I haven’t been blogging much recently.  Why?  Selling wine these days is tough—there isn’t any other way to say it, and we’ve spent more than our fair share of time and effort doing it lately.  Everyday it’s something new—“Y” vineyard going into foreclosure, “X” winery going into bankruptcy—and there’s a flood of wine everywhere.  In the end, it is a pretty time to be a wine consumer right now because there’s a lot of great wine at great prices out there.  Different story if you are on my side of the cash register, however!  For all of those who think that making wine and running a winery is a walk in the park—or A Walk in the Clouds (ha ha)—the stunning yet dreary reality of the wine business is that it ain’t much sweeter than any other job.  This job certainly has it’s perks, but it makes up for it in other ways.  Nothing good really is for free, right?
We here at Cima Collina, in spite of it all, and because of it, too, are continuing to push forward.  No, it’s not the most delightful time in my career, but—damn—I’ve actually learned a few things about the wine industry, it’s people, and maybe a little about myself, too.  What I have learned?  I’ll save that for another day.  But here’s how we are evolving to survive these times:
1.  We are selling wine further away from home.  Chicago (look for us at places like:  Whole Foods, Lush, Just Grapes) & New York (ask for us in these and other fine restaurants:  Gotham Bar & Grill, BLT Restaurants, Craft) are doing well right now.  Massachusetts is almost nailed down (should be selling there in another month or so), and two other regions are in the works.
2.  Selling more wine near home in CA in places like  NOPA (S.F.), Passionfish (Pacific Grove), Ciudad (downtown L.A.)
2.   We are advertising and marketing more and participating in more events than ever before.

3.   We are changing up the wine program here a little and making more whites (a new Chardonnay for us will start at our tasting room tomorrow), including a Riesling from Tondre Grapefield.

Well, I’m back.  Last year was a somewhat brutal year in the wine industry—everyone seems to agree on that.  Cima Collina is doing alright, but we spent a lot of time reevaluating our business plan, winemaking plans, sales plans, etc.  Everything got turned upside down but maybe it was one of the best things to happen to this little winery.

Anyway, 2010 is looking much brighter for a number of reasons:  sales are increasing and Cima Collina is becoming more widely available (we are actively sold in Chicago, NY, So Cal and No Cal; I am lining up sales outlets in Massachusets, Washington D.C. & Texas).  We now have a Facebook page—I encourage you to click on the link above to find our page.  I will post updates there on new accounts and where you can currently find our wine as well as little newsworthy tidbits.  BECOME a fan and do your part to legitimize our newest online presence.  Electronic legitimacy is what it’s all about, right??
Running a small winery in this day and age is not for the faint of heart.  I know there are lots of folks out there who have an “IDEA” of what working in a winery is about, and I can assure you that you are mostly wrong.  Sorry.  Don’t we all make assumptions about or romanticize things we know nothing about? I have seen this business from many different aspects at this point in time and I would think it will be fun to share a to a few of those things with you.

This is the last load of grapes for 2009.  This Pinot came from Chula Vina and was a few bins of 777 and 115.  Tastes great and was really cold when it came in.  We picked it and processed it and I think we are ready for this storm that is coming in.  I’m doubtful that we will really get as much rain as they say—storms don’t tend to have much moisture left by the time they get here, but I certainly wouldn’t complain if it did rain!

Racking Riesling

This is a photos of me racking Riesling the other day.  I have never made Riesling before but have a few ideas I am applying.  Here, I am looking for grape solids—the cloudiness in this juice is tartrates.  It is sometimes difficult to tell the tartrates from the lees, so I use a more tactile method to figure out when to stop racking and thereby reserve as much good juice as possible.  I was able to get a very clear separation as the tank chilled cold relatively quickly and it turned out that the lees were very compact in the tank. A very good start indeed…

I have been meaning to update this blog for quite sometime, but haven’t had much time recently.  We have brought in Pinot Noir from Hilltop Ranch and Palisades Vineyards, both in Carmel Valley, and have brought in most of the Pinot Noir from Chula Vina.  We are waiting now for our first ever Riesling to get here—5 minutes ago it was on River Road near the Chualar Bridge.  Yes, Riesling.  We will make an off-dry wine from this and will see how it goes.  I have a few ideas to apply to this wine, so we will see.  Here is a photo taken just a few minutes ago and is my view from the forklift.  It wouldn’t be harvest if we didn’t do a few late night shifts.  Tonight is one of them.

A side benefit of my job is driving around the Monterey region in the fall.  I have always enjoyed this time of year, and as the angle of the sun changes, so do those fall colors and shadows.  This is one view of the northern end of the Santa Lucias near the River Road/Chualar Canyon Rd. Intersection. No, no grapevines in this photo—this ain’t Napa Valley afterall…

We were supposed to have quite a heatwave this week, put it hasn’t gotten as hot as predicted.  All grapes are hanging until further notice.  It is good for us at the winery as we currently have lots of punchdowns to do and loose ends to tie up.  I’m catching up on my sleep which feels good.  This job can be very physical—which is good and bad.  I will be 39 at the end of this year, but sometimes I feel like a crotchety old woman after a whole day of running around, climbing ladders, walking vineyards, doing punchdowns, etc.  My grandmother is well into her 80’s and is still going strong and has done physical work all her life.  So I figure if it works for her, then it should work for me.  I hope to continue this work as long as I can, and as honestly as I can, but when I am as tired as I have been lately, I find myself questioning that notion.