Running a winery is a lot of work. Hopefully it is also a passion or labor of love. It’s been often said running a winery is one-third winemaking, one-third cleaning, and one-third waiting.
Waiting: As the title of this post states waiting is part of running a winery. For example, we racked the 2008 vintage to barrels in February – aside from regular wine chemistry tests, we have to be patient to let the oak barrels do their magic. We haven’t gotten the 2007 vintage labels to printer so we can’t bottle those barrel aged gems but that time will come soon.
Cleaning: I can’t say that cleaning is my favorite part of the process but it is critical to making fine wine – free of common winemaking flaws and faults. Having a commercial 2,400 PSI steam cleaner certainly helps.
Winemaking: Patience is a virtue in orchestrating and aging wine. The winemaking process is complex and open to all sorts of sanitation related and other failures if stringent processes are not followed – and remember – red wine vinegar doesn’t sell nearly as well as a premium red wine!
Award Winning 2007 "Starboard" Ruby Port
* The 2007 Port has been ready for bottling for several months and it’s about time it gets into our deluxe bottle filler, into those elegant imported bottles, and finally on to market. I have mentioned to some of you that a University of California Davis wine expert sampled our 2007 Port during one of our classes up there and then decreed that it was a very fine example of a Ruby Port and should not sell for less than $40 dollars a demi-bottle (375 ml)!
* Update: Our Ruby Port now bottled, was a medalist in two 2009 National/International wine competitions – Finger Lakes International Wine Competition (New York), and National Womens International Wine Competition (Sonoma, CA) – the professor’s accolades were validated.
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Eagles Nest handcrafted wines feature custom artwork about area public service organizations, historic sites, and interesting things about the winery, Vacation Villa, and the many animals that liveo n the estate.
The label art on this 2007 Port-styled wine was to feature the USS Midway CV-41 now moored near the foot of Broadway in Downtown San Diego as a highly successful Museum and event venue please visit them at http://www.midway.org/ but the Feds (TTB) disallowed the Midway because wine labels cannot have a likeness of the US Flag or any US military equipment. Well I guess no one told the TTB that the USS Midway has been decommissioned and no longer a US Navy Ship – but foe expediency we changed the label art to reflect Eagles Nest Cottage.
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