Karl Lawrence Cellars Latest News

2008-04-17T09:33:00.001-07:00

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Just a quick reminder that orders are due. We still have wine and are being blessed with mild weather.
Cheryl and I will be in Sayulita, Mexico all next week. We'll be with three other couples in a house that we purchased at our congressman's fund raiser. Jefferson will remain in the office to process your orders.
We have so many charity wine auctions in this town, that if any of you attended any, you could pick up a lot of wine for a deal. We had our Just Imagine charity auction last Saturday for our school district at the Trinchero Family Estates, followed by an after party at Martini. Many people said it was the best after party ever. So you all might want to put this on your schedule for next year. And as I said, we have so much wine donated that I came up with something different to donate: a bar crawl with me thru every bar in town. David Abreu purchased my lot. So now we have to see if the Portuguese can out drink the Irish.

Diane Stieber, Michael, & Jane Fairorth
at the MacArthur tasting in Washingto DC.
Sarah Powers took the picture.

2008-04-09T11:03:00.000-07:00

The Miami Food and Wine Festival

Mitch & Jane Johnson & Bill & Beverly Parker
They purchased the Karl Lawrence lot last year and returned to tell of the good times.

Linda Neal displays her own Tiera Roja
while Ariel Solorzano ensures a product placement for Karl Lawrence.
Actually he was filling in for me as I had sore feet.

Wesley Moura, the Executive Chef from the Prime Blue Grille, served food next to us
and then insisted that we come to his place for dinner. The offer was accepted.

Linda with Mike & Nelly Farra & Bob Hudson.
Bob's been with us for years. Mike & Nellie sponsored a dinner in which I was a guest.

Linda with Doug Gallagher, of Sonador, and Ned & Patti Valois.
Of course no trip to Miami happens without a visit with Ned and golf with Doug.

And as always, the Chair of the event, Bob Dickinson with Linda.

The Winners of the combined Tiera Roja/Karl Lawrence lot,
Kenneth & Sandra Olden.

2008-04-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

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We're at that time of year where the weather doesn't know what to do. Our clear and 75 degree day turns into a clear and cold night. The frost fans started at 2 AM and sounded like the invading air force at Pearl Harbor. Such is life in Paradise. It's still good shipping weather though.
I'll be spending the remainder of the week at the Miami Wine and Food Festival. Linda Neal of Tierra Roja will be going with me. We've contributed a combined auction lot to benefit the Camillus House and the United Way of Miami-Dade.
Powell Yang brought some local friends by Henry Brothers Ranch for a picnic the other day.

Assistant winemaker from Seven Stones Winery, Roy Piper,
And from Shifflett Estate, Jim Keller, & Molly & Will Sequi,
And of course, Powell Yang.

The Shifflett family has been in the Valley since the 1890s.
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2008-03-17T10:32:00.000-07:00

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Spring has sprung and is continuing to spring up all over the place around here.

Sophia & Elizabeth
Spring time on Howell Mountain

Our own St. Helena Star did a feature story on Bryan approaching 60 and having delivered 6,000 babies and run in 88 marathons. So check it out online at www.sthelenastar.com, under the features section. And while you're there, check out the article about a new wine by my good friend Lawrence Papale.
Michael has a number of dates he's on the road. So if you get a chance, you might be able to hook up with him. This Wednesday the 19th, he'll be at the Michael Skurnik tasting in New York City. On April 11 & 12 he'll be at the MacArthur tasting in Washington DC. On May 16 he'll be at the Joseph George tasting (I'll have to find out where). And on July 18 he'll be with his Dad, Richard, at the East LA meets Napa tasting. I assume that one's in East LA.
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2008-03-10T10:25:00.000-07:00

2005 Vintage and Growing Season

The 2005 vintage will go down as one of the most bountiful in decades. All of us were caught a bit off guard by Mother Nature when she delivered a bit more fruit than normal. The great news is that the quality is outstanding. That's why we call this the year of "good and plenty." Everything came into the winery with perfect balance and perfect wine chemistry. The wines turned out to be rich, full and smooth. It turned out to be a great year to have a bit more.

Winemaker Notes from Michael Trujillo
2005 Karl Lawrence Cabernet Sauvignon

The 2005 Karl Lawrence Cabernet is not bashful on its intense deep dark color. This vintage will show itself off more with its fullness and balance than its intensity. Bountiful lush aromas are joined with layers of flavors that are sweet, rich and plentiful, and shows off loads of currant, black cherry, and spice. With this vintage, you may sense some wonderful herbal notes that stand out as a character of the 2005 vintage, and which join nicely with the complexity of the wine. This wine is smooth, rich, and balanced with the perfect acidity and silky tannins that identify the style that defines Karl Lawrence Cabernet. This is a smooth and juicy vintage, easy and approachable now, but will improve over the next ten years. Enjoy lots of this 2005!
Blend percentages:
79% Gary Morisoli Cabernet Sauvignon
11% Herb Lamb Cabernet Sauvignon
10% Beckstoffer-To Kalon Cabernet Sauvignon

2005 Aldin Red Table Wine

The 2005 Aldin Red Table Wine is made up of the same Cabernet grapes that make up the Karl Lawrence Cabernet, but is complimented and blended with Merlot and Cab Franc. In addition, a new vineyard that we call the "Healy Vineyard," from western St. Helena, was blended with the Aldin Red for the first time. The additional blending of a Spottswoode clone helps to smoothen and broaden the wine. This Aldin Red is a smooth, silky wine with a bit more spice and herbal notes coming in from the blending grapes. It is made in a Meritage style and put together to be approachable sooner than the Karl Lawrence Cabernet blend. Please don't rush into consuming these Aldin Red wines too quickly as they have been showing wonderfully with a bit of bottle time.
Blend percentages:
68% Cabernet Sauvignon (Morisoli, Lamb, Bekstoffer To Kalon & Dr. Crane, & Healy)
21% Merlot (Boeschen Vineyards)
11% Cab Franc (Beckstoffer-To Kalon)

2006 Aldin Chardonnay

This 2006 Chardonnay is giving us a more elegant and graceful wine than past vintages. The long and cool growing season lends itself to the subtleness of this wine. It has nice delicate Chardonnay aromas of pears, red apples and honey with hints of pineapple and roasted nuts. The initial flavors are crisp with fruity pear and apple, shifting towards ripe peach and pineapple. The nice balance of acidity holds these rich flavors together for a full, rich finish. With this 2006 vintage, we recommend to drink a bit sooner than our past Aldin vintages. So you should drink now and through 2009.

2007 Harvest Update

The 2007 vintage was a lower precipitation year, resulting in an early bud break, bloom and set. Summer temperatures remained on the cooler side with very few hot days. This affords the grapes a longer hang time with which to reach their full maturity. The crop levels were ten percent below average contributing to even better quality and intesity of grape flavors. The 2007 Karl Lawrence wines, in the barrel, are showing the potential to be another great vintage of this decade.
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2008-03-03T10:01:00.000-08:00

We've done something we've never before done in our history. We sent out the Offering Letters to the those of you living in the cooler areas on February 29. We won't be doing that for the next couple of years. And as what happens every time this year, we had the 30th running of the Napa Valley Marathon. Bryan and my son-in-law, Chris Pratt ran it again this year. Chris is currently the enologist at Staglin.

Chris and Bryan still feeling chipper at mile 19.

Still hanging in there at mile 23.

And making it at 3:54:35 and 3:52:41.

2008-02-19T16:22:00.001-08:00

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Shipping to some of the warmer states has started this week. We held off on the warmer areas that were too far away as Monday was a holiday. So those will be shipped to this coming Monday.

Today the Amgen Tour of California bicycle race came thru our Valley today. They started in Santa Rosa; turned east at Glen Ellen, and came over the Myacamus mountain range at the Oakville Crossroad and then to the Silverado Trail, where they headed north for a few miles before going back east on the Conn Creek Rd.

Heading north on the Silverado Trail

My daughter and granddaughter watch the bikers turn east onto Conn Creek Rd.
That's Conn Creek Winery in the background.

2008-02-08T10:13:00.000-08:00

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The Offering Letters to the warmer areas are in the mail. So look for them early next week. And just because New York got to 69 degrees last week, that doesn't make it a warmer area.

The Offering Letter Stuffing Party
Jefferson Henry, Davy Osborne, & Ben & Mike Henry

Many of you have been confused by us calling people who purchased directly from us three years in a row, "Reserve Customers." This made many of you think that you had to wait three years to be offered the Reserve wines. The Reserve wine wait-list is a separate list. What we were trying to do is encourage long term loyalty as this helps to keep the price of the wine down. So Reserve Customers received roughly a ten percent discount over mailing list prices. So now to avoid any more confusion, we changed the name to "Select Customers." Many of you will now notice an "S" after your customer number.
Speaking of prices, they will remain the same this year: Suggested retail = $60, Mailing List = $55, Select Customers = $48.
New to the Offering Letters this year, will be open allocations for the 750 ml sized bottles. As many of you know, we had a larger than usual harvest in 2005. So we feel its safe to go with a first come basis for the 750s. However, we still need to keep the splits and the larger size bottles on allocation as those always prove a little tougher to distribute fairly. We do have a few more splits and 3 L bottles this year. We will most likely have to return to an allocation method for the 750s next year as the 2006 production matches 2004.
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2008-02-05T10:40:00.000-08:00

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As usual, the Soroptimist Crab Feed was the best party in town...again! And once again the Karl Lawrence live auction lot went for the highest bid of the night, $5,000.

2001-2005 Vertical of Karl Lawrence's Gary Morisoli Vineyard Designated Reserves
along with Burgers and Bocce Ball amongst the Vineyards of Henry Brothers' Ranch

Rodney Friedrich & Daryl Sattui sat across from me and contemplated bidding.

But of course, the winning bidders were Bob & Stacey Bressler.

The auction lot was for 12 people. So maybe a few of you should try to become Bob's & Stacey's new best friends. I was able later to score a 12 liter bottle of Regusci. So maybe now I'll get 12 new friends.
I'm promised that the Offering Letters going out to the warmer areas will be in the mail this Friday. So look for them. They'll be in a regular sized envelope with a large Karl Lawrence label as the return address.
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2008-01-23T12:05:00.000-08:00

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Cheryl and I had a great trek through South Florida and the Caribbean, visiting our people and going on the Blues Cruise. We had dinner our first real night there with Barry & Sue Matza and their son Jeremy in Boca Raton. Then we were...

...hosted to a game of golf by & with Gary Luckman at TPC Eagle Trace in Coral Springs.

That night we had dinner with Ned & Patty Valois and Doug & Sue Gallagher at Two Chefs in Coral Gables. The next night was the Sonador/Karl Lawrence Wine & Cheese Reception at Doug & Sue's home. Seventy plus people were there. Here's a few pictures.

Host, Doug Gallagher chats it up with Dave & Ginevera Jamieson

Peter Spinnler, Joan Pennella, Randy Nobles & Nyla

Mike De Young, Roxanne Blade, Me, Alison De Young, & Bill Blade

Albert & Lisa Interian on the night of their seventh anniversary, & Ken Gossens

Gary Luckman & Gus Calleja discuss GI issue over KL wine

Dinner & all at Orlando de Jesus's in San Francisco, Puerto Rico
Front: Dave & Ginevera Jamieson, & Me
Back: Cheryl, Christina Alamo, Belinda & Orlando, Grechen & Marcos.
Fili Perez took the picture.

We finished up with a Miami Wine & Food Festival charity auction lot dinner at Mike & Nelly Farra's in Coral Gables.

Mike Farra, Me, & Ariel Solorzano

2008-01-07T10:27:00.000-08:00

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Happy New Years from Napa Valley where two weeks ago we were in the middle of a drought and operating under restricted water usage. Now we've gone thru the storm of the century and have passed our yearly average in rainfall. I drove up to Tahoe during this storm and snow boarded the next day with my family as it continued to dump another five feet of snow to the five feet from the previous day.
What we've done during the rain is to add the people from last year's wait list to our active list. These people will shortly receive a short letter confirming this. There's no need to reply unless your contact information has changed. These people and all our other people will receive an Offering Letter for the 2005 release in February (warmer states) and March (cooler states).
Just so you all know, a while back my cell phone fell out of my vest pocket and into the toilet. I retrieved it quickly, turned it off, and placed it in front of the fire for a few weeks. It now works fairly decently.
I'll be off for a few weeks visiting quite a number of our people in the SoFL area. I'll also be co-hosting a wine and cheese reception with Doug & Sue Gallagher of Sonador Cellars. So that should be fun. Then Cheryl and I are off to the Blues Cruise. Upon our return, we will be the honored guest of Mike Farras and Ariel Solorzano at a dinner auctioned to raise donations for charity. So all should be good and I'll report on the festivities upon my return.
Until then, I leave you with this great shot of Aris Francisco's youngest:

2007-12-10T10:06:00.000-08:00

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It's that time of year again, (the dead of winter) (actually, its sunny and clear as a bell) when we do our data base clean up. So all those who haven't purchased over the past three vintages will be taken off the mailing list. People who have been signing up for the wait list since last January 1, will now be activated to the mailing list for the 2005 vintage release.
Also, people who have purchased Karl Lawrence wine three years in a row from us, will now join the group that receives a discount on their purchases. And like-wise, those in that group who forgot to order this year, will be returned to the group that pays the regular mailing list prices.
As promised, I'm including a picture of Bryan's ascent of Mount Whitney. They did the last hundred miles of the hike in a record time of 16 miles per day. They did 22 miles on the last day up Mount Whitney and down.

The Henry's that made it all the way.
Ben, Mike, & Bryan

Also, a couple of my friends have brought their small production (140 to 180 cases) wines on line. Check out Art & Cherie Goulard's wine at www.villahermosacellars.com
and Linda Neal's at www.tierraroja.com.
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2007-11-19T15:12:00.000-08:00

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So finally the last of Karl Lawrence's ruling Triumvirate turned three years old.

Sophia

2007-11-13T11:37:00.000-08:00

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Shipment of the Reserve mags will be delayed somewhat. The etching and painting company was way backed up. And then some key employees quit. So we don't even have the mags in our possession yet. Most likely, shipment will be in early December. Those of you who have ordered mags, your 750 order was processed and sent to the shippers. You will be invoiced separately for the mags. Thank you for hanging in there with us on this.

And now for Karl Lawrence's annual chili feed so show our appreciation for the crush crew.

Louis, chief cellar rat holds court with his fellow cellar dwellers.

Michael manages the head table.

2007-11-02T11:22:00.000-07:00

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I just sent out an email to those of you who haven't sent in your Reserve Order Form. I had a little trouble sending it. So some you may have received it twice and some not at all. In any event, Halloween eve is over and with it the deadline. Therefore, wine will now be made available to people on the wait list and to those who requested extra. Any remaining wine will be on a first come basis from here on out.

The annual 3L Karl Lawrence Blues Cruise logoed etched & painted bottle made for the Blues Foundation Charity Auction to be held this coming January on the Blues Cruise.

AND

SAVE THE DATE

January 12, 2008 for a joint Sonador/Karl Lawrence wine and cheese reception at Sonador's Doug and Sue Gallagher's home in Coral Gables, FL.

Sonador's winemaker, Bruce Devlin displays bottles of Karl Lawrence & Sonador

2007-10-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

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With the heat wave that's hit the West Coast and some further boxing issues, we've postponed shipping for a week. I know that it's in the 90s plus in SoCal and they're having a lot of displaced people with the fires and all. It's generally in the high 80s here.

Richard Trujillo waxes the 2004 Reserves

2007-10-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

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THE HARVEST REPORT--To quote the Greatfull Dead, "What a strange harvest its been." We go from a week of 82 degree averages, to a bunch of rain, then sunny again, then rain again. This did put a little rush on things. Michael reports that our Dr. Crane vineyard was the first picked and is in the barrels now. Our Morisoli, Tokalon, and most of Herb Lamb are picked and in the tank. There's just a few rows of Herb Lamb still out there. Production for Morisoli is a little down. However, production for Herb Lamb is a little up. Therefore, total production for 2007 should be pretty close to that of 2006.
And, on one of our sunny days, we celebrated Jasper Henry's third birthday with a clown party at Henry Brothers' Ranch.

Sophia, Jasper, & Zoey
The Triumvirate still rules.

About a third of the Reserve orders are in. Shipping will commence this coming Monday.
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2007-10-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

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The pine boxes for the Vineyard Designated Reserves are in. Now Richard Trujillo, Michael's Dad, will wax the bottles and lay them down in the boxes. Mike H. just told me that he will be ready to ship the Reserves starting on Monday, October 22. In the mean time, we'll be processing your orders and getting everything ready to go for that date.
At this early part of the release, we're trying to honor requests for adding a bottle or two up to the standard 3 and 3 paired sets. For now, at least, requests for more than that will have to wait until after the cut-off date.
Michael's busy at the crush pad. A cooling trend, slowed things down a bit. However, this past week was warm and brought the harvest back to normal speed.
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2007-09-26T13:09:00.000-07:00

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FINALLY! The Offering Letter for Karl Lawrence's 2004 Reserve Release is at the printers. We plan on picking it up Friday afternoon and stuffing and stamping over the weekend. That means that the letter should be in Monday's mail. Shipping may be delayed a bit as we still wait for the pine boxes.
We had a very slight increase in Reserve production this year. That means that we matched everyone's purchases, at the allocated levels, and requests from last year. We were also able to bring on most people from the wait list. We made their allotments at one bottle of each Reserve.

Karl Lawrence's 2004 Release Vineyard Designated Reserve-
Gary Morisoli.
Picture is taken in his vineyard.

As most of you know, Michael will only release reserve wine from our main sourced vineyards, when the wine truly stands above all others. This year, those vineyards are Gary Morisoli's and Beckstoffer's Dr. Crane.
Michael says that the Morisoli in the glass presents huge inky intense color, with rich red and black fruit aromas with a hint of the infamous "Rutherford dust." The wine shows a solid structure with firm tannins, which don't interfere with the enormous complexity of the wine. The flavors are forward of black cherry, currants with hints of tobacco, leather and spicy chocolate, all knitted together into perfect balance.
The Beckstoffer Dr. Crane if from clone #337 vines on an old river bed that produces superior and wonderfully smooth cab. Dr. Crane has evolved into our most forward showy, smooth, rich and decedent cab. Michael states that the wine is expressive with silky forward aromas of currant, black cherry, coco and mocha and that the generous rich flavors come together in harmony, showing off its cabernet complexity and balance. With time, this Dr. Crane evolves into a wine with lavish coco and chocolate characteristics all laced with a very rich and smooth balance and complexity.
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2007-09-14T15:20:00.000-07:00

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The Reserves are coming. The Reserves are coming. However, they will be a little slower this year than last as we are having some issues with the boxes. I hope to get out the Offering Letter within the next week or two. However, we won't be able to ship until the boxes have arrived.

Craig Isaacs, the defacto chair of the East Bay Crowd, hosted a Karl is King wine tasting in his backyard last Friday. The point was to see if anyone in the crowd could bring in a wine to knock Karl Lawrence off the throne and pocket the $10 per person pot of gold. Karl Lawrence prevailed, but you must understand that this was a crowd of fans and I was present.

Scott Braun, Jim Bowers, Ken Yzurdiaga, Craig Isaacs, Me, Erik Pounds, & Richard Zulch

I slept on Craig's arcade game room floor, woke up in time to pick Cheryl up from working all night at the hospital (life as its supposed to be), and made it back to St. Helena in time for the town's Bocce Ball Championship Tournament. Out of 78 teams, the Hone Dogs took it all. They've won the league championship two of the last three years and came in second last year. A new era has started.

The Hone Dogs
Don (of Ladera), Bryce, Cante (currently at Viader), Jefferson, (of Karl Lawrence), & Adam

2007-09-04T12:52:00.000-07:00

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Peter Behr visited over the Labor Day weekend with his usual New York crowd and extended friends from as far away as Los Angeles, on their annual Calistoga Ranch stay. We had quite a dinner and wine experience there Friday night. And then on Saturday, we all traveled uptown to Bob & Stacey Bressler's for curry and shiraz.

On Bressler's back porch.
Left to right without regard to row:
Pam & John Baxter, Elizabeth Lang, Linda, Allen, Arnie Lang, Petr Behr, Debbie Hillyer, Michael, Aida, Charlie Hillyer, Michael B. & Cheryl Henry

And of course, no visit to Bressler's is complete without the cellar raid.

Aida, Elizabeth, Pam, and Michael help Bob decide. The rest of us were busy pulling bottles.

2007-08-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

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Every year the St. Helena Chamber of Commerce sponsors music in Lyman Park. Usually a business passes out popsicles to the kids. This year it was kind of hit or miss with my granddaughter, Zoey, asking where they went. So on the last concert, Celtic Rock, Karl Lawrence donated the popsicles.

Sophia "helps" Elizabeth hand out popsicles

On Saturday, the Valley experienced a momentous occasion: Pam Starr got married. Her and her "Posse" arrived at the center aisle of the Crocker's walnut orchard, sitting up on the top of the back seat of a '57 pink Lincoln convertible. Norm brought a tear to this old man's eye when he said, "I've waited half my life for you and now I can't wait to spend the next half of my life with you."

Pam & Norm head into the sunset together

2007-08-19T10:52:00.000-07:00

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It's an odd thing that I'll be heading out to Michael's home state, Colorado, tomorrow. Our youngest, Nicholas, will be starting school at the University of Colorado at Boulder. So I'll be getting to know our Denver/Boulder area crowd. I'm feeling better about the state already. Except, I'll never feel any good about the Broncos.

I didn't get a chance to post this in June. So here's "The Graduate."

Michael's 99% done with blending. He's off to New York City this week for the Michael Skurnik tasting. When he gets back, it's bottling time.
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2007-08-10T12:25:00.000-07:00

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The 2005 barrels are in, back from the warehouse in American Canyon. Michael's busy working his magic on them. He says that this is some of the best juice ever and that he could make vineyard designated reserves out of the entire lots from each of the four main vineyards. No worries though, as Michael will make a main blend and reserves. As this is the year of "good & plenty," production for both wines will be up. Michael's also hinted that he might make a super blend...a vintner's master blend, so to speak. This would be a reserve blend. However, nothing's ever done until it's done, i.e., bottled, corked, waxed, & labeled.
For the few of you that are interested, the half of our party that returned from backpacking the John Muir Trail, have returned alive and without incident. We're sore and blistered, but otherwise okay. We hiked a hundred trail miles in 8 1/2 days, averaging 12 miles per day. Nicholas caught the biggest Rainbow Trout at 12 1/2 inches.

Bryan, his son Matt, my son's Nicholas & Jefferson, & Bryan's son's Mike & Ben
The morning of day 5
The Donohue Pass
11,056 feet
Banner Peak is seen on the right

Me with Nicholas & Jefferson
Noon of day 8
Silver Pass
10,900 feet

Lyell and Banner Peaks are in the background showing you the roughly 40+ miles that we covered in four days

Bryan, Mike, and Ben are still out there backpacking to Mount Whitney. They should summit next Friday or Saturday. Will keep you posted.
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2007-07-27T16:30:00.001-07:00

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We're pretty much closed down for the rest of the summer. I know that we have a number of orders that are not fully process and shipped. We will get to these after the summer heat. Thank you all for being patient with us on this.
Ends up Michael will be attending the Michael Skurnik tasting in New York. I believe it's August 22. You might want to check with Skurnik's office for the time and place. Just gooogle him.
My brother and partner Bryan and I, his three sons, Mike, Ben, and Matt, and my two sons, Jefferson, and Nicholas, are off in the morning to hike the John Muir Trail in the high Sierras. Most of us will hike for nine days, going a hundred miles. Cheryl will pick us up at Vermillion Resort, a remote backpackers hide-away. Bryan, Mike, and Ben will continue on another eleven days to Mount Whitney. Davy Osborne will stop by the office from time to time. We'll catch up with you all soon.
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