It has been a while. Well, the 2011 harvest was a really intersting one. There was not much heat this year so our ripening was all over the place. Now that the dust has settled, I am very proud of our efforts. Working with our growers and requiring a lot of patience, we let the fruit hang. We even let it hang through two different bouts of rain in the case of some of our reds. This all poses a risk (rot, mold, etc.) but the payoff is making better wine. I believe that we came out sucessful in one of the toughest harvests to date. You all have a lot of 2010 vintage wine to consume before you will see any of this 2011. So enjoy the fruits of our effort and we will get the next vintage ready to impress your palate soon.

Happy Holidays from your winemaking team at Don and Sons.

This past weekend, I took a trip down to Paso Robles, CA to check out our fruit down there. Paso has had a long cool growing season but the temperatures have been steady. The fruit is still ripening evenly and the canopy (leaf coverage of the vine that shades the grapes) is still green and going strong. In a couple of weeks, our Cabernet Sauvignon will be ready to pick. The pictures below are from the Meeker Vineyard. This vineyard sits on rolling hills on the north eastern side of Paso Robles. We get Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, and Tempranillo from this site. The fruit and views are looking beautiful.

It was a great sight from one of our Napa Valley Vineyards this morning. I was just north of Yountville as the sun was rising and the sky was dotted with balloons. Not a bad way to start the day.

We feel very fortunate to work with great growers.   Great growers grow fantastic fruit responsibly.   They don’t overuse pesticides or use practices that could be harmful to the surrounding environment.  They understand that there is a flow of life that needs to be balanced with insects, animals, and in this case amphibians.   I got to thinking about this yesterday in one of our blocks of Sangiacomo Pinot Noir just south of Petaluma, CA.   I was tasting the fruit in this block when this little guy caught my eye.   This tree frog would not have been here in the vineyard if the vineyard was over sprayed for pesticides.   So here’s to great growers who grow awesome grapes with a conscience. 

A couple of days ago, I stopped by the Sangiacomo Vineyard in the Petaluma Gap on the Sonoma Coast to visit our two blocks of Pinot Noir. It has been such a cool year, I wanted to get a feel for how the fruit was maturing. To my surprise, the fruit was much further along, had great rich fruit character, and wonderful bright acidity. Another 10 days hang time will really bring it around. Our new Sonoma Coast programs will only get better as we tap into vineyards like this one. Power and finesse.

The 2011 harvest has just started for Don and Sons with the crushing of our 2011 Wilson Vineyard Pinot Noir early this morning. We will send updates as we continue the insanity. Wish us luck.

Last week, we dragged our two winemakers, Greg and Michelle, along with Donny Sebastiani, out to Clarksburg to shoot several videos in the vineyards. We’re currently working on a new mobile site for The Crusher, which you’ll be able to get to by scanning a QR code on the new back label. We couldn’t be more excited to share our amazing, photogenic winemakers with the world, as well as talk a little bit about our new experiments with natural yeast fermentation.

Enjoy the “behind the scenes” photos below!

Thanks to everyone who came out to the CrushUp last week! There was a huge amount of buzz on Twitter (search for #CrushUp), and everyone who came out to the events in Seattle, Sacramento, Chicago, and Trenton had a great time.

We also met our new Winemaker, Michelle McClendon, out in Seattle at her first event with us. Michelle will be taking over the production of our white wines, and she brings a killer palate to our winemaking team. Plus, she rocks. Check out the press release for more info about her, and welcome her on our Facebook page!

http://www.pitchengine.com/pitch/151495/

Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay in the loop with the next event!

Like many industries, the wine business features one of the great bastions of international commerce – the Trade Show! Every winter, Sacramento hosts a huge “back of shop” show to showcase the latest and greatest technologies for wine production. And many times throughout the year, there are “front of shop” trade shows domestically and internationally to help facilitate wine sales.

Last week, the world of wine set their bleary, jet-lagged eyes (or maybe that was just me) on London, for the annual London Wine Fair. As a winery, you (we) have the opportunity to meet buyers and importers from distant corners of the globe.

And it is a good excuse to get your passport stamped and dine on bangers & mash and eat cheese for breakfast. Unfortunately, the trip didn’t allow too much time to visit the sites around Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park, and Buckingham Palace – we actually had to work. But if work is tasting THOUSANDS of wines from around the world in a matter of hours, I won’t get many sympathy cards.

If you haven’t heard the buzz yet, it’s coming. We’re throwing four simultaneous tweetup events–dubbed The CrushUp–in three different time zones, with our winemaker Greg Kitchens tasting five The Crusher wines and tweeting about them via Twitter/TasteLive. Whether “tweeting” isn’t your thing, or you’re a TweetDeck pro, all four events should be a great time. Free wines from The Crusher and free appetizers!

Check out the invite below, send it to your friends, and click the link to RSVP to the event nearest you– our Chicago CrushUp is almost maxed out!

http://donandsons.eventbrite.com/

http://www.facebook.com/crusherwine