Many of you are wondering why?  Why did we abandon the Stelvin closure and move back to cork finishing our wines?  Though we still love the idea of screw caps, as our red wine making has shifted to a more structured style across the board, the corks serve the wine better.  The oxidative effect of the cork will soften the wines in the near term making them more approachable when young.  Did we miss the ceremony of the corkscrew?  Absolutely.  Does the wine present better with cork and wax?  Most definitely.  But as always, the style of the wine, of what’s in the bottle, dictates the proper closure.  Those of you who love the Stelvin closures will be happy to see them on our 2010 Pink and 2010 White to be released in April.

Speaking of bacon, we are preparing for the prerelease of our 2007 Onda.  So excited about this wine!  Tasting notes will be posted soon but just to give you a hint, sweet, smoky bacon fat were common adjectives used to describe this wine at our recent tasting.

Things are beginning to quiet.

Friends and family make the work much more enjoyable.