Hello Friends and Lovers of great wine –
Spring has come and gone and we are now slightly past summer solstice. Due to the nitrogen-rich and salt-free rains of this past winter, the vines are growing heavy with fruit. We have completed shoot thinning and the vines are better balanced. Leaf pulling is finished so that sunlight and fresh air can reach the vines easier. And we’ve adjusted the trellis catch wires for optimum fruit concentration. Ready to move forward toward harvest!
Good thing the kids are off for the summer. Good help is hard to find these days.
As I write this newsletter, our heroic firefighters are still battling the Whittier Fire in the Los Padres forest started 10 days ago by a car fire off of Highway 154. The hot weather certainly hasn’t helped the situation. Thus far, more than 18,000 acres have burned. We’re lucky that the fire is some distance from our vineyards. Ash and smoke taint can have a devastating effect on the quality of our fruit.
We’ve added a new vineyard this year for our 2017 “L’Inox” Sauvignon Blanc program. Grimm’s Bluff in the Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara AVA is a young vineyard with a lot of potential. We will be working with two clones of Sauvignon Blanc, Musqué and Clone 1. The Musqué clone is known for its aromatics and Clone 1, found at Chateau D’Yquem, my grandfather’s favorite white wine, is valued for its body, grassiness and citrus attributes.
Our 2016 “Les Jumeaux” Pinot Noir, 2015 White Hawk Syrah, and new-to-our-portfolio 2016 “Cuvée Rouge 246” Rhone-inspired blend are still aging gracefully in barrel where they will finally be for 18-24 months before bottling. Samplings from the barrel show great promise. Delicious!
And we’re less than a month away from bottling our 2016 “L’Or de Salomon Pico” Chardonnay from the Santa Maria Valley AVA.
Let us know if you’d like to host a private Cordon pairing dinner in your home. We travel within the state of California. With wine and a chef and a grill and the protein(s) of your choice. Please contact Jamie at Jamie@HollywoodandWine.net for more information.
On the subject of winepairings, we’re pairing our wines with Wood & Vine’s cooking for a Vine To Vine Dinner tomorrow night in Hollywood, tomorrow being July 19th. Please go to our Event page for more information. I believe that we still have a few empty seats. One of them undoubtedly has your name on it.
Cheers,
Etienne Terlinden
