From Sandra's Desk:




August 2021

Greetings from Merry Old England!  Yes, Alan and I have crossed the pond to attempt to bring "Back to the Future - The Musical" to the London Stage.  Actually, ALAN is working on the musical. I am happily tagging along to make tea and be the Chief Cheerleader, a role I am well versed in, to be sure.  
Granted, it's a little more difficult to write a newsletter about the goings on in our vineyard from 5,405 miles away.  But lucky for me, we have a wonderful staff and crew who keep us well apprised of what is going on in the vineyard and tasting room. I am never far from Carmel Valley in my heart (and now, in my text and email messages. LOL)
The grapes have begun veraison and are turning beautiful shades of purple and green.  Luckily, the weather is cooperating and (fingers crossed) we have not been dealt the horrors of the past year, so for now…..everything is on track for a banner harvest.  Speaking of horrors of last year, Frank rescued us from total loss caused by the -----(I can't even say the word but it starts with f and rhymes with hires) with his brilliant idea to take our lovely red wine grapes and press them without leaving the skins in the juice so that we have a beautiful bunch of rosé's to share with you all. We are now offering Grenache Rosé, Pinot Noir Rosé, Syrah Rosé, and a beautiful Rosé blend of Cabernet Franc and Malbec.  In other words, everything is coming up Rosés in our wine offerings.
We will be home in time for a portion of the harvest but in the meantime you can rest assured our wines are in the same good hands they have always been in and the wine promises to be a great year.  I will keep you informed as to the progress of the harvest and of the stage musical, too. Wish us luck but not a broken leg. I already tried that this summer and although it was only my ankle, it hurt like heck!  

I'll end by saying…..

Cheerio!   (when in Rome..or in this case, London)

Sandra

From The Winemaker:

Hey all,
I hope this newsletter finds everyone happy and healthy! I have been struggling a bit to come up with something new to talk about, then it hit me, of course it's a struggle, it's the dog days of summer. We've been farming for 6 months, kind of repeating the same work , which endlessly keeps going, and we still are at least a month and a half away from any grapes coming in. Generally, we pull the first grapes off the last week of September and trickle it in through all of October and the beginning of November. This year started VERY cool, reminiscent of 2010 and 2011, which evidently were the 2 coldest summers in recorded California history, but has started to catch up and will hopefully continue to do so. I am very excited about this years harvest. I am hoping and praying its the most boring, nothing to report year ever, meaning everything just goes as well as it can go. If that happens then the wines will be incredible. Generally cooler years allow for the grapes to get physiologically ripe, meaning, all aspects of ripeness (sugar, acid, tannin) are in tune at the time of harvest. One might think that that happens every year, and with how long we let the grapes hang, that is generally true, but other vineyards, AVA, winemakers sometimes choose to pick when the acid is right, but the fruit isn't truly ripe, yuck...or they pick way to early sugar wise and the tannins are extreme so you have wines that just aren't that drinkable at a young age, in any event, my goal is to make wines that can age really well but also be drinkable at a young age for those folks, like me, that like a bigger richer kick in the face. Let's hope the dog days get a little easier, the Giants continue to win and torrential rains are in the forecast for this winter...as always thank you for the continued support, ,,, Frank

Back to the Future The Musical
Opens August 20th, 2021
at the Adelphi Theater in London

          
Back to the Future the Musical | The Official Website