Topping Up

Every few weeks, Markus hooks up a canister of Nitrogen to a keg of extra Syrah and goes to work topping up each of our 220 barrels of aging Borra wines. A long hose equipped with a special nozzle make the job much easier than the old “watering cans.”



If we were to leave a barrel completely alone, eventually enough wine would evaporate through the microscopic pores in the barrel walls to create a pocket of air under the bung. Air leads to the growth of the bacteria that like to make vinegar, and we’re not currently in that business.

An automatic humidifier sprays a mist of water into the barrel room every few minutes or so to maintain just the right amount of moisture. Too much humidity leads to mold growth and greater loss of alcohol, whereas too little humidity results in water loss from wine, rather than alcohol.

In any case, it’s always amazing how much wine we lose to the “angels.”

We’ve got both the 2008 and 2009 vintages of red wines in the barrel room, with some to be bottled at the end of this month. Markus can have them all topped and the barrels polished with a sulfur solution in only a couple of hours.



The whites are almost always bottled fresh from the vintage in March of each year. So we don’t have a problem turning white wines a blush color via a topping boo boo.

Wine & Food Guinea Pig

What's fun about having your own winery is getting to take a bottle (or three!) home and see what tastes the best with it.

This time we took a new 2008 Borra Members Reserve Petite Sirah that will be in our summer club shipment and tried to see if it would go with chicken.

I know any wine Nazi’s out there will be jumping off the walls at this potentially ridiculous combination of the most intense, dark varietal you can find with a lite white meat, but what’s life without a bit of experimentation?

In fact, the only reason for even attempting this fearful pairing was the spicy, molasses-laden Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce that was slathered all over legs and thighs. (Plus, we just couldn’t wait to see how the Petite was coming along.)

And the verdict…

The Petite on its own was lush and expectedly huge with great concentration and a muscular backbone of rounded tannins. We got flavors almost like those succulent juice that flows from the bottom of foil in which was resting a slow-roasted tri-tip. The finish was like someone shook a black cherry tree and filled oodles of baskets.

So the wine – the most important part of this experiment – was exciting and hard to stop drinking.

The pairing, on the other hand, got – as expected – a big fat “D.” Only the sauce gave this pairing a passing grade. Surprisingly, a quiver of asparagus spears were also on our plates, slightly blacked by the BBQ, which turned out to be a decent pairing. Nice to see that something actually works half decently with this wine-killer vegetable.

Oyster Sunday 2010

Like every year, during the Zinfest weekend here in Lodi, Oysters were on the grill all day long. Steve Borra Sr. and his crew barbequed the perfect lunch for all the sea food fans. Over 200 people stopped by and enjoyed food and wine during a perfect Sunday. Later that day, Stefanie D Band made sure everyone was moving! The music was great and nobody wanted to leave!

Just another great event at Borra Vineyards. Hope to see you all again next year on Zinfest Sunday.

2010 Wine & Chocolate Weekend

The 2010 Wine & Chocolate Weekend was wonderful this year! The weather was absolutely perfect, giving us a little taste of spring!

We had the privilege of meeting so many new friends and seeing so many old ones as well! Our wines paired perfectly with the delicious chocolates and S’mores (specially made by the Borra Grandkids).

We hope everyone that made it by enjoyed their visit and will come back to see us soon! We snapped tons of pictures, so check out if you made it onto our Wine & Chocolate Slideshow! (We’ve also added our pictures to our Facebook and Myspace.)

Ciao for now!

First Sip 2009

First Sip was a blast again this year. The weather cooperated, making the weekend cool and pleasant. Gina’s family biscotti and delicious homemade cookies paired perfectly with our wines. Everyone enjoyed samplings of our new Zinful Energy Spritzer, “ZinV” as well as samplings of many of our other delicious wines. Of course, Steve took this opportunity to grill up some mouth-watering Italian Sausage. What a fun weekend!

Final Fusion Friday of 2009

October 2nd marked the end of our fun-filled Fusion Friday season! The weather was finally a bit cooler and made it a perfect evening.

Our wines paired perfectly with the delicious Mexican cuisine that Revolución 1910 provided! The Spanish ballads played by Sergio of Midtown really set the mood of the evening. What a great way to end our summer Fusion Fridays!

We hope that you will join us again next year for these fun and entertaining events!

September 2009 Fusion Friday

Our September Fusion Friday was a blast as always! Our cool and refreshing White Fusion was definitely the wine of choice. Waterloo, CA’s ribs and pesto were a hit as usual! Although the weather was a bit warm, everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy being outside visiting and listening to the entertaining music from The Esquires. We welcomed old friends and enjoyed making lots of new friends.

We are looking forward to our last Fusion Friday of the season on October 2nd. This will be a fun-filled evening with food provided by Revolucion 1910 and Spanish Ballads from Sergio. We hope to see you there!