The 07 Vintage is in the Bottle!

Last week I bottled the 2007 vintage. A mobile bottling truck came to the winery and set up on the crush pad. It takes about 9 people to bottle the wine. One to empty the bottles out of the cases, one to place them on the sparger, one to fill them, one to cork them, one to place the capsules on the bottles, one to seal the capsules, one to monitor the labels going on correctly and 2 people to put the bottles back into the boxes and stack them on the pallet! I spent my time putting the capsules on all 4,056 bottles! Just like last year there will be Syrah from Stagecoach Vineyard in Napa Valley (274 cases) and also the first vintage of The Octopod — a Syrah from the Furlong Estates Vineyard in the Alexander Valley. I was expecting to get 75 cases of it, but ended up with only 64 cases, so it’s going to be a hot commodity that I’m sure will sell out fast. (Look for a pre-release offer next month). Both wines are suffering from a slight case of bottle shock at the moment but with a little bit of bottle age they’ll be tasting exceptionally well by the Fall.

Taking The wine Out of Barrel to Get it Ready For Bottling

Pallets of Bottles Waiting For Wine

The Bottling Line Waiting for the Days Work to Begin

Unused Corks Swimming in a Pool of Overflow Wine (not as much as it looks!)

Taste The Wines Amongst The Vines

I will be co-hosting a wine tasting at the Furlong Estates Vineyard on Saturday June 13th. See flyer below (you can click on it to see it larger) or click here for more information.

Winemaker Interview

I was recently interviewed by Sagi at OpenBottles. Click on the link below to read it.

OpenBottles Interview

Wine Update

This time of year things start to pick up in the winery. Once the coolness of the winter months come to an end, and the weather starts to warm up, the wines also start to "wake up". When I barreled my 2008's last fall, a lot of them had not finished there fermentations. Now they have and over the past month or so I have been busy racking the wine. Racking is the term used when wine is taken out of the barrel, the barrels are cleaned and then wine is put back into the barrel. After fermentation is over, all the dead yeast cells and other "muck" settles to the bottom of the barrel. So when the wine is removed, all of this "muck" (also known as lees) is taken out of the barrels. It's a really beautiful color (as you can see in the photos), but leaving the wine sitting on the lees for too long can sometimes lead to spoilage. I usueally just do this only once unless the wine starts to smell a little funky, then I would rack again. So now that racking is over, it's time to start choosing and ordering this years barrels and get ready for bottling of the 2007's. As for the 2008 wines, they are tasting pretty good. More about that in a future post.

Drink Wine and Help Raise Money For The Victorian Bushfire Appeal

Many of you have probably heard of the horrible bushfires that took place in Australia last week. As an Australian, from Victoria, it was very devastating to read the news and hear the reports. One of the town's that was totally wiped out (Marysville) was a place where we use to spend time vacationing at when I was a child. Fortunately no one I know lost ther lives or their homes, but a lot of people did. If you are interested in donating some money to aid in the relief, you can donate directly to the Australian Red Cross, or you could attend one of the fundraising events listed below:

VICTORIAN BUSHFIRE FUNDRAISER

Crushpad in conjunction with the Australian Trade Commission, the State Government of Victoria, Advance, the Australian American Chamber of Commerce and The Jug Shop, invite you to support the Australian Red Cross by attending a wine tasting of Victorian Wines to raise funds for the Victorian Bushfire Appeal.

Friday 20 February, 2009
6.30 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.
Crushpad
2573 Third Street
San Francisco CA 94107
Cost $30 (all proceeds go directly to the Appeal)

Registration deadline is Thursday 19-Feb-09 6:30 PM. Click here to register.

SOUTH FOOD AND WINE BAR VICTORIAN BUSHFIRE FUNDRAISER

Please join Chef Luke Mangan at his San Francisco restaurant South for a special meal to benefit the victims of the Victorian bushfires in Australia. Luke will be leading a live auction on the night. Proceeds will be donated to the Australian Red Cross Bushfire Relief Fund. Your ticket includes a special four course meal by Luke with wines chosen by South sommelier Gerard O'Bryan.

Tuesday 24 February, 2009,
7.00 p.m.
South Food and Wine Bar
330 Townsend Street
San Francisco CA 94107
Cost $125

RSVP ESSENTIAL
info@southfwb.com / (415) 974 5599.

Space is limited and a credit card will be required to hold your place. The menu and auction items will be on http://www.southfwb.com/ soon.

88 for Eight Arms

Last September I sent bottles of my 2006 Eight Arms Syrah off to several wine reviewers. Over the months since then, I would periodically check their websites to see if my wine had been reviewed (OK to be honest - I would check them on a weekly basis). As the months passed by, I really wasn't sure if any reviews would be forthcoming, but I kept checking anyway. Well, I finally have my first review and it is from the Wine Spectator. It scored 88 points which is very exciting. A friend in the know was telling me that for a first release from an unknown label made by an unknown winemaker, 88 is probably the highest score the magazine would have given me. So, I'm pretty excited about it. Here is what they had to say:

2006 Eight Arms Syrah, Napa Valley, Stagecoach Vineyard
88 Points
Offers a supple mix of spice, loamy earth and dried berry
flavors that are medium-bodied, with hints of blackberry and
cranberry fruit. Drink now through 2014. 290 cases made. –JL

If you are interested in reading some other reviews, the following were posted on the Open Bottles web site.

I had this wine at the Eight Arms Cellars release party. They released this wine and offered barrel samples from the 2007 Stagecoach Vineyard and also from another 2007 syrah. I thought that the winemaker did a great job on all three wines and that there was a consistency of style. In a yelp review, I described the wine as "clean and dense." A better way to say what I meant is that I thought that the winemaker did a fine job in bringing out the good qualities of the fruit and then getting totally out of the way. The wine was excellent but not eccentric in any way. Tasted November 16, 2008.

Eight Arms' winemaker Iain sent me a bottle of this wine to taste. Naturally, I opened it up with some friends - a mini tasting if you will. This is Eight Arms' first release, and judging from this wine, I expect many great things to come. The wine is a deep, rich purple. It stains the glass and the teeth. The wine is still young, but is showing great balance and structure. It has firm tannins so it will age well. I decanted the wine for about 45 minutes, and it definitely opened up nicely as the night went on. The nose was a little shy, but as the wine was exposed to air it released great aromas of dark fruit, primarily black cherry. The wine itself is rich and complex. It is still young, but is already showing great potential. The wine is spicy with hints of oak and pepper. Very nice finish. Great wine for food. I think I will buy another bottle and hold it for another 2 - 3 years to see how it develops over time. Great first release from Eight Arms! Tasted Dec 6, 2008.

This wine is deep purple in color and while the wine is a bit tight right now it displays a core of dark smokey fruit, excellent balance and a nice lingering finish with firm tannins. I look forward to trying this wine again in a year or two to see how it develops. Tasted 12-6-08.

This wine was a little young but we were very excited to taste it. We used a decanter and that helped rather than right out of the bottle. Great aromas and strong flavors of berry. Nice aftertaste with just the right amount of oak flavors. There was some spiciness to the taste, which I really liked. I think this wine is really great, especially for the first vintage produced- I can't wait to see what is going to come out next from this winemaker under his own label!! Tasted 12/6/08.

So there it is. I'm sure more reviews will be forthcoming. In the mean time, head over to eightarmscellars.com and pick up few bottles before they are all gone!

Eight Arms Syrah Hits The Shelves!

I’m proud to announce that the 2006 Eight Arms Syrah is now in the stores! Well, one store anyway. If you live in Marin, you can now go over to Woodlands Market in Kentfield and pick up a bottle of our wine. My mother in law, Lillian was there on the weekend and was kind enough to snap this picture. It’s definitely exciting to see one’s wine on the shelf in a store and I’ll keep you posted as it appears in more stores and on restaurant lists.