On the road, on the World Cup, and on the case…
Finally back in the saddle after a couple of weeks of events, travel, events, travel, events, & travel. But it’s all good. Had a fabulous visit to Aspen, Vail & Denver – conducting tastings for key accounts in each market, and enjoying some spectacular summer weather in the Rockies. We seem to be stuck in winter mode here in the valley, however. After a couple of teaser days in the hi 70s with bright sun, we’re back in the 50s-and-rainy rut again. Yikes. The rainiest May & June in history so far. We’re about 2-3 weeks behind in the vineyards. Flowering would normally be happening right now, but I don’t think we’ll see anything of the sort until after the 4th of July at this rate. The same thing happened in 2008, and we ended up with our best overall vintage ever, so one never knows. Whenever I’m asked how the grapes are doing, my standard reply is always “ask me in October”…
Summer in Aspen (at least it's summer somewhere!)
It’s been a blast seeing so many of you at a number of our recent events and classes here at the winery. Our series of Burgundy classes is done for the year now, to resume again in January – but we may be taking some classes on the road later this year, so watch your email for details.
I’m happy to report that my 22 year-old son Kevin has joined us for the next 5-6 months. He’s working in the vineyards all summer, and then will be a harvest slave in the winery for crush this fall (assuming we have grapes to crush, that is!) Welcome to the glamorous life if the vigneron, young man…
The 24th annual IPNC – the International Pinot Noir Celebration – looms shortly at the end of July. We are excited and honored to once again be a featured winery for this year’s festivities, and that one of our esteemed producers from Burgundy, Domaine J-J Confuron will be joining us as well. Speaking of sons, we’ve just received word that Confuron winemaker Alain Meunier has an ankle injury that requires surgery in July, so his sons Paul & Louis will be here to represent the domaine at IPNC. This will be everyone’s first look at the next generation of one of Burgundy’s finest estates…
Writer Jordan Mackay with Thiébault Huber at IPNC 2008
And yes, I’ve been glued to the World Cup – mostly on the laptop or on the iPhone. Its very early in the tournament, but I still think the winner will come from either Spain, Brazil, or Argentina. (Although with Spain’s loss to Switzerland yesterday, we could see Spain vs. Brazil in the round of 16 – that might be the real championship match right there!) France just lost to Mexico, and they are indeed pathetic. We will certainly not see a repeat of a France-Italy final this time around, to be sure…
