We're honored that you want to know more about Match Vineyards. But selfishly, we look forward to hearing from you too. Tell us about your wine experiences. And if you have any specific questions or suggestions about what to include in our Vintner's Journal, send us those too.
For those of you not familiar with the blog format, recent entries can be seen below while archived older entries are available through the links at the right. Also note that blog pages have newer entries on top, so to read chronologically, start at the bottom.
October 13, 2007
Shipping season begins
The warm weather across the country over the last several weeks has delayed our decsision to ship to many areas. Wine is being shipped starting 10/15/07 to the Northeast, northern border states, Pacific NW, NorCal, and limited SoCal areas (with business address)
Posted by matchvineyards at October 13, 2007 09:16 AM
October 04, 2007
The 2007 growing season is over.
It's been the 3rd driest year on record. A particularly mild winter and spring got everything going early. Everyone was expecting early harvest and that proved to be true.
Baconbrook's crop was about what we expected: we harvested 6.3 tons on Sept 25th. Brix was ideal at just over 25. It is currently fermenting like a champ.
Butterdragon kept getting put off. Suddenly, although the vineyard still looked strong, we started seeing quite a bit of dehydration. Panic mode (which seems to be the norm in farming at harvest time) set in. We harvested the 3 rows of Merlot on Sept 29. We brought in .82 tons of Merlot. Cary lowered the estimate of how much Cab we would be bringing in to Rombauer from 9 tons to 7. (Unlike in the past where we sold a set number of tons or half of our grapes to our grape buyer, this year the buyer had designated rows which meant anything not on those rows would go to us.) On October 1st, we trucked over 13.45 tons of Cab!! The crew at Rombauer certainly gave us a ribbing how our 7 tons became almost 14! Oh well. It remains to be seen if all that will make it into the final Butterdragon blend. I can say that although the brix was 27, the fruit tasted really great; particularly striking wa the taste of the skins. If we can avoid a stuck fermentation, it will probably be some monster juice.
Posted by matchvineyards at October 04, 2007 06:36 PM
September 07, 2007
2004 Baconbrook released
Offer letters were mailed to past customers today. They will continue going out in waves until we're either sold out or all of the mailing list has been given the chance to purchase the inaugural release from our Baconbrook vineyard.
Posted by matchvineyards at September 07, 2007 09:13 AM
April 26, 2007
Details about Baconbrook Vineyard
If you've learned a bit about us, you probably know that Baconbrook is our "less than 3 acre vineyard" located in the Spring Mountain District. We just received updated info from our vineyard managers, Pina Vineyard Management and I thought this would be a nice time to provide some details to you.
Although we are located in the Spring Mountain District, the vineyard is not located up Spring Mountain Road. It is actually accessed by White Sulphur Springs Road and sits on a ridge looking out over the town of St. Helena from the west. Here are the coordinates according to Google Earth:
38°29'35.17"N
122°29'42.18"W
Sorry, the vineyard is not open to the public.
Here's the breakdown on what is there. Notice that the numbers add up to a lot less than 3 acres... actually just over 2.
| Block | Variety | Clone | Rootstock | Acres | Rows | Vines | Vines/Acre | Spacing | Planted | |
| 1A | Cab Sauv | 337 | 101-14 | .44 | 47 | 736 | 1675 | 6.5x4 | 2001 | |
| 1B | Cab Sauv | 337 | 101-14 | .47 | 36 | 789 | 1675 | 6.5x4 | 2001 | |
| 2A | Cab Sauv | 337 | 101-14 | .52 | 35 | 876 | 1675 | 6.5x4 | 2001 | |
| 2B | Cab Sauv | 337 | 101-14 | .60 | 32 | 1009 | 1675 | 6.5x4 | 2001 | |
| Totals | 2.04 | 150 | 3410 | |||||||
By the way, this post also proves that I still know how to handcode tables in HTML. Amazing.
Baconbrook's first release is coming this Fall with 140 cases of our 2004 Match Vineyards Baconbrook Cabernet Sauvignon.
Posted by matchvineyards at April 26, 2007 01:52 PM
April 25, 2007
New home wine cellar #1
Well, actually, we didn't do the building. But we are having it done. It is in our house down in the East Bay: a 1908 construction that we are just a few months away from finishing a major remodel on.
In earthquake country, the old brick foundation had to go. The whole house had to be supported while we dug out the unimproved basement. Ultimate plans for the basement included a downstairs rumpus room, utility room, guest room, wine cellar and tasting area, and storage.
Digging out that last corner for the wine cellar.
Framed out. The arch on the left will be a small closet. The arched doorway on the right will lead to the wine cellar.
Posted by matchvineyards at April 25, 2007 03:30 PM
March 28, 2007
Order Form back on website
I finally got around to putting an order form on the website again. I took the form off while we released and shipped to the mailing list.
375s and mags of the 2003 are just about gone but everything else is still in good supply.
If a past customer has misplaced their discounted order form (or ordered and wants more) they can use the form from our website and we'll apply their discount at "check out."
Posted by matchvineyards at March 28, 2007 12:15 AM
Budbreak 2007
Ahh, bud break.
It has happened at both vineyards though Butterdragon, as usual, is a tad bit further along. The shoots there are about 3/4 to 1 inch long. Just right to provide a tasty snack for deer who like the sweet, tender young shoots. Let's hope everyone remembers to close the gates.
Northern California is behind in rainfall though I don't think we're so short as it will cause problems later on. At least not for us and our wells. We'll see though.
After seeming like Spring had sprung, the temps have fallen again with unstable weather. Today has been like a regular "Winnie the Pooh blustery day." "They" say that snow levels are going down to 2000 feet. Won't affect us at our vineyards, but the temps in the Valley could dip down low enough to make some folks nervous, particularly since bud break has happened for most ranches. Generally, we don't have a lot of frost worries as the hillsides where our vineyards are located tend to stay above freezing. We keep our fingers crossed because, unlike Valley floor vineyards, we have no frost protection.
Posted by matchvineyards at March 28, 2007 12:00 AM
