June: A month of new releases and anticipation . . .

June 7, 2011

As wild as it may seem, we are now in the midst of June and thus far summer has yet to appear for more than a day or two at a time. As we looked over our data from past years we came to the conclusion that this is the coolest year on record for us since 1999. Although this is not all bad, we do really look forward to that summer heat Paso Robles is known for.

The heat pushes the grapes forward in their journey to becoming ripe and typically eliminates the chance of rain for at least a couple of months. The impact of the rains we experienced last week is yet to be known but is likely minimal. Rains this time of year can effect pollination but we won’t know for a couple more weeks if there is any major impact from this rain. We will, however, most likely experience an explosion of weeds sprouting in the vineyards but that is just the reality of farming, especially organic farming. In other vineyard news, we have just finished planting new lots at our Blind Faith vineyard and will soon be doing some more planting at our Whale Rock vineyard, ever increasing the quality and diversity of Castoro Cellars wines.

At the winery, June isn’t typically considered an extremely busy time of the year but it is an exciting time because we are preparing and bottling new releases. For example, the much-anticipated Tango is now ready and should be in bottle with in a week or two and on the shelves shortly thereafter. We have also recently bottled the 2009 Castoro Zinfandel and 2009 Blind Faith Syrah, both of which are sure to please. Our Blind Faith Pinot Noir has recently been transferred to barrels as well, in order to give the wine a couple months on oak before being bottled.

All in all, we are very excited to share our new wines with all of you! In the meantime we will continue to wait patiently for the summer heat to hit! As usual, don’t hesitate to check out the events page on our website because we’ve got a lot of fun in store for this summer.

http://www.castorocellars.com/events.php

Cheers,

Luke