Cima Collina

Archive for the ‘News & Happenings’ Category

Cima Collina will be at the Pinot Days event in Chicago on November 14th-15th. If you want to attend this wonderful event, please go to their website and enter the code “Collina” to get a 10% discount on tickets! Please be advised that the number of discounts available is limited.

Winemaker’s Dinner

I will be present and pouring Cima Collina at Christopher’s on Lincoln, in Carmel-by-the-Sea this Friday at 7:00. Christopher’s is one of my favorite local restaurants (chef owned and operated), and Christopher himself is a James Beard award-winning chef. Great food, great atmosphere, great service. Tickets are available at: montereywines.org.

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Hello All — I’ve taken a little break here, at least somewhat. We hosted our annual harvest party at Hilltop Ranch this past Saturday. The weather was wonderful, the band — “The Furry Chaps” — a fun, local bluegrass band kept us all entertained; all in all, quite good fun. We brought in the last load of grapes on October 10 — a mix of Bordeaux varietals (Cabernet Franc, Petite Verdot, Malbec, Merlot) from Lockwood Oaks. I kept the Malbec separate for a possible small bottling next year, but all the others are a “field blend” in one of our bigger tanks and all of it is just now coming into the homestretch — in other words finishing primary fermentation. We have drained and pressed a few tanks of Pinot so far — as soon as I’m done with this entry, I will drain a tank — but will dedicate ourselves more to that task next week……

Winemaker’s Dinner: Friday, November 7 at 7pm.

Yes, We’ve made a Port (all of 25 cases). I’ve had so many people ask for one, and I have played around with different varietals (traditional port varietals are difficult to come by here in Monterey — as they should be) and came up with this. I got the brandy for the fortification part of it from Germain-Robin up in Redwood Valley. Personally I do not like or drink sweet wines, and admit I had a difficult time separating my personal and professional judgements on this one, so this is neither as sweet nor as alcoholic as a traditional port. I have poured it at a few events recently and people seem to really like it — even those like myself who don’t like sweet wines. So, I’m getting a label created for it and it will go on sale in our tasting room sometime mid-November.

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Vern Fisher of the Monterey County Herald came by one day and photographed us as we processed Chardonnay and Pinot Noir on the same day. Click here to see and hear the slideshow he put together. By the way — I’d have to get my arm twisted to do both whites and reds simultaneously here, because, well, you’ll see why…..but sometimes I’m reminded that Mother Nature is stronger than me, hee hee. Anyway, I’ve long admired Vern’s photographs in the paper, and I think he was able to capture what we do here on a very busy day.

The slideshow starts out at Chula Vina….the first photo is Henry Carrasco, owner of Chula Vina…the crew is shown harvesting the Chardonnay and Pinot that we subsequently are shown processing. Chula Vina is in Chualar Canyon, BTW, and it is one of my favorite beautiful places. Enjoy…

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I am one of the founding board members of the Monterey Bay Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier (LDEI). This is a marvelous organization of women involved in the culinary and wine worlds. The group is committed to advocacy, philanthropy and education in local communities related to food, hospitality and beverage industries. LDEI is now offering an online auction with many incredible items available: fabulous trips, cooking classes, culinary collectibles, gift baskets. If you enjoy food and wine or know someone who does, you are sure to find something. Bidding ends October 26!

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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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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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 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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Here’s something worth noting this holiday season:  Menu for Hope is a project sponsored by food and wine bloggers, restaurants and others interested in ending hunger in the world.  It seems appropriate that those of us involved in the food and wine industries should sponsor an event such as this.  This is a “virtual” raffle project in that the tickets and sold and eventually chosen electronically.

This year, Menu for Hope III will endeavor to raise funds to support the UN World Food Programme.  Last year, Menu for Hope II raised $17,000 to help UNICEF.  

Food & wine bloggers, restaurants and other food related folks have donated raffle prizes.  We at Cima Collina are also donating a prize which is the following:

Rare Cima Collina Wine Package ($225 value)

1.   Go to the donation page

2.   Make a donation, each $10 will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice.  Please specify which prize or prizes you’d like in the ‘Personal Message’ section in the donation form when confirming your donation (for the Cima Collina package enter “WB25“).  Do tell us how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code -for example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for UW01 and 3 for UW02. 

3.   If your company matches your charity donation, please remember to check the box and fill in the information so we can claim the corporate match. 

4.   Please also check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win.  Your email address will not be shared with anyone. 

5.   Check back on Chez Pim on January 15 when we announce the result of the raffle.  (The drawing will be done electronically.  Our friend, the code wizard Derrick at Obsession with Food, is responsible for the wicked application that will do the job.

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• Carmel Valley, CA 93924
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