Vino Noceto Newsletter - Fall 2006
November 18, 2006
Hello Noceto Friends!
As I look around at the beautiful fall colors, it brings home the fact that the holidays are upon us. The surrounding vineyards are absolutely gorgeous – contrasting yellows and golds, reds and browns! Our family still hasn’t settled on where to have Thanksgiving (I always offer to have it up here). I can’t understand why everyone wouldn’t run to their car for the 2-hour trip from the Bay Area to take in this beautiful countryside. Living in the country, I rejoice in the pleasure of doing absolutely nothing but enjoying the surroundings. Why wouldn’t everyone want to do the same?
It’s been awhile since we’ve sent out an e-newsletter, so enjoy!
Harvest Report
Crush Time Experiments
Other Happenings Around & About
What's Available Now?
What' On the Horizon?
Time for a Visit
Direct Shipping Update
How to Order Some Vino
What's On the Calendar?
The harvest is over, and the new wine is in the barrel. And, what a harvest it was! First, with the long winter rains and long, cool spring, we were sure that this would be a late harvest. The July heat spell slowed things down a bit more, if anything. From our 2005 experience, we were extra careful to control the crop size. By mid-August, sugars began to rise quickly, and before end of August, we picked one of our young vineyard sections. After a short lull in mid-September, we continued to bring in grapes through mid-October, with OGP Zinfandel and Barbera bringing up the rear. Both the numbers and the preliminary aesthetics are superb for almost all lots. This vintage Frivolo and Rosato are done and ready for bottling.
In November, we brought in a bumper crop of walnuts and sadly, a small olive crop – so, less than half the olive oil this year.
Things were different for this year’s crush at Vino Noceto. For the past many years, we’ve done a substantial business custom crushing for other wineries. This year we decided to reduce our custom crush business to concentrate on Vino Noceto wines. This allowed us the time to run several experiments.
Experiment I: More oak makes for less oak? We ran this experiment in 2000 on a small-scale by fermenting and aging a portion of our Dos Oakies Sangiovese in the same new oak puncheon. With the success of this experiment, we invested in a 1300 gallon oak tank from Italy. We were looking to purchase an additional oak tank. But, we reconsidered after a recent tasting, where our 2000 Dos Oakies “X” (experimental) proved to be our favorite when compared to its sibling which was made in a more conventional style. It seems we get more but gentler fruit and color extraction and stability with this approach. So, we took out the heads of our twelve new French oak puncheons and fermented almost 15% of our Sangiovese from our prime lots in puncheons. It will be interesting to follow the results. No surprise that early returns look promising.
Experiment II: Terroir differences in Sangiovese. We’ve looked beyond our own Shenandoah Valley grapes to discover the differences that terroir makes on Sangiovese. The 2006 vintage will bring you a Sangiovese from the Paso Robles viticultural region. We got three tons from Bob Goodwin in the hills east of San Miguel. Stacy Gregersen, our winemaker emeritus, made wine from his grapes when she was at Meridian. Several vintners, including her old boss, Chuck Ortman, have made quality Sangiovese from these grapes.
Experiment III: Port! We’ve made Port for others, but never for ourselves. It’s a labor of love & sleep deprivation – the guys park their RV in front of the winery and spend the night while constantly running tests so they can stop the fermentation at just the right moment. That’s a lot of dedication for a client! But, this year, we also did it for ourselves. You’ll have to wait awhile for the reward, but rumor has it that it’s tasting pretty darn good.
Experiment IV: Screwcaps or corks or synthetic corks? Over the past few years, we’ve experimented with synthetic corks to get a better closure for our Frivolo, Rosato, and Nutz! programs. This year we’re making the great leap to screwcaps! For the Frivolo, especially, this should provide the perfect closure to retain its spritz. Maybe this will end the phone calls from the market in Honolulu about Frivolo going flat on the shelf.
For 2007, we’ll look once again at exploring different growing regions, and we expect to continue the 180° Selection program where we experiment with alternative grape varieties.
Other Happenings Around & About
At the winery, Rusty and the crew deftly worked around the winery addition as it was being built. Nothing too thrilling – just more storage, something that every winery can’t have enough of.
And, in the ever-evolving, always changing tasting room, we’ve finally started our painting project – the south wall now has its first coat of Red Rock paint! Thank you to all who voted on your favorite color. Speaking of painting, our multi-talented tasting room staff have added their artistic touches – Dianna with her gorgeous artwork (you’ve got to see her Lady Marmellata before Tracy snaps it off the wall and into her house) and June with her hilarious bocce sign (which seems to be having the reverse effect of inviting kids to play in the “sand”). And, of course, Tracy just keeps on redecorating! Coming soon … Dianna’s Dos Oakies Bocce Team T-Shirt, inspired by Kevin’s brilliant humor!
In June we all welcomed Colton Folena to our winemaker’s family. Their first, he has already joined Bev in the Tasting Room and cost Rusty a little more sleep during harvest. Please join all of us in congratulating them on this life changing event!
With the recent release of our new 15th vintage of Noceto Sangiovese and two new grappas, we have a full line-up of fall wines, including:
2004 Nutz! Red Wine. We have but a few cases remaining of our light, easy-drinking red. Hurry if this is your favorite wine.
2004 Noceto Sangiovese. In October, we released the fifteenth vintage of our flagship Sangiovese. We find it wonderful, quite similar to the 2003 vintage, with Noceto’s typical forward, ripe, cranberry, cherry/berry fruit. Dan Berger, former wine editor of the LA Times, calls our Sangiovese “the best Chianti-styled Sangiovese in California.” At $16 per bottle, still a great value!
2003 Riserva. It is amazing to see how much this wine has developed over the last year. It now shows lovely, complex fruit, with hints of cedar and leather typical of a mature Sangiovese. Fabulous!
2003 Hillside Sangiovese. Again, only a few cases remain. A late-bloomer which is now showing its rich character.
2003 OGP Zinfandel is a fruit-packed bomb, with the typical, old-vine Foothill Zinfandel dust and spice showing through. It tastes great now, and is a wine that should age for years and years.
2003 Mistura. Our Portuguese blend of Alvarelhao, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Cao, Souzao, and a little Petite Sirah, is perfect for the fall and winter season. Tracy serves it with heavenly chocolate or the best (and only) Portuguese stew I’ve ever had.
Grappas: Sangiovese, OGP Zinfandel, & Moscato. Besides our Sangiovese grappa, we now have two new grappas – an OGP Zinfandel grappa and an aromatic Moscato grappa. While you can’t taste them in the Tasting Room, you may ask for a whiff. Maybe we’ll just have to bake up some of Michelle’s Chocolate Grappa cake!
Gift Packages: Just in time for the holidays, we have beautiful logo wooden boxes – a 3-pack box for up to three 750 ml bottles (and/or Vino Noceto wine or grappa glasses) and a box for our 3-liter bottles.
The next few months bring new wines and, we hope, a new batch of olive oil.
2006 Frivolo. Yes, FRIVOLO returns on December 15th. Our spritzy, refreshing, lower alcohol moscato finally returns after a 6-month absence. It’s perfect for the holidays and makes a great hot tub wine for these chilly nights.
2006 Rosato di Sangiovese. Our crisp yet sophisticated, just barely off-dry rosé of Sangiovese makes its debut in December along with the Frivolo. It’s a great wine for your holiday table, and it’s wonderful with spicy, ethnic foods.
2005 Nutz! Red Wine. Look for a January release of our light, easy-drinking red.
2004 Limited-Production Red Wines. We will be releasing TEN new limited-production reds in the spring including seven Sangioveses, two Zins, and a Barbera. If you want to taste them all, be sure to show up for Behind the Cellar Door in February or our Annual Open House in April, or come to both!
Olive Oil – one gone, another on the way. Wow! Were we ever surprised when our first olive oil release blew out the door. Of course, the olive oil was incredibly wonderful – pungent & rich. We were so happy with our first bottling that we are now planting an additional 130 trees, all of Italian heritage. This year’s harvest was very small, so look for a small offering in the next few months. It won’t last long.
Tracy, Kevin, Dianna, Angela and the rest of the crew welcome you to visit the Tasting Room. We continue to be open daily – weekdays 11-4 and weekends 11-5. If you can’t get up to Amador County, perhaps you can make it to one of our events listed on the calendar below. And, if you can’t do either, then give us a call and place an order! Order information follows.
We are now able to ship to several states, including Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana (new), Michigan (new), Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire (new), New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. We ship to Arizona via our distributor. If your state is not listed or if you want to check on your state’s current status, send us an email at vino@noceto.com. You’ll get a personal reply.
Give us a call (209.245-6556 or 877-4NOCETO), drop us an email (vino@noceto.com), fax us your order form (209.245-3446), or send in your order form (11011 Shenandoah Rd., Plymouth, CA 95669). For an order form and description of our current wines, go to our website at www.noceto.com and open the order form attachment.
Friday, December 15, Frivolo Returns! We’re sure to see plenty of bubbly smiles as we release our ninth Frivolo offering. Should we throw a party next year for our tenth release?
Saturday/Sunday, February 10-11, Behind the Cellar Door. Our favorite event of the year, Amador Vintners Behind the Cellar Door, features Vino Noceto and about 30 other Amador County wineries for a winter weekend of barrel-tasting, fabulous wine, great food, enter- taining and informative seminars, and fun! At Vino Noceto, we’ll host our traditional late Saturday afternoon grappa, desserts, and coffee. Jim still hasn’t told me what our seminar will be. Saturday evening features a gourmet Cellar Door Cellar Feast at Montevina Winery, hosted by local winemakers and accompanied by an array of outstanding Amador County wines. Tickets are by advance sale, sales starting in December. Go to www.amadorwine.com for tickets and more information. We hope you’ll stay the weekend – make your reservation early at one of our lovely B&B’s (www.amadorinns.com).
Saturday, April 21, Annual Vino Noceto Open House. For those who like to plan in advance, mark your calendar for our Annual Open House, featuring the official release of TEN new limited-production wines (seven Sangioveses, two Zins, and Barbera), a fabulous lunch, great music (we hope for the return of The Esquires), and great discounts!
Plus all kinds of Winetastings …
Saturday, November 30, Best of Sacramento Winetasting, Sacramento
Saturday, January 27, Make-a-Wish Tasting, Sacramento
Saturday, January 27, ZAP Festival, San Francisco
Thursday, February 1, Sierra Foothill Winetasting, Scottsdale Culinary Institute
… and there’s sure to be more!
Be sure to check out Other Local Offerings, including …
Amador Vintage Market’s Dinner with Class (www.amadorvintagemarket.com)
Taste Restaurant in Plymouth, the newest meal in town (www.restauranttaste.com)
Main Street Theatre Works (www.mstw.org)
Also, check out these long-time Amador County Restaurants who have recently changed ownership …
Imperial Hotel in Amador City (www.imperialamador.com)
St. George Hotel in Volcano (www.stgeorgehotel.com)
Bellotti’s Ristorante in Sutter Creek (www.bellottis.com)
Caffe Via d’Oro in Sutter Creek (www.cafeviadoro.com)
Hope to see you soon!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Suzy & Jim Gullett
Vino Noceto
vino@noceto.com
www.noceto.com
11011 Shenandoah Road Plymouth, CA 95669
209-245-6556 or toll-free 209-4NOCETO
209-245-3446 fax