2011 Paso Robles Rhone Rangers Experience

2011 Paso Robles Rhone Rangers Experience
Vina Robles Winery & Event Center
Sunday, February 20th, 2011
Seminar and Luncheon 10:30 AM to 1:00 PM
Grand Tasting and Silent Auction 1:30 PM to 3:30 PM
...
Join the 35+ members of the Paso Robles Chapter of the Rhone Rangers for a day in Paso Robles Wine Country with some of America’s leading producers of Rhone varietals as we explore what makes Paso Robles so ideal for these great grapes and wines. This fun-filled and information-rich day will include:

- "Rhone Essentials" Seminar, moderated by noted Rhone expert and Wine & Spirits Senior Correspondent Patrick Comiskey.
- Vintners' Lunch, hosted by Rhone Rangers principals and winemakers
- Grand Tasting, featuring wines from the complete membership of the Paso Robles Rhone Rangers.
- Silent Auction, to support the Rhone Rangers scholarship fund!

Tickets to the seminar and lunch are just $75, and seminar/lunch attendees will receive free entry into the walk-around tasting. Tickets for the Grand Tasting are just $25. The Grand Tasting is free to qualified trade and media (advance registration is required).

For more information about the day's events, visit http://www.rhonerangers.org/calendar/paso_experience.php

To buy tickets, visit http://arestravel.com/4242_attraction-tickets_a889.html

Constellation Wines.... is the mighty beginning to fall?

Constellation Wines U.S. will be closing the Blackstone production facility and tasting room in Kenwood, California on March 1, having already moved production of Blackstone’s reserve and vineyard designated wines to the  Ravenswood Quarry facility in Sonoma for the 2010 crush.

Employees were notified Tuesday that the facility and tasting room would be closing.

Cheers

Tim

Valentine and Wine

Valentine and Wine

A three-day wine passport event in Ventura County

Come explore the wineries of Ventura County

$45 includes tasting of the wines from the 12 Ventura County Wineries along with food pairings.

http://www.valentinenwine.com/

Cheers-

Tim

33rd annual Barrel Tasting along the Wine Road

Join us as we celebrate the 33rd annual Barrel Tasting along the Wine Road - Northern Sonoma County 100+ Wineries!

March 5/6 2011

Hotel:
Courtyard Santa Rosa
175 Railroad Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401

Flights:
Southwest Airlines
March 5, 2011, Flight 599
Leave Burbank at 7:10am, arrive Oakland 8:20am

March 6, 2011, Flight 2604
Leave Oakland at 7:30 pm, Arrive Burbank 8:35 pm

We will be renting a large van to transport us to the wineries each day. The cost of this is dependent upon how many people attend. (Last year it was about $40 per person)

Contact Tim and let him know if you can make it!

Tickets on sale January 24, 2011 $20 per person

http://www.wineroad.com/annualevents/3

Justin Vineyards is sold!

 Fiji Water LLC will acquire Justin Vineyards & Winery in Paso Robles, California, for an undisclosed price, adding upscale wine to his investments in bottled water and pomegranate juice.

Justin, which makes about 50,000 cases of wine a year, was founded in 1981 by former investment banker Justin Baldwin and his wife, Deborah. The 160-acre property includes a hotel and a restaurant.

“It’s actually a perfect match,” said John Cochran, president of Fiji Water, in an interview. “The Justin folks have done an exceptional job of building a great business, primarily based on fantastic products. And despite all the success that they’ve had, there’s still a great opportunity, given consumer demand for the product, to carefully grow that consumer presence and distribution.”

The acquisition is one of eight this year for California wineries, twice as many as last year and the most since 2007, when eight purchases were completed before the recession, according to the San Francisco-based Wine Institute.

“There will be more deals like this, without question,” said Jack Daniels, co-founder of Wilson Daniels Ltd., a wine marketing firm in St. Helena.

Before the recession, the market was flooded with bottles priced from $25 to $100 as existing wineries ramped up production and new entrants came to the market, Daniels said. Now many are sitting on excess inventories as middle-class consumers cut back purchases of pricey wine and opt for bottles below $20.

‘Excellent Reputation’

Justin, which sells wines ranging from a $15 sauvignon blanc to a $62 cabernet sauvignon blend called Isosceles, has “an excellent reputation and are perceived as a high-quality producer,” Daniels said. “But there’s a lot of those wineries out there today.”

What makes the deal for Justin unusual is that the company doesn’t appear to be in trouble, unlike many other purchases this year, said Vic Motto, co-founder and chief executive officer of Global Wine Partners LLC, an investment bank in St. Helena, California.

“It’s an outlier,” Motto said. Since the economic slump, expanding wineries have been reluctant to sell for a discount, and those that have are in distressed situations, he said. “Those wineries that were highly leveraged were squeezed as sales went down. They just couldn’t sustain that.”

This year’s wine deals included purchases of troubled assets. In June, Sutter Home Winery paid $6.5 million for the real estate of former Havens Wine Cellars, which was liquidated last year. Last month, Foley Family Wines picked up Eos Winery in Paso Robles, which was in receivership.

During the recession, consumers drank less in restaurants, hurting producers who relied on sales of bottles that cost more than $10. California wholesale wine sales were unchanged in 2009 from the previous year, and the value of retail sales dropped 3 percent to $17.9 billion, the Wine Institute said.

The situation is different with Justin, Baldwin said. “We’re finishing up the best year we’ve ever had,” he said. Part of the reason he decided to sell is for financial planning, Baldwin said. He was also concerned that to “build off of what we’ve developed in our 30-year history,” they wouldn’t have “the financial wherewithal” to do that on their own.

 “They’ve done such a nice job of building up a business, most of the things you look at are such a train wreck,” Cochran said. “Stewart’s been buying businesses for 40 years, and it’s rare that he’s looked at one that got better as the process went on, not worse.” 

Cheers-

Tim

WHAT IS THE WINE CENTURY CLUB?

The Wine Century Club is for all adventurous wine lovers. If you've tasted at least 100 different grape varieties, you're qualified to become a member (click here for more information). If you haven't tried 100 different grape varieties, but are interested in the concept, you're welcome to all of our events. 

http://www.winecentury.com/

Cheers

Tim

Happy 3rd Thursday of November (aka Beaujolais Nouveau day)

At one past midnight on the third Thursday of each November, from little villages and towns like Romanèche-Thorins, over a million cases of Beaujolais Nouveau begin their journey through a sleeping France to Paris for immediate shipment to all parts of the world.

By the time it is over, over 65 million bottles, nearly half of the region's total annual production will be distributed and drunk around the world. It has become a worldwide race to be the first to serve to this new wine of the harvest. In doing so, it has been carried by motorcycle, balloon, truck, helicopter, Concorde jet, elephant, runners and rickshaws to get it to its final destination.

It is amazing to realize that just weeks before this wine was a cluster of grapes in a grower’s vineyard. But by an expeditious harvest, a rapid fermentation, and a speedy bottling, all is ready at the midnight hour. By French law, Beaujolais Nouveau is to be released no earlier than the third Thursday of November.

Gamay is the only grape permitted for Beaujolais. While certain California wineries may label their wine "Gamay Beaujolais" this is not the same grape variety as what is grown in France, and is quite different in taste and growing habits. All the grapes in the Beaujolais region must be picked by hand.

Beaujolais Nouveau is meant to be drunk young-in average vintages it should be consumed by the following May after its release.

Serve Beaujolais Nouveau slightly cool, at about 55 degrees Fahrenheit-the wine is more refreshing and its forward fruit more apparent than if you serve it at room temperature.

Enjoy a glass of Beaujolais Nouveau tonight, but don’t blame me for the hangover in the morning.

Cheers-

Tim