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One of Sonoma Magazine’s Top 100 Wines

Sonoma Magazine Top 100 WinesSo exciting to see another accolade for our Estate 1856 Wines and recognition of our mission to grow great Cabernet Sauvignon in Dry Creek Valley…we believe our four clones of Cabernet plus special selections of Petit Verdot and Malbec create wines of great varietal character and intensity…cheers to our 2012 Duvall’s Prospect Bordeaux Blend!!

By |2017-05-19T21:03:38-07:00November 2nd, 2015|Wine Awards, Winemaking|Comments Off on One of Sonoma Magazine’s Top 100 Wines

Early Morning Zinfandel Harvest

It did take us three whole days to harvest the Zinfandel up on the Dry Creek Valley bench…we were happy that we were able to start really early at 4am while it was still dark and cool…and finish early in the morning giving us the rest of the day to organize and plan for the next harvest!

By |2022-01-20T11:42:00-08:00August 25th, 2015|Grapegrowing, Harvest|Comments Off on Early Morning Zinfandel Harvest

Estate 1856 Wines New Must Try Cult Wine!

How cool to make the number one wine (all sourced from Tzabaco Rancho Vineyards) on a new list of “10 MUST-TRY CULT WINES” from Karina Calayag of Exquise Magazine!

10 MUST-TRY CULT WINES AND WINES FOR THE ENTHUSIAST:

1.  2011 Cabernet Sauvignon Barrel Reserve, Dry Creek Valley, $42. Estate 1856

Tempting aromas of dark fruit merge with expressions of fine-grained oak. The velvety texture reveals rich layers of dark cherry, wild plum, blackberry, and mocha with a touch of spicy cedar and mineral essence. Elegant and stylish, with supple yet firm tannins and refined layers of oak notes, this Cabernet graces the palate with the finesse of a wine that deserves to be slowly sipped and savored as it lingers on the palate

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By |2017-05-19T21:03:38-07:00June 24th, 2014|Uncategorized, Wine Awards, Wine Tasting & Reviews, Winemaking|Comments Off on Estate 1856 Wines New Must Try Cult Wine!

Texas Roadtrip Hightlights Wines from Dry Creek Valley

 Nice Review by Andrew Chalk of CRAVEdfw of a Winegrowers of Dry Creek Valley roadtrip to Texas that our wine brand Estate 1856 participated in!

DryCreekValley_small

As well as Zinfandel, Dry Creek excels at Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc. These grape varieties were on show too. The variety of grapes is the product of the diverse terroir in the area. Although only about 16 miles long and two miles wide (anchored by lake Sonoma in the north and and Dry Creek and the Russian River in the south) there are three distinct territorial characters in Dry Creek Valley: the hillsides, benchland, and valley floor. Sauvignon Blanc thrives on the valley floor due to the mineral-rich sandy loam soil. Cabernet Sauvignon is especially suited to the benchlands, due to the clay loam that predominates. Zinfandel, with 2,400 of the 9,000 planted acres of vines, is grown on the hillsides where igneous, gravelly soils are found.

Estate 1856 may be a winery, it may be a skunkworks*, but their 55-case production 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon is all dark fruit, spices and 100% French oak. This wine is  97% cabernet Sauvignon……with the rest comprised of Petit Verdot. Likely to age for a decade.

Hopefully one result of their visit will be more retail distribution of their wines. If they are not findable, order direct from the winery web site. Dry Creek makes exceptional wines that will add considerably to your wine enjoyment.

*A skunkworks is a group of people who, in order to achieve unusual results, work on a project in a way that is outside the usual rules. A skunkworks is often a small team that assumes or is given responsibility for developing something in a short time with minimal management constraints. Typically, a skunkworks has a small number of members in order to reduce communications overhead. A skunkworks is sometimes used to spearhead a product design that thereafter will be developed according to the usual process. A skunkworks project may be secret. Definition provided by the online Urban Dictionary!

By |2017-05-19T21:03:38-07:00June 7th, 2014|Wine Tasting & Reviews|Comments Off on Texas Roadtrip Hightlights Wines from Dry Creek Valley

Pruning

The seemingly basic task of pruning is actually one of the most important – determining the yield, spacing, even the quality of the next vintage. Since November, our crew has been hard at work cutting back last year’s canes.

These are a few shots of our last Cabernet block (Clone 4) to get the shear treatment.

dormantsmallThe vines in their dormant stage. Once the leaves fall, pruning can get underway.


machineprunesmallWe prune in stages, first removing the top half of the canes, which sometimes involves wresting the canes off of the trellis wire.


BrianprunesmallBrian making the final cut.

By |2017-05-19T21:03:38-07:00January 20th, 2014|Grapegrowing|Comments Off on Pruning

2013 Sonoma County Harvest Fair – Red Sweepstakes Win!

HF Sweepstakes 2013
I am thrilled to share that our 2010 Bordeaux Blend won a DOUBLE GOLD medal, BEST OF CLASS and the RED WINE SWEEPSTAKES at the 2013 Sonoma County Harvest Fair. The award ceremony was this evening and we were so humbled to receive this industry recognition and honor. Our 2011 Bordeaux Blend also received a DOUBLE GOLD in the same category. I’m looking forward to pouring our wine during the Harvest Fair Gala next Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

By |2017-05-19T21:03:38-07:00September 28th, 2013|Winemaking|Comments Off on 2013 Sonoma County Harvest Fair – Red Sweepstakes Win!

September 2013 Fog

Fog over the vyd 9_10_13
Nice bit of summer fog this morning…especially after the weekend warm weather!

By |2017-05-19T21:03:38-07:00September 10th, 2013|Harvest|Comments Off on September 2013 Fog
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