OMG - is the Rain Ever Going to End?

I thought last year was a challenge.......it is the first week of June and the vineyard barely has started blooming. That means that we are more than a month behind average- Yikes!! I have been out in the vineyard- when it is not pouring down rain- taking the risk of thinning as I am suckering. Anything looking wimpy goes.

Not only has it been raining but it has been cold as well. Feet of snow in the mountains, not inches. I've had to turn the heat on in my house and it is JUNE- I think- maybe this is some kind of time warp. I have Crape Myrtles in my yard that are changing color because it has been so cold- looks like fall out there.

Well that's what farming is, one big challenge. Nothing we can do but marvel at Mother Nature reminding us again who is in control.

Aside from the weather and the vineyard- TAPAS Grand Tasting in San Francisco tomorrow beginning at 2p- Ft Mason, Herbst Pavilion. This is one of the best events around and I am proud to be a part of this group. If you want to taste Tempranillo, this is the place you want to be. Wine can be bought at this event as well so you can stock up your cellar with the best Tempranillos around. Stop by and say hello and taste the 2004 and 2005 that I will be pouring along with special pricing for the event.

Well I wanted to add some pics to this entry, but there has not been much time between raindrops. But I would like to talk about what Frank has been up to. Three weeks ago he took of on his Harley headed with a group to ride to Washington DC for Memorial Day- Run for the Wall or RFTW. With him, he carried a placard for a soldier that had died in Vietnam. The Sunday before Memorial Day he placed it by the soldiers name- quite a special moment for him and a very special trip. I will be coming up with a way to log his daily journal either on the website or a link as it really touched me.

That's all for now- pics next time- I promise!

It's Spring and Budbreak!

It is hard to believe how quickly time goes by. I am just cleaning up from the last harvest finishing up wines to put to bed in barrels or get ready for bottling. And now I feel the push for the new years harvest.

The Tres Palmeras vineyard was finished with pruning about a month ago. Now budbreak is upon us! The weather has been pretty cool up until a couple of days ago, but the vines are ready. The hand wringing has begun as any hint of frost will send us out into the vineyard in the early morning hours to save the buds which are the grapes for the upcoming harvest.

It is beautiful here- the wildflowers, the blue sky, green hills- breathtaking! This is also the time of the year to get out to some wonderful events to show off the fruits of my labor. I just returned from the Family Winemakers of California event in San Diego and there are more events to come which I will post on my website www.coralmustang.com and the Coral Mustang Facebook fan page.

Don't forget, if you are in the Healdsburg area, stop by the tasting room at 118 North St. - In Vino Veritas. I spend most Saturdays there and would love to share a glass of Tempranillo with you!

Off to the cellar, The Mustang Winemaker, Penny

Will the smoke never end? and Big Sale- the Wine Spies spy Coral Mustang!

Another interesting year for grape growers. There is a lot of smoke from the fires in Northern California and where I am in Hopland, it has been downright oppressive!

Grapes are progessing- in fact Tres Palmeras, the Coral Mustang vineyard, is in veraison-Yippee! This is the signal that ripening is on its way, the wakeup call to get things in order for the next vintage. Frank and I will be out making decisions on crop load, what to drop, water, more leaf pulling......so far not seeing any slowing from less sunlight due to the smoke. But there is more smoke on the horizon and some 'concerns' about what this may mean in the way of flavor profile. Ah, the mysteries still to be investigated.

ALERT! On the sales front, I want to let you know about the Wine Spies! In my last blog, I talked about them discovering Coral Mustang Wines. For only 24-hours, beginning on MONDAY morning (midnight Pacific), The Wine Spies will feature a small quantity this wine at one-time only price. The wine will run on Monday only and they are only making a limited number of bottles available, so be sure to take advantage of this special offer early.

To order, click on the big blue button with the countdown timer on it. It's first come first served and when they are out, they are out, so you may want to hurry- http://thewinespies.com/

Wine Spies Operatives (what they call their customers) tend to buy up wines quickly.

As an added special for our friends, The Wine Spies will provide Free Ground Shipping PLUS on orders of six (6) or more bottles. Just enter the promotion code 'SPYNOW' on the order screen and your savings will be applied at final checkout.

As another added special, they'll throw in a few surprises, including a copy of Imbibe Magazine, a great magazine about food and drink culture that The Wine Spies write a regular column for. If you’ve tasted this wine previously, please do us a favor and post a review on The Wine Spies. It’ll help other wine-lovers get to know our wines. Also, please feel free to share this special offer with friends and family by forwarding the email now.

Finally, be sure to sign up for their Daily Dispatch to learn about their daily wine sales and gain access to exclusive wine deal and savings codes. Also, you never know when The Wine Spies will feature one of our wines again.

Cheers to good friends, good food, and Family,
The Mustang Winemaker, Penny

P.S. For a complete list of states where The Wine Spies can ship, please visit their website. This offer is only good through The Wine Spies and it expires 07/28/08 @ 11:59:59pm. If you have any questions about placing an order on their site, or if you have general questions about their service, please email them @ info@thewinespies.com

I Spy Wine!

Yippeeee! Coral Mustang has been spied by the Wine Spies http://thewinespies.com/
You need to check them out-a new wine everyday-found or discovered stealthily by the Agents. Their mission, should they agree to take it, is to find great wines that are not 'mainstream' and bring them to you along with great information about the wine.

This is a busy time of the year- grapes are growing and events are fermenting. The Mustang Winemaker will be seen at :

COPIA- Aug8/9, 2008 for Grapes indigenous to Spain- - -Grown into Wines in the USA- - -Informative Seminars, Featuring a Walk-around Winetasting August 8/9, 1:00 – 4:30 pm
http://www.tapasociety.org/

Family Winemakers of California 18th Annual Tasting
Sunday, August 24, and Monday, August 25
Festival Pavilion
Fort Mason Center, San Francisco

The event at COPIA will be all about Iberian varietals-tasting included. This will be a fun and educational weekend, put this one on your calendar!

Family Winemakers is a great organization for small wineries like myself. They spend much time working on legislation that help wineries and growers. They never rest! This event features many wineries and the chance to taste a variety of wine in one place. Please stop by and say hello!

Well, off to the wines- stay tuned- a video on disgorging sparkling wine is in the works-Cheers

Weird Weather!

I have to say that in my 20+ years of working with grapes, this is one of the weirdest years I have seen for growers. Every year is a challenge, but this year Mother Nature is pulling out the stops. About two weeks ago I was told it was the worst frost in over 60 years. Then as we began to assess the frost damage, a heat spell hit. Checking for frost damage in 102F heat- that will mess up your brain! Reminds me of when my husband and I were in Maui sitting in a Taco Bell, listening to Christmas music.......
Now we are waiting for 'fruit set'. The grape clusters are in bloom now, another critical time in a grapes life. Wind, rain and heat can effect how the clusters are pollinated.
(Pics of Bloom)
About three weeks after bloom begins it finishes and then an estimate for harvest can be done-at least it is a start!

Lots of fun events for the Mustang Winemaker the last couple of weeks. I have become a guest taster for the Petaluma Post's wine review -http://www.petalumapost.com/wine.html
A great group, formed by Von Hurson, she has come up with a way that wines are not rated and they are not compared to each other. She really works to make sure that each wine reviewed gets a fair shake. A great lady and she is doing a good thing for those looking for honest reviews- check her out!

Then off to the city of San Francisco where The Spanish Wine Cellar and Pantry have an incredible event where the wines of Spain can be tasted by prospective retailers. It was a chance to taste wineries that I had not heard of and varieties I had not heard of- a great educational experience.

From there I was off to Wine 2.0-http://www.winetwo.com/
Met a lot of great people, many I have known throught the web, but not actually met in person. This was also a chance to promote Tempranillo-can't pass up a chance to do that no matter how late the event or how early in the morning you have to get up!

This was all followed up at the Healdsburg Library with a conference about Wine 2.0- what is the technology out there, what should we as online wineries be doing to bring ourselves and our wines to the world? I want to thank Tim Elliott http://winecast.net/for all of his insight and just bringing to light what is out there for those of us who might not be as technologically advanced or have the time to be.

I hope you all are having a great holiday weekend- remember those that this weekend is about. I have a nephew who is in the trenches- Hi Jason-be safe!

Cheers from the Mustang Winemaker

WBW and Other Wine Fun

There has been so much going on the past couple of weeks: a lot of new construction with my day job winery, work in the vineyards, a few wine events, and the grand tasting of wine for WBW, or Wine Blog Wednesday (www.winebloggingwednesday.org/).-theme this month was old World Reisling.

The 2006 Max Ferd Reisling was the wine for review-part of the 3-pack order from domaine547.com - Thank you!
The bottle sells for $13- $15 dollars according to my limited search of this wine. What a fun label from this German producer and you do not need a cork pull.
As usual I did have to come up with a food to have with this wine and decided on a grilled shrimp and scallops that had been marinated in a little olive oil and hot spanish paprika.

This was a really interesting wine for me as I haven't had that many German reislings. The first aroma out of the glass was a little fusel oil and then citrus flower, light spice, and kiwi with mango that really burst out of the glass. In the mouth- pure pink grapefruit. Really fun- though a little one dimensional in the mouth for me- no mid or finish, but at 10% alcohol, well it was pretty pleasant. I had a kind of love/hate with this wine as the 'fusel' aroma was a little much for me, but I loved the other aromas and I loved the grapefruit flavor.

This was not a bad match with my skewers- the scallops better that the shrimp, in fact excellent with the scallops. I kept thinking that I should have done a grapefruit buerre blanc with the scallops- might have been fun.

Tomorrow I will talk more about the events I have gotten myself to the last couple of weeks.
But before I go- Bloom has started in the Tres Palmeras vineyard here in Cloverdale! Harvest is around the corner........

Cheers to good food, good friends, and family,
The Mustang Winemaker

Wine and Taxes

It's tax time! Personal and business, fed and state-"the horror, the horror".......
Like wine it is vintage dated and brings it own challenges. And like wine you remember the good years and the not so good. So far this year has been good on both fronts. I just finished last night and now am recuperating from crunching numbers and no sunshine. Amazing how quickly the body deteriorates within a short amount of time.

So, today I am making up for lost time- checking out the vineyard and the garden and cooking. Tomorrow I will be taking time with the wines-make sure that no barrel has missed my presence. There has not been a lot to do in the cellar this past month. The rest of this month will be tasting all the barrels to start making decisions on blends that will be bottled in late May. Along with getting ready to bottle is gathering all the supples, making any label changes, getting approvals. No rest for the weary is definitely taking hold.

It is crazy to see how fast the vineyard has grown in my absence! It seems like yesterday that I was reporting that the vineyard had just burst its buds. Now the Tempranillo has 12+ inch shoots. We had some very cold days last week, but it looks like all was spared- it's good to be on a hillside, all cold rolls downhill! So far so good. But we could still use a little more rain-keeping my fingers crossed....

Today is absolutely beautiful and warm out. I have the laptop outside typing this, a chicken on the barbeque rotisserie, an iced coffee made from home roast beans, and a bottle of Tempranillo Rose' in the frig- ahhh, another tax vintage over!

Cheers, the Mustang Winemaker

Budbreak for Coral Mustang Vineyard!

Well, the growing year has begun- the first sign of leaves began about a week ago with the Grenache and has moved into the Tempranillo and Zin. The few vines of Bordeaux varieties in this vineyard have some pretty fat buds, but no leafing yet.

This is always an exciting time-seeing the vines come back to life. This is also nail biting time because a good frost right now can cause a lot of damage to the new growth. There are 'backup' buds, but the fruit is not as good even if it is a good way for the vine to perpetuate the species. Today the temperature is in the high 70's-hard to believe that there could be more cold- I have to keep telling myself that it is still only March!

This last week was a hectic one for the Mustang Winemaker. It was the first bottling run for the new winery in Hopland that I am a part of, as well as a QUICK trip to Pasadena for Family Winemakers of California. Both events went very well, though all seems like a blur now.

Bottling took three days with Reisling, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah, and Merlot bottled for different clients- this means label, bottle, corks, foils change with each wine. Settings for these changes take time and can be frustrating to get each package just right, but a great team makes it seamless. May will be the next bottling run- the 05 Reserve Tempranillo and the 06 Vista Creek are on tap to be bottled at that time. This will happen on a brand new line that is going in now- yippeee! I will send pics when all is setup.

Pasadena- met a lot of great people for possible distribution of Coral Mustang. It was also time to do a little catching up with people that I only see on occasion- trade ideas, plans, broker names, how big the kids have grown. Not as much time to do that as I was back on a plane two hours after the event was over at 6pm.

Just before I started writing this blog today, I voted in the American Wine Blog Awards-http://www.fermentation.typepad.com/

There are some great blogs out there- found a couple more to add to my feeds to attempt to stay up to date with the latest and greatest. Check this site out and vote! This blog is not in the running as I did not have enough posts-but look out next year, here I come!



Until Next week- Cheers from the Mustang Winemaker