Cima Collina

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Due to harvest crew constraints, we all finished harvesting Hilltop Ranch Pinot Noir yesterday ourselves. It had rained earlier that morning, but it turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day, and the fruit looked great, as well. Most vineyards we sourced from produced a short crop this year, but Hilltop came in with a good yield & high quality to boot. Here are some photos:

Mark & Kara

“No cauliflower pickers in my vineyard!” Appolonio — da man.

“Here are your assignments…”, says master Luke, and..

…hauling buckets.

Dick….”Now why did we train these cordons so low??”

And me with Sweetie.

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I didn’t have week-long school breaks for no reason, but times have changed and my son is not in school this week, so forced child labor is necessary as it is harvest. “Dad, get me out of this”.

But, it’s not all about cracking the whip here. Case in point (maybe there’s something in the water, or maybe working here is just too damn fun??):

Harvest Update

As of today, we are finishing harvest. We finished picking Pinot Noir at Chula Vina yesterday, and will finish picking at Hilltop Ranch today. Pictures to follow. It has been a short and light harvest season. I barely can fill the tanks in the winery, but quality seems really high across the board.

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Click here to listen to a radio postcard produced Rachel McDonald at our local public radio station, KAZU. The piece features Joe Alarid of Tondre Grapefield in the Santa Lucia Highlands, as well as myself and was recorded while we were destemming Tondre Pinot at the winery.

Also, while we are in the audio mode, check out Grape Radio’s “2007 World of Pinot, Part 2″ piece, which includes Ken Zinns, Dan Tudor and myself.

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Where’s That Wascally Wabbit?
These two are so happy because harvest is almost here. They don’t particularly care about Brix or the quality of tannins in grape skins. I can assure you that only three things are on their mind: riding in the car with me, having the opportunity to find some nasty thing to eat while out and about, and most importantly, the chance that harvest time brings to chase — and catch — jack rabbits in the vineyard. Yes, these two may look unassuming and downright harmless, but together they are sublime jack rabbit chasers and faster than you might think — far more efficient than Elmer Fudd ever was. And much like Mr. Fudd, they don’t know quite what to do once they catch the rabbit, but that’s OK with me and probably with the rabbit, too.

Harvest is almost upon us

It’s a pretty amazing fact that we haven’t started harvest yet. There are some grapes being harvested in Monterey, and I’m seeing (and smelling) onions being harvested, and also lettuce, and broccoli. The artichokes above are past their prime, but I took that photo so you can see the haze of smoke from the fire near San Jose that has been hanging over the Salinas Valley on and off for a week. Not one grape has entered this facility. It’s amazing because most every other area in California is in full picking mode (a friend at Sonoma-Cutrer says they are halfway done already — and it’s not even the middle of September!). We are bottling the remaining 2006 wines tomorrow, and will also bring our first load of Sauvignon Blanc in tomorrow as well — it will be interesting to see how that works out. Crops are definitely small this year, quality is looking great, and it looks like everything will come in at once.

Speaking of Bottling…
James, Mark and I have been finishing our 2006 Pinots and here’s a view of wine that most don’t see…..this photo was taken as we were just emptying our last tank.

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Word is that the big tasting at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco this past weekend — sponsored by the Family Winemakers of California was a big success. It was well-organized and the food was great. I was traveling this past weekend and couldn’t make it, but my husband (and our Sales Manager) Doug attended both days and poured Cima Collina. While in the city, he was able to visit a number of the restaurants that currently pour our wine, and he mentioned Frascati and NOPA in particular. We are invigorated and excited about having Cima Collina in a variety of Bay Area restaurants (go to https://cimacollina.com/newsreviews.html for the list) because, well, we are selling a good amount of wine (thanks to all who are enjoying it!!), but also because it warms my heart to be a part of the thoroughly erudite-yet-freshly-creative foodie movement happening there now. Doug’s description of what he saw and tasted and also of the people he met or saw again reminds me of the reason why I wanted to be involved with wine production in the first place — the beautiful liason that takes place with wine and food — and the inspiration one can take from this, as well as a connection that is created between all who are touched by it. The enthusiasm and vibrancy of restaurants in San Francisco just blows me away, and I am so happy to be a small part of it…..I am looking forward to visiting it myself (not vicariously) next time Cima Collina calls on “The City”.

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Yes.  In addition to many retail establishments in the Bay Area (Arlequin Wine Merchant, The Jug Shop, The Wine House, K&L Wine Merchants, Half Moon Bay Wine and Cheese Shop, The Wine Stop, Robert’s Market of Woodside), our current Pinot Noirs (2005 Chula Vina and 2005 Tondre Grapefield) are now available in a number of fine San Francisco restaurants, including:

 Ame Restaurant, Mission Street

Jack Falstaff, 2nd Street at Brannan

Umami, Union & Webster

Frascati, Hyde

Que Syrah, West Portal Ave (Sunset District)

 More to come……..

 Spring Has Sprung

Our cellar dogs got to escape the cellar and go on a little hike the other day in the hills above Carmel Valley, and here is what they saw.  The wildflowers are beautiful this time of year and it was a great day to get out!

Other News

This past Wednesday, Laurie Daniel wrote a nice article about Monterey Chardonnay and she reviewed our 2005 Chardonnay among many other tasty offerings from this area.  Click here to read further.

Our tasting room is moving right along and is scheduled to open in the first part of June.  I will keep you updated on the progress.

Our spring wine club shipment just went out and included 2006 Sauvignon Blanc and 2005 Chula Vina Pinot Noir.  It is not too late to sign up if you would like to receive these wines as a wine club member with a discount.  Call the winery at 831-384-7806 and talk with Laura about the details.

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I finally got the opportunity to meet Rusty Gaffney, MD, aka “The Prince of Pinot” and creator of the Pinot Noir newsletter “Pinotphile” when I participated in the World of Pinot Noir event last week.  I have enjoyed reading his newsletter for quite some time.  It is well-written and entertaining and I find it particularly informative about what other winemakers are doing (I don’t get out much these days, so really don’t have much opportunity to find out for myself).  If you haven’t discovered this newsletter yet and love Pinot as much as I do, I would highly recommend it.  And, it just so happens that he wrote up a generous review of the wine we poured at the event — our 2005 Chula Vina Pinot Noir — click here to read what he says.

Now — Cima Collina available in many locations in Bay Area

Doug and I did a sales trip up to San Francisco yesterday and met with a few folks up there. We are now available at a number of online and brick-and-mortar sites in the area:

The Wine House, at 129 Carolina Street in SF, and also an online store.

The Jug Shop, Chuck Hayward has chosen to carry both our 2005 Chula Vina and Tondre Grapefield Pinot Noirs. 

Arlequin Wine Merchant, at 384 Hayes Street in Hayes Valley.  Ask Chris about our wine!

K&L Wine Merchants, in, I believe, all of their locations throughout California.

An Aside…..

We went to lunch at A16 in SF yesterday (wonderful lunch, by the way), and enjoyed the fact that they have, first of all, a tremendous by-the-glass list, and second of all, the current California by-the-glass wines are all made by female winemakers.  We happened to choose what turned out to be two astonishing white wines:  Viognier from Cold Heaven and a Malvasia from Palmina – both wineries I had never heard of before yesterday.  Both were the most well-crafted examples I’ve ever tasted from California….It is these kinds of inspriational and surprising experiences with wine that keep us all going and one of the main reasons I love this industry. Ooh La La!

 

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A Sea of Blue…..

Here is Cara putting the finishing touches on our 2005 Hilltop Ranch Pinot Noir.  We are excited about this wine as it is the first vintage from our own estate vineyard in Carmel Valley.  This will be a special package and will be released in November 2007……

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The finalists for the 2007 American Wine Blog Awards have been announced, and This Blog is a finalist in the “Best Winery Blog” category.  The other nominees (and some of my favorites, too) in this category are:  Mary Baker’s Dover Canyon Winery Blog, Pinotblogger with Josh at Capozzi, and Stormhoek from South Africa.  Thanks for the nomination and good luck to all.

If you have enjoyed reading this blog, if you have found it to be informative, entertaining or insightful, if you think this blog is worthy, click here to express yourself and vote.  While you’re at it, take some time to check out the other categories as well.  There are folks out there in the wine blogging world who are doing great things — find out what they are doing and vote for your favorite in each category.  Thank You.  Voting ends Friday, February 16th.

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 Happy New Year to One and All!

Recap of recent events:

We had a fun-filled, riotous evening at the Cima Collina Winemaker’s New Year Dinner at La Playa Hotel in Carmel on Sunday night (damning and embarrassing pictures forthcoming, I promise).  There was music and dancing throughout the evening, and we premiered our own estate 2005 Pinot Gris (of which we made only 35 cases) that night .  Ashton and Frank are the wine directors there and were graceful hosts and share an off-the-wall sense of humor which I realy appreciate.  Thanks La Playa for organizing this event and thanks for your unflagging support as well!

 Cima Collina was poured at the Pac Rep’s New Year’s party and I hear that all had a great time.  At last count, 230 folks attended, but more were expected, and the evening was filled with musical performances, food, and, of course Cima Collina.  We hope the folks at Pac Rep have enjoyed working with us as much as we them.

 Now, over at chezPim, Menu for Hope raised over $60,000 for the United Nations World Food Programme.  This figure was well and above their goal of $35,000……Congratulations to Pim and all the folks who organized and participated.  Events such as this prove the strength and commitment of the blogging community.

Coming Up!

Tarpy’s, a fine and fun local restaurant will feature Cima Collina wines in it’s “Wine Down Wednesday” event on Wednesday, January 24th.  Call them at 831-647-1444 for more information.

At Grasing’s on January 31 will be the First Annual Cima Collina Winemaker/Wild Mushroom Dinner.  Seating is very limited for this event, so please call them at 831-624-6562 for reservations.

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• Carmel Valley, CA 93924
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