The Peach Festival is introduced as an annual summertime event. Harvest kicks off with a toast to 30 years of Frog's Leap winemaking. Rory Williams launches Calder Wine Company. John begrudgingly starts a twitter feed, abandoning it after a handful of posts. Frog's Leap employees begin petition to have kegerators installed in the breakroom. Over the years there is one thing that you have seen from Frog's Leap time and time again and that is its willingness to change, innovate, improve, and to refine.
With that in mind, Frog's Leap introduced a new fresh and refined look at its beloved wine label with the fall release of the Estate Grown Cabernet Sauvignon and the Chardonnay 'Shale and Stone'. See if you can spot all the changes: a little lighter, a little fresher and a little bolder in stating the winery's family values.
Table of Contents. Before the Pond. Taking The Plunge. Thomas Kylor Williams is born. Getting Going. Petite Sirah is planted at Galleron after uncovering a small section of gravel.
Paula Moschetti named co-winemaker. The winery negotiates a long term lease on the Gonzales vineyard. Frog's Leap discontinues Leapfrogmilch.
In the Groove. Replanting begins at the Rossi Estate. Abbie , the wire haired pointing Griffon, joins the family. Note the normal looking gravel parking lot — little do most people know that a series of wells are drilled feet below this parking lot and act as the heat or cooling source for their hospitality center. Confused on how this works — ask one of the staff for clarification! All the gardens on site are also farmed organically. Spring is an ideal time to visit — as the grounds are planted to beautiful gardens as well as numerous flowering bushes and other edibles.
Hospitality Tasting and tours are by appointment and tours usually last about 90 minutes. If you are visiting during the months of May through the end of Harvest October be sure to reserve well in advance as their tours are quite popular during this period, especially on the weekends.
Hospitality is down to an art here, the staff is very helpful, friendly and knowledgeable. Unlike some wineries, the tours are not scripted and that is refreshing — rather letting the conversation flow based on questions from guests. Hosts leading the tours often have experience making wine — during several visits to the winery, we have always found their tour hosts personable and extremely knowledgeable.
Every year the winery shuts down for two days for employee training — they visit a number of their own vineyards and taste through their wines against other Napa wines. If you are visiting during the summer note that the bathrooms have lotions and sunscreen. Perhaps you forgot your hat for the outdoor tour? Tours begin with an introduction from the host who provides an overview of the winery, its history and their farming practices.
The host carries a number of bottles for the duration of the tour and guests enjoy wines during select stops throughout the property. Unlike most other Napa wineries a visit here feels like a trip to a farm despite the property being surrounded by vineyards. The tour wanders through parts of 4 acres of organically farmed gardens. These gardens produce year round but spring and into summer are the best times to visit guests are encouraged to try some of the fruits and vegetables.
The gardens are diverse with vegetables, herbs, flowers and plenty of fruit trees. Ask about the herb used for making sugar — as expected, it tastes very sweet.
The red barn houses wine making equipment including stainless steel tanks. From the second floor, one has excellent views of the gardens through the open cellar doors. Dry farming takes a lot more work then simply not watering the vineyards. The soils need to be built up organically so that they retain moisture — even after intense summer heat and long dry spells, if you dig down just a foot or so in their vineyards you will find moisture. They farm their vines for the long term — we have heard the average age of vines in the Napa Valley is somewhere between 20 and 25 years before they are removed most often due to lower yields — but also due to health issues at times.
These men, and the wines they produced, profoundly influenced my own desire to make wines that adhere to three basic principles—balance, restraint and respect for terroir. I believe these characteristics are the indisputable product of the vine itself and are an expression of the deep connection to the soil and environment in which it lives. Grapevines are living, sentient beings with their days and nights consumed by concern for vital life choices, like when to sweeten their fruit to attract birds to spread their seed, or when to break bud in the spring, or when to start storing energy for the next season.
These are critical decisions a vine makes each and every day. So how does a grapevine make these decisions? They do so by taking information from their environment. They measure the angle of the sun, the phase of the moon, the tug of the planets, the temperature and moisture content of the soil and the kind of chemical signals soil organisms are giving off. In short everything in its environment is a clue.
But what happens so often in most vineyards? The vines are lined up, their branches forced into restrictive trellising and their growing tips are cut off.
0コメント