Lovely to see everyone who made it out to the Holiday Party on December 2nd, a smashing good time! Please send us your photos, or post them to our event page! And apologies for running out of certain wines. To make good, we’d like extend the holiday pricing, and offer free shipping, on six-packs through the end of the year! Click here to place a holiday order. Mix and match OK too, just send an email. Happy Holidays! 6pk 2012 Green Valley Pinot Noir: $150 Limited to just a few cases in our library! 6pk 2013 Green Valley Pinot Noir: $150 6pk 2013 Russian River Pinot Noir: $150 6pk 2014 Russian River Cabernet Franc: $85
Please join us in San Francisco for our annual Holiday Party on December 2nd! There is no better time to sample our current releases. Plus enjoy the best local food and music you’ll find anywhere — and do your holiday shopping while you’re at it, for all the foodies on your list! Click here for details, and to RSVP for your complimentary tasting But that’s not all — at 6pm and 8pm, 20 lucky folks will sit down enjoy a small-plate menu specially prepared by former Mission Chinese chef Jesse Koide to pair with our wines! Tickets for the pairings are limited, click here to reserve your seat today! Course One Crudo of scallop, burnt and creamed parsnip, savory granola Wait Cellars 2014 Russian River Chardonnay Course Two Glazed Anago, ‘mysterious and delicious’ carrots, smoked-misozuke baby daikon Wait Cellars 2014 Green Valley Rosé of Pinot Noir, Devoto Garden Vineyard Course Three Ginger and cherry braised beef cheek, persimmon, chestnuts Wait Cellars 2014 Russian River Cabernet Franc, Los Amigos Vineyard Embrace the spirit of the season, knowing that 10% of ticket proceeds will go to the Edible Schoolyard Project. Happy Holidays!
These past few years we’ve been particularly fascinated by the beautifully rustic, simple, and very drinkable red wines of Chinon, France, in the heart of the Loire Valley. Reds there are primarily made from Cabernet Franc, or Breton as the grape is called locally. Unlike in Bordeaux however, where Cabernet Franc provides an accent to a full-bodied wine, these wines show off Cabernet Franc as medium bodied and the star of the show. Found in a soft-shouldered bottle, they are generally sumptuous and ready to drink, with red and black fruit forward notes and a nice amount of spice and grip on the finish. In 2014 we found what we thought would make a great match for this style at the Los Amigos Vineyard south of Healdsburg, California, in the warm northeastern area of Sonoma County’s Russian River AVA. With the warmth and sun, we anticipated no problems in ripening the fruit. With a properly trained canopy we hoped to avoid the overwhelmingly green, “pyrazine” notes sometimes associated with unripe Cabernet Franc — yielding instead fruit with an intriguing herbal spice. With ripening done right in […]
Please join us and 100 other small-production artisanal Pinot Noir producers at the 2015 Pinot on the River Festival, held Sunday, October 25, 2015 on the Healdsburg Plaza in spectacular downtown Healdsburg in Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley, featuring a full day of tastings from some of California’s best Pinot producers. Pinot On The River begins at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Oct 25 when VIP ticket holders can enter the Grand Tasting ahead of the general public. Noon entries are also available for the Grand Tasting on the Healdsburg Plaza. Event ends at 4PM.
That’s our conclusion so far, half-way through harvest, with 2.5T Chardonnay and 1T Pinot Noir in the winery and another 4-5T still hanging. Small berries and light clusters — for instance, the average cluster weight in the 115 block at Devoto Garden was about 4 ounces last year. This year it was about 2oz. While this perhaps makes the growers unhappy, we however are cautiously optimistic about the potential for great wine: the flavors are there in these small tight berries, and the skin/berry ratio is exciting. Some shots so far:
