May Update, Bloom, Save the date...

We have Bloom
Reality check, harvest is closer than we think; by two weeks says Casey Hartlip who manages two of the vineyards we source from in Anderson Valley. "Of course that could change between now and August" Casey reminds us, but the recent warm weather definitely has things moving ahead of "normal". Walking our Pinot Noir and Gewurztraminer blocks on a beautiful morning last week, bloom was evident in most of the vines and it looks like we have a very healthy crop load this year. The trellis wiring has already been raised to support this year's shoots and with the threat of frost (knock on wood) pretty much behind us, growers and wine makers are both optimistic about the vintage ahead. "It's going to be hard to beat last year" according to Ray Teldeschi, speaking of his 2012 Dry Creek Zinfandel as we taste barrel samples together. Then I remind Ray that he said the same thing the previous year and he gives a laugh. With so much to worry about between now and harvest, we'll both take
the optimistic approach for the time being. We already have two vineyards fully allocated (sold out) so if you are thinking about making wine this year, now is the time to secure your fruit source. If you haven’t already seen the new list contact dave@dogpatchwineworks.com to get a look.

Save The Date - June 29th Wineworks Summer Gathering
Saturday June 29th we're throwing a little party, Dogpatch style. We will have a pizza truck on site serving delicious thin crust pies and we'll be pouring plenty of wine to go with it. If you have wine in barrel let us know and we'll pull barrel samples for you to share with your friends. If you are thinking about making wine this will be a terrific opportunity for you to see the facility, taste some of the wines and speak with clients who have been through the process. What better way to get to know the people involved than over pizza and wine!

Please RSVP at info@dogpatchwineworks.com

Thirsty Thursdays, Keep on keeping on
Our "Thirsty Thursday" events continue to be a fun evening of mixing it up after work here in the tasting room. Here's a look at the current line up of events:

May 23rd - International Chardonnay Day - Stop by the tasting room for a flight of Chardonnay that covers the spectrum of styles. Un-oaked to 2x4, crisp to butter. Doors Open at 4pm

May 30th - Dogpatch Wineworks Wine release - Join us for the release of our third wine from our innaugral vintage, the 2011 Russian River Pinot Noir.

June 6th - "Decanter-athon" with Stu Ake of The Tasting Lab. Blinded by science? On Thursday, June 6th, Dogpatch WineWorks dons the lab coat for a fun (and highly scientific) tasting experience to evaluate the impact of aerators, decanters and the Oster beehive blender on wine. Aeration devices claim to enhance the experience and enjoyment of wine. Do they really work? You’ll have an opportunity to judge for yourself in this ‘Mythbusters-styled’ side-by-side-by-side-by-side-by-side tasting featuring 5 techniques across several flights of wine. Space is limited. Contact dave@dogpatchwineworks.com to RSVP. $40 per person

June 13th - Meet the Winemaker - Jazz Cellars (www.jazzcellars.com) - Stop by our tasting room between 4pm-8pm to meet Joe Lazarra and Bob Smith, the men behind the brand and taste a specially selected flight of their current releases. Rumor has it Bob is creating a special playlist for the occasion and will have full control of the music selections for the evening. Not to be missed.

June 27th - Wine Relay with Charlotte Chipperfield of The Wine Key
Attendees will team up to compete in a series of wine related activities designed to heighten your sensory awareness and extend you wine knowledge. Prizes will go to the winning team. Throughout the two hour event, teams will explore how wine is made, how to taste wine and more! No wine knowledge required.

Tasting Room Hours:
Thurs and Fri: 4pm-8pm
Sat: Noon-7pm
Sun: Noon-5pm

It's going to be another great year to make wine in the city. There are a ton of fun things going on here in the Dogpatch and we hope you will join us.

Cheers,
The WineWorks team

April Update, 2013 Vineyard List

Spring is in the air
Ah spring! Color returns to the garden, new leaves on trees bring shade to warmer days. We start to shed the extra layers of clothing (and pounds) that we carried around all winter and daylight lasts long enough for us to sneak in an after work outdoor activity. It’s an optimistic time of the year. We still hold on to the best intentions of those New Year’s resolutions and it is early enough in the baseball season that even the Cubs have “a chance”. In the winery, we have started talking about bud break in vineyards and begun to think about the upcoming harvest while it is still far enough away that we don’t have to break into a panic. This spring marks the start of our third year in business here at Wineworks and the launch of our new vineyard list. This year we’ve added a few new white varieties, as well as new vineyards for Cabernet, Pinot and Zinfandel. As always our focus on sourcing new vineyards is targeted on finding growers whom we enjoy working with and who share
our motivation to make the best wine possible by starting with the best grapes possible. Yet again we have been successful in creating those relationships. If you haven’t already seen the new list click here to download it. Please feel free to share the list with friends and contact dave@dogpatchwineworks.com with any questions.

Thirsty Thursday's going strong
We kicked off our "Thirsty Thursday' events earlier this month with great success thanks to help from a few of our partner wineries, Passaggio and Pug Wines and our friends at The Tasting Lab. The next event is May 9th when Cindy Cosco of Passaggio wines will be releasing her recently bottled 2012 Rose, Pinot Grigio and signature "Unoaked" Chardonnay. The Passaggio release party is open to the public so join us to be the first to taste a line up of wines that are perfectly paired with this fine weather we are enjoying in the bay area.
Upcoming events:
May 9th - Passaggio Spring Release
May 16th - An evening of Still Life Photography by Maren Caruso and Sherry Olsens collection of Ceramics, Drawings and Linens
May 23rd - Wine Relay with Charlotte Chipperfield of The Wine Key Attendees will team up to compete in a series of wine related activities designed to heighten your sensory awareness and extend you wine knowledge. Prizes will go to the winning team. Throughout the two hour event, teams will explore how wine is made, how to taste wine and more! No wine knowledge required.
June 6th - "Decanter-athon" with the Stu Ake of The Tasting Lab. Blinded by science? On Thursday, June 6th, Dogpatch WineWorks dons the lab coat for a fun (and highly scientific) tasting experience to evaluate the impact of aerators, decanters and the Oster beehive blender on wine. Aeration devices claim to enhance the experience and enjoyment of wine. Do they really work? You’ll have an opportunity to judge for yourself in this ‘Mythbusters-styled’ side-by-side-by-side-by-side-by-side tasting featuring 5 techniques across several flights of wine. Space is limited. Contact dave@dogpatchwineworks.com to RSVP. $40 per person

J2 Wines now in the tasting room:
J2 Winery is the latest partner winery to be featured in our tasting room here on 3rd St. J2 Winery is the partnership of Brad Jacobs and Jeff Clark who have turned thier focus towards producing award winning Pinot Noir (Gold medal in the 11th annual Pinot Noir Shoot out) in addition to Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet, all of which are available here at the winery. Stop by to have a taste or pick up a couple of bottles to try at home.

Tasting Room Hours:
Thurs and Fri: 4pm-8pm
Sat: Noon-7pm
Sun: Noon-5pm

It's going to be another great year to make wine in the city. There are a ton of fun things going on here in the Dogpatch and we hope you will join us.

Cheers,
The WineWorks team

Winter Update

Winter Update

Winter in the winery

It's a mid-week morning here in the winery. The sun is shining, not a cloud in the sky, the temperature outside is somewhere in the mid 60's and hovers a little lower inside our concrete building. The perimeter of the winery is stacked with barrels three rows high some 300 barrels in total. A lone eight foot long banquet table sits in the middle of the 12,000 square foot main room. In the back of the winery an air compressor kicks into gear quickly muffled by a closing loading dock door that has its own unique noise. The banquet table has an assortment of wine glasses, graduated cylinders, pipettes and small bottles of wine pulled from the barrels that surround the room. White butcher paper graffitied with scribbles and splashes of wine hangs off of the table. It is winter in the winery; we are tasting red wines that have been in barrel for 16 months, wines that are ready to be blended. It is winter in the winery and we are getting ready to bottle white wines from this past

harvest. It is winter in the winery and we are racking wines that have recently completed secondary fermentation in the barrel and still have another year or more of time in barrel. It is winter in the winery and this is what is coming in the spring...

Thirsty Thursday's Kick off in April

Thursday April 4th will kick off the first of our "Thirsty Thursday' educational events. Our old friend Stu Ake of TheTasting Lab  will be conducting monthly educational tastings the first Thursday of every month. The first session is a Pinot Noir blending experience. Stu has been involved in presenting wine education and informational seminars for years and is a master of mixing obscure music and film references with wine. The guy is a treat to work with and really knows how to approach wine education in a fashion that engages people new to wine as well as providing "experts" with new knowledge to ponder. The bottom line is that he is consistent with our approach to making wine, it should be fun! For more information about attending our first Thursday session take a look here: website

Next up: Meet the winemaker. Thursday April 18th Cindy Cosco of Passaggio wines will be in the

tasting room talking about her wines and pouring a Passaggio featured flight.

2013 Vineyard List

We've been putting in a fair amount of time on the road the past couple of weeks talking with our growers, providing feedback from this past vintage as well as meeting new growers and walking potential new vineyards. We will launch the 2013 vineyard list in the next couple of weeks with a few new vineyards and varietals being added, Sauvignon Blanc and Gewurztraminer (delicious!) to name a few. Our goal is to make great wine and provide a great experience. Keeping that in mind we limit our production each year. Last year we sold out of 95% of our allocated grape sources before we crushed a single grape. If you have been thinking about making wine start rallying the troops and get a group together. Just as a great bottle of wine is best shared with friends so too is the experience of making wine best shared with friends. Contact Dave@dogpatchwineworks for more info and a sneak peak at the list.

Tasting Room Hours: We now have five boutique wine brands being poured in the tasting room. Each month showcases a featured flight put together by our tasting room staff as well as around 10 other wines available by the taste or glass. Stop in for a taste and see what's going on for yourself. Thurs and Fri: 4pm-8pm Sat: Noon-7pm Sun: Noon-5pm

It's going to be another great year to make wine in the city. There are a ton of fun things going on here in the Dogpatch and we hope you will join us.

June update

Old Friends, New Winemaker
We are excited to announce that Chris Nelson, an old friend and
colleague, will be joining the Wineworks team as an on site consultant
for the 2012 winemaking season. Chris has been the winemaker behind a
number of premium boutique wine brands over the past few years and has
received high praises from the wine media including recent scores of
91-93 from James Suckling (not that any of us pay attention to scores
;-). While Chris is known for his work with Pinot Noir, he has a wide
range of experience working with all of the grape variatals that we
source here at Wineworks. Chris will be involved in monitoring
vineyards through the growing season, production plans and harvest
activities. In addition to the skills that Chris brings with him on the
winemaking side he also makes a mean pulled pork BBQ that hits the spot
during the long days of harvest. We are looking forward to having
Chris's winemaking talents and sense of humor in the winery this fall.

The tasting bar is OPEN
This past weekend we opened the doors to our tasting room featuring two
of our partner wineries wines. Jazz Cellars and Qualia Wines are
currently available by the taste, glass and bottle as well as a
featured flight. The collective tasting room will rotate wines produced
by our commercial clients which will keep the list fresh with new wines
to taste every time you visit. The next addition to the tasting room
line up will be Carlotta Cellars followed by... stay tuned.
The tasting room is open Fridays from 2-8, Saturday and Sunday 12-8.
For more information about the tasting room or hosting a private event
here at the winery please contact Carrie Crespo at carrie@dpwineworks.com

2012 Growing Season
It is still early in the growing season but so far all signs for the
2012 vintage look like we are in for a good year. Here's what Casey
Hartlip has to say about the year so far at our Anderson Valley Pinot
vineyard: "Compared to 2010 and 2011, ’12 is starting out like one of
the ‘normal’ years we’ve been wishing for. The past two springs were
wet and water logged and vines had a hard time getting started. Soils
were too saturated and root activity was hampered by low oxygen levels.
When we got a much needed 10 inches of rainfall in March (some refer to
it as ‘the miracle of March) we were starting to wonder if we’d keep
raining. Needless to say, we’re looking great. Vine health has been
even and strong. We’re just about done with bloom (maybe a week behind
normal) and flower counts and size looks better than average. Next
up…fruit set and berry development."
And here is what Sean Higuera of Atlas vineyard management has to say
about Napa: "The growing season in Napa is shaping up very well. The
onset of warm weather early in the season has spurred great growth and
set. We have completed suckering, and are now moving into leaf pulling
and hedging. So far the 2012 vintage is turning out great."
We have some great fruit still available to work with this year so
round up a few friends and join in the fun. Contact dave@dpwineworks.com for more information.
 
It's going to be a great year to make wine here in the city. There are
a ton of fun things going on and we hope you will join us.

Cheers,
The WineWorks team

A quick time line in photos

Harvest is a crazy time of the year. I've heard people describe it as "controlled chaos", a "love hate relationship", and my favorite, "a time of year when I can drink as much beer as I want and not gain any weight".  Harvest is also a hard time of the year with many long days spent in the winery. The significant others of winemakers and cellar staff call themselves harvest widows at this time of the year as not much QT gets spent with the family. My kids also get confused because I come home in a different big truck every couple of days ready to be in a vineyard in the early hours of the next day for a pick. My daughter asked me the other day if her car seat would fit so I could drive her to school in it. In the winery we spend time checking weather reports in the various areas of California where we have grapes contracted while tending to brix and temp measurements and looking after all of the various fermentations. There is a lot of manual labor involved in the winery, bodies take strain and the cleaning never stops. We spend a lot of time on the road grabbing grape samples making sure we pick the fruit at it's optimal level of ripeness. We drink a lot of coffee and beer never tastes as good as it does at this time of the year. Here is a quick photo tour of urban winemaking at WineWorks...

Unloading precious grapes from one of our rent a wreck trucks (it's actually pretty fun to drive). 

This is what a barrels worth (half ton) of grapes looks like...

Happy grape sorters digging into the days first fruit to pass over the sorting table.

Fermenting grapes being inoculated with yeast. Every wine lover should smell this at some stage of their life.

Pouring the must into the basket press is always a Kodak moment. Yes we do spill a little bit every now and again.

Beautiful Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir draining from the press and ready to be pumped into barrel.

Eric making sure to smile for the camera while not letting the wine over flow from the barrel.

Everyone gets to be hands on in the winemaking process at WineWorks, even grand kids get put to work. Young Benji helps slide the press into action...

and poses for a picture with his grandad.

This is another activity that any serious wine geek should try to experience at some stage of their life. There is nothing as aromatically pleasing as the smell of freshly pressed wine being transferred into an oak barrel.

Pinot Noir seen through the site glass.

Ya'll come back now ya hear!?

Thanks to Linda for the photos!

Harvest is in full swing

Goldeneye bins waiting for the morning Pinot pick

 I was talking with a friend/mentor the other day and asked him how harvest was going. He replied "harvest is an exercise of survival, and we are surviving".

If you've ever worked a harvest it's easy to relate to that. We are just getting started with harvest here at WineWorks. We've already had a couple marathon days and tomorrow will be another one. We are surviving and we  are having fun. We are having a lot of fun!

We've been walking vineyards tasting grapes. Talking to growers and tasting grapes.. Tasting grapes and talking with consultants. Driving around northern California dropping off bins and tasting grapes. Our first fruit is in, we've got our first ferments ticking away and each new days greetings are met with conversations about how sore we are from the previous days efforts. Each day of harvest produces a new bruise, bump, ache or pain. It's all part of harvest, and it's all fun.

Colin and Andy from Tasot sorting Pinot from Keller Estate

Whole berry Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir with dry ice, ready for cold soak.

6 year old Benji shows Eric how its done

 We couldn't be happier with all of our equipment. It's been fun tweaking the speed on the sorting table, elevator and destemmer getting everything just right.

Richard, Jerry, Sam and Benji sorting Pinot

 Kate and Brad sorting clone 777 Pinot from Keller Estate

 And then there is Mother Nature with how she keeps us guessing. There is rain in the forecast with low temperatures for the next few days. With it decisions on whether or not to pick fruit that is ready or close to ready. We go through all of the scenarios, trust me there are a lot of them, and then factor in logistics of harvest crew availability, truck rental availability and what ever else we already have scheduled.

 Anderson Valley is hands down my favorite location for growing Pinot Noir and Anderson Creek is a magical vineyard just outside of Boonville.

 We pick the 2011 vintage Anderson Creek Pinot tomorrow!

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue

No there is not going to be a wedding in the winery, at least not yet, it's more a description of a few new toys we have recently acquired...

Something old (it's a fork lift rotater for those of you who are wondering)

 My new harvest boots, quite a fashion statement I know

 New punch down tool waiting for the first fruit of the season

 OK so I don't really have anything borrowed but here is our new scale which is...

Blue

Here's a little teaser shot of the new floor in the tasting room and our 10 foot long super comfy couches, prefect for sipping a little vino on after a grape sorting or punch down session.

The construction phase of our first year is getting close to being finished, the new restrooms are being constructed this week (just out of the frame to the left of the above picture). Stay tuned for more pictures of the front of house soon. 

We're busily readying the winery for our first fruit of the year which looks like it could be just over a week away. Windsor Oaks Pinot is in the lead for the first pick of 2011. We still have a little fruit available from a few of our vineyards and there is still time to get in on making wine this year if you are up for all of the fun to be had. We just added an organically farmed Sangiovese vineyard to our line up for the inaugural vintage. It's a fantastic vineyard planted on a steep terraced hillside in Dry Creek. We're only sourcing a small amount of the fruit from this site so if making your own California super Tuscan sounds fun give us a call.