Vineyard Diary

Here is a quick update on our progress toward bottling our Escafeld 2004 Petit Verdot. As a reminder, this is a pure varietal wine made with a grape that is grown in Bordeaux principally as a blending component (it'll typically make up a couple of percentage points in a red Bordeaux wine). Here in California, Petit Verdot is not too widely planted, but the conditions here in the San Antonio Valley are perfect for this grape, which develops to its full ripeness potential without difficulty. I've written before about the Petit Verdot grape - here is a link.

So, our labels are approved by the TTB, we've approved proofs from the printer, and bottles, corks and foils have been ordered. We're expecting to have everything in place for a mid-October bottling.

This will be one of the first (if not the first) wines to carry the San Antonio Valley appellation, and it's also a new varietal for us (along with our Merlot and Zinfandel), so needless to say we are pretty excited about it. We'll post more news here, as things develop.

We are also getting ready to pick and crush our 2006 Petit Verdot. Cool weather here has slowed down ripening of the grapes in the home stretch - we're hovering just shy of 24 brix at the moment - and plan to pick at around 25 brix. We'll try hard to snap some photo's of the proceedings - promise!

Our 2006 Syrah (which we crushed a couple of weeks ago) is doing very well in the winery. We have already pressed the wine off the skins (at around 5 brix), and Malolactic fermentation has been initiated. This wine will be ready to go into barrels before we know it - we're looking forward to our first Syrah wine! Check back here for more news as things develop there, too.

Steve Wetherill
Escafeld Vineyards