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Wine, snow and wait . . . snow?

I know these blogs often start with a segment about the weather but, as we all know, the weather is a very important part of our daily lives, especially if you work in agriculture. Right now in Paso we are experiencing some particularly cold weather and rain with the possibility of snow down to 1,000 feet! The last time it snowed on the central coast I think I was about five years old, so it doesn’t happen too often and Considering my last blog was titled “Blending in the Sun” you get an idea of how unpredictable our weather has been this year. We are also very happy that we have just about reached our normal annual rainfall here on the central coast, which is something that doesn’t happen every year. Luckily for us, cool weather is good for the grapes this time of year and can encourage good “fruitfulness” as Tom put it.

But, weather aside, we are keeping quite busy out at the winery and the Tasting Room. There has been a lot of bottling and organizing going on in our warehouses along with a packed schedule of events and tasting parties at the Tasting Room. At the winery we are slated to bottle our 2009 Blind Faith Syrah sometime early next week which, if it is anything like the 2008 vintage, should be a real treat when it hits the shelves. At the Tasting Room this past weekend we had our wine club pick-up party and the event was a real hit. The turnout was great and there was live music and catered appetizers! For those of you who are not familiar with our wine club, the pick-up party is an event where our wine club members can come to the Tasting Room to pick up their shipment and get an opportunity to taste the wines they have received. Typically our winemakers Tom and Mikel are in attendance so they can answer any questions anyone may have about the wines and it gives them a chance to interact with our wine clubbers and hear their feedback etc. Overall, the event is a lot of fun and seems to be gaining popularity amongst our wine club members.

In other event news, we also had our HWY 46 West Winery Block Party this past weekend at Eagle Castle Winery, where all of the wineries on HWY 46 west got together for an evening of great wine and food. The event was a lot of fun and was absolutely packed! The next block party will be on July 2nd and we are very proud to announce that it will be hosted at our Castoro Cellars Tasting Room. Tickets will go fast so make sure to get them early! There will be food, wine and live music so do not miss this one!

With all that said, stay and dry and warm and come pay us a visit soon!

Cheers,

Luke

P.S.

Zinfest is March 18-20th


Blending in the Sun . . .

After some early rain and storms throughout December, the New Year has been quite dry for us on the Central Coast. The past couple of weeks have been quite warm for this time of the year with temperatures even getting into the 70s. It does, however, freeze almost every night! Vast temperature swings are something we are very used to in Paso Robles. In the summer time it is not uncommon to have a 50 degree swing from day to night.

Out at the winery we are really in a transition time and things are not nearly as busy as they were a couple months ago. We are still busy, don’t get me wrong, but everything has slowed down significantly since harvest. We are currently de-barreling some of our 09 vintages and Tom is looking at different possibilities for blends. Our 09 Syrah is very close to being bottled as well and it is looking quite nice. The 2010 Tango is going be blended very soon and Tom is excited to figure out what that blend will be. As I mentioned in a previous blog, the 2010 Fume Blanc has already been bottled and should be available soon.

All in all we are transitioning at the winery and enjoying the warm sunny weather while it lasts. Hopefully we will get some more moisture by the end of February, as it is something we always need here in California.

Make sure to mark your calendars now for the Zinfandel Festival weekend, which will take place March 18-20. As usual there will be barrel tasting, library wines, food, and live music on both Saturday and Sunday.

Cheers,

Luke

P.S.

We are now on twitter, so you if you are a tweeter check out our page!!

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