Tasting rooms almost…

The nascent rebirth of San Diego County winery industry was given another assist  yesterday (August 4th 2010)  as the County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the “Tiered Winery Ordinance” which enables tasting rooms by right of land ownership in A70-A72 agriculturally zoned parcels in the County. The proceedings and testimony are available at this video link http://bit.ly/9SyFQW .

This has been a long 4-year effort. Winery opponents derailed a similar ordinance two years ago requiring the County to spend some $300,000 on a Environmental Impact Report (EIR) along with associated staff hours and hearings on the report. Placer County near Sacramento passed a similar ordinance two years ago without incident and has had no problem with winery customers in that county.

What’s next?

There is a 30 day Ordinance enactment (waiting) period to allow among other things, the filing of opposing lawsuits. Following enactment of the ordinance, Boutique wineries plannning to open tasting rooms modify their existing California Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission (ABC) licences and meet several  San Diego County Department of Planning and Land Use  (DPLU) requirements.

Here’s a link to one of many news stories on the ordinance http://bit.ly/9fGe5q

The prestigious 10th annual Finger Lakes International Wine Competition (FLIWC), was held at the Rochester Plaza Hotel & Conference Center 27-28 March 2010. FLIWC is the world’s third-largest commercial competition, and largest on the east coast.

The 2010 competition featured a record number of entries 3,010 wines from over 666 International and National wineries from all 50 states including 105 from New York state.

This year Eagles Nest Winery’s entries went beyond our Port-styled dessert wines (which were all medalists in last year’s FLIWC competition) and entered our 2007 still wines. This year we won five Gold, Silver & Bronze medals. See FLIWC 2010 competition results - Click here!

Presently 100% of our 2007 & 2008 releases of estate wines are medalists, and  nearly 90% of our total 2007 & 2008 releases are medalists in highly credible National/ International and Regional wine competitions since last year.

The distinguished the panel of fifty-six judges hailing from from 10 countries and 5 continents, and 10 states included educators and winemakers, distributors and restaurateurs.

The charity fund raising event has earned International acclaim as one of the most prestigious wine competitions on the east coast. It was created by wine aficionado Peter Parts to raise funds for Camp Good Days and Special Times which benefit children  with cancer and their families.

View the FLIWC and Camp Good Days video clip – Click here!

Sharing our custom art labels from our winning wines and ports below:

2010 National Women’s Wine International Competition

While the competition results won’t be released to the general public until April 2, 2010, we found out today (March 23, 2010) that we received four medals for our wines and ports.

Our 2007 Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon wine, 2007 Estate Reserve Syrah wine, 2007 Estate Reserve Starboard Cabernet Sauvignon port-style dessert wine, and 2008 Estate Reserve Picpoul Blanc port-style dessert wine all Ramona Valley AVA estate grown and produced  wines medalists in the 2010 National Woman’s Wine International Competition.We won three Silver Medals and one Bronze Medal.

Presently 100% of our 2007 & 2008 releases of estate wines are medalists, and  88% of our total 2007 & 2008 releases are medalists in highly credible National/International and Regional wine competitions since last year.

2007 Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Ramona Valley AVA estate grown and produced (Silver)

2007 Estate Reserve Syrah, Ramona Valley AVA estate grown and produced (Bronze)

2007 Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Ruby-Port-styled dessert wine, Ramona Valley AVA estate grown and produced (Silver)

2008 Estate Reserve Picpoul Blanc White-Port-styled dessert wine, Ramona Valley AVA estate grown and produced (Silver)

Enjoy our custom artwork labels featuring our winery, its animals, and local public service organizations.

We practice sustainable farming and use Olde English Southdown Baby Doll Sheep in our vineyards and on our estate to eliminate the need for herbicides and other chemicals. We even have a worm farm to produce natural soil nutrients and nutrient and foliage sprays.

Learn first hand how we made this wine by  staying at Eagles Nest Vacation Villa/Cottage.  Read actual guest comments – Click here!

Please visit us at http://eaglesnestwinery.com Click here!

We received four medals this year and one last year from NWWC – a medal in this competition is more significant than you might think – in past NWWC competitions, only 1 in 5 entries win a medal so winning ANY medal is quite an achievement. Judging rules stipulate that only “wines of merit” are awarded medals, and ALL judges must agree on the award for that wine.

For example, if you’re #3 of 3 entries in a category, that doesn’t mean you get a medal by default. If the judges don’t believe your wine is worthy – it doesn’t get any medal – as 4 of 5 wines submitted do not get medals. Also if there are too few entrants in a given category, NWWC policy is to judge your wine against a larger, combined group, making the competition that much more difficult.

Competition Background:

Eileen Crane 2010 Honorary Chair

We are honored that Eileen Crane, Founding Winemaker & President of Napa’s legendary Domaine Carneros, is the 2010 Honorary Chairwoman for the National Women’s Wine Competition. Often referred to as America’s Doyenne of Sparkling Wine, Eileen Crane has spent more than 30 years in the industry. She is the most experienced Sparkling Winemaker in the United States.

The 2010 National Women’s Wine Competition… judged by twenty-three of the leading women wine judges in America. Entries were limited to ~2,500 overall entries 2,000 entries for the Open Competition; 500 entries for the Women Winemaker’s Challenge.

Judging Methodology

NWWC is a true blind tasting, which means that the judges do not know the maker of the wine, they never see the labels, nor do they know the price of the wine.

This makes it possible for our judges to identify outstanding wines across the range of price points and varietals. We also begin each judging session with an initial tasting of brut champagne to clear the judge’s palates to create the best tasting conditions.

Further, our judges receive the results of their panel’s work, ensuring the integrity of the judging.

Competition Philosophy

Since women make 60%-70% (or more) of the wine purchases in the United States, it only makes sense to craft a competition judged entirely by women. As a marketing tool, NWWC provides a “woman to woman roadmap” of the wine industry. Medal winners can be assured that the leading women in wine have judged their wines exemplary. (Please note: to win a Bronze or Double Gold medal, all judges must be in agreement.

As in 2008 and 2009, NWWC limited the number of entries this year to ensure that they could maintain an atmosphere that gives their judges sufficient time to consider the wines and not overwhelm their palates. NWWC’s promise to entrants was that their wine will be appropriately categorized and well judged by superstar palates – the leading women in the wine industry.

Awards were awarded on a merit basis only and all judges must agree on the award level. The judges were instructed to grant no awards when, in their opinion, a wine was unworthy, and they were empowered to grant duplicate awards if the quality of wines so merits.

Judging was held March 22, 2010 in Sonoma, California.

The 2010 Judges

Eileen Crane, Founding Winemaker & President of Napa’s legendary Domaine Carneros, was the 2010 Honorary Chairwoman for the National Women’s Wine Competition.

Diane Teitelbaum, International Judge & Author, Dallas, TX

Amy Atwood, blogger, MyDailyWine.com

Rosanne LaVoy, Owner/Chef, Coast Café, Bolinas, CA

Cassandra Brown, CS, CSW, Consultant, The Chocolate Grape – Sommelier At YOUR Service

Eileen Hoffmeister-Mooney, Stone Hill Winery, Branson, MO

Traci Dutton, Beverage Manager, Sommelier, CIA

Laura Ness, Reporter/Consultant/Buyer Wines & Vines Magazine

Ramona Nicholson, Owner, Nicholson Ranch Winery, past winner, Judges’ Choice Award, 2009 NWWC

Julie Lumgair, Partner and Winemaker, Windsor Oaks Vineyard, past winner, Judges’ Choice Award, NWWC 2009

Staci Hunt, Member, Board of Directors, Specialty Wine Retailers Association & Wine Reporter, NPR’s GOOD FOOD Wine Report

Debra Del Fiorentino, Sommelier, CWP, Wine Educator and Consumer Marketing Director at Russian River Vineyards

Virginie Boone, Wine Writer, The Press Democrat

Maureen Downey, DWS, CWE, Owner, Chai Consulting

Jil Child, Sommelier, Wine Educator

Liz Thach, Ph.D., MW Candidate, Professor of Wine Business at Sonoma State University

Valery Uhl, Director of North of the Gate Wine Competition

Ann Noble, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Enology at UC Davis, inventor: The Wine Wheel(tm)

Deborah Parker Wong, Journalist, The Tasting Panel Magazine

Jan Manni, Wine Blogger, The Wine Attic

Prudy Foxx, Viticulture Consultant, Foxx Viticulture

Evelyn White, Winemaker, Taft Street Winery

Mariana Gil Juncal, Sommelier and Director Editorial, Baco Club, Argentina’s leading private wine club

Gillian Ballance, Wine Consultant

Over 30 judges from around the United States evaluated via blind tastings, and scored nearly 2,000 total entries and awarding medals to wines worthy of merit.

This is a rigorous, professionally conducted wine competition where experienced judges award medals to less than one in four wines entered. Congratulations are in order for all winning International and US wineries!

The full listing of the 2010 competition can be seen/searched at this SDIWC link.

Presently 100% of our 2007 & 2008 releases of Estate grown Wines & Ports are Gold, Silver & Bronze medalists, and 88% of our total 2007 & 2008 releases are medalists – in highly credible National, International, and Regional wine competitions since last year.

Eagles Nest Winery, (TWITTER @EaglesNestWine and Facebook click here) a leading Boutique Winery located n the Ramona Valley AVA near San Diego, California was honored as one of only four medal winning San Diego County wineries in this year’s 201o competition including Fallbrook , Orfila,  and Shadow Mountain.

When you consider the large number of multi-million dollar national and international winery operations that participated in this professional competition, this showing reflects very well on Eagles Nest as a small, family owned and operated winery producing quality wines from locally grown wine-grapes.

Eagles Nest Winery’s winning wines were 2008 Estate Picpoul Blanc White-Port Styled Dessert Wine 100% grown and produced on the Estate from a unique Rhone varietal features a delicate tropical fruit nose and smooth character.

Eagles Nest 2007 Private Reserve Merlo t made from 100% Merlot, this is a rich full bodied, deeply colored with dusty tannins produced from high quality San Diego County Merlot grapes.

Both these wines scored Silver medals reflecting “wines that are well made, absent flaws, and expressive, reflecting good viticultural and winemaking standards..”

Michael Franz, Editor of Wine Review Online, returned for his third year as Chief Judge. The SDIWC was held at the Westgate Hotel in downtown San Diego for the seventh consecutive year. The Westgate is a premier hotel property in the heart of San Diego, and provides an elegant and functional backdrop for visiting judges.

The Director is nationally syndicated wine columnist Robert Whitley. Judges for the 2010 San Diego International Wine Competition were hand-picked by Whitley, whose experience at managing wine competitions is second to none.

Robert also serves as Director of the Critics Challenge, the Sommelier Challenge, the Winemaker Challenge and the Monterey Wine Competition, which he co-founded with the Salinas Valley Fair in 1994.

SDIWC judging guidelines were as follows:

1.  The San Diego International Wine Competition is a blind tasting. Wines will be evaluated absent information about producer, vintage or price.

2.  Because wines have been submitted from the world over, judges may ask questions pertaining to origin so that wines can be evaluated in context.

3.  Judges should take into account the fact that winemaking styles vary. A wine that is well made within a legitimate style for the grape and category should be judged accordingly, regardless of any personal preference for an alternative style.

4.  Judges may compare notes with others on the panel, but each vote should be independent and reflect the personal opinion of each judge.

5.  Votes will be taken at the conclusion of each flight and recorded by the table monitor.

Silver Medal

A silver medal should be awarded to wines that are well made, absent flaws, and expressive, reflecting good viticultural and winemaking standards.

Gold Medal

A gold medal should be awarded to wines exhibiting outstanding intensity of flavor and/or complexity. While palate weight can be a positive factor in the evaluation, more delicate wines that possess exceptional nuance should not be overlooked for gold-medal consideration. Mineral-driven and fruit-driven wines should be given equal consideration. A gold-medal wine should leave the judge with an extremely positive overall impression.

Best of Show/Platinum

Any wine the judges believe would be competitive for best in its class should be put forward for the “Sweepstakes” round of judging to determine Best of Show in its category. All wines nominated for Best of Show will automatically be elevated to a Platinum medal.

Thanks go out to the judges and the volunteer staff of this year’s competition – Your hard work made this event a resounding success.

Adam’s Back, Wins SDIWC Best of Show Red
With LaZarre 2007 Central Coast Pinot Noir

By Robert Whitley
Creators Syndicate

There was a time, not that many years ago, when a brash young winemaker at Hahn Estates ruled the wine competition world from Los Angeles to London.

Under the skillful direction of Adam LaZarre, the Monterey County winery scored major trophies at big wine competitions around the globe. And they did it with modestly priced wines, such as a $16 Cabernet Sauvignon, a $14 Merlot and a red Bordeaux-style blend for less than $20.

For a time, it seemed a week couldn’t go by without a LaZarre-inspired wine winning best of show in Los Angeles or San Francisco or London, or some other important wine competition venue. LaZarre is no longer at Hahn, having moved 75 miles down U.S Highway 101 to Paso Robles, where he is running the promising start-up winery Villa San-Juliette. He also makes a number of wines under his own LaZarre label.

He may have moved, but LaZarre hasn’t changed all that much. He’s still brash, still prolific, and Sunday afternoon he returned to the winner’s circle at the 27th annual San Diego International Wine Competition.

“I’m back!” LaZarre exclaimed as it was revealed that his 2007 Central Coast LaZarre Pinot Noir ($35) had been voted Best Red Wine of the show. It was no small feat. Among the contenders for best red honors were the 2006 ZD Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($125), the 2007 Bell Clone 6 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($90) and the 2007 Spoto Napa Valley Syrah ($70), platinum award-winners all.

The venerable SDIWC attracted nearly 2,000 entries, bestowed more than 1,000 medals and crowned five best of show winners, including the LaZarre Pinot. Value-seeking consumers should be encouraged to note the 31 judges — winemakers and wine industry professionals — handed out one of the top awards, best of show sparkling, to the relatively inexpensive Korbel Brut Rose ($11). The sleek 2004 Domaine Carneros Le Reve Blanc de Blancs ($85) was in the running for the top honor, but the judges opted instead for the refreshing, bright berry fruit of the Korbel bubbly.

Other best-of-show winners included the 2008 V. Sattui Early Harvest White Riesling ($18.75) as best white, the 2008 Penman Springs Two Roses Syrah Rose ($15) as best rose, and the 2008 Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards Finger Lakes Vidal Blanc Ice Wine ($40 per half bottle) as best dessert.

The weekend was not short on stellar performance, and I have duly noted some of the more impressive efforts.

Fallbrook Winery, which produces fewer than 50,000 cases of wine a year in the far northeast corner of San Diego County (that’s in Southern California, merely 500 miles but light years from the epicenter of American wine, the Napa Valley) saw two of its wines advance to the finals. Though neither won the big prize, Fallbrook’s 2007 33 Degrees North BDX, Gracie Hill Vineyard ($30) was awarded the title Best Meritage and its 2009 Sauvignon Blanc Reserve ($14) was named Best Sauvignon Blanc. Quite an accomplishment for a small Southern California winery few had ever heard of.

On the other hand, Frank Family Vineyards, a well-known Napa Valley producer, made a good deal of noise on Sunday afternoon with three wines in the finals — 2008 Carneros Pinot Noir ($35), 2008 Napa Valley Chardonnay ($32.50) and 2007 Napa Valley Zinfandel ($36.75).
To reach the finals, a wine had to be awarded a Platinum medal, which would be the equivalent of a double gold at other competitions.

Bargain hunters might want to take a close look at the Cycles Gladiator wines. These are produced by Hahn in Monterey County and are uniformly priced at $10 a bottle. The 2007 Merlot was voted Best Merlot, and the 2008 Syrah took gold. The Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio all received silver medals.

Cameron Hughes was another big winner from the value category, claiming 11 medals, including a platinum and two golds. Cameron Hughes purchases small lots of leftover wine from prestigious wineries, bottles them under his own name without identifying the winery, and sells them for a fraction of the price they would otherwise fetch.

Cameron Hughes won its Platinum with a 2008 Santa Barbara County Chardonnay, Lot 159 at $15. His golds were for the 2007 Lot 116 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($22) and the 2007 Lot 164 Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon ($22). These wines can be found at Costo nationwide in states where stores are permitted to sell wine.

Concannon Vineyard of California’s underrated Livermore Valley was equally impressive in the value arena, winning seven medals, the most expensive of which was the gold-medal winning 2008 Limited Release Central Coast Pinot Noir at $16. The 2008 Conservancy Livermore Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($14) earned platinum.

The East was well represented by Jefferson Vineyards of Virginia. This Charlottesville-area winery grabbed a platinum (2009 Monticello Pinot Gris, $18) and a gold (2007 Monticello Meritage, $30) along with two silvers.

Tiny Opolo Vineyards of Paso Robles earned three medals, but two of those were platinum: 2006 Serenade ($30), a red Bordeaux-style blend, and 2007 Paso Robles Tempranillo ($24).

California’s Amador County, in the Sierra Foothills, got a string showing from Renwood with a platinum, two golds and four silvers. The Platinum was a delicious 2007 Barbera at $23 and the golds were the 2007 Jack Rabbit Flat Zinfandel ($30) and the 2008 Amador Ice Zinfandel at $35 a half bottle.

And the Umpqua Valley of Oregon never had it so good. Reustle Prayer Rock Vineyard rounded up nine medals, including a platinum for its 2009 Gruner Veltliner, Revelation & Rorek Bloc at $24. Reustle Prayer Rock also scored golds with its 2008 Reserve Pinot Noir ($38), its 2008 Reserve Syrah ($38) and its 2008 Reserve Tempranillo ($38).

Of course, the big dog of the competition was V. Sattui of the Napa Valley, as usual. Sattui racked up 19 medals. Among the 19 were the best of show white wine, a platinum award for its 2007 Mount Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon ($40), and golds for four other wines.

Sattui wines can only be purchased at the winery tasting room in St. Helena, Calif., where there are expansive picnic grounds and a well-priced selection of all of its award-winning wines.

Many of the award-winning wines will be available to taste and for purchase at the annual Wine & Roses charity wine tasting, June 13, 2010, at the Westgate Hotel in downtown San Diego, where the competition was held. Tickets to Wine & Roses may be purchased at www.WineAndRoses.net.

2010 SAN DIEGO INTERNATIONAL WINE COMPETITION JUDGES

CHIEF JUDGE

Michael Franz, Editor, Wine Review Online

JUDGES

Thrace Bromberger, Gustavo-Thrace
Richard Carey, Winemaker, Vitis Research
Jac Cole, Winemaker, Spring Mountain Vineyards
Kimberly Charles, Charles Communications
Etienne Cowper, Winemaker, Wilson Creek Winery
Mark Deegan, Henry Wine Group
Traci Dutton, Sommelier
Gary Eberle, Winemaker, Eberle Winery
Bob Foster, California Grapevine
Patty Held, Winery Consultant
Linda Jones-McKee, Wines & Vines
John Larchet, Winemaker, The Australian Premium Wine Collection
Adam LaZarre, Winemaker, Villa San-Juliette
Tim McDonald, Wine Spoken Here
Kate McHugh, Quintessential Wines
Neil McNally, Rosenthal Estate
Jon McPherson, Winemaker, South Coast Winery
Linda Murphy, Decanter
Rebecca Murphy, Dallas Morning News
Ray Pompilio, Wine Appreciation Guild
Nick Ponomareff, California Grapevine
Ron Rawlinson, WineSmith
Lisa Redwine, Sommelier
George Riffle, Sommelier
Roman Roth, Winemaker, Wolffer Estate
Eric Runyon, Southern Wine & Spirits
Jeff Siegel, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Jennifer Simonetti MW
Bob Small, Los Angeles International Wine Competition
David Stevens, Winemaker, Davon International
Mark Stuart, TheCorkHead.com
Paul Wagner, Balzac Communications
Kevin Walsh, Henry Wine Group
Duncan Williams, Winemaker, Fallbrook Winery
Wilfred Wong, Beverages & More



Presently 100% of our 2007 & 2008 releases of Estate grown Wines & Ports are Gold, Silver & Bronze medalists, and 88% of our total 2007 & 2008 releases are medalists – in highly credible National, International, and Regional wine competitions since last year.

The 2010 competition completed Thursday, February 25, 2010. This year marks the 20th consecutive Grand Harvest Awards, with a field of over 1,400 entries from North America, Europe, South America, and the Pacific Rim.

Judges awarded a total of 141 Gold (1 in ten),  426 Silver (less than 1 in three) , and 461 Bronze  (less than 1 in three)  medals in this very competitive event where judges must agree on merit of awarding a medal.

Twenty-four judges evaluated over 1,400 entries.  Garnering medals at the Grand Harvest Awards has traditionally been difficult to achieve because of its high standards of excellence. Wine competitions are invaluable purchasing tools that help consumers choose from over 6,000 wineries in the US alone.

More about the Grand Harvest Competition is included in the below press release:

Grand Harvest Awards

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jennifer Merletti

800.535.5670 x105, jmerletti@vwm-online.com

Joe Gargiulo (707.795.9400, joe@jagpublicrelations.com )

2010 Grand Harvest Awards:

Wine Competition Furthers Its Search for Terroir

Santa Rosa, California (March 2, 2010) — Judging for the 2010 Grand Harvest Awards, an international wine competition produced by Vineyard & Winery Management magazine, completed its mission of recognizing outstanding wines from all over the world and simultaneously studying the effects of terroir on wine quality.

Celebrating its 20th year, the Grand Harvest Awards was held February 24-26 at Sonoma Mountain Village, Rohnert Park, California. Complete results are posted at www.vwm-online.com/gha while a related article will be published in the May-June issue of the magazine.

Twenty-four judges evaluated over 1,400 entries and awarded a total of 1,027 medals including 141 gold, 426 silver and 461 bronze. Garnering medals at the Grand Harvest Awards has traditionally been difficult to achieve because of its high standards of excellence. Wine competitions are invaluable purchasing tools that help consumers choose from over 6,000 wineries in the US alone.

Most entries in the Grand Harvest Awards were grown and produced in the United States and Canada with some originating in Australia and New Zealand, Europe (France, Germany, Italy, and Spain) and South Africa.

“The Grand Harvest Awards are a great forum for producers to have their wines evaluated by experienced judges in the context of their respective growing regions,” said competition chairman Bill Traverso. “Wines from up-and-coming regions such as Nebraska and Florida garnered gold medals.”

This year’s Grand Harvest Awards presents a new promotional opportunity for wine producers: medal winners will be featured during March via a link on Food & Wine magazine’s one-million-unique-visitors-per-month website (foodandwine.com).

The Judges

Selected for their familiarity with wines from specific growing regions, the judges represent some of the most qualified experts in the industry: food and beverage media, winemakers, wine marketers, enology and viticulture professors and researchers, restaurateurs and sommeliers, hospitality and tourism consultants, and fine wine retailers. Judges included George M. Tabor, author of Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine; Tim McNally, radio host of “The Wine Show”, WIST 690 AM, New Orleans; Eric Degerman, managing editor of Wine Press Northwest; William S. Bloxsom-Carter, executive chef/food and beverage director of Playboy Mansion West; and Jim Trezise, president of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation.

The Search for Terroir

The Grand Harvest Awards is the only North American wine competition that presents entries to judges according to regional classification. Wines of particular appellations are arranged in flights (mostly groups of 10) and evaluated by judges who are unaware of the geographic origin or producer, knowing only varietal name when relevant. In contrast, other competitions group wines by varietal name and suggested retail price.

Beyond the determination of medals, the Grand Harvest Awards also recognizes entries that best exemplify the terroir of their respective viticultural areas, and acknowledges the influence of terroir on wine quality. After evaluating each flight, judges frequently discuss their impressions in order to identify the signature elements of terroir and their link to regional typicity (wine characteristics that are common to particular growing regions).

While it is has no scientific definition, terroir is considered to be the combined expression of soil, climate, elevation and topography in the aroma, flavor and tactile sensations of wine beyond clone and rootstock selection, cultural practices, and winemaking techniques.

About the Producer

The Grand Harvest Awards is a division of Vineyard & Winery Services, the publisher of the leading independent wine trade publication Vineyard & Winery Management magazine www.vwm-online.com , Winedex (Wine Industry Index). Based in Santa Rosa, California, the multimedia corporation also produces seminars, conferences and trade shows (Wineries Unlimited, Tasting Room Profitability, Wine Club Summit, and Managing the Winery Laboratory) as well as two other wine competitions (International Eastern Wine Competition, and West Coast Wine Competition).

Back in December of 2009 we were so disappointed to hear that Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher were no longer working for the Wall Street Journal and that their long running Tastings Column was no more.

Below is a summary of their recommendations for a quality winery experience – typically at a small winery is where you can have an unsurpassed, personal experience – and in the words of our favorite Boston Globe Travel writer – Tom Haines: (please read his eloquent article)  “You may never return so buy one wine.”

Further below we share some insights into Wine Tourism, this from a University of Iowa study. Opponents of wineries and tasting rooms are blind to the fact that small winery operations and the insignificant traffic they generate are beneficial to local economies and that wineries are among the most generous and desirable of charitable venues – after all how bad of a mood can community benefactors be in when you are around winery hosts and other wine lovers!?!?

At Wineries Small is Beautiful:

WSJ: DOROTHY J. GAITER AND JOHN BRECHER

Visiting wineries anywhere in the world is a joy and excites many people into a lifetime love affair with wine.

• Visit the small winery you’ve never heard of. You will not be disappointed.
• When people ask us about visiting wineries… they’re simply looking for someone to meet with intimate knowledge of the wines, some interesting wines to taste, and a welcoming environment in which to taste them. This is all most likely to happen at that little winery with the unfamiliar name.
• There are thousands of wineries all over the world that you’ve never heard of. They’re small, family-run and charming. Those are the ones we target.
• Our goal was simply to identify those that were open to the public and drop in. Many wineries are open by appointment only… We prefer to be spontaneous, so we rarely visit those…
• Our own favorite visits, however, are the ones where we’re surrounded by the vineyards and the tanks.
• That’s our kind of winery: small, quirky, friendly and passionate about wine.
• To feel the passion of wine and winemaking, it’s important to seek out the smaller places where you can really spend some quality time with the people behind the bar.

Fifteen (15) Steps to a Successful Winery Visit

Boutique Wineries Offer a Premium wine Experience

Sharing a CLASSIC, time-proven list of sage suggestions from two of our favorite wine writers. This list is  sure to make all your future wine tastings visits a huge success!

We recommend you review before, or take this list with you on each wine outing until you have it committed to your wine appreciation routine.

Fifteen Steps to a Successful Winery Visit ‐‐‐ Go Early, Ask Questions, Don’t Get Carried Away;  The Empty Box Rule

WSJ: 15 Steps to a Successful Winery Visit

June 29, 2007

By DOROTHY J. GAITER AND JOHN BRECHER

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118306817695252069.html?mod=Tastings

There has never been a better time than now ‐‐ right now, this week ‐‐ to go visit a winery near you. All over the U.S., more wineries than ever are open and eager for you to drop by. Many of them plan special events during the summer and entire regions now are heavily promoting their wine trails. (If you missed Weekend Journal’s recent cover story about the spread of American wineries and wine tourism, drop us a note at wine@wsj.com and we’ll send it along.)

Winemakers and winery owners are among the world’s most charming and interesting people, and they often give away samples of their art for free. Why wouldn’t you go? If you do, here are some tips on how to visit wineries, with some suggestions for winery etiquette. We’ve focused here on visiting wineries in newer wine regions, where tourism might not be as well advanced as places like Napa and Sonoma.

‐‐ Get an empty box for wine. Grab one at your local wine store, or think about buying a Styrofoam wine carrier from the shipping store. Trust us on this. You are going to start buying bottles of wine that will rattle around in your car unless you’ve brought a box. You’ll thank us for this advice when your box is full (and this might have an added benefit; see below).

‐‐ Hire a car or have a designated driver. Chances are you will taste more wine than you expected to ‐‐ those little tastes add up. Not only that, but if you’re not used to drinking wine early in the day, it could catch up with you fast. In many of the newer wine regions, the wineries might be spread out, so you have some driving ahead of you. Various tour companies are popping up in wine regions all over the country that are happy to chart your visits to wineries and take you to them.

‐‐ Take the kids, but, if you do, find something for them to do. Wine regions are very pretty around now, so green and lush, and winery people are nice, so it’s a shame for children to miss the experience. But tasting rooms can be boring for children, so ask right away if there are cookies or crackers, animals to play with or anything else for kids to do. Some, though not nearly enough, have basketball nets, bocce courts, coloring books or Play‐Doh. Take along a Rubik’s Cube, which did the trick for our kids for a while.

‐‐ Go early, especially on weekends. The thing that’s the most fun about a winery visit is chatting with the people behind the bar, who are often the owners or winemakers, especially at smaller wineries. They won’t have time to talk with you if it’s busy.

‐‐ Focus on the smaller places. There is something comforting and unintimidating about the larger places with big parking lots, T‐shirts for sale and lots of hired help. But to feel the passion of wine and winemaking, it’s important to seek out the smaller places where you can really spend some quality time with the people behind the bar.

‐‐ Be polite. Yes, this seems obvious, but we’ve visited hundreds of tasting rooms over more than 30 years and we’re always amazed how rude people can be. In a smaller winery, you are likely to be in part of someone’s home and possibly talking to the owner. And you’re probably getting wine free, or for a small charge. Be nice, and show them the respect they deserve.

‐ Try new, unfamiliar things. In many parts of the country, the grapes that grow best are native American grapes or hybrids. Perhaps the winery makes a Chardonnay, but it’s not as good as its Vignoles. If you stick to grapes you know, you could miss out on the regional specialties.

‐‐ Have an answer to the question, “What kind of wine do you like?” Tasting‐room personnel tend to ask this reflexively as an ice‐breaker, but many people who aren’t totally comfortable with wine find it hard to answer on the spot. In any event, we’d be hesitant to answer it directly because we don’t want to try only the kinds of wines we already know we like. Even if you think you only like dry wines, you should try some that are sweet, and vice versa. Think about saying something like, “I enjoy all kinds of wines. Which would you start with?”

‐‐ Ask where the grapes were grown. Many wineries these days all over the country make wine from grapes grown in California or someplace else far away. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that, but when we visit a winery in, say, Connecticut, part of the fun of the visit is tasting wines made from grapes grown in Connecticut, near where we’re standing. If you don’t want to ask, just peek at the label. If it says “estate bottled,” that’s a sign that the grapes were probably grown right around the corner.

‐‐ Ask questions. Don’t be shy. If you ask simple questions like “Does this look like it will be a good year?” or “What food goes best with this wine?” the person behind the counter will appreciate your interest. Don’t try to show off with questions like, “Did this get any ML?” unless you really, really care about malolactic fermentation. There are no stupid questions ‐‐ and, in any event, you can’t do worse than the visitor who once asked a tasting‐room pourer whom we’ve known for years, “How long does the wine stay in caskets?”

‐‐ Remember that it’s a tasting room, not a bar. If you want to drink a big glass of wine, buy a bottle and have a picnic. And even if you are not driving, be very careful about how much you’re drinking. People who have had too much to drink ruin the tasting experience for everybody.

‐‐ Be careful how much you buy. It’s a nice gesture to buy a bottle or two, but you shouldn’t feel pressured to. Still, we tend to get carried away at wineries and buy more bottles than we intended. You’ll be amazed how quickly those bottles add up. Many wineries now can ship across state lines, so you can probably call and get those wines after you get home if you have non‐buyer’s remorse later.

‐‐ Keep wines out of the hot car. A car that’s sitting in the sun will cook your wines in no time flat. Find a way
to avoid that.

‐‐ Ask wineries how to ship your wine back. If you have bought a case or so at various wineries, you might find it easier to ship it back, so ask if there is a local shipping place that specializes in this. This might not be possible, depending on various state laws, so this is where your Styrofoam carrier comes in: Just pack it and check it on the plane with you. There are obviously some risks involved, but we have done this for decades without incident. (Check with your airline to make sure it has no rules against this.)

‐‐ Finally, keep this in mind: The wines you bought at the winery will not taste as good at home as they did at the winery. We’re sorry to end this list with a downer, but it’s true. When you’re there, surrounded by the wondrous sights and smells of a winery, with the winemaker across the bar, pouring wine in pristine condition that has never traveled, the wine tastes special. You simply can’t replicate those conditions at home. But this is exactly why you should go taste wine at a winery this week.

WSJ: 15 Steps to a Successful Winery Visit

June 29, 2007

By DOROTHY J. GAITER AND JOHN BRECHER

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118306817695252069.html?mod=Tastings

Eagles Nest Winery is located in a bureaucratically challenged San Diego County where award winning family wineries are saddled with a $250,000+ (yes you read that correctly – a quarter million dollars plus)  Major Use Permit – for the privilege of a public winery tasting room otherwise allowed by California State law -  so – we have been creative in selling our wines at retail via on-line and mail order sales,  and have been noted among small wineries for our pioneering and energetic Web 2.0 presence.

We recommend you read below as you consider the on-line purchase of wines – and of course I encourage you to order wines directly from your favorite Family winery or Web vendor as a means of increasing your wine choices beyond your local retail offerings.  Our wines are available at this link. https://www.wineweb.com/scripts/secure/order.cfm/eaglesnest

I believe it mostly gets down to good old-fashioned customer service, improving inventory control , and I suspect a good heaping of improving poor communications with customers. But there are a few other considerations the average wine lover is unaware of establishing a shipping account, weather factors, and a point not mentioned in the column – that small wineries have a special shipping status in some states that allow them to consumers in certain states, that retails wine storefronts cannot.

The above shipping map is a bit out-of-date as the shipping landscape changes with each state legislative session and lobbyist initiative but is gives you an idea how convoluted interstate shipping is.

Fighting for a shipping account: Because wine is a taxed and regulates commodity shipping wine isn’t as easy as dropping a few bottles in a box and slapping a mailing label to the box. A winery must establish a shipping account with one of several shipping venues – the US Postal Service won’t touch wine. Fed Ex and United Parcel Service along with a host of other freight shippers will handle wine shipments if you go through the trouble of establishing an account with them.

Their legal staffs have to review your winery licensing and federal bonding status. No small feat – in some cases it took a month of badgering account employees with repeated follow-up phone calls to obtain status of the shipping account processing. I know of wineries (and individuals) that ship a lot of “olive oil” – without benefit of a proper wine shipping account, but we don’t dare go there – it’s not worth losing your winery license over that.

How’s the en route weather?!?! Unknown to many wine lovers, weather plays an important part in wine shipments - consider that you wouldn’t want a precious and fragile wine shipment to freeze in a truck in e.g. Colorado or Ohio in the wintertime, or bake on an 90F-100F airport cargo ramp at Chicago O’Hare in July or August. It’s safest for wineries to ship in the spring and fall when temperatures are conducive to wine shipments or consider costly overnight shipping during the week when shipments can be handled quickly in climate controlled environments. We had to resort to some overnight shipments when entering wine in competitions that spanned freezing temperatures. Considerations even include whether or not the shipment will sit n a non climate controlled warehouse over a weekend.

I must admit that Eagles Nest was remiss in the on-line context – but we FINALLY activated our on-line sales tab on the public website (http://eaglesnestwinery.com) component to share our medal winning Wine & Ports out to our valued customers and friends!!!

One of our favorite wine expert couples/columnists Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher have been using and keeping an eye on on-line wine sales for several years writing a column on the issue a few years ago. In April of 2009 they posted an update outlining current problems with on-line wine sales. Click here!

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What’s Wrong With Wine on the Web – Confusing sites, poor inventory and iffy delivery are rife among online wine stores — how to fix them

By Dorothy Gaiter & John Brecher

WSJ Food & Drink    APRIL 10, 2009

Wine on the Web is beginning to drive us crazy. Wine merchants are increasingly splitting into those who take online shopping seriously and those who don’t — with an increasing number, unfortunately, falling into the latter category.

We have been shopping online and studying wine Web sites since the very early days of Virtual Vineyards, eVineyard and wine.com. We have bought thousands of bottles of wine online from scores of stores across the U.S. We first wrote a major article about wine on the Web three years ago, soon after the Supreme Court struck down some interstate-shipping laws and everyone sensed that a new world of online wine shopping was dawning. Since then, some Web sites have simply gotten old and tired while others have become so hyperactive that navigating them is like running a race. Some stores have clearly decided that the online thing is too much trouble and are starving it. At far too many, customer service is nonexistent and delivery is a joke.

This is a shame because online wine shopping can be a joy. Sites that are intuitive and robust can be as relaxing and fun as browsing in a good wine store. For people who live in areas where interstate shipping is allowed, online shopping means access to all sorts of interesting, unusual wine — and aggressive price comparisons, too. For stores, online shopping can be a big part of their business: At Astor Wines & Spirits in New York, for instance, it’s 15% and growing. And generally, in terms of the future of the wine industry, young adults increasingly buy all sorts of stuff on the Web and the wine industry shouldn’t want to fall behind with them. Indeed, successful sites tell us that their online customers tend to be younger than average wine consumers.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Ordering Wine Online Video here!

Confusing sites, poor inventory and iffy delivery…

The Problems…

A few sites still show the way. We have featured them in the attached article. We do not pretend to be Web-technology experts, but we can claim some expertise in online wine shopping, and, for many stores, here are some of the major problems:

Phantom inventory. This is the scourge of wine Web sites and the top problem we encounter. It’s amazing how many stores now list wines that possibly, maybe, perhaps might be at a warehouse somewhere or even could possibly be at a distributor — or maybe not. When we order online now, more often than not — more often than not! — we find out sometime after we order that at least some of the wines ordered are not available. We are not talking about futures — fine wines purchased now for delivery when they are released later — but about wines that appear, according to the site, to be in stock today. We shop online for many products and we can’t think of another industry or commodity where this is a consistent problem.

Some Who Do It Right
Here are four wine retailers that do online right, from robust sites that are stylish and clean to information, education, communication with customers and delivery. Some other sites to look at are chambersstwines.com, sherry-lehmann.com, wallywine.com and zachys.com. We like the energy at haskells.com and surdyks.com, and there’s only one Gary Vaynerchuk at winelibrary.com. Go to bottlerocketwine.com and we dare you not to smile at the home page — and then explore. Laws differ on delivery, but these sites are fun to visit anyway.

klwines.com

The Web site of California-based K&L Wine Merchants.From soup to nuts, this is the best wine Web site in the U.S. Visiting it is like dropping into an outstanding wine store with plenty of time on your hands to browse. Inventory is real-time — the site shows how many bottles are available at which location — and there is plenty of commentary, both from the store’s staff and critics, about each wine. There are pictures of bottles everywhere. The site is easy to navigate but not cluttered. Delivery is painless.

Brian Zucker, a co-owner and a member of one of the families that own K&L, says he began to develop the site in 1996, when he was finishing college, as an internship for class credit. “There was a company called Virtual Vineyards. They put a hit counter on their Web site and I’m looking at this site and they have an outrageously high number of people who have hit the site. That’s when a big-time light went off for me: This is a perfect venue for what we are doing.” He picked up a book on computer programming and asked an agricultural economics professor if he could come up with the Web site for credit. The professor, who was interested in wine, fortunately, said yes. The site is still completely proprietary — it even has an in-house photographer for the bottle shots.

What advice would Mr. Zucker give to other stores about Web sites? “It’s a serious, serious endeavor,” he said, “with real-time inventory, getting stuff out in a timely fashion, maintaining the level of customer service that you strive to have in the store. It’s a huge, huge undertaking. Otherwise, the easiest thing to do is put your name out there, get an email list and communicate via email. Try to provide the recommendations and expertise via email. I don’t think there is a way to go halfway. It’s all or nothing. It requires a full commitment. An email list with your top picks can definitely be powerful.”

winemonger.com

A California-based Web-only store.Yes, K&L is a huge operation, but it’s also possible for a small, niche wine site to be successful. Consider winemonger.com, which features Austrian wine. It’s a beautiful site and it’s easy to use and fun. It’s filled with information that’s accessible both literally and figuratively. It has real-time inventory. Its shipping policies are spelled out clearly and simply, with one-button navigation from the home page — we wish every site would do this so elegantly. The site offers interesting ways to buy wines, such as flights of three different dessert wines. Emily Schindler Weissman, who founded the company with her husband, Stephan — and who writes most of the wine descriptions herself — says of the clean visual design of the site, “We both worked in film. Visually, that’s where we are coming from. The style we used as our inspiration was that of the [Viennese design] Wiener Werkstatte movement…

“When we first set out and were looking at all the Web sites, we didn’t want it to look like a warehouse,” she told us. Too many sites “look like big warehouses on a page. We absolutely didn’t want a bunch of stuff on a white background with 400 links on one page. Our aim was to make it like visiting the winery — like sitting there in a winery with a bottle and having a conversation. It’s not so much about being in the store. Standing in the middle of a wine store, you get lost. When you sit at the winery, you have the feeling that I’m on the inside, I’m meeting this guy and he’s my new favorite winemaker.”

astorwines.com

The Web site of New York-based Astor Wines & Spirits.As some stores have “updated” their sites through the years, they have simply become more cluttered and harder to use. One major exception is astorwines.com, which has a wealth of information in an easy-to-access format. Kent Wilhelm, Astor’s senior manager of new media design and marketing, says the challenge online is to recreate the in-store experience and education is a large part of that. One of Astor’s assistant buyers, Sophie Barrett, even prepares specific food pairing suggestions for many of the wines. “Sophie personally writes the majority of the pairings on our site on a case-by-case basis,” Mr. Wilhelm says. “She has worked at several restaurants in North Carolina, so we have someone who not only understands the wines inside and out, but has a food background as well. This doesn’t allow us to have pairing advice for every wine, but we’re going for quality over quantity. I think it shows that we really do know our products because she is able to paint such a great picture of how the wines match up to food. I’ve found that with wine, the description is best when it really allows you to experience the wine simply through the text, almost like poetry. And that is so important when it comes to having to describe feeling and sensation remotely through the Web.”

wine.com

The granddaddy of Internet wine sites, based in San Francisco.Wine.com has been around for a long time, as these things go, but we weren’t very happy with it for quite a while. It seemed balky, the choices were limited and the delivery was ragged. All of that has changed. Because wine.com says it follows all appropriate laws, its offerings are different state by state, and there are some places it can’t deliver wine at all. But the site itself is a pleasure to use, with a great deal of information easily presented. It’s very easy to order from — kind of an Amazon.com of wine — with detailed delivery information clearly presented before you hit the “buy” button. After your purchase, there’s even a prompt to print out winemaker notes for each wine you bought. And when the wines are delivered, the bottles come with stickers bearing the date, price paid and name of the wine, along with a neck ring for each bottle. Nice touches.

Michael Osborn, the company’s founder and vice president of merchandising, talks about “the power of being able to demystify wine. This is what we set out from day one to do.” He says in some ways this is easier online. For instance, if someone is searching for a wine made from the Grenache grape, the shopper might not know that in Sardinia the grape is called Cannonau, but it will show up in a sort. Others might not know that Cornas from France is made from Syrah, “so if you want to see a bottle of $75 Cornas, we will also show you an Australian Shiraz. It gives us the ability to have varietal different from appellation. These are things databases are good at doing. It’s a physical problem in the store.” He adds: “By demystifying wines, we tend to sell more interesting varietals. We allow customers to have a bit of an expedition. They get to travel in the glass, country to country.”

By the way, two weeks ago, wine.com began mapping wineries into Google maps, so shoppers can see where a wine was made. Click “map it” on the page showing a specific wine for sale. The project should be completed by the end of the month. “This really helps folks understand the places,” Mr. Osborn says. “Geography is a big part of wine. If you like this wine, it shares a fence line with this wine.”
Slow delivery. This is sometimes related to the phantom inventory issue because stores might be waiting to see if they can actually get a wine from the distributor, a warehouse, another store location or Mars. But the bottom line is that, too often, it takes a week or more for a wine to leave the store after it’s ordered. Most wine bought in America is purchased for immediate consumption; even getting people to take the leap to order online and wait a day or two is a stretch and if it’s going to take even longer — a week or more — forget it. That will leave online shopping only to wine geeks and serious collectors, and there aren’t enough of them to support a whole online industry. Much of the attraction of the Web, after all, is its immediacy.

Cluttered sites. Some sites that used to be pleasant now seem to be SHOUTING AT US FROM ALL DIRECTIONS. They have so much stuff on the home pages — videos, chats, Scotch, you name it — that we don’t know where to start. It’s like a wine store that was once nice to visit where the owner never could stop buying new bottles so now there are boxes everywhere — utter chaos — and no discernable system by which to locate anything.

Tedious “drill-down” menus. It appears to us that many wine stores now are buying off-the-rack Web sites designed by people who have never shopped at a wine store. Instead of giving us a feeling that we are browsing through a store, we have more of a sense that we’ve dialed into one of those endless voice mail prompts on the phone. “If you want red wine, press 1. If you want 2005 red wine, press 2.” This is not fun. Other search screens are simply antiseptic. When we’re searching, we want to get to the “virtual shelf” as soon as possible.

Web sites from another century. Some really fine stores out there haven’t spruced up their sites since dirt was invented. For instance, popswine.com and specsonline.com have fine selections of wine, but, heavens, those sites are a fright. We figure brownderby.com is supposed to look olde-fashioned, but it just looks olde, crammed with words but not enough pictures and graphics; it’s a good example of a site that actually has a great deal of thoughtful information but doesn’t feel comfortable, and much of wine shopping is about feel. If a Web site looks dusty, shoppers might worry that the store is, too.

Too many emails. A few years ago, some wine stores realized that if they sent customers an email blast saying something like “99-point Parker wine just arrived!” they could sell a lot of wine really fast. Now, some stores send us several emails every day — with an ever-increasing number of exclamation points!!! — cluttering our inboxes and making us agitated.

…And the Solutions Here are some simple things we wish every wine Web site would have:

Real inventory. Obviously, real-time inventory is best, but if there’s some reason that’s too expensive or complex, at least update the site every night. Don’t offer anything on the site that isn’t actually immediately available in your store or warehouse, or at least was available earlier that same day.

Clear shipping policies, on the home page. What states can you ship to? Incredibly, some stores have this nowhere on their site. We only find out they can’t ship to us when they call or email after we’ve ordered — or when we contact them after the wine never arrives.

Real reviews, from you. We like real people giving real reviews. We want your opinion because you’re on the hook for what you sell, just as we prefer to see handwritten signs in a wine shop instead of numbers and preprinted shelf-talkers from the distributor. We want to know what you think. If you are using a winery’s description of its wine, say so. Too many wine Web sites pretend that this self-promotional chest-beating is their own opinion, which is lazy and misleading.

Photos of the labels. We know this from our column: Shoppers really like to see the bottles. Pictures give a site the feeling of a wine store.

Vintage information. If your site is real-time or at least updated every day, this shouldn’t be a problem. But we’re amazed how many sites show one vintage of a wine but actually have another, or don’t even say what vintage it has. This is not just wine-geek stuff; anyone who is buying, say, a Pinot Grigio needs to know how young it is.

Regular updates. If you offer an e-newsletter, put a copy of that newsletter on your Web site. Have an active calendar of events, specials, news, interesting tidbits, staff bios. Web sites must seem lively.

Who runs the site, and where. This seems simple enough, but too many sites don’t give a clue where they are based or where their store is actually located. We like to know who’s getting our credit card number.

Overnight delivery. We advise our readers that if they order online, they should have expedited delivery, even when weather is good and certainly when weather isn’t so good. Many stores, to our surprise, don’t even offer shipping options. We have to order and then call to ask for overnight delivery. This is nuts. (And, after we’ve ordered, make it easy to track our order on the site. “In progress” or “fulfilled” mean — what exactly?)

Finally, we would urge even smaller stores that can’t deliver — either because of local laws or because they don’t have the resources — to create a vibrant, updated Web site. It’s interesting that one of the giants of online wine retailing, K&L Wine Merchants in California, says a large part of its online business is “will-call” — people who order online and then pick it up. These days, people do an awful lot of thinking, fantasizing and buying of wine during work hours. You want to make sure the site they’re looking at is yours.

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FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains both original and copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, health, business, wine and wine industry issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. If you are the copyright holder and feel that this use does not fit under the clause mentioned above, then please let us know and we will remove this from our site. Please consider that your material is cited or hyperlinked to you URL improving your site’s search engine rankings and your Internet presence. We appreciate link backs for this same reason. Thank you.

Lynn went out to the vineyard and picked grapes to add to the dish.  I highly recommend that you stop by a vineyard after harvest and ask the owners if you may pick some of the left over wine grapes.  Once picked, freeze the wine grapes for later use.

If you do not have wine grapes, please use red seedless grapes.  Wine Grapes do have seeds, so if using you will have to strain the Port reduction sauce to remove the seeds.

Enjoy! Look forward to hearing your comments!

Ingredients

Serves 10 to 12

• 7 ounces fresh goat cheese
• 2 ounces mild blue cheese, such as Gorgonzola dolce
• 1 4 or 5-inch wheel Brie, chilled
• 1 cup walnut halves, toasted and chopped, plus more for garnish
• 1 cup Eagles Nest Winery Cabernet Sauvignon ruby port
• 1/4 cup honey
• Fresh thyme
• 4 cups of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes OR 4 cups red seedless grapes, sliced into 1/4-inch pieces

Sentinel Photo/Maureen Robertson. From left: Ramona winemakers Dennis Grimes of Eagles Nest Winery and Shirley and John Schwaesdall of Schwaesdall Winery stand with the medals their wines received at the Temecula Wine Society Wine Competition 2009 Awards Presentation. Eagles Nest Winery received two gold medals and the Schwaesdalls received one gold medal an a silver medal.

Ramona Sentinel Business News October 8, 2009
Gold Medals went to only three San Diego County wines in the Temecula Wine Society Competition 2009 and they were all from Ramona Wineries.

The three golds went to two Ramona Wineries: Eagles Nest Winery and Schwaesdall Winery.

Dennis and Julie Grimes’ Eagles Nest Winery earned two gold medals, and John and Shirley Schwaesdall’s Schwaesdall Winery received one gold medal.

Schwaedsall Winery also won silver medal.

Earning gold medals were Eagles Nest’s 2007 Syrah Estate Ramona Valley and its 2007 Syrah South Coast and Schwaesdall’s Cabernet Sauvignon Non Vintage South Coast, Schwaesdall Winery’s silver medal was for its Merlot Non Vintage South Coast.

In addition to its Temecula awards, Eagles Nest wines have received accolades at national and international competitions. At the 2009 New York Finger Lakes International Wine Competition, Eagles Nest Winery received a silver medal for its 2007 Starboard Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Ruby Port dessert wine and two bronze medals one for its 2008 Estate Picpoul Blanc dessert wine and one for its 2008 Estate Reserve Viognier dessert wine.

An estimated 2550 wines from 543 wineries representing 13 countries 39 states and five Canadian provinces participated in the Finger Lakes competition.

At the 2009 National Women’s Wine Competition in Sonoma, Eagles Nest also received a bronze medal for its 2007 Starboard Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Port-styled dessert wines. The judges in that competition are among the top women in the U.S. wine industry,  said Dennis Grimes.

Grimes, a system engineer and program manager for the federal government, points to another Eagles Nest Winery achievement: “We’re No. 1 on Twitter wineries globally.”

“Because of the stalled county boutique winery ordinance, we have been forced to be creative in how we build our customer base and market our award-winning wines,” said Grimes, who stays abreast of Internet, FaceBook and blogs.

Several national and social medial experts have identified Eagles Nest Winery as a “Best practices model” for how wineries can integrate and use social medial to develop business and customer relationships, commented Grimes. The winery this summer passed the 7,100 Twitter followers mark.

Julie Grimes, a college professor has earned degrees in computer science and E-Commerce and teaches Internet technology and design. Dennis Grimes has earned information technology/system masters degrees.

They mesh their professional expertise with their business avocation and wine-making skills.

“I’m trained to look at whole different parts and my job is to make them link and work together,” said Dennis Grimes, who credits his wife with recognizing in the early 1990′s, “when the Internet was just getting going,” the value of retraining for the future.

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FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains both original and copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, health, business, wine and wine industry issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. If you are the copyright holder and feel that this use does not fit under the clause mentioned above, then please let us know and we will remove this from our site. Please consider that your material is cited or hyperlinked to you URL improving your site’s search engine rankings and your Internet presence. We appreciate link backs for this same reason. Thank you.

The battery acid hole and grime on the sleeve is a good touch n’est pas???

Dessert wines and Port-styled wines have their own special place for special occasions or special times of the day and are therefore worthy of a blog post and a call to step out of your comfort zone and revisit dessert wines.

Port-styled wines have a special place in Eagles’ Nest’s offerings and few wineries have the special techniques and knowledge to produce these specialized wines but that’s fine with us.

Next Valentines day (or any day you want to make special!) look at desert wine in a new light, and suggest something sweet to your sweetheart…

Dessert wines with their sticky, sweet, luscious, and ever so likable dessert-like character fit the bill.

Some suggested pairings:

Strawberries do best with a highly alcoholic and heady wine…

Orange Muscat a fortified wine:

Domestic – an Orange Muscat from California or globally a French Muscat de Beaumes de Venise is an excellent old world example.

Serve Orange Muscat as an aperitif or dessert; the wine is surprisingly versatile. Try it drizzled atop fresh fruit salad or with caramelized oranges. Another favorite with is this wine is angel food cake made with orange zest – cut the cake in half and lay down a layer of mandarin oranges previously soaked in the Orange Muscat. Add a layer of whipping cream in the middle. Finish with a drizzle of dark chocolate across the top.

Chocolate begs for Eagles Nest’s dark luscious young Ruby Port (Click here!) or dessert wine…

Domestic – Eagles Nest’s “Starboard Dessert Wine” (Port) a Cabernet Sauvignon based Port-styled wine or Quady Winery Elysium California Black Muscat Dessert Wine

Nuts or a crème brulee would go nicely with an older Tawny Port…

Tawny Ports or Port-styled wines are typically aged 7-10 years and have a golden, pleasantly nutty, oxidized character, (quite sherry like if you’re familiar with sherries) Tawnys are a mellow post dinner wine.

Please note that Tawnys do not have the color or fruit characteristics of younger White or Ruby Ports so if you are fond of these, a Tawny may not be for you. I can’t count the number of wine lovers who have exclaimed I don’t like Ports but I LOVE your Ruby Port!!!

Affordable Tawnys from Australia are suggested or you can go with an authentic classic from Portugal

Classic Apricots or Figs can be complemented with a sweet white dessert wine…

Such as a late Harvest Riesling or a good Sauterne or try one of Eagles Nest’s White Estate Port-styled varietals (Viognier or Picpoul Blanc).

Here’s a white, ruby and tawny side by side (Sandeman’s Winery)