Dear Friends of the Vineyard and Wine Lovers,

Heading into the 10th Anniversary vintage of our Rattlesnake Rock Syrah, we are delighted to be offering you a trio of estate grown wines from the wonderful 2008 vintage. These include the Frenchies Ranch Syrah, the Rattlesnake Rock Syrah and a first time release - the Grizzly Grenache/Syrah. 2008 was a drought year with very dry spring which resulted in low yields with small berries. The wines are brimming with intense fruit and ripe supple tannins. While the reviews have been excellent on these wines, even greater excitement has been expressed by others including our own staff, sommeliers and some of you who have been at tastings where we previewed them. Unfortunately, we don't have many bottles of these wines available. At 145 cases, we made less 2008 Rattlesnake Rock than we did in our inaugural 2002 vintage. We made only 70 cases of Frenchies Ranch and merely 34 cases of the Grizzly. Needless to say, this is a release where it pays to be on our mailing list as little to none of these wines will be available anywhere else...

We are also excited to be offering our favorite Pinots from the classic 2009 vintage - the Woodruff Family Vineyard Pinot Noir and the Alfaro Family Vineyard Pinot Noir. Both vineyards are located in the cool, sandy hills of Corralitos at the south end of the Santa Cruz Mountains just miles from Monterey Bay. But don't take our word for it, both of these Pinots were among the highest scoring California Pinots this past year in Robert Parker Jr's Wine Advocate and Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar (read the reviews). Notably, the critics for both publications, Antonio Galloni and Josh Raynolds respectively, are known for having more 'European' palates that favor balance over power and complexity over the obvious. However, it is your palate that counts, so we encourage you to try these Pinots for yourself. And given that warm spring days are just around the corner, we are also releasing our 2011 GSM Rosé. Order soon for best selection, and read on to learn about our take on Natural Winemaking. And hopefully you can join us at one of the many events that we are hosting or participating in this winter and spring.

Transparency in Winemaking AKA Letting the Vineyard & Vintage Speak
A controversial and buzzworthy topic of late in the wine press is that of "Natural Winemaking". Extremist proponents claim that natural wines should be made without adding or taking anything away from the grapes. "Anything" in this case includes: heat, water, juice from the grapes, sulfur dioxide, nutrients and acid in addition to more overt manipulations such as tannins, enzymes, grape concentrates (this is why some Pinot is purple!), fining agents, sterile filtration, cultured yeasts, cultured bacteria, de-alc processes and other crazy addititives. The topic has gained attention because many people do not realize just how heavily manipulated many wines are and what can be added or done to them without having to tell anyone. The idea held by the more extreme proponents of Natural Winemaking that "anything" taken away or added is wrong and that wine should be made as they did in Roman times is in my mind missing the point. While too much added or subtracted is not a good thing, it is called "winemaking" for a reason - you take grapes and provide the best environment possible to convert them into wine.

Most of us agree that the reason to utilize natural winemaking techniques is to preserve the nuances of the grapes and the vineyard they came from. However, I believe some natural winemaking propopents have gone too far in their definition of "anything" such that in all but the exceptional cases the wine produced would actually show less vineyard character and more of the funky, unbalanced and even unpalatable results of fermentations run amok and/or less than perfect harvest weather or harvest decisions. Ever wonder why so many "organic wines" taste like plonk and give the category a bad name? Well, they should be called "Sulfite Free" wines so that those with sulfite sensitivities could have a place to go. However, in most cases, not adding any sulfite (SO2) to wine to stablize it results in bad microbes taking over the wine and producing offputting and sometimes very unhealthy by-products that taint the wine. That's right, "organic wine" is in some cases actually worse for you! So, not being able to add a small, undetectable amount of sulfite to a wine will often result in a wine that says more about the microbes growing in it (or that grew in it) than the vineyard it came from! The label "Wine made from organically grown grapes" is an entirely different thing and one which we wholeheartedly endorse as it promotes a healthy and expressive vineyard - in fact, we expect to get our organic certification from CCOF in the near future.
Sorting and destemming grapes during the 2011 harvest. Some might consider removing shot berries and earwigs with the shaker table 'unnatural'.
Let's get back to the point: we want to create a wine that is the best and most wonderful, transparent reflection of the vineyard it came from. We want to be able to discern the nuances of the fruit, the beautiful aromatics, the effects of the soils and micro-climate such that there is no mistaking a Syrah that comes from Rattlesnake Rock, or a Pinot from Woodruff Family Vineyard. And we want a wine that lingers on the palate, with texture and mouthfeel, a wine that compells us to ponder its beauty. Frankly, Roman-era winemaking techniques will rarely allow you to achieve these sublime goals.

At the other end of the spectrum, heavy handed manipulation will obscure the beauty and vineyard character of the grapes. Finishing tannins may give some wines better texture, but they will also make every wine that includes them taste the same. Syrah concentrate might give that Pinot the extra richness and deep color that gets some people excited, but it will make all Pinots with it taste more alike and mask the beautiful delecate aromatics, flavors and texture that can make Pinot great. Sterile filtration might eliminate the microbes that result from sloppy winemaking, but it also strips the wine of textural and flavor elements that make a wine exceptional. The addition of cultured yeast, and necessary addition of SO2 (sulfur dioxide) prior to adding it to kill any native yeast, changes the whole character of the fermentation and reduces the complexity of the finished wine. This in itself is a controversial topic that is much too technical, but suffice it to say that producing wine with native yeast that come in on the grapes produces more complex wines with greater mouthfeel than wines produced with cultured yeast, i.e., wines that will be more transparent to the vineyard.

Hopefully you can see where we are going...use technology and natural methods that promote healthy ferementations and balanced wines which transparently evoke the beauty and nuance of the fruit and vineyards it came from and avoid those techniques and addititives that homogenize and mask the beauty and nuance of the wines. This explains why we carefully select our vineyards, farm them organically, pick them when the flavors are peaking (but not overripe!) and carefully sort them before fermentation such that heavy handed manipulations are not required. It also explains why we favor a clean and optimized fermentation environment using temperature control to cool the grapes to the appropriate temperature for cold soaking (if necessary), and to heat them back up to a temperature where they can begin fermenting spontaneously using only the native yeast on the grapes without the wrong microbes taking over. It also explains why we are not opposed to the calculated use of nutrients to ensure a healthy fermentation (one that goes dry and does not produce bad smelling sulfides) with grapes that come from nutrient deficient vineyards (read: steep mountain hillsides that produce awesome grapes). We use a combination of temperature controlled barrel storage (55 degrees) plus the minimal use of SO2 after secondary fermentation is completed to stablize the wine and preserve all it has to offer. And lastly, we favor the use of French oak barrels from carefully selected forests and coopers that amplify the beauty of the wine and remain transparent to the nuances imparted by the fruit and vineyard. Even carefully selected new barrels can do this while also providing a natural means of allowing very small amounts of oxygen to work its magic.

Our son Kiran on the Natural Winemaking team during 2011 harvest.

Ultimately the proof is in the bottle and is revealed in a side by side tasting of different single vineyard wines produced using these methods. We believe each of our single vineyard wines transparently reveals the sense of place imparted by the vineyard and that the differences between the wines and vineyards are very obvious to see and ponder. Yes, it is true - you must have great grapes to make great wine that is truly sublime. It also helps to employ skillful winemaking techniques that allow the nuances of the grapes to flourish, and to avoid those techniques and additives that get in the way and mask the character. It has been shown to me time and again that we have to work cooperatively and respectfully with nature to create consistently compelling and beautiful wines.

This winter and spring we will be participating in a number of events throughout California including Pinot Days, World of Pinot Noir, Rhone Rangers, Hospice du Rhone, Pinot Paradise and of course, our Spring Release Celebration and we hope to see you. Most importantly, I want to extend a warm thank you to all of you who have so enthusiastically shared our wines or brought your friends to taste them at the winery, tasting room or events. Your passion for wines that beautifully express the vineyards they come from is greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

Bradley Brown
Proprietor and Winemaker

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