Happy Thanksgiving!!

November 23, 2010

With Thanksgiving just a couple of days away, we can finally say the “2010 Harvest is in the bag!” It has been a crazy year and it feels great to finally have all of our grapes in and out of harms way. Overall, everything looks great and I will definitely keep you all up to date on the progress of this year’s fruit.

Now that harvest is over, everyone is a little more relaxed out at the winery and the crew is slowly getting back into working normal shifts. We even had time for a little Thanksgiving of our own. Every year at Castoro Niels and Bimmer treat the staff to a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal and this year was no exception. As usual, Niels fired up the Webbers and BBQ’D two delicious turkeys. Various staff members also made contributions of their own, making it a real Castoro family meal. There was turkey, pumpkin pie, green beans, corn, salad, and of course Niels’ famous gravy (recipe below)!! Due to wet and cold weather we opted to eat inside the cellar this year among the barrels, tanks, and pallets of wine.

Bringing the crew together for meals like Thanksgiving is something we really enjoy at Castoro and our crew really enjoys taking part in it as well. Everyone brings something a little different to the table and it is always fun to see what we end up with. No matter what it is, it always seems to be delicious. With that said, we wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and hope you are all able to enjoy some quality time with friends and family and maybe even with a bottle or two of Dam Fine Wine.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Castoro Crew,

Cheers,

Luke

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ZINFANDEL GRAVY

Create a stock using the neck and giblets from the Turkey.

Stock ingredients: Turkey parts, couple of carrots, some celery, onions, herbs, salt to taste. Simmer down & reduce.
Add degreased drippings from the BBQ’d or baked turkey along with Castoro Cellars Late Harvest Zinfandel to taste and cook down. When the texture and flavor feels right remove a bit of gravy and blend in a tad of corn starch and mix until lump free. Slowly add this back to the gravy until your desired thickness is reached. A touch of Zinfandel Jelly can be substituted for Late Harvest Zinfandel.

2010 Harvest is In the Bag . . . well almost!! (And you can now Sign-up for our Blog!!)

November 12, 2010

After chatting with Tom today, it was very apparent that harvest is winding down and it is almost safe to say the 2010 harvest is in the bag. This year has been very challenging and at times very stressful for both Tom and Niels. With 90% of our grapes safely picked, Tom and Niels can now relax and focus on turning those grapes into delicious wine. When I talked to Tom today, I could definitely sense his relief and growing excitement to begin working with this year’s fruit. Tom also spent about five minutes of our conversation describing how much he has been enjoying the vibrant fall colors and crisp fall weather we have had in the past couple weeks on the central coast. Once you are no longer worried about losing your crop you can take that extra time in your day to appreciate the simple things in life . . . such as the fall colors!!

In other winery news, we have picked both our Whale Rock Primitivo and Zinfandel this week and according to Tom they are both looking very promising. We also have some Muscat Canelli on raisin trays sitting out in the sun to attain high enough sugar levels to make a new batch of “Late Harvest” Muscat. All in all it has been a big year at Castoro and we are almost at full capacity!! As the last of the grapes trickle in, it can become quite challenging to make room and ensure there is enough tank space for every last drop. In some ways it becomes an intricate game for Tom, as he carefully dictates the movement of all of our wines and freshly pressed juices. We have a lot of tank space at Castoro and the tanks vary in size, location, and type, making it all the more of a challenge this time of the year.

With the fall colors in full swing and the crisp days and nights occurring more consistently, we are all happily making the transition out of harvest and into winter/winemaking season. As I have repeated many times, we are very excited about our fruit this year and Tom and Niels both are convinced this will be a vintage to remember! Stay tuned for more info on our transition out of harvest and make sure to SIGN UP for our blog on the right side of this page. All you have to do is enter your e-mail address and you will receive these blog posts directly to your inbox!

Cheers,

Luke

2010 Harvest: A Beaver’s Take . . .

November 4, 2010

In this week’s blog I decided I wanted to focus on Niels (owner/founder/Beaver) and his perception of the 2010 harvest at Castoro Cellars. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, this is Niels’ 29th harvest and definitely one of the most interesting harvests to date. This is mainly due to the adverse weather conditions we have experienced this year on the west coast. Most notably we have experienced a very mild summer followed by very unpredictable fall weather that has ranged from rain to frost to 100 degree days. “This is the coldest harvest season we have ever experienced at Castoro, and on top of that we have had multiple days of rain and two morning frosts,” said Niels. This is also the latest harvest Castoro has ever experienced, from the first day to the last.

Last year we got 7 inches of rain in one storm during harvest but since there was no other rain it did not pose too much of a problem. This year it has been more sporadic, which poses more problems for the grapes, especially with molding in the clusters. Niels told me this year has really been a learning experience for him and most notably a lesson in the resilience of the Zinfandel grape. In years past rain has never been much of an issue during harvest and therefore molding in the clusters has not really been much of a concern. Zinfandel is typically one of the last varietals we pick and because of that, it is at a higher risk for molding, exposure to frost and exposure to rain. “There were times this year when I really wanted to pick the Zin early because I was afraid we would lose the crop to rot, molding or frost. Tom and I talked a lot about it and in the end we decided to take the risk of leaving the grapes on the vine to fully ripen. It was definitely a nerve racking experience.” Now we are about a week out from having all of our grapes in and amazingly we have made it out alive and with a very nice crop!

“After all of my worrying about our Zinfandel, it has proved to be a very resilient grape,” said Niels. We did experience some molding in select blocks, but in very small amounts and the impacts of this molding have been very minor. The forecast for the next few days in Paso Robles is warm weather possibly into the 90s, which means all of our grapes remaining on the vine should be good to go by next week. Even with such a roller coaster year, we have seen some amazing fruit and we are very excited to share this vintage with all of you. Not only will the wine be great, it will have a nice story to go along with the journey from the berry to the bottle!!

Cheers,

Luke