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Niner News - Fall 2009November 2009 Welcome to the ninth issue of Niner News!We are in the new winery! We crushed all our red grapes here and moved all the contents of our little San Luis Obispo office here and we are looking forward to bidding a fond farewell to the wonderful people from the construction crew once they complete the finishing touches. We do not have to say all our goodbyes yet though, since some construction folks will just be going to the other side of the property, where the tasting room and small winery are in their final phase of construction. Heart Hill and Bootjack Ranch UpdatesIt has been quite an interesting growing season – a late bud-break followed by a seemingly unending stream of warm days resulted in an early harvest at our Bootjack Ranch Vineyard. As a result of our winter work at Bootjack Ranch -- adjusting cordon length in the oldest vineyard blocks and improving our block and irrigation design in the acreage planted in 2001 – the grapes came in at low yields and very high quality. The vines at Heart Hill are in their third year on a challenging soil, so we left just a few clusters on the strongest vines to slow them down a bit and the fruit was yummy, but not nearly enough to make wine. We are very pleased to report some rain! On October 13th, Mother Nature blessed us with almost seven inches at Heart Hill and just shy of 3 at Bootjack Ranch and the soil soaked it up like a sponge. Cross your fingers for a wet winter! 
Harvest and CrushThis vintage marks the first in which we are a true estate winery, in the sense that we have complete control over vineyards and winery and the myriad of grape-growing and winemaking decisions that are involved. We converted to night harvesting in order to have cold fruit at the winery at 7am. We double-sorted all the fruit -- cluster sorting before the destemmer and berry sorting after -- removing anything and everything other than beautiful grapes. We delivered the fruit to the tanks by gravity, avoiding the use of must pumps and large stainless steel must pipes, which are notoriously difficult to keep clean. These are just a few examples of the large and small changes that we think will make a big difference in the Niner Wine Estates wines. New AdditionsWe are happy to announce the latest additions to the Niner Wine Estates team: Lorna Kreutz, Enologist After attending California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and obtaining her Horticulture degree, Lorna made the leap into the wine industry. She began by working in a tasting room, quickly working her way up to Tasting Room Manager but then realizing that Production was where she really wanted to be. After a couple years in the cellar, she enrolled in Fresno State University and obtained her second Bachelor’s degree in Enology and Viticulture. Lorna’s training, experience and can-do attitude make her a perfect fit for the Niner Wine Estates team. Lorna lives in beautiful Shell Beach with her partner Matt and darling dog Dunkel. Patrick Muran, Assistant Winemaker Patrick Muran has been an honorary team member of Niner Wine Estates from the beginning, due to his role as Production Manager at Orcutt Road Cellars, our previous custom crush facility in San Luis Obispo. Prior to his career in wine, Patrick earned his Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. After college, Patrick became an EMT in San Diego. Our team jokes that Patrick’s experience as an EMT was good preparation for walking onto a chaotic scene, just like one might encounter in a brand new winemaking facility in the throes of harvest! Patrick comes to us from Blackjack Ranch Winery, where he was also involved hands-on with a new facility, and we are so glad to have him on our team – his friendly personality and incredible calm are a breath of fresh air in this fast-paced environment! Patrick resides in the quaint Village of Arroyo Grande with his wife Heather and daughters Kaylinn and new baby Clare. 
Accolades2005 Fog Catcher – 90 Points from Wine Enthusiast! “Here’s a dry, tannic wine, elegantly structured, with deep flavors of blackberries, currants, herbs and cedar...Very nice with steak. Now–2011.” -Steve Heimoff, Wine Enthusiast. With 550 cases produced, the 2005 Fog Catcher is a special blend made by careful selection by Winemaker Amanda Cramer of exceptional individual barrels from the best lots of Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Aged for eighteen months in 50% new French oak and 50% once-filled French oak, the finished blend is 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Merlot. The score is featured in the October 2009 issue of Wine Enthusiast. We still have some of this fantastic wine available – to purchase, please visit our online wine shop: http://www.ninerwine.com/shop.php or give Allison a call at 805.239.2233. She will be able to give you an updated list of retail and restaurant accounts currently carrying the 2005 Fog Catcher. Upcoming EventsWe have many exciting consumer events this fall and are constantly adding more. Please be sure to check out our website; www.ninerwine.com and social networking sites Facebook and Twitter for updates on all consumer events! Women in Wine Feature Thursday, November 12th Friday, December 4th Monterey Street Wine Company Join the Niner Wine Estates team at the newly owned and managed Monterey Street Wine Company on Friday, December 4th. Our team will be there pouring five of our estate-grown, award-winning wines and discussing our brand new tasting room (set to open Spring 2010) on Highway 46 West in Paso Robles, California. The tasting will begin at 5:30PM, costs $20 per person and includes hors d’ouevres. For more information on the evening, please visit www.montereystreetwines.com. Niner Wine Estates feature at The Cheese Shop Saturday, December 12th The Cheese Shop Come sample award-winning Niner Wine Estates wines and fantastic cheeses from around the world in historic Santa Barbara at the newly opened ‘The Cheese Shop’ with the Niner team! Located in the Paseo Nuevo shopping center (across from Nordstrom) The Cheese Shop specializes in international cheeses, local wines and gourmet foods and is a great stop for holiday shopping. Please visit www.thecheeseshopinc.com for more information. Looking forward to seeing you there! CLUB 9We invite you to join our team as a member of CLUB 9. We created these exclusive clubs to share our new wines and to get to know our customers better. Whatever your choice of our two unique club options, you will receive invitations to member-only events (such as our Grand Opening Celebrations in Spring 2010), CLUB 9 discounts (up to 25%), a subscription to our quarterly newsletter Niner News, and access to our pre-releases and library wines. Membership is free, and entitles you to receive three shipments per year of hand-selected varietals. Our next CLUB 9 shipment is scheduled for November 16th and will include a pre-release of the 2007 Twisted Spur, our new red wine blend (currently only available to CLUB 9 members), exclusive food pairings prepared by Marco of Café Roma Restaurant in San Luis Obispo, and a special promotion on case purchases of our award-winning 2007 Sauvignon blanc (up to 50% off and a special shipping rate). The cost (excluding tax and shipping) for this club shipment is $65.60 for the 4-bottle CLUB 9 shipment and $114 for the 6-bottle CLUB 9 Onyx shipment. To learn more about CLUB 9 and join today, visit http://www.ninerwine.com/wineClub.php, email Allison at adana@ninerwine.com, or call 805.239.2233. |