, they are in this strip of mountains.

This area is where Stefania and I want to eventually build our winery and plant our own vineyard. We want to be a little south of Calero in an area called Uvas Canyon. I’m not really worried about the AVA thing. We’ll likely just label the wine ‘Santa Clara County’ when the time comes, or maybe if I get the urge I’ll see if I can’t get this area it’s own AVA name. Maybe ‘Uvas Canyon’ would work.

The last picture is just a bit blurry but it gives you an idea how rugged this area can be. Nothing is really ‘flat’ for more than a couple acres, so any planting will have to be in small patches and work with the existing hills.

We have quite a few events coming up.

February 21st – Pick up day and Open House at Chaine d’Or. We’ll be open from 11-3 for pick up of our Winter release and tastings of our other wines. If the weather is nice, bring a picnic and spend the afternoon.

February 28th – San Francisco Wine Chronicle Tasting at Fort Mason.

Fort Mason

We’ll be pouring our 2006 Uvas Creek Cabernet Sauvignon and 2006 Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet Sauvignon

March 8th – Twist Restaurant.

Twist

We’ve put together an event for friends coming from out of town. We’ll probably bring a little of our wine along.

March 15th – San Diego and March 17th – Pasadena Family Winemakers:

Family Winemakers

We’ll be pouring at both events….and looking for a party on Monday night 🙂

March 27th or 28th – Nashville TN

Nashville

Probably will be the first tasting of our 2007 Eaglepoint Ranch Syrah.

In May we’ll be hosting our Friends of the Winemakers dinner. This will probably be the only public chance to try our 2007 Pinot Noir. There will be a strict limit of 36 seats so if you’re interested you MUST get signed up with the Friends of the Winemakers by following the link on the left. The last dinner had 47 seats sold in one week, so sign up quickly when the dinner is announced.

We’ve put an east coast trip into our budget for this year. Dates to be determined, but September is possible.