Morning Ya'll,
It certainly is a windy and dreary morning on the North Fork. Things are moving along nicely in the vineyard as the vines are all netted and the guys have been spending the past week cutting what I like to call "Greenies". These are the clusters that are the late bloomers. Okay, what do I mean? Well, when the red wine grapes turn from green to red this is called veraison. However, this process in not like a light switch being turned on. Some clusters start veraison earlier than others, why? This is a question that is still not fully clear to professionals in the wine industry. The fact of the matter is that when we get to around 75-80% Veraison you can clearly see the clusters that are ahead and those that are behind. The guys will go through the vineyard and cut the "late bloomers/greenies" from the vine. In a week or so we would not be able to discern which was ahead or which was behind. This small amount of effort can make huge differences in the quality of our wines. Typically this decision is an easy one to make, but in a year like this in which yields are already so low it means that we are purposely reducing the crop again. This is a quality minded decision, rather than a quantity minded decision. Not all vineyards/wineries make this effort, but in the long run it is the best for wine .
Marth Clara Wines will be on the move and headed South for the Winter. We have been recently working with a new distributor in Florida called Tag Wine Group. Should any "snow birds" come into the tasting room please let them know that we can get wines to Florida! This is pretty exciting as Florida has such a large concentration of people from New York. I like to call Florida... South New York. Please send people to tagwinegroup.com. Some of the 2007 Reds are starting to hit the shelves. The three that are out are the Pinot Noir, Merlot, and Syrah. I am very excited about these three and we will continue to see more of the 2007's released down the line. These wines will be sure to turn heads in the wine industry both for wine quality and the fun new packaging that we have selected. These wines will also have incredible longevity, and will certainly benefit from years of aging. One of the wines that I am most excited about is the 2007 Malbec. It is stunning and it is for wine club members only! We will NOT be making this in 2008 and 2009. The next chance we have at this is 2010. The next time this wine could be available for sale is 2013. That is a long time, so this wine is truly special and limited. In any event that is the news for now, stay dry!
Cheers,
- Juan.
