Slave to the Grape: a review of our 2011 Green Valley

Wine writer and industry veteran Mick Cameron tasted a bottle of our 2011 Green Valley Pinot Noir, and was even spotted at our holiday party kicking the tires on the 2012s and 2013s.  Check out his thoughtful, SF-based Slave to the Grape column for wine insights both local and abroad.  And then there is a very nice shout out on our Pinot, cheers Mick!

A fine holiday evening

It was lovely to see everyone last Wednesday, thanks to all who came despite the bitter cold!  Some have asked to purchase additional four packs, and I am happy to extend the special holiday party pricing through the Christmas, just send me an email (bob @ waitcellars) to coordinate pickup or shipping.   Happy Holidays!

4pk 2012 Russian River Chardonnay  $80

4pk 2011 Green Valley Pinot Noir  $100

4pk 2011 Russian River Pinot Noir $115

4pk Mixed 2011 Pinot Noir         $105

Come to our holiday party this Wednesday!

Don't miss out, there's still time to RSVP here!

See you at the Vintner's Market this weekend

The San Francisco Vintner's Market at Fort Mason is always a blast, and there will be a bazillion wineries pouring.  Great try-and-buy opportunity for the holidays. 

Fall wine club selection ships this week

Our fall club selection will go out this week.  Pickups will be ready at The Page by Tuesday, 11/19.  Enjoy for Thanksgiving, then be sure to order early for Christmas. Our 2011 Russian River Pinot is available exclusively to club members.


2011 Russian River Pinot Noir -- we like this voluptuous, satisfying, double-gold Pinot Noir with a variety of cheeses prior to the big bird.

2011 Green Valley Pinot Noir, Devoto Garden Vineyard -- this elegant, cool-climate Pinot Noir has the acids and subtle tannins to pair perfectly with holiday meals of poultry or fish

Send us a picture of your holiday table and we'll post it here!

RSVP button screwed up in Holiday Party email!

Sincere apologies to all who clicked on the RSVP button in our recent Holiday Party email and were launched into a slideshow of Wait Cellars images, rather than taken directly to the RSVP page.  It was not my intention to browbeat everyone with harvest pictures!  The bug has been fixed with the email program, so subsequent RSVP button pushes should do the right thing. 

For those wishing to properly RSVP for a complimentary taste of our latest, please click here:

http://waitcellarsholidayparty2013.splashthat.com

See you this Sunday at the Soiree Des Vins

Come to our holiday party in SOMA on December 4th!

RSVP here for a complimentary wine tasting!

More harvest pics

 

Fruit from Devoto gorgeous this year, not much sorted away at all.  I was the first to pick at both Devoto and Inspiration, am happy to get off the vine before the warm weekend where this younger fruit would have no doubt experienced some dehydration.  Still four more tons to pick from the more mature, less ripe Pinot block, which I'm putting at about two weeks away?

 

Yours truly, using dry ice aplenty this year; adopting more reductive techniques last year I think gave a nice dimension to my 2012s (not released yet :).  For these younger blocks I'm including about 10-15% stems in the cold maceration and ferment.  Will let this rest at about 50 degrees until next week when I'll warm it up and let the native yeasts do their thing.

  

 

 

 First step was to get them into the harvest bin.  Now, how can I get them to start cleaning them...

Harvest!

Came up quick this year, made the call on Monday to pick 3 tons yesterday: a ton of Chardonnay from Inspiration Vineyard (below where I dropped my harvest bins), and, surprisingly, two tons of Pinot Noir from Devoto Gardens, where the younger blocks got ripe fast

2012 Russian River Chardonnay released

Our 2012 Russian River Chardonnay was released this month, and wine club members who have chosen our Summer Whites option were the first to receive it. 

2012 was a beautiful growing year, and this graceful un-oaked Chardonnay is a nice reflection: it is bursting with flavor and mouth-watering acids, but comes in at a very old-world 12.8% ABV, so it's easy to enjoy.

We made only a small amount and are assembling our allocation list now.  The wine retails at $24/bottle, but folks may join our wine club now and receive two bottles for just $30 plus tax and shipping (or, use our free pickup option).  Club members may also re-order limited amounts at 20% discount, or just $19.20/bottle.  Happy end of summer!

George's now pouring Wait Cellars

George's Restaurant downtown has picked up our 2011 Russian River Chardonnay, stop in for a glass if you're in the neighborhood!

Veraison shots

Harvest approaches and our fruit is ahead of where it was in 2012, due to the warm dry winter and spring.  Our growers (Stan at Devoto Gardens for our Pinot Noir, and Jon at Inspiration Vineyard for our Chardonnay) scrambled to irrigate during mid July heat that reached the 90s.  But it has since cooled off and things are slowing; we'll see what September brings!

 

 

Devoto Gardens: clone 667 at left (planted 2009), clone 828 at right (planted 2006).  Note characteristic verticality of the 828.

Veraison at about 70-80% in the 667 block (and the 115 block, also a young canopy) two weeks back; not as far along in the 828.

Exposed (southern) side of the Chardonnay at Inspiration, carrying more protective leaves. Quadrilateral training, harder to stay on top of what's going on inside the canopy, but Jon has rot and mildew well in check.  Putting veraison at 70% as of two weeks back.

Will be asking Jon to drop fruit on these shorter shoots, which is unlikely to fully ripen.

Family Winemakers of California: August 17th-18th

Join us at one of the year's biggest tastings, the Family Winemakers of California San Francisco tasting at Fort Mason, August 17th and 18th. Hundreds of California wineries and family-owned goodness.

You may also buy wine at the table if you find something you like.  We'll be pouring our 2011 Pinot Noirs and our just-released 2012 Russian River Chardonnay.  Hope to see you!

Wait Cellars at Bi-Rite Markets

We're very pleased to mention that San Francisco's acclaimed Bi-Rite Market is now carrying our 2011 Green Valley Pinot Noir, Devoto Garden Vineyard, in both stores -- here in the neighborhood on Divisadero St., as well as at their flagship 18th street shop.  Why not pick up a bottle for dinner tonight?

More Gold at San Francisco International Wine Competition

  The San Francisco International Wine Competition was held this month.  It is the country's largest competition, with 52 judges tasting 4500+ wines from 1400+ wineries, representing 30 countries and 29 states.  In 2013 only 4% of the wines entered received double gold, an award given to a wine where judges are unanimous in giving it a gold medal.  In the Pinot Noir category, 250+ wines were awarded medals -- but only 10 received double gold. 





We are pleased to share that the Wait Cellars 2011 Russian River Pinot Noir was awarded double gold.








We are also pleased to share that the Wait Cellars 2011 Green Valley Pinot Noir, Devoto Garden Vineyard, was awarded silver. 





Click here for a complete list of competition results.

CUESA Summer Celebration

Join us at CUESA’s 3rd annual Summer Celebration soiree and fundraiser this Sunday, July 14th, 6pm-9pm.  Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of its Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, dozens of chefs and bartenders will focus their palates and talents on six culinary families – berries, nightshades, grains and legumes, alliums, leaves and flowers, and of course stone fruits – creating original tastes that celebrate the height of the summer harvest.

Treat yourself to a unique night out, and support a great organization at the same time!  Tickets are $125 and are still available here.

Pinot Days San Francisco 2013

Hope to see you at Pinot Days on Sunday, June 30th!  We'll be pouring our newly released, award-winning 2011 pinots, and you may purchase wine at the table to take with you.  Come by to check out our special pricing.

Friends of Wait Cellars also receive a 33% discount on tickets: use the promotional code PDSF13.

Precious Metals for Wait Cellars 2011s at Best of Bay

We're pleased to mention that our 2011 Pinot Noirs took gold and silver at the 2013 Best of the Bay Wine competition last week: gold for our 2011 Russian River Pinot Noir, and silver for our 2011 Green Valley.  This is a competition open only to bonded wineries in the counties bordering the bay; this year there were 130+ wines entered, and they gave away 27 golds.  A complete list of 2013 medal winners is here.

SF Vintner's Market April 13th-14th

Come visit us at the spring Vintner's Market at Fort Mason on April 13th and 14th.  It's a great opportunity to try and buy wines from 100s of local wineries, as well as to enjoy a leisurely weekend afternoon on the water.  We'll also be pouring our pre-release 2011 Russian River Pinot Noir.

2010 Devoto Garden Sold Out

We are officially sold out of our 2010 Devoto Garden Pinot Noir, including wine club allocations.  Our remaining award-winning 2009 Russian River Pinot Noir is also on allocation to the wine club only while it lasts; it is unfortunately no longer available to the public.  There are limited amounts of our 2010 Russian River Pinot Noir and our 2011 Russian River Chardonnay still available through the website.

We intend to release our 2011 Pinot Noirs soon.  A bottle of our 2011 Russian River Pinot Noir will go out "pre-release" in our spring club shipment in April, and both 2011 Pinot Noirs will be made available for purchase through the wine club.

2012 Russian River Chardonnay bottled

Last Thursday we bottled 52 cases of our 2012 Russian River Chardonnay: unfiltered, un-oaked, conditioned about six months sur lie in neutral oak, alcohol at about 13%.  This fruit came from the "Jack Pierce" block off Olivet road: about a half acre of Chardonnay clone 4 farmed by our friend Randy Pitts of Harvest Moon.  It was a gently pruned, very low-yield block: a little over a ton, which I picked just after Labor Day between 21 and 22 brix.  This fruit is about a half-mile south of Jon Philips' Inspiration Vineyard, where the Chardonnay in my 2011 came from.  The lower yields and slightly more hands-off farming shows: this 2012 has big aromas and distinctive round layers of citrus, apple, banana, with a pleasing amount of acid to stitch it all together.  We'll let it settle in the bottle this spring and look to release it toward summer's end.

Big thanks to our bottling slaves, that's Mr. Harris dumping glass and Ms. Leah Tracy doing pick and pack, yours truly on camera and tape gun.
 

 

Devoto 2010 going quickly

Our 2010 Devoto Garden has been on by the glass at Millenium since mid January.  This may be the last place (outside of our Wine Club) in SF where you can still get this vintage -- only a few cases remain.

Meanwhile in the vineyard

Pruning is about 80% complete at Devoto Garden, I was up last week to help in the 828 block. The vines are "cordon/renewal spur" pruned; each vine is 4 feet apart, each cordon/arm is 24"; the goal is to leave each arm with six "nodes" about 4" apart, each node trimmed back to two buds on one of last year's canes, which will become two fruiting canes this year.  Simple, right?  You'd be surprised...

Pruned vines on right; those awaiting haircut on left.  Wood left in rows to be mulched by tractor with flail.








My over-matched, minimalist Japanese shears; need to get new ones more to the task of working the woodier spurs.  A source of amusement to others in the field.

Younger replacement vines will be bent to their training wires soon when things are a little wetter.  Conversely, not great to prune when wet due to eutypia and other diseases spread by water that can infect pruning wounds.

2012s resting

Shot from the top of the barrels; they do sway just a bit when a 160lb man (okay, 165-170 really) is up there topping them up...






Went through all 15 barrels looking for any off aromas, tastes, chemistry.  Liked the new barrels (Damy, Francois Freres).  The one-year olds were sublime, always a favorite.  I have a particular tight grained 2010 Taransaud barrel which by my lights continues to contribute a subtle weight and spice.

Color looks nice, no?  Some folks add enzymes and other products to their musts to enhance color -- we do not.  This year we did not add yeast: the ferment was strictly driven by the native yeasts on the grapes.  This is the color the soil and fruit gave us, the color of good Pinot Noir we think: a shimmering brick red, not a deep ruby purple like a Cabernet or Petite Syrah.

Here's the aeration/titration set-up for assessing free SO2 in the wine. Free SO2 and pH are a predictor of molecular SO2, a critical factor in wines' oxidative and microbiological stability.  Time consuming to gather this data, but an important factor for my Pinot, where our goal is to neither rack nor filter prior to bottling.