I recently met with Jay and Bobby from the Linkery to blend a Meritage style Cuvee for their restaurant. I am really excited to be working with this restaurant as it one of those "can't miss" restaurants in this area of San Diego. The other reason is I think the food and wine pair very well together as my wines tend to be bigger with lots of fruit/mouthfeel and stand up well to the flavorful meats and dishes that they serve.

After trying many different blends (one of the pitfalls of the job, hehe) they created The Linkery Cuvee 1. This is a non vintage blend which has tons of complexity; the 2005 Cab brings depth, the 2006 Merlot fills in the mid palate and the newer vintage Cab showcases fruit and spice. All of these grapes used in this blend were sourced from "Lambert Bridge Vineyard," Dry Creek Valley- Sonoma County. The wine is going to be aged in Cask and will be gravity poured, which is great as these casks are reusable! This has tremendous upside as there will be no corks shipped over from Portugal, Glass trucked from Mexico, no tin capsule to be tossed, etc...... I am also excited about putting the wines in cask because I am not going to have to add extra sulfites as the wine is going to be consumed relatively quickly.

The Linkery
3794 30th St.
San Diego, Ca.
www.thelinkery.com

2008 Lake County Malbec

I am really intrigued by this varietal and am surprised more domestic wineries aren't producing Malbec as a stand alone wine. The grapes from this vineyard come from the Olaf Vineyard which is located on a steep hillside on the west side of Clear Lake. I used 3 different yeasts on the fermentation and did a 10 day extended maceration on the skins to soften the tannin and to add mouthfeel.

2008 Alexander Valley Zinfandel

This is the Mariani Ranch located in northern Alexander Valley. This is a hillside vineyard that doesn't use any trellising and is "head pruned," which is a very traditional way to grow Zin. This is my second year of working with these grapes and I really like the dark fruit and pepper that this vineyard posesses. While this wine would be great as is I will probably blend a little bit of Petite Sirah into this wine before bottling to add structure, color, and complexity.

2008 Dry Creek Valley Chardonnay

The first wine that I ever made was from these vines 10 vintages ago. The wine turned out to be quite tasty but more importantly these grapes are the reason that I became hooked on winemaking.
A month ago I was looking at the Merlot and Cab when I walked by and was just in awe and these beautiful little clusters and decided to produce a 2008 Chardonnay. I am very excited to be finally making a commercial wine from these grapes this year and have started off conservatively with 4.5 tons which should yield about 250 cases of wine. The grapes arrived on September 5, 2008 and numbers were as follows- Brix 24.1 TA .86 Ph 3.3. It has been fermenting for 13 days now in tank and has wonderful pineapple aromas and flavors. I am going to age 70% of the wine in French Oak Barrels and am going to put it through malolactic fermentation (for mouthfeel and complexity.) The other 30% will remain in tank to retain the wonderful tropical fruit that it is expressing. This wine will be released July of 2009.

2008 Lake County Sauvignon Blanc

On September 5, 2008 we received these grapes at our facility and proceeded to pitch fork and shovel for what seemed like days. The aromas and flavors of the grapes had tons of grapefruit and passion fruit with a touch of green tomato bush. It was very similar to Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand, so needless to say we are ecstatic. We did a 36 hour cold settling and than inoculated the juice. This 800 gallons of Sauvignon Blanc been fermenting for 12 days and I am definitely getting citrus and tropical flavors with a touch of minerality.

Costa Azul

The last couple of years I have been making wine in a facility 2 blocks from the beach and decided to name the brand "Blue Coast." I have just recently released 2 wines under this label, a 2005 Dry Creek Valley Petite Sirah and a 2006 Grenache from Valle de Guadelupe, Baja. In March of 2009, we will be releasing a 2006 Sonoma County Meritage and and a 2008 Lake County Sauvignon Blanc. - Chris -

www.costaazulwines.com

Two and a half years after harvesting.....

our 2005 vintage, it is time to release our Merlot and Claret (Bordeaux Style Red Wine.) The grapes were picked at a higher sugar so they tend to be a little bit "bigger" with lots of ripe fruit. These wines were aged for 27 months in 40% new French and American Oak barrels. I added 4% of 2007 vintage Dry Creek Cabernet Sauvignon to both wines as it lended some youthful brightness to the nose and pallet.

It took 4 long arduous (sort of) days of tasting different blends before I came up with these 2 wines. In a sense, it was stressful because I feel this is the best wine that we have made to date and there are literally thousands of combinations of percentages. "What does this blend lack?
How does it taste with 2% of Cabernet Franc? 10% Malbec? 4% Malbec......"

Hope you enjoy them!

Chris

2005 Merlot
"Lambert Bridge Vineyard,"
Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County

175 Cases Produced

This wine is a big Merlot in the mold of the 2004 but has even more concentrated flavors as it spent 27 months in French and American oak barrels. It has huge Blueberry and Cherry fruit with a touch of Anise. The oak is well integrated and adds complexity with flavors of vanilla and coconut.

Price: $24 a bottle

2005 Dry Creek Valley Red Wine
"Lambert Bridge Vineyard"
Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County

300 Cases Produced

66% Merlot, 24% Cabernet Sauvignon,
6% Petite Sirah,2% Malbec, 2% Petite Verdot

Cola and dark stone fruit dominate the nose and pallet of this full-bodied red wine. This wine has tremendous depth and is well balanced with moderate tannins and acidity. It is drinking great now, but could be laid down for 8-10 years.

Price: $30 a bottle