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!

The 30 or so members of the Vintners’ Hall of Fame is, understandably, filled with mostly iconic producers of high-end Napa wines: Mondavi, Grgich, Martini, etc. So you could see how we felt a bit like the Clampetts driving down Rodeo Drive in their old jalopy. But… It was heartening to see other Sonomans, like Joel Peterson, founder of Ravenswood, and other value wine producers like Bob Trinchero, proprietor of Sutter Home Winery, both inductees.

I did not have the opportunity to give an acceptance speech. Because no one asked. But if I did, I would probably reflect back on a story my Dad told me from a few decades back…

Dad was out to dinner and someone asked him if he was associated with the winemaking Sebastiani family. Feeling proud and almost-famous, Dad puffed out his chest and confirmed, indeed he was part of our clan. The gentleman nodded and said, ‘I love your wines! I drink them all the time. They go great with dope!’

From being paired with a joint to the Vintners Hall of Fame… We’ve come a long way…

My favorite thing is when I get “face time” – thrust into the spotlight as the day-to-day man-in-charge. OK, it’s not my favorite but someone needs to do it right?  So when it came down to filming a fire-up-the-troops video for our upcoming national sales meeting (“Looniversity” 2011), someone signed me up to do this…

Now my wife and kids can actually see what Daddy does all day.

1- At this point of year, most of our fermentations have gone smoothly.  But there are always a few lots that do not cooperate with us.   We are still working on a few stuck ferments (which still have sugar to ferment to completion) as well as stuck malolactic ferments (some wines require converting malic acid to lactic acid in what is called secondary fermentation).   We coordinate treatments and are constantly looking at lab results as we push these lots to completion.  

2- We are buckling down our wines to fill barrels and tanks to prepare for storage and aging on our different oak products (oak staves, chips, and tannins).  Some tanks are getting set up with Micro-Oxygenation for aging and softening of the wine.   Micro-ox or MOX is introducing small increments of pure oxygen to the wine in stainless steel tanks on oak to mimic the oxygen transfer through the stave of a barrel.  This is how you make tank wine taste like barrel wine.   Winemaking is full of cool tricks!!

3- We are working on new blends as the 09′s are preparing to bottle across the board. 

4- The least glamorous part of winemaking, we spend time catching up on paperwork.  As you can imagine, wine is a strictly regulated business here in the USA.  So after harvest, we have a lot of paperwork to tackle in order to make sure our books are done correctly.

5- Lastly, we re-introduce ourselves to our families and friends who have not seen much of us in the past few months.  We generally start in August and go 6 to7 days a week until mid-November.   Early mornings and late nites do not leave much time for loved ones for almost a quarter of the year.   Currently, I spend a lot of time cuddling with my daughter and wife.   If you travel for a living, I am sure you can relate!! 

So that is what we are up to now that the grapes are off the vine.   It was a good harvest for us and we have some great wines for the 2010 vintage.   But go out and check out the 09′s that are hitting your local wine shops.   There is some great wine in the bottle to help keep you warm this winter.  

Over and out, your winemaker,

Greg

My father and I just got back from a special luncheon at the CIA’s Greystone campus in St. Helena honoring the new inductees, and I couldn’t wait to share the news.

The Vintners Hall of Fame reads like a “who’s who” of the California wine industry. Robert Mondavi, Frederick and Jacob Beringer, John Daniel, Ernest and Julio Gallo, Mike Grgich, Jess Jackson, Charles Krug, Andre Tchelistcheff, Brother Timothy, and Warren Winiarski have all been inducted into the Hall. Counting my grandfather among those greats is a true honor, and a testament to the work that he did.

For more than 115 years, my family’s mission (started by my great-grandfather, Samuele Sebastiani) has always been to bring consumers consistently high-quality wines from California’s great appellations at affordable prices. At Don Sebastiani & Sons we are proud to continue this tradition. On behalf of the company and our family, we’d like to thank the CIA and the Vintners Hall of Fame nominating committee and voters for this special recognition and we’d like to thank our friends and all our customers for the many years you have supported our family’s great wine traditions.

So, raise a glass of zinfandel tonight – my grandfather’s favorite – to salute all those who came before us and gave us the opportunity to make a living in this incredible business.

Cheers,

Donny

Save cork trees? I don’t know why he thought harvesting cork involved chopping down the trees–in fact, the cork industry does a lot to support the cork trees’ unique ecosystem. Cork trees are harvested once every ten years by skilled laborers who carefully strip the cork off of mature cork trees without damaging the trees.

So I figured now would be a good time to get my act together and talk a bit about the trip two of our employees took to tour the Portuguese cork industry earlier this year.

John Nicolette, our Director of Operations, and Cynthia Foran, our Purchasing Manager, both flew from California halfway across the world to Lisbon to meet with Amorim, one of the world’s largest cork producers, and learn more about their process. Their trip is too much for one blog post–I’ll continue the story in a second post–but the greatest takeaway was the immense pride that the Portuguese have in one of their largest industries. Every single Amorim manager was beaming with pride over his or her team and facility. Here are a few pictures from the trip–Portugal looks a lot like Northern California to me, only with much older architecture!

The Campo Pequeno

Looks like the Golden Gate, doesn't it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25_de_Abril_Bridge

Look at the top of the tree--see where the cork cutters stopped? No cork trees were felled here!

Over and out,
Your winemaking team!!

We will be at Estate on the West patio from 6-9pm, pouring Pepperwood Grove’s Big Green Box wines – Cabernet Sauvignon, Old Vine Zinfandel, Chardonnay, and Pinot Grigio. Please RSVP, as there is limited space! All attendees must be 21 years or older.

Can’t wait to see you all! Look for a post with pics and videos from the night on Monday!

Now, why in the world am I doing a blog post on vegan wine you may ask? Well, I was contacted by a fan on Twitter the other day asking me if our wines were vegan. The first thing I thought was…well, its wine…made from grapes…how could it NOT be vegan?? But a quick google search and an email to our winemaker told me otherwise. And it has to do with finings.

Finings are substances used in winemaking usually at or near the end of the winemaking process where the winemaker adds an agent to the wine that binds to and removes organic particles, yeasts, etc., to improve clarity or adjust the flavor and aroma. Finings are usually derived from animals – such as gelatin, isinglass, chitosan, casein and egg albumen – thus making the wine not vegan. The finings and other matter are of course removed and filtered out of the wine before its bottled, but  I suppose (guessing, I’m not vegan) because the wine came in contact with an animal derived product it’s no longer considered vegan.

We are doing an interview about vegan wine and how to taste wine for this fan on Twitter, so look for a link to that soon!