In the Cellar

So you’ve seen the pastoral pictures of fruit on the vine, but what happens after the fruit is picked? We transition from the word “harvest” to the word “crush.” The crush season is the busiest time of the year for most wineries – bringing in the fruit that represents the entire year’s work in a few short weeks. It’s like finals – it took all year to grow exemplary fruit and now the proof will be in the pudding if you can get through this last cram session before the proverbial board exams.

Let me just toss any romantic notions out the window before I go any further. Winery work is not always (or even most often) glamorous. And if you’re working in a winery cellar during the months of September through December, expect to be cold, wet, sticky, sore and exhausted. ‘Tis the season of the “cellar rat.”
A cellar rat, if you don’t already know, is a person who toils away in the cellar. These are the people who make all those delicious wines possible. They receive the fruit at the winery, sort and de-stem it, crush and press it, pump or press the juice over the cap to extract flavor and color and then barrel it down to its intended storage vessel. Then they babysit it; stirring, topping, and generally keeping it from getting messed up all year round. If there is a manual labor job to be performed, it’s likely that these folks are doing it. A winemaker is only as good as his or her team and these are the All-Star players.

The origins of the title “cellar rat” are a bit nebulous, but I’ve got some ideas; it’s a term for someone always hanging around the cellar and who may exude a somewhat bedraggled appearance (long shaggy hair, unkempt look, stained and torn clothes perhaps mended with duct tape). For many cellar rats, the title and their stained hands are a badge of honor.

Working in a cellar is not for the faint of heart. You will get dirty. You will get wet. You will be hungry and tired. You will ache, and eventually, as harvest wears on for weeks on end without a day off, you will begin to go a bit crazy. Why would anybody torture their body with this kind of work?
It’s a labor of love. And while there’s little room for romance this time of year, there is a lot of passion. Passionate people working towards the same goal of making great wine – no matter the sacrifice, whatever it takes. We give a bit of ourselves so that each bottle is a little bit better and of course we sleep well, knowing that we gave it our all.
--Katy Long
Content Manager

Happy Thanksgiving

My mother called me up and asked me to pick out a case of wine to send back East for Thanksgiving, and it put me in a bit of a quandary. While most of my family will enthusiastically guzzle whatever is placed in front of them, a few are a bit more sophisticated in their wine appreciation. I suspect this not an unusual circumstance as families gather around the country for the ultimate hedonist’s holiday. For every uncle with a serious wine collection, there’s a cousin or three who are more interested in taking the edge off their losing wager on the Lions’ game. Then there’s the meal itself, no small wine pairing feat given the sheer array of flavors on the table. Alas, this is why my family turns to me for guidance.
To my thinking, the selection process can be broken down into three basic camps: crowd pleasers, food pairings and wine geek specials.
Crowd Pleasers: Cabernet and Chardonnay are the two most popular varietals for a reason. For a lot of wine lovers, they get the job done. Chardonnay is certainly a little more natural dancing partner with turkey, whether you go the full, rich and tropical route à la Mer Soleil or opt for something with a little more pop and acidity like the gorgeous Etude, you’ll be in great shape. If you have your heels dug in on Cabernet, it’s important to have something with at least a year or two in bottle so the tannins don’t completely overwhelm the meal. Either something lush and sophisticated like the ’09 Chappellet or an inexpensive quaffer like the ’09 Ridge Runner would fit the bill.
Food Pairings: Forget the Pilgrims and Indians… it’s about food and wine! This is the holiday where Pinot Noir shows its true versatility on the table, able to handle everything from deep-fried bird to sweet potato casserole. A bright and lively selection like the ’10 Alta Maria or one packing serious Burgundian pedigree like the ’09 Louis Jadot Pommard is in order. In the world of whites, something crisp and complex like the ultra-rare ’10 Caravaglio Bianco from the Aeolian Islands or a basso profundo white Burgundy from Marius Delarche in the form of Corton-Charlemagne will play just fine.
The Geek Squad: The stuff that the pros drink based on versatility and sheer enjoyment for the world-weary palate. A couple of the wines I include in the care package for my own consumption included the Durdilly Beaujolais from the legendary ’09 vintage and the laser-like Wachau Grüner-Veltliner Federspiel. Tell your favorite sommelier that those were on your Thanksgiving table, and you’re guaranteed to be treated a little better on your next restaurant visit. There you have it… a user’s guide to a very broad range of styles, at least one of which is going to hit the mark for every wine lover in the room. Cheers to Thanksgiving 2012!
--Rhett Gadke
Wine Director

The Prisoner

Today marks the release of Orin Swift’s 2011 “The Prisoner”. We have a small allocation of this wine and wanted to share some with you today because we have a longstanding connection to this unique red blend. This wine has become a cultural phenomenon and we like to think that we helped play a small role in the success.

Our Napa wine bar carried this wine in 2007 when it was still largely unknown. It was a treat to share it with our guests and watch their reactions before it took the wine world by storm. Luckily we still have a few bottles this year with your name on them! It pays to get in the game early.

The 2011 vintage’s hedonistic blend is made up of 51% Zinfandel, 19% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Syrah, 12% Petite Sirah, 2% Charbono and 1% Grenache. Order yours today before it flies off into the night!

Cheers and Happy Halloween!

2012 Harvest Update Continued

We've made it… after months of watching our grapes slowly mature, the time has come to turn off the oven and get to the fun part. I was up in Oakville and St. Helena late last week with our winemaker Tim checking out our rows of Cabernet, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, and things look remarkable. As in textbook, this is how you draw up the anatomy of an ideal vintage remarkable. Big, beautiful clusters that are densely packed with berries dripping with sweet juice.
Grapes like Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir have mostly long-since been picked, but our Bordeaux varietals made the most out of sunshine, maxed out their flavor potential and were picked this weekend. Now that all our fruit is in, we’re looking at some seriously promising raw materials.

What I find most fascinating about the last stages before harvest are the differences that varietals – and even clones within those varietals - show late in the game. It’s where you can really see the variations in skin thickness, juice ratio and cluster size. Even seed maturation, one of the hallmarks of ripeness, varies among clones within a vineyard where they’re planted just a few rows apart. It gives you a sense of the sheer amount of decisions that go into the growing process and the staggering number of subtle variables to consider.
From our point of view, 2012 is likely going to be the rare combination of a big crop with exceptional quality. We’ll take it!
--Rhett Gadke
Wine Director

2012 Harvest Update

We are here, waiting in the last weeks before harvest, watching the weather. The various vineyards weathered the only real hot spell last week beautifully and we are now seeing distinctly ripe flavors and tannins develop as a result. The heat was followed by mild days allowing the vines to recover, and they are now cruising toward the end of the season. We haven’t picked any Cabernet yet, but expect we might see Merlot from the western hills by the end of next week. At this point, the grapes are sweet, skin tannins are ripe and smooth, seeds are still ripening and flavors are coming along nicely. It looks in many ways like the ‘97 vintage, but only time will tell.
--Tim Milos
Winemaker

A September to Remember

There are some days when the score of the game does not matter… well, not nearly as much as it does on other days. The goal is always to get “The Win.” And yes, it was disappointing that we couldn’t offer our clients the TOTAL package, but everything outside of the score was top-notch.
One-hundred Bounty Hunter (and baseball) fans packed the Audi Legends Club at AT&T Park last Saturday for an exciting showdown between our San Francisco Giants and the LA Dodgers. It was a great game – we just didn’t come out on top. But as I write this post we are currently 7.5 games ahead of the Dodgers, so like I said, it’s OK we didn’t win this one…

This was our fourth trip to the Legends Club and it was fun to see a lot of familiar faces. We are starting to have quite the following to these games. For this latest game we partnered with Alpha Omega Winery. The Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and II Proprietary Red were available for clients to enjoy along with colorful anecdotes from Winemaker Jean Hoefliger, and Director of Operations & National Sales, Chelsea Bellows. As if that was not enough, Gina Castillo from Don Julio made some delicious peach margaritas and poured samples of their “70” Claro and “1942” Añejo. And for the showstopper… enter Mike Krukow.
Mike Krukow is the former Giants starting pitcher and is currently the Giants television color commentator and beloved by the fans. There were some real once-in-a-lifetime moments created as Kruk (as he’s known by), posed for pictures, fielded questions and signed autographs.

Once the 2013 MLB schedule is released, we’ll be pleased to announce the games that we will be attending... of course we hope you can join us!
If you’re looking for something fun to do in Napa this winter, make your travel plans for the second week in November in time for Flavor! Napa Valley, a 5 day celebration of wine, food and fun. We will be serving ribs at First Taste Napa on 11/14, pouring our wines at the Appellation Trail event 11/16, and we are sponsoring the Dinner with Napa Valley Winemakers on 11/17. Hope to see you there!
Cheers,
Summer Olson Stubblefield
PR & Event Manager

Enjoy the Fruits of Your Labor

We’ve always thought of Labor Day as the last big event of the summer. When fruit starts coming off the vines – as some Sauvignon Blanc is here in Napa – it’s officially time to start thinking about fall. Everyone is rushing around trying to make it to the last BBQs, back to school sales (even when there isn’t anyone going back to school) and talking about how their team is going to fare on the gridiron this year. Soon the days will be shorter and darker and your internal clock will be telling you “work more and play less.”

Let’s make the most out of our last chance to really enjoy the sun! Team Bounty Hunter is not only on the continuing adventure to find the rarest wines, we’re also on the quest for the finest artisan spirits. Here are a few suggestions for some BBQ-riffic wines and a couple of specialty spirits for your Labor Day celebration. They are perfect for laying back and sipping the day away. Try them out and let us know your favorite. Cheers to one last holiday weekend!

2009 Graff Mourvèdre Chalone - Like its spiritual cousins in the south of France, this thoroughly quaffable Mourvèdre is about user-friendly gulpability (if that’s not a word, it should be). Red fruits, spice and blueberries are presented with the sort of body and texture that’ll even take a little chill in the fridge and still be ready to go. We’re offering it at a pretty sweet price too…

2008 Lagier-Meredith Syrah Mt. Veeder - It’s in the argument for Napa Valley’s best Syrah. Let’s see what Robert Parker has to say, shall we? “… a gloriously intense perfume of roasted meats, herbs, barbecue smoke, burning embers, plums and acacia flowers. The wine possesses exceptional intensity, a full-bodied opulence and not a hard edge to be found. It is a beautifully complex, ethereal Syrah.” Any questions?

2010 Casarena 'Sinergy' Reserva Mendoza - There will be a quiz later, so let’s see who’s paying attention. This is one of the finest values in our entire Fall Catalog. Tasted blind, we guessed this would be in the $40-$50 range… it’s not. Concentrated and silky at once, it’s a gorgeous display of violets, cassis, blackberries and caramel. Seriously, if this doesn’t get your engine revving, red wine may not be your thing.

Mezcalero Mezcal #6 Oaxaca - Unlike Tequila, mezcal can be made from different varieties of agave, some of which only grow in the wild. Leaving behind conventional farming, these modern day "mezcaleros" take donkeys into the highlands of Oaxaca, harvest the wild plants, and craft a spirit all by hand using traditional artisan methods. The No. 6 is made from agaves Mexicana, Madrecuishe, and Bicuishe resulting in a soft, supple and richly flavored agave spirit with a core of earth and smoke that with one sip will make anyone into an instant fan. Fewer than 900 bottles produced.

Diplomatico “Reserva Exclusiva” Rum - While Jamaica and Puerto Rico are usually associated with "top-shelf" rum, aficionados will tell you Venezuelan rum is not to be overlooked. Copper-pot distilled and aged for 12 years, Diplimático Reserva Exclusiva massages the senses with rich molasses, allspice and dried fruit. The sweet buttery entry melts into a spicy mid-palate finish that lingers for minutes. You simply cannot get more taste-per-dollar than this!

Cheers,
Summer Olson Stubblefield
Event & PR Manager