More and more wineries are offering hands-on experiences that range anywhere from an engaged winery tour to week-long immersions. Judd's Hill in Napa Valley is now offering Barrel Blending Day Camp, a chance to spend a couple hours in a winemaker's shoes. The winemakers help you taste and choose from four barrel samples (two Cabernet Sauvignons, one Merlot, one Cabernet Franc---all Napa Valley appellation) and then talk you through the blending and hand-bottling processes right down to dipping the tops of the bottles in wax. The whole thing takes around two hours and you leave with your wine on that day.
The camp is available by advance reservation and can be open to one to 12 people per session. The Barrel Blending Day Camp at Judd's Hill has several options priced by how much wine you want to take home: $175 per person enables you to take home 3 finished bottles of wine; $325 per person results in 6 bottles; $600 is a 12-bottle adventure.
Napa Valley is buzzing about the rumors that one of the most esteemed wineries in the region, Chateau Montelena might be up for sale. Wine Spectator tracked down Bo Barrett, the winemaker and son of founder Jim Barrett, who was mum about a possible sale. But sources say that the winery has been but up for sale and offers over $100 million have come in. The Barrett family is currently considering offers. Chateau Montelena makes fine estate-grown Cabernets which currently sell for $125 a bottle. The winery is also one of the oldest in the area, dating back to 1882 when Alfred L. Tubbs bought the land and built the beautiful chateau. It was in bad shape in the late 1960s when Jim Barrett and a team of investors came along and with famed winemaker Mike Grgich started producing respected wines. Montelena's second vintage, the 1973, won the tasting in Paris in 1976.
Posted Jun 7th 2008 12:05PM by Rigel Gregg Filed under: Wine
City Winery is scheduled to open this fall in an unlikely place: right in the middle of Soho, New York. It will not only be the first winery in New York City but it's the first in any major urban area. City Winery will be a combination members-only winery and public nightclub -- only members will have access to where and how the wine is made. Three membership options will be offered starting at $5,000 and going as high as $15,000 annually, with membership owners getting the title of "barrel owner" with their own 50 gallon American oak barrel, 4 classes each year with wine makers, and a special venue to swap their vintages with other members.
Winemakers celebrate their history in a variety of ways but Gundlach Bundschu, California's oldest family-owned and -operated winery, has chosen a rather dramatic method to celebrate their sesquicentennial (150 years) throughout 2008. The winery will be putting on an original, one-man play, Towle's Hill, at the winery and in several cities around the U.S.
The Bundschu family collaborated with The Marsh, an award-winning San Francisco theater company, to create Towle's Hill. Told from the perspective of fourth-generation Rhinefarm steward Towle Bundschu, Towle's Hill chronicles the history of Gundlach Bundschu, while offering insight into the dynamics of family businesses, the complexities of father-son relationships and the desire to create something meaningful from a lifetime of work. Towle's Hill debuted on May 7, 2008 in San Francisco and will tour the country with performances in eight additional cities (Houston, Austin, Kansas City, Chicago, New York, Charlotte, New Orleans and Los Angeles) during June. The play tour will culminate in a Sonoma performance in September that benefits the Boys and Girls Club Valley of the Moon. More information on tickets for the performances can be found at the winery website.
Certainly in the last few years wine lovers have known to look to Chile for excellent wines that rival the Napa Valley but at bargain prices. It seems the same could be said for wine real estate. Vina La Playa is a boutique resort located in the Colchagua Valley an area considered to be the Chilean Napa Valley. The area is experiencing a tourist surge and has museums, a wine train, a casino and a beach that attracts windsurfers. The Chilean style hacienda has 11 bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, staff quarters and more. The lot is 22 acres with seven acres of of that devoted to vineyards. This property is listed at $1.7 million.
A big accident at a winery in Australia led to the loss of more than $10 million AUD in wine. The accident occurred when a fermenting tower collapsed at the Wirra Wirra winery in the McLaren Vale region. Seven workers were on a platform when it fell apart and a cellar hand was injured. The wine spilled after the concrete platform, which held several stainless steel fermenting tanks, crumbled. The winery has bee temporarily and workers have said that the situation inside the winery has been generally chaotic. before the accident. Most of the wine lost was red and from this years vintage.
Some people finally go for the dream of owning their own winery but don't get to enjoy it for very long. Such is the case with retired executive director of Omaha's Metro Area Transit Robert Curttright, Jr. who spent his very short retirement planning and creating the Whiskey Run Creek winery outside Brownville, Nebraska before he succumbed to cancer. Now the small winery is on sale for just $1.6 million. The winery is on 3.8 acres, and includes a 100-year-old barn, a 5,400 square-foot steel production building, a 100-year-old brick cave, a wishing well and a waterfall. The winery can produce up to 10,000 gallons of wine per year and there are around 60 vines of Chardonel and Chambourcin on a quarter acre just outside the barn. Eight miles away is another Curttright property which is 122 acres and includes a house and machine shed. This property is on the market for an asking price of $650,000.
More proof that the current trend in wine is toward being involved in the winemaking process comes in the form of a new website, Adopt a Grape. The website is an interactive experience in which you chose a grape from a specific row and vine in the vineyard and then receive video updates as the grape goes through the growing season and harvest. The site was co-founded by Duane Hoff, owner of Fantseca Winery in St. Helena which is having their hands-on harvest experience on October 6 if you want to experience winemaking first hand.
Most winemakers are interested in the latest technology and newest techniques. Dave Del Dotto of Del Dotto Vineyards in California is seeking to take a step backward, fermenting some of his wines in giant clay amphorae, the vessels used by the ancient winemakers to make wine. Del Dotto, who is also completing a new property with wine caves and a marble-columned room south of St. Helena, bought four amphorae in Tuscany. The clay vessels are said to be 300 years old and cost him $15,000 each. He has so far made Sangiovese, Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon and his first official release will be a 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon that will be available in the fall. The wine will be bottled in clay magnums and will sell for around $100. In this article in Wines & Vines, Del Dotto says he is happy with the result and will be buying custom-made clay fermentation vessels because it adds an earthy quality to the wine. The clay fermentation also softens the tannins in red wine. Del Dotto plans to experiments with whine wine and to bury some of the jars the way ancient winemakers did.
Giving a new meaning to the words wine flight, the Chandelle Winery specializes in wines with aviation art. The Sonoma winery takes its name from an aviation term used to describe a 180-degree change in direction and an increase in altitude. To celebrate the 80th anniversary of Charles Lindbergh's New York-to-Paris flight, the winery is offering a special limited edition labeled wine called The 19th Hour, The Spirit of St Louis. The 2004 Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon and 2005 Chardonnay Sonoma County wines have a label created by aviation artist Keith Ferris as well as a special 80th anniversary medallion. A portion of the sales will go to the Lindbergh Foundation, which supports technological solutions to improve the environment for a sustainable future. A three bottle box of two 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon and one 2005 Chardonnay Spirit of St Louis 80th Anniversary Edition sells for $70.
The latest in our series of wineries in places in the United States other than California takes us all the way to South Dakota and the Prairie Berry Winery. At Prairie Berry, as you may suspect by the name, they create a whole lot of fruit wines from fruit such as chokecherries, rhubarb and locally raised honey. They also make wines from new grape hybrids that can grow in South Dakota's colder, drier climate. The winery has had particular success with the Frontenac grape, a variety developed in Minnesota to thrive in colder climates. Their 2006 Frontenac, a light and fruity red which has won several awards, sells for $15. The wines are sealed using the Stelvin screwcap closure. The winery also has a tasting room that is open year-round.
As wine tastings have become more popular, wine tourists have gotten a bit rowdier. Along New York's wine trails the chauffeured limo and bus tours can be the bane of some winery owners existence despite the business they bring. The stories of people showing to the vineyards drunk and then stripping or getting sick have increased with the rise of the bus and limo tours.
Now wineries in the Finger Lakes Region have gotten together to do something about it. More than half of the 95 wineries in New York state's Finger Lakes region are participating in a program to issue "yellow-card warnings" to out-of-control tour groups. For repeated bad behavior the Safe Wine Tours Group will issue red cards and get booted off the region's three wine tour "trails." The program is designed to encourage tour operators to police their customers and hopefully curb some of the fraternity party atmosphere that can invade a winery when a bunch of unruly tourists pull up. Now when will Napa get a system like this?
I never knew that the Jacuzzi family , famous for the Jacuzzi spa also made wine but they do. In fact they have just opened a lavish new winery in the Sonoma Valley in partnership with the Olive Press. The two businesses are setting up shop on Highway 121 in an 18,000-square-foot Italian stone villa on 190 acres along Highway 121, directly across the road from Cline Cellars. red Cline is the maternal grandson of Valeriano Jacuzzi, one of the five brothers who took part in the creation of the Jacuzzi Spa. Fred and Nancy Cline also own Cline Cellars. The wines so far are from separate vineyards but according to an article in Sonoma News the two labels may share some vineyard sources in the future.
The new winery takes its inspiration from the Jacuzzi family home in Italy and has stone buildings assembled around a central coutryard. One wing is devoted to the Olive Press which makes high-end olive oil. The Jacuzzi winery uses "Green String" biodynamic farming practices with no chemical pesticides or fertilizers. The winery produces Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Nebbiolo, Primitivo and others at prices starting around $20.
The latest celebrity to get into the wine business is hockey's Great One, Wayne Gretzky. Wayne Gretzky Estate Wines will carry his number, 99 on the label and is a partnership with Niagara's Creekside Estate Winery in Jordan Station. Gretzky launched the new brand at his restaurant in Toronto, Gretzky's. The first three wines are a 2005 Meritage (a red blend), a 2006 Chardonnay and a 2005 Vidal Ice Wine. Gretzsky's wines will be created by Creekside winemakers Craig McDonald and Rob Power. They are priced at $17 for the red, $14 for white and $45 for the icewine (Canadian dollar prices). and are available starting at the Willow Heights Estate Winery. A portion of the proceeds will benefit youth hockey programs. Gretzky is also working on a Wayne Gretzy Estate Winery. Gretzky's not the first hockey player with his own wine but he's definitely the most famous.
We've talked before about the fusion between Nascar and fine living. Check out this article on Bloomberg about Nascar wines and the Bennett Lane Winery, the first winery to back a Nascar racing team. Former race car driver Randy Lynch is now a successful winery owner. He and his wife Lisa started off in th Napa Valley with a weekend house and a small vineyard but then picked up a nearby winery. The Lynches are part of an overall wine drinking trend in the Nascar crowd with the numbers of wine lovers rising steadily and wine now being sold at concession stands.
If you are looking for a light summer white wine the recently released 2006 Bennett Lane Maximus Feasting White wine is a nice choice. It is a blend of 87% Sauvignon Blanc, 11% Chardonnay, and 2% Muscat. It's a bit fruity but with a nice mineral snap to keep it crisp and refreshing. It sells for $28.
As wine tastings have become more popular, wine tourists have gotten a bit rowdier. Along New York's wine trails the chauffeured limo and bus tours can be the bane of some winery owners existence despite the business they bring. The stories of people showing to the vineyards drunk and then stripping or getting sick have increased with the rise of the bus and limo tours.
