A new and little winery from the Diamond Mt. region. The Dyers' are both winemakers, Bill for Sterling Daimond Mt Cab, Dawnee for Chandon. Both with over 20 years of experience. This is what a Cabernet Sauvignon should be. Full robust dark cherry, leather, dusty finish and understated oak. There is none of the California overripe and jammy fruit that so many have gone towards. It is lovely to finally have a California Cabernet Sauv that speaks to what they once were and a price that is shocking for the quality in the bottle. This is definetly a wine for those who lend toward an older style or remember when before so many started tasting and feeling the same. This wine pairs well with ribeye and spagehettei and meatballs. It is also ageable for at least the next 8-10. Note that it needs to be decanted otherwise it takes two days for this wine to really shine.

Rating: 4.35 / 5.00

Companies Agree to Accelerate Termination of ABSOLUT Distribution Joint Venture in U.S.

Under the agreement, Pernod Ricard will pay Fortune Brands $230 million in pre-tax proceeds, and Fortune Brands will pay $100 million to Pernod to acquire the premium Cruzan Rum brand. The agreement will result in the termination as of October 1st of the U.S. distribution agreement between Fortune Brands' Beam Global Spirits & Wine business and the U.S. business of V&S Group recently acquired by Pernod. The joint distribution agreement had been scheduled to remain in place through February of 2012.

If you’re looking for a clear sign that the wine blogging world is getting more serious, committed and professional, look no further than the European Wine Bloggers Conference, which is starting just about now in Logroño, Spain.

A few dozen bloggers are gathering over this weekend to discuss wine blog writing, blog technology, monetizing (some of us dreamers actually think we could make a bit of a living out of this…) and, in a related question, standards and codes of conduct that should guide bloggers. Interestingly enough, ethics and standards have been generating a huge amount of discussion, following a very pointed PR operation by Rodney Strong winery, which enlisted wine bloggers as the first reviewers of its new Rockaway wine: see here, here and here - oh, and here… and here for the debate.

Oh yeah. They’ll also be tasting wine, especially Spanish wines, thanks to co-organizers Ryan and Gabrielle Opaz, from Catavino, who prepared this world first along with Robert McIntosh. They got the thing together, got sponsors… everything you’d expect from a professional event. Congrats.

Can’t be in Spain? No problem. You can take a look at the live blogging, or see conference pictures on Flickr, to get you in the spirit of things. And I’m sure a lot of the participants will be blogging sooner than later about the conference, the tastings… just the tough weekend this will surely have been.

I wish I could be there, but I’m not feeling blue, since I’ll be taking part in the second such conference, taking place in late October in California. Close to 90 participants are already registered. Should be quite a blast. A very professional blast. Of course.

1. European Wine Bloggers Conference Underway.
Another good sign for the vibrancy of the wine blogosphere. In Spain they are investigating what it means to be a wine blogger, how to be a wine blogger, where the medium is going and where it will end up. You can follow the conference via video and a comments section. This kind of conference is a first. The second conference of its type will happen on October 24-26 in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, CA.

2. Pennsylvania Wine Shipping
All signs seem to point to Pennsylvania not passing direct shipping legislation. The proposed new law would have out of state wineries (not retailers) taking orders and sending the wine to state stores where it would be picked up for a fee. Many employees of the state stores, the distributors and consumers don't like the legislation for very different reasons. It's a good sign that consumers and many wineries have come out against this rigged system that really only helps consumers in a nominal way. Pennsylvania will have to address their shipping issue at some point. But it doesn't look like it will happen with the current legislation.

3. Tennessee Takes Up Direct Shipping—Again
Tennessee is set to take up again the issue of selling wine in grocery stores as well as over the Internet. TN is one of those state where consumers must go to a liquor store to get wine rather than the grocery store, where they also happen to pick up their foods. It's also a state where it's a felony, like rape, to ship a bottle of wine directly to a consumer. The bill that got tabled in committee earlier this year is a good one. It allows consumers to buy wine and have it shipped directly to them from in-state wineries, in-state retailers, out-of-state wineries and out-of-state retailers.

4. CA Harvest Ready to Ramp Up
The CA harvest is nearly ready to go into full swing. Numerous wineries I've spoken to say they will likely begin picking grapes seriously next week. Sauvignon Blanc is almost perfectly ready in the warmer areas of the North Coast of California. Chardonnay will likely be coming in to. We are told the crop will be slightly smaller than average generally, very much smaller than normal in some varieties, and probably heavier than normal for a few varieties. Massive, record breaking heat has hit the North Coast over the past couple of days. This isn't want the grape growers really want.

G.H Mumm, the Champagne house owned by Pernod Ricard has completed a trial production run of bottle which weigh 835 grams (around 1.84 pounds which is a couple of ounces lighter than regular bottles which are 900 grams). The lighter bottles will be put in caves where the bottles will age.

The lighter bottles will save money on fuel because more of them can be loaded on each truck. Pommery, which already uses the bottles, says that if all the Champagne houses switched to lighter bottles there would be 3,000 fewer trucks on the road each year.

By Deidre Woollard.

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Hope-Merrill House

Something often overlooked in the wine industry, is how much our local business’ support and loyalty can really elevate a small winery to a whole other level of being ‘known’.  At Michel-Schlumberger we’re great friends and allies of our local businesses.  A great example is our relationship with the local Inns, B&B’s and hotels.  These folks aren’t just our neighbors in wine country who are trying, as we are, to run a business in a tourism driven area, they are friends.  They are also the bread and butter behind why we have so many guests who come to us already impressed with our story and completely ready to embrace our winery and our wines as something special.  

Just to name a few of our friendly innkeepers (must save something for future blogs…….), we have:

Cosette and Ron Schrauber at Hope-Merrill and Hope-Bosworth Bed and Breakfast Inns (http://hope-inns.com/ourinns.htm) in Geyserville.  Cosette and Ron run quaint, historic B&B’s with a feel of luxury and hominess to them.  They keep their places in tip-top shape, and provide a warm and amiable ambiance for out of town travelers.  A homemade (and more than plentiful) group breakfast and coffee are served each morning in their Victorian style dining room. 

Many an interesting conversations have started up between travelers at this table……..  Last time I breakfasted there I found myself at the table with 5 journalists, a newly married couple on their honeymoon from Canada, and a local Bay Area couple who were biking their way through wine country.  I ended up inviting them all to Michel-Schlumberger of course, and several showed up!

Cosette and Ron send a lot of their guests to Michel-Schlumberger to take our Estate Tour, do a special tasting or cheese pairing, or even head out on one of our morning Green Tours.  We appreciate their referrals and take it as the highest compliment that they trust us with something as important as their guests satisfaction. 

I see Cosette and Ron out and about at our local wine industry gatherings, and every time I ask them how they manage to own and manage two Inns as well as actually get out and do some socializing with their neighbors.  They just smile and shake their heads and say they have no idea……………..

Hope-Boswell House

Again, each week we’ll be talking with the fine folks from Spring Mountain Vineyard up in St. Helena to get details about what’s happening both in the vineyard and at the winery throughout Harvest 2008.

Our first installment finds the winery expecting its first fruit–the Sauvignon Blanc–to come in sometime in the next week to week-and-a-half. Ron Rosenbrand, vineyard manager at Spring Mountain Vineyard, shared the following:

August at Spring Mountain Vineyard is a time where we are primarily concerned with irrigation. All the other jobs have been completed by now (shoot positioning, leaf removal, green harvest, training, etc) and keeping the vines and clusters hydrated is most important. Our steep slopes with shallow, infertile soils dehydrate quickly on hot summer days. [Ed note: this is precisely what we discussed in our related post last month]

The Sauvignon Blanc does look like we will start harvesting it within the next week or so. The Sauvignon Blanc harvest will last over two weeks because of the different micro climates on the property. We range from 400 foot elevation to 1600 feet and different slope exposure and soil variations. All these factors contribute to varying degrees of fruit maturation. We take berry samples of the fruit to check Brix, Total Acidity and PH. We use this information as a guideline to determine which blocks are getting close. As fruit nears the desired brix range, Jac, Leigh (our associate winemaker) and I walk the blocks tasting berries. We base all of our picking decisions on Palate, chewing skins, checking seed color looking for physiological maturity. With time, the tannins in the skin of the berry soften and the green flavors begin to disappear.

We excitedly await the beginning of harvest which looks to be another fabulous vintage at Spring Mountain Vineyard.

Here’s a shot of the crew sampling the Sauvignon Blanc earlier this week. In the photo are Jac Cole, winemaker, Leigh Meyering, associate winemaker and Ron Rosenbrand, vineyard manager. Note that Leight is holding her newborn son Zachary who arrived in early June!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, winemaker Jac Cole filled us in on what’s going on at the winery:

The month or so before harvest is always a hectic time; as you’re aware winemaking is a very cyclic business requiring certain rotating processes starting with new grape harvest and ending with the bottled wine. To that end the 2006 red wines are ready to bottle to make room for the 2008 gapes to be processed and take their place in the cellar. We started bottling in July and just finished the 2006 Spring Mountain Cabernet on August 25th. We were in the vineyard this morning tasting Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir and we decided that the SB should start Monday or Tuesday next week and the Pinot some time around Wednesday or Thursday.

Timing is everything and it’s working out just barely this year; we have a whole new sorting system being installed this year and since the equipment only arrived this Monday we have a week to get it set up and running; brilliant planning if I do say so myself.

The key to running a harvest is to have a detailed plan covering every aspect of what to harvest, how and when; then be ready to rip it up and start over the day the grapes start arriving. We have such a plan, so we’re ready to go.

So there you have it, some details on what’s happening up on Spring Mountain in the days leading up to the beginning of Harvest 2008. Stay tuned for next week’s update when things should really begin to get interesting as the first fruit begins to come in.

Don’t forget to check out our Harvest 2008 category for all of this year’s harvest-related coverage.

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