Awards Update

I'm happy to announce Moonstone Cellars is doing pretty well at the beginning of "competition season." The 2005 Merlot and the 2007 Vioginer have won gold medals already, and all new releases have won medals.

So far, Moonstone Cellars has won 60 medals in less than two years of competitions.

Gladly, there are no awards ceremonies. I can't image an "Academy Awards" celebration for wineries. I can just see Joan Rivers scoffing at the winemaker's attire: "Oh, my god Melissa, have these guys never heard of Wine Away? They seem to spill more on themselves than bottle. How about their clothes? Just once I'd like to see a winemaker not wear a tee-shirt with his logo on it. They must think Armani is some Italian wine they've yet to try."

Luck of the Irish

They say (and it's true), it takes a lot good beer to make great wine. So, to underscore this point, I'm am bottling all our table wines on this St. Patrick's Day, March 17th. I figure this should be a lucky day for a process that can be fraught with problems (the bottling line can be cursed with mechanical gremlins and labor shananigans).

I'm still not sure why we celebrate a guy who is falsely credited with driving all the snakes out of Ireland. I can only image a old tale, told to every generation of Irish youngsters about how St. Patrick (played by Samual L. Jackson) finally said, "Enough is enough! I have had it with these bloody feckin' snakes in this bloody feckin' country!" He tells everybody to "strap in", because he is "about to open some bloody feckin' windows". See, it's about as plausible as bad Hollywood action thriller.

But that's not gonna stop me from enjoying myself. I'm part Irish (1/8, I think) and I plan to tip a Guinness and enjoy some corned beef and cabbage once bottling is completed. I can then relax knowing all those are "made" and go back to drinking wine!

A Toast for St. Patrick's Day:

May your blessings outnumber
The shamrocks that grow,
And may trouble avoid you
Wherever you go.

Needed: Crystal Ball

I don't know whether to be happy or sad.

They're gone. The toasty vanilla 2004 Chardonnay- Poof! The peachy 2006 Viognier- disappeared! The berry-bomb 2005 Zinfandel- all guzzled down!

As much as I loved these wines it's time to end the mourning and begin looking toward the future. The 2007 Viognier is getting rave pre-release reviews and I hope to have it bottled in January. We'll also bottle the 2006 Zinfandel early next year. But it will be another year before we have another toasty chardonnay.

As a new winery, you wish you had a crystal ball to see how much of a particular wine you will sell. Ideally, we would have enough to get us through to the next vintage. But, alas, we had a lot of thirsty customers this year and they drank us dry before we could make more.

I'm told this is a good thing. For it's better to sell out than to have too much inventory (wine doesn't last forever). But as the tasting room stays open for a couple of years, we'll be more able to see the sales trends to better match our production.

But in the meantime, I'll keep looking for crystal balls on eBay.

Harvest Report 9

Wow, where is the time going? It's been a month since the last entry. So where are we? Hmm, well, I just finished "barreling-down" two different clones of Syrah (one fruity, one spicy, both VERY dark--in fact, my hands are still black from handling it!). And on the lighter side, the Chardonnay from the Riverview vineyard, just finished fermenting and all the barrels have been topped up for aging.

If you missed it, we tried some barrel samples over Harvest Festival weekend (always the third weekend in October). We tried the 2007 Viognier, the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, and the 2007 Sangiovese. All these wines tasted remarkable and some folks were ready to buy cases on the spot (even the infant 2007 Sangiovese!). The Viognier and 2005 Cab will be bottled early next year and I can't wait to share them with everyone!

A reminder for club members: November is a shipment month. We'll be sending out the wines the week of November 5th. If you would like to pick up the wine in person (instead of having it shipped), contact us now so we can hold your order at the tasting room.

Harvest Report 8

What day is it? Is it night or day?

It's all a blur right now.

I thought I could write a daily blog, but when you get home from the winery at 3am it's hard to find the motivation. Call me lazy.

So, where are we now? Well, the Zinfandel is in the bins and we began fermenting it a couple of days ago. These grapes were picked a little early due to a threat of rain (rain in September?!?! Where are we, France?). The color is really good so far but the flavors will be a bit different from the 2005 vintage. I'm definitely picking up more spicy black pepper flavors in this batch.

The "Oaky" Chardonnay has finished fermenting and is at home in eight barrels (two of them new for that toasty-spicy-vanilla flavor). They'll remain in those casks for the next 14 months or so.

The Viognier is done fermenting and is delicious! It's resting in neutral barrels now and we'll fine and filter it early next year.

The Sauvignon Blanc has also completed its fermentation and is on the same path as the Viognier. I countine to taste crisp flavors of lime and grapefruit. This is going to be a great summer wine!

The Sangiovese has finished fermenting and we pressed it yesterday into a stainless steel tank. From there we'll barrel it down to a mixture of new and neutral oak. Then will begin a secondary fermentation to convert harsh malic acid to softer lactic acid. We do this "malolactic fermentation" (or ML as it's known in the cellar) to all our reds to give them a dimension of rich smoothness. This process takes a few months to complete. After ML is finished we'll rack the wine off the lees, wash the barrels and put the cleaner wine back in. We'll probably age this wine about 18 months. We'll keep tasting it in the meantime and release it only when it's ready.

The weather has cooled off so maybe our grapes will trickle-in at a easier pace now. Perhaps that will coincide with better sleep for the rest of harvest. You know it's a busy harvest when you refer to your night's sleep as a "nap!"

Harvest Report 7

The Sangio is in, crushed, and sleeping peacefully in the cellar. We're going to let the grapes and juice settle overnight, then take some samples to the lab tomorrow. We want to get an official read on the sugar level, the acidity level and the pH. We also want to know how much nitrogen is in the juice. Since yeast use nitrogen as food (one cannot live on sugar alone; believe me, I've tried) we need to see if there is enough in the juice. If not, we'll add a little nutrient to the juice so the yeast will have a balanced meal to much on for the next few days.

Otherwise, the juice tastes great. This one will be fun!

Harvest Report 6

Just got a report that our Sangiovese Grapes are at 26 Brix and will be picked tomorrow. This is Kendra's favorite wine so I better not mess it up!