Wine Spectator busted?

It looks like the Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator is not such a tough thing to achieve. The award that recognizes a restaurant for having excellent wine selections and service was given to a restaurant that does not exist. The fake restaurant was made up to prove that the awards are not really awards but paid advertising ($250 "entry fee"X4000 entries=a million bucks). Even better the fake restaurant's fake reserve wine list was made up of some of the lowest rated WS wines. We are talking a list of 50 point wines, not quite an excellent list. Dr Vino blogs about it here.

Veraison!

Veraison is the French term for the softening and coloration of the grape berries. It is happening right now in Napa on most varieties. The green grapes turn purple in random order leaving funky tie-dyed looking clusters. Soon the clusters will be uniform for the most part. In a week or two we will go out and cut off any clusters that have failed to fully turn purple. This is called a "green harvest" and it is done to avoid getting any underripe fruit in the wine. The green clusters that we drop would eventually turn purple but they will never catch up to the ripeness of the rest of the crop.

Grape Sourcing

Ted's been working hard on lining up grapes for this years harvest. We noticed these voluntary grape vines growing in the trees near our house. They were probably planted courtesy of some birds snacking on nearby vineyards. Based on the shape of the leaves, Ted thinks there is a chardonnay vine and a cabernet vine intermingling in the tree. Don't worry, you won't see any mystery wild blend table wine from Prime, we just thought it would be fun to share nature in action.

Barrels!

Yes, its time to buy up all the barrels needed to house the 2008 vintage wine. The fact that I have to pay in Euros makes this process very painful. With the exchange around 1.6 right now that 750euro barrel is costing $1200. Just 5 years ago that 750euro barrel was about $825.

That barrel holds about 23 cases of wine. Quick math tells us that that tacks on $52 a case. I guess this could be proof that Two Buck Chuck never sees a barrel.

Done!

Prime Cellars has officially been launched! We had a nice little celebration and now are officially in the wine business. Picture link to come. Thank you to everyone for all your support, we couldn't have done it without you!

Reminder: Release Today!

Our Release party is today (June 29th), so come on out to Sonoma and try some of our wine. We are tasting the 2005 Prime Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon District 4. Here are the details:

LAUNCH of PRIME CELLARS!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
A wine tasting reception from 3pm - 6pm

at Ramekins
450 West Spain Street - Sonoma, California

Mommy, where do corks come from?

I had the pleasure to travel to Portugal last week to visit the cork forests and manufacturing operations. What a fantastic trip, the weather was perfect and I learned a ton about cork production. It is amazing the work that goes into making that little stopper.

In the evenings I sampled the typical foods and drink of the region. Most menus had at least two versions of the famous salted Cod known as bacalhau . All preparations, in my opinion, are disgusting. Otherwise the food was fresh, tasty and usually spicy. The drink of the region is the Super Bock, a beer that seems to be the mandatory beverage of anyone older than 12. A great country indeed.