BAM!

Morning Ya'll,

       It has been another busy week both on the farm and off!  There have been lots of events going on different parts of the Island.  Many of us have been traveling to show off the great wines that we have to offer.  I attended Brooklyn Uncorked this week at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).  This event showcases Long Islandwines to the folks in Brooklyn.  Long Island continues to peak interest for many Brooklyn-ites.  There is a great sense of awareness in regards to the importance of LOCAL wines, not to mention the importance of tattoos and piercings!       
       The 2008 Riesling and Gewurztraminer were huge hits.  People were really enjoying the intense flavors and aromas of these wines.  The 2008 Sauvignon Blanc has also been grabbing peoples attention.  This is not out yet in the tasting room, but will makes its appearance soon.  
      Once again our new screw caps did not receive a single negative comment.  In fact I had several positive comments regarding our conversion.  Additionally, I had multiple positive comments regarding our labels.  Our labels are eye catching and are loved by many!  
      Another webisode of the JuanMaker was filmed this week and is available for viewing at:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnIlld4lU6o .  Please check it out!  I have been receiving lots of positive comments from people in the industry.  Please let people in the tasting room know to check us out on youtube.com as well as friending us on Facebook and MySpace! 
      Lastly, the vineyard has slowed down in pace a little bit as the temperatures have cooled.  It is very early in the season so this does not have any serious season long consequences.  Granted we would prefer more heat and more sun, but it is so early in the season.  Growth looks good in the vineyard and it seems that we have had a pretty good bud break.  The winter was a cold one and it appears that we were relatively unscathed by Old Man Winter.  The crew continues to peck away at various things. 
      In any event if you have questions...ask them, otherwise I shall talk with ya'll soon!

The Tide Has Turned

Morning Ya'll,

      Well, this week has just rocketed by!  Between bud break in the vineyard, tasting's/events in Manhattan, new labels for approval, meeting with miscellaneous sales people, etc. it has been busy!  Things are moving along well in the vineyard.  Bud break has happened earlier than it has ever happened before and just like I said last week the full dandelion bloom coincided with bud break.  Dandelions are the nemesis to many, but the vineyard does look beautiful when the dandelions are in flower!  
      I attended a trade tasting in Manhattan on Monday and it went very well.  The tasting was largely attended by trade and wine writers.  The reception to the wines was very favorable and the only comment that I heard about our screw caps were positive ones.  It is great to see the trade and wine writers embracing screw caps.  They are well aware of the benefits that these have for wine.  The folks that I encountered on Tuesday night at a tasting whom were largely Manhattan twenty and thirty-something's also embraced the screw caps.  It is wonderful to see that the tide has largely turned.
     This weekend I will be attending a gathering of wine bloggers at another winery on Saturday.  It will be interesting to meet many of these people that are blazing the way of the wine world.  While the old stand-by's in print media continue to chug along, it is the medium of the web that is reaching the most people.  We are making large attempts to get ourselves more viewable on the web.  Please let our customers in the tasting room know that they may follow us on MySpace, Facebook andTwitter.  
      During the course of the past week I received many comments on the JuanMaker.  It is was interesting to see the response.  We again are paving the way in a new quirky format of tasting notes via the web.  I really want to deconstruct what has been the tradition of the tasting notes and merge them with the odd-vertising has been all around us in the past couple of years.  It seems to have struck a chord with many and I look forward to creating more of these.  So, keep on passing the word about the JuanMaker (tell them to got to youtube.com and type in juanmaker as one word)! 

What Penguin???

Morning Ya'll,

      Well, Spring showers certainly showed themselves over the past several days.  We received lots of rain and signs of spring are all around.  The vineyard is all but complete with tying and will be done very soon in duetime for bud break.  The next step in the vineyard will be bringing the wires back down in preparation of the new growth in 2009.
      The warm weather that will be coming over the next several days will promise to push bud swell and I would not be surprised to see some bud break around the vineyard.  I have noticed over the past several years that bud break coincides with the big bloom of the dandelions.  I was in the vineyard yesterday with Jim and we noticed sprouting of dandelions here and there.  The vineyard is truly beautiful when the dandelions are in full bloom.  
      Shortly I will be going with Rudy to conduct a tasting with our new distributor.  It is never to early to drink wine as it is always noon somewhere in the world!  We are scheduled to have our meeting/tasting at 6:45AM!  
      Matt and I have been busy developing our new wine tasting note campaign.  We have developed an "odd-fer-mercial" of sorts.  The JuanMaker is the new character that we have developed.  There have been many likeness's used to describe the Juan Maker, but ultimately it is an opportunity to have fun with wine tasting notes.  We want to make them more interactive and have fun at the same time.  If we can get a chuckle out of people and/or get people scratching there heads, we have succeeded.  So please check out the following link to youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWLqhpVsXhI  Please feel free to share this with friends, family, or any goats you may know!  Pass on the fun!  There will be more of the JuanMaker in the future.  So, keep an eye out for further adventures of the JuanMaker!  Please also let guests at the tasting room know about the JuanMaker.  The best way to get updates is to follow the JuanMaker on Twitter, Facebook on Martha Clara's page as well as the JuanMakers page.  We will also be posting this on our MySpace page as well!

Sir Lee

Morning Ya'll,

Well, things at the winery have been picking up. We have been receiving packaging for our 2008 wines. Once the 2008 white wines go into bottle the much anticipated 2007 Reds will not be far behind. Both the 2008 Whites and 2007 Reds are tasting really nice and I am excited about seeing these go to bottle.

We will be "racking" (winemaker for saying, "coming out of barrel") the 2008 Estate Reserve Chardonnay. The barrels will be cleaned and the wine will return to barrel for several more months.20 This wine was fermented in barrel and will spend a total of 9 months in barrel before going to bottle. Half of the barrels were fermented with added yeast and the other half was fermented with natural yeast. After the fermentation the yeast was allowed to remain in contact with the wine. We call this extended contact sur lie (pronounced - sir lee) aging. It is a common technique used in Burgundian chardonnay.

When we age sur lie we develop a slight creaminess and nuttiness. What occurs over time is yeast break down releasing different aroma and flavor compounds. This results in increased complexity of our Estate Reserve Chardonnay and main line Chardonnay.

Our main line Chardonnay is aged sur lie for four months, but we ferment in tank rather than in barrel. We obtain nuttiness and creaminess along with the freshness and crispness that a tank ferment yields. Whether it be in tank or barrel I feel that Chardonnay is a varietal that benefits from sur lie aging.

I want to welcome James Thompson onto the Martha Clara team. Jim will serve as vineyard manager on the farm and brings a wealth of management experience. Many people have had the opportunity to meet him. We welcome Jim to the team and look forward to many great growing seasons!

Cheers,
Juan

Bigger is Better

Morning Ya'll,

It was a busy week on the farm, winery, and warehouse. The 2008 wines continue their procession into bottle. When the wines are bottled they are transported from the winery to the warehouse. Dan the Man had a small mishap on his way to the warehouse this week. A strap came loose and cases shifted! In the end a few cases were broken. At the time things looked worse than they were. These things do unfortunately happen and when you move thousands of cases like Dan does a few cases of breakage is small potatoes. The breakage happened in our 2008 GE White. For a small time it looked as if we set-up a U-Pick Wine on the corner of Northville Turnpike and Sound Ave.

During this mishap a very kind woman stopped by with her children and offered to help. In addition she gave us several pairs of gloves that she had just recently purchased to use in the clean-up. While many people just rubber neck and gawk it is nice to know that there are still people in the world that are willing to help. It was an incredible gesture and I really do thank that woman and her family! Thanks!

A bunch of us at the winery have decided to become even more connected to the "Matrix". There are several new Blackberry's on the farm. I was the recipient of a new Blackberry Storm. I really think they designed these things for Hobbits as I cannot manage to touch correct key on the touch pad of this device. Everything is so small! I am old fashioned, but bigger is better. I guess I need one of those Honey I Shrunk the Kids devices to make myself smaller when I am using this thing. I hope it gets better, but I know what my parents felt like when they first tried Atari or Nintendo!

The main purpose of these new devices is to update web sites like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. I will spend more time attempting to figure these sites out and I will be bringing lots of photos and quips about things going on in the vineyard and winery. So, please let customers know to check us out on these websites as well sign up to be friends. Well, that is the news for now. I hope all is well, and a Happy Easter to all!!

Cheers,
Juan

Whole Lot of Bottling Going On!

Morning Ya'll,

Well, it seems that this year March was in like a lion and out like a lamb. April seems to have brought along its showers in 2009. I am hopeful that we will see a spring this year. I can honestly remember as a child having nice springs, where as in recent years it seems a light switch signals Winters' end and Summers' beginning.

In the vineyard the task of brush pulling and chopping continues. Jim has been taking more soil samples and ordered what will be the first soil additions made this year. We will be making many additions throughout the growing season. Our philosophy is to grow healthy well fed vines that in turn will have less susceptibility to vineyard pests.

The winery has been a buzz with lots of bottling going on. We have bottled the following 2008 wines: Rose', Riesling, Gewurtz, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, and Chardonnay. The screw capper has been working well and I am quite happy about the move we are making. During the day today I will prepare a little informational sheet about screw caps similar to the one that I created when we released Sabor. I know there will be many questions and if there is something you are unsure about please let me know. There will be many questions and thoughts from our customers. The main one will be, "What about the romance?" My answer to this is "If you need the cork for romance there are other issues going on..."

The main reason we are making this move is quality. I will explain more in my informational sheet. I will also send it via email so those of us that are unable to make it to the tasting room to read it.

I also want to mention to everyone that Martha Clara Vineyards is on Facebook and I will begin a Twitter account as soon as I get a new phone. This will hopefully happen in the next few days. So please have customers check us out on Facebook and Twitter. We will be offering special discounts on these two social networks.

Lastly, we will be offering a special flight of 2007 Reds in the tasting room for the month of May. Right now we are scheduled to be tasting the following wines: Syrah, Merlot, and Malbec. The Syrah and Merlot will have a futures discount available and the Malbec is the only sneek peek non-wine club members will have of this wine. The Malbec will only be a production of about 145 cases and will not be made in 2008. As I have mentioned before I will be making wines for the Wine Club Members only and this will be the first off the line. Talk with ya'll soon!

Cheers,
Juan

Here's to Health, Happiness, and All Things Screwy...

Morning Ya'll,

Well, things have been a bit SCREWY at the winery in the past week. The 2008 Riesling, Gewurtz, and Rose' have been bottled. The most exciting news of all for me was the fact that these wines went in under screw cap. I am very excited about these wines being released. We will be holding off on release of the Riesling and Gewurtz until mid-April. The rose' will be immediately available and you will see the new screw capped version soon. I welcome any questions about screw caps. I have written about this in past emails and I recommend re-reading some of these. Check out my blog on our website for more info. If you have any questions that I have not addressed PLEASE let me know! I want to provide as much information to all of you as we make this transition. I want us to be well prepared for all of the questions that you may receive in the tasting room as well at off-premise tasting's. I will prepare an informational sheet regarding screw caps.

Jim and the guys in the vineyard have been quite busy. As each day passes more brush is being pulled and chopped. The chopping of the brush allows nutrients to be returned to the soil. Jim has been looking quite intently at the soil at Martha Clara. Along with the help of a local soil guy Jim is developing a program that will get us on the road to healthy and happy vines. Healthy and Happy vines yield yummy fruit and yummy fruit yields awesome wine!

I received handful of medals for wines that were submitted to Appellation America. We received Double Gold for the following wines: 2007 Pinot Grigio, 2007 Riesling, 2007 Chardonnay, and 2007 Estate Reserve Chardonnay. We received gold for 2007 Viognier and 2007 Gewurtz. The best thing about the Chardonnay awards is that these were awarded for the Best of Appellation category. This means that these wines define the quality and character of the region. While some of these wines are sold out the 2008 vintage of these wines were made in similar to identical style. So I expect these wines to sell out even faster as the buzz gets around about the great things going on at Martha Clara Vineyards. Well that's it for now, but please email me any questions that you may have.

Cheers,
Juan.