Harvest Festival and Beyond
Since the last time I wrote a lot has happened at Castoro and on the beautiful central coast of California. A little over a week ago we had our 2010 Harvest Festival, which was an absolute blast even with a little bit of foul weather. We had a wide range of barrel tastings, live music, great food, and of course foot stomping fun in grape bins. It amazes me how people of all ages love to take their shoes off and go ankle deep in clusters of freshly picked grapes. At times we had four people in one bin together, stomping away. If you haven’t experienced this, it is truly a sight to see!
We have also had our fair share of inconsistent weather since I last wrote. This really seems to be a trend this year and at times it can be quite frustrating. As Tom put it, “the weather has not been very cooperative this year.” Luckily, we now have about ¾ of our crop in and everything we have seen thus far has been exceptional quality. Yesterday we brought in our Whale Rock Tempranillo, which looked really nice, and in the past week we have gotten lots of very nice Merlot, Chardonnay and Syrah (Blind Faith). The problem we are now running into is that we have a decent amount of crop still on the vines, including Cabernet Sauvignon, some select Zinfandel and Petite Verdot. These grapes really need about another week of sunshine to put us in the clear, and as well all know, the weather has not been very “cooperative” this year. Everything we can do we are currently doing and beyond that we can only cross our fingers and hope for the best. It really struck me as true when Tom told me that, “growing grapes isn’t for the lighthearted,” you have to be able to handle variation from year to year and from day to day. We have been making wine at Castoro Cellars for over 26 years and we have seen our fair share of variation in that time. What we are seeing this year is a bit strange but it isn’t the first time we have been challenged by Mother Nature. We are really fortunate to have a world class wine making team at Castoro Cellars and we are very excited about what the 2010 harvest has brought us thus far.
On another note, please check out our Fall Facebook special that goes until the end of October. You can find details for the special on our facebook site at www.facebook.com/castorocellars . Also, please scroll down and check out our latest video from this year’s Harvest Festival at Castoro Cellars.
Cheers and Happy Halloween,
Luke
