Weeks 13-14
March 23, 2003 to April 5, 2003 

	Wednesday March 26, 2003
	I need to talk about something other than the war, but the action in Iraq is occupying a good amount of my thoughts. obviously, I am troubled by all the humans dying, but on to more happy events:  We are preparing for our upcoming open house this weekend. We will offer discounts on a few wines that I am actually trying out tonight. These wines are the 1999 Carignan, 2000 Pinot Noir and the 2000 Aca Modot. I have personally held these wines for myself. I have decided I have enough wine, and  that I can part with a few cases for this event. The 2000 Pinot was the most interesting since it was more like a cabernet to my tastes. The carignan was more fruit driven and the most surprising was the Aca Modot, because it had the most fruit and if anything had less dark flavors. I was happy with all three wines, so I would encourage you to stop by to taste this weekend.  Brendan has "stepped up", and found several possibilities for our wines through distributors in other States. We have been told we will be receiving a commitment for our wines to Indiana. As I have said we have decided to produce at least 4000 cases a year and would like to sell 5000 if Brendan can find a place for the wine.  Sabate has come through with an offer to buy most of our 97 and 98 wines in our library stock for about $14 a bottle. Pat and most of my friends feel I am being too easy. I don't agree. Remember Sabate had provided us with corks that some of us feel departs flavors that I do not recognize as part of my wine. Most people can not detect TCA which is what I am talking about, so maybe it isn't a big problem.  On April 1 we will be offering our 2003 pre-harvest futures. Look for an e-mail and post card announcing these wines starting at $12.50 for red varietals.  As usual I will be offering a new wine for 2003. I am very excited to announce that I will be buying grapes from a vineyard that produces wine grapes planted to many varietals, a true field blend. These vines are planted intermingled, harvested and fermented all at once, but unlike many field blends from the past 100 years, this field blend was created by Paul Bernier, the ultimate grape grower. Paul has created this Dry Creek blend of 75% Zinfandel, 10% Petite Sirah, 10% Carignan and 5% Mourvedre (Paul calls Mourvedre by the More common name in The States as Mataro) Paul is so prominent in my life in part because he was the first and only grapegrower or winemaker that I know who wears sandals in the vineyard as I do. Paul taught me 10 years ago that Tevas could withstand the heat, water and toil of the vineyard. It will be a great pleasure to work with him to produce a wine from this dry farmed fruit. Interesting, I did have the opportunity to produce wine from the first crop back in 2000. That fruit became part of our 2000 Neighbors' Zinfandel. The barrels were called Gringo back in November-December 2000 before blending in January 2001 into Neighbors' Zin.  Monday March 31, 2003 I am sure many of you are wondering how our three 2003 zinfandels will very in style. Most of you have become accustomed to our Estate Zin that has been produced for years. Also some of you will remember our Neighbors' Zinfandel from 1998 and 2000. The 1999 zinfandel was a combination of the Neighbors' Zin and our Estate. The 1999 Zin is my favorite zin I have produced, but I have a big following for my straight Estate Zin. This coming harvest for 2003, I have chose to make three zinfandels that will hopefully be be very different. I still plan on fermenting them all very hot as usual, but I plan on using very different oak for the three wines. The Bernier zin is a dry farmed field blend and should have great character and intensity. Since it is dry farmed I am guessing that it will be very structured (maybe tannic) and could be interesting with American oak. This Bernier vineyard was part of our 2000 Neighbors' Zin and I had chance to purchase this fruit again. The estate zin is very jammy with great forward fruit, possibly less structured than the Bernier and could lend to Hungarian oak (spicy). The "My Zin" is my baby, but will not be to the liking to all of you. I will use exclusively French oak that will be very tannic (I have found some interesting French Barrels). Also I will use some very tannic Petite Sirah from a vineyard on West Dry Creek Rd. I hope that will help some of you to decide which 2003 zin to order.
	Dave
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