‘08 Crush - No Feet Allowed
Once I started in on this post I realized once again I haven’t written anything in a couple of months so here goes ….
Yep, harvest season, crush, winemaking time, whatever you want to call it, starts next week - I think. Depends on the weather.
We’re pretty much ready to go for crush. Equipment is clean. Supplies stocked. Barrels ready. No rushing around, just waiting on the grapes to ripen. Been visiting the vineyards about once a week to check on things and watching the weather forecast.
One thing - if you come by m2 during crush don’t ask if we stomp the grapes with our feet. I detest that Lucy show episode where she stomps grapes with her feet. Feet are not allowed anywhere near the grapes at m2 but for most people that’s all they know about winemaking. Inevitably someone asks about once a week if we stomp with our feet. The answer is “NO.”
For 2008 we’re increasing production on three ‘mainline’ wines - our ‘Trio’ Cabernet/Syrah blend, our Lodi vineyard-designated Zinfandel from Soucie Vineyard and a GSM/Rhone blend (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre) made from our Shenandoah Valley vineyard sources. We’re also doing limited quantities of other stuff to keep things fun - Viognier, a bit of Sauvignon Blanc, the Artist-Series Zinfandel, the ever-popular ‘Zinlady’ and our Napa Cab, but the Trio, Zin, and GSM are going to be our biggest wines this year.
Our vineyard sources weren’t much affected by the frost this past spring. It’s been a pretty good growing season so far too. State-wide I’m hearing the grape crop is light, a lot of Napa lost of a lot of fruit to the frost. I’m just hoping that we don’t have a stinkin’ over-100-degrees-heatwave in the next month.
Chris discovered what we think is a pretty hot little Viognier vineyard - Tumbas Vineyard in Shenandoah Valley. It’s about three acres - planted in 2001, rows running down a slope, then up a steeper slope in a north/south orientation, almost an amphitheater-type hollow. I’ve had wines from this vineyard made in a style that’s not my favorite (too much oak, too much malolactic fermentation, too much residual sugar) but the underlying fruit is pretty incredible.
We picked up a new distributor in the state of Florida this summer. m2 wines will be available in restuarants in the Tampa area this fall. Diana also established a couple of new accounts in San Diego and in the Tahoe area. I’ll update the “where to find m2″ section of the main web site soon.
We’re going to release the 2006 Clone Six Cabernet Sauvignon in the first part of October - watch for m2 propaganda about that.
We’ve also got a LOT of events coming up between now and Christmas - stay tuned for information overload on that stuff.
Enough for now, I’m fully intending to post more in a few days…. until then, Cheers!
Layne