Our Featured Wines

Our Four Finest Barrels
Each year, Markus (Our Assistant Wine Maker) gets to surprise us with his selection of our finest red wines blended together, that he code-names "Mystere". He starts with Petite Syrah as his base, then looks to make and "adventurous creation that changes based on the best of what's available in the barrel room". I give him carte blanche to choose whatever he likes, and always look forward to the results!

For the 2005 47.5 degree Red, in addition to a barrel of Petite, he snagged one barrel each of Syrah, Alicante Bouchet ("because it's black as ink"), and Mourvedre ("which brings the unique, exotic floral aspect"). The resulting wine is full of aromas of sweet violets, red currant, and black olive, that turns deep, dark and brawny with creamy black cherry and a lingering finish. He aged 25% in one New French oak barrel to add notes of oak resonation with roasted vanilla bean. Better get you re-orders in soon for the few cases remaining!
Salute!
Steve Borra

Vineyard Happenings

Hope you all had a great Christmas!

I thought you might like to see what's happening on the ranch this time of year, so here are a couple of pictures:

The frosty morn at Lake Gill at our Gill Creek Ranch picnic area. Only 28 degrees F. Kinda cold for us here in Lodi, though not quit as cold as my recent trip to Minnesota at 14 degrees below with chill factor. Now that's cold!

That is our worker, Platon, on the very smallest of my tractors weed spraying the Chardonnay at Gill Creek Ranch. Believe it or not, that little Kubota tractor has been covering about 450 acres of vineyard every year for the past 13 years. I bought it from my brother-in-law for $2,500 and expected it to die many years ago - after all it's just a toy.

Well, I've just spent valuable time talking tractors when I should be talking WINE! But that little four-wheeled guy is a very important part of our winemaking process, as great wines are made in the vineyard.

Happy New Year!

Ciao for now!

Steve