Happy New Year! and 1st Post of the Year!

It has begun - 2009! And I can feel it in my bones, even with the economic outlook, I know it will be a good and exciting year.

I have learned a lot this past year with a new winery working as the winemaker as well as progress with my own brand. Talks will begin on the possibility of a shared tasting room, wine club to begin soon and a new website will be up by the end of the day. Now it is time to put what I've learned into place. But keeping up with sales and marketing and advances in winemaking techniques is a never ending process. What I put into place will need to be updated on much more regular basis-not impossible, but will be a priority. Websites like Catavino
and Open Wine Consortium have been great sources - I can't thank them enough.

The holiday has given me the chance to get back to my kitchen, my source of relaxation. Lamb roast with mustard paired with a Norman Zin, Filet Mignon with a Jordan Cab, Paella with my Temp......heaven! One day was spent going out to Tomales Bay to Cowgirl Creamery for cheese and fresh bread then onto Hog Island Oyster for fresh kumi's and sweetwaters - take all of this to the beach- YES!
Tonight is rack of lamb with a blackberry and mustard glaze, sauteed green beans with grape tomatoes and feta. I am thinking about a Tempranillo from Baja Mexico to have with it - Valmar.

My reflections on the past are generally short as I am always moving forward - learn from it and move on - so here's cheers for the new year to all!

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

Feels Like Spring!

Let's hope this is just a breather before more rain- we are starting to move below average for the year. But it is still early and as a winemaker you learn not to make any predictions this early-weather, crop load, quality- Mother Nature can do so many things between now and harvest!

But for now I am thinking about those days when I can catch some rays and drink.........yes, pink wine. Better yet, St. Patricks day is coming and a perfect pairing with corned beef and cabbage- yep, Rose'- it will be there on my table! And if you are in need- I can supply it- http://www.coralmustang.com/. While there, sign up for the newsletter where every month is a wine special only for subscribers.

Now for wine news: a couple of weeks ago the preliminary 2007 Grape Crush Report came out. It is full of numbers; number of tons crushed, comparison numbers, cost numbers- for anyone into stats this is the grape publication for you, www.nass.usda.gov/ca. Being somewhat of a statistical geek I read this to see where the state of the grape for wine. You can find out how many tons were used for other grape products as well, but too much info for me. My big interest the last couple of years is to see what is happening with Tempranillo. To my delight there were approximately 1200 more tons harvested this last year compared to 2006. That means about 76,000 more cases produced if it all went to wine- not bad. And if I figured it right it was about a 25% increase from the year before- woohoooo! The word is out- Tempranillo is making the news. In fact there was a recent article in the Ukiah Daily Journal about Tempranillo - http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/ci_8407024?source=email.

March is a special month for me- it is my birthday month. I like to try to celebrate the entire month, try something different, learn something new. It is also the month that the Family Winemakers of California does an annual event in Pasadena and the Mustang Winemaker will be making her debut there this year. This is a great time of year to talk with retailers, restaurateurs, brokers, and distributors because this is when they do their purchasing- the big holidays are over and time to restock!

It is tax time and I hear the IRS calling my name- so until next week, cheers to good food, good wine and good friends- the Mustang Winemaker

Tempranillo Hits Unified Wine and Grape Symposium in Sacramento California!

What an exciting time! Tempranillo is making the news in the grape growing world. This was made clear at a seminar that was presented at the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium that takes place on the west coast once a year -http://www.unifiedsymposium.org/ The TAPAS organization was approached (http://www.tapasociety.org/) to organize this seminar and it was very well done. There were several grape growers in the crowd that wanted to know how, when, and where to plant Tempranillo. This is very good news to those of us who love this grape and the wines that come from them.

This was also the time for the annual meeting of the TAPAS organization. New officers were introduced and wines from those in the group were shared. This was a great time for me to acquaint/reacquaint myself with other members and talk about the trials and tribulations of this varietal.

This month you will see some updates to my website which is always sadly neglected during harvest. Please stop by and let me know what you think- http://www.coralmustang.com/
I also want to invite you to the e-newsletter that has wine specials and new recipes that I have fine tuned to go with my wines.

That's all for now- see you all next week- Cheers to good food, good wine, and good friends,
The Mustang Winemaker

Tempranillo and Paella

Well, the wine for review on Saturday was corked! Very unfortunate since I was really looking forward to it. Instead I opened up a 2001 Gundlach Bundshu Rhinefarm Tempranillo. This wine was subdued in its aroma. There was some light blueberry aromas with overtones of oak-not heavy handed oak. The wine didn't hold up to the Paella spice and would have been better with a beef dish with herbs. A younger and fruitier wine would have been a better match, but you don't always know until you try it. Then again I could have made the Paella not so spicy..................nahhh! I do recommend trying the G-B Temp- something that they have been producing on a regular basis.

On another note, it is that time of the year again for wine competitions. There is a new competition with a focus on women- Wines Women Want. As a founding member I am giving it a go this year. Then there is the San Francisco Chronicle Tasting coming up about the same time. I always wonder if the awards really mean anything to wine consumers, but it does lend credibility to the wines and those of us that make them. Still waiting for a domestic Tempranillo only competition. Maybe something that another organization I belong to, TAPAS (http://www.tapasociety.org/) may be able to get going one day!

Well, back to the cellar, checking on the wines that are resting after this hectic hectic year-
Cheers to good food, good friends, and good wine- The Mustang Winemaker

Paella and Tempranillo tonight!

It's Saturday! Just finished reading reviews, returning emails, updating Quickbooks, and thinking about what's for dinner. Paella is on the menu and with that a Rioja- a 1996 Reserva- Marques de Murrieta Ygay. This is a blend of Tempranillo, Mazuelo, Garnacha, and Graciano- can't wait to try it. I had picked this up a while back to keep up with wine styles and the competition. Report later.
So far the 2007 wines are looking, tasting, and smelling great. The Tres Palmeras Vineyard Tempranillo blend has finished with it's malolactic (2nd) fermentation and is now waiting in barrel for a pronouncement that it is ready to bottle. That won't be until next year-probably the fall for this wine. Unlike the Vista Creek Vineyard that has a lot more structure to it and will remain in barrel into 2009.
This last week has been exciting- new equipment for the winery I work for- Rack and Riddle. For those that may not know, I work full time for Rack and Riddle and have my own brand as well that I make at Rack and Riddle. What it means is that I get to work with a lot of other brands wines, which is a lot of fun. The equipment is for some sparkling wine that we will be disgorging soon- as soon as it gets hooked up!
Well, my stomach is rumbling thinking about the Paella- time to get started!
Until next week- cheers to good food, good wine and good friends- the Mustang Winemaker