The Vine Wrangler

In this summer heat, our shoots have been growing like weeds (even up to an inch per day)! As these vines grow taller, they need to be tucked into the trellis catch wires in order to continue to grow upright. This allows sunlight and wind to better penetrate into the canopy and fruit zone, reducing the relative humidity and preventing fungal diseases from taking hold.

On top of that practical consideration, the vineyard just looks nicer when the vines are neat and uniform…and mowing is pretty difficult when you have to fight these big bushy vines all the way down the row!

Tucking is slow work - it takes our vineyard crew several days to finish a varietal block. However, the payoff is worth all the effort come harvest time 🍇.

Barrel Blending 🛢

Another round of bottling is approaching, and of all the tasks that need to be completed, blending is perhaps the most fun. The goal of any blend is to balance each component wine into one great combination. The challenge is that each varietal displays distinct characteristics, and we even find differences between barrels of the same wine lot.

Blending is as much an art as a science. It’s important to take into consideration the quantitative aspects of wines and how those fit together - things like pH, years in barrel, color scale, tannin levels, etc. But a wine is judged on how it tastes, so we must answer some more subjective questions…does the cherry flavor in the Cab Franc overpower the Merlot? How smooth is the Meritage after we blend in all of our four Bordeaux grapes - could it be improved with more Petit Verdot or Cab Sauv??

We have a well equipped lab, but no instrument is able to answer those questions better than our pallets, and that is the fun of blending! We think we’ve done an especially good job this year and have several exciting blends in development, including a wine club exclusive best-in-cellar 🍷. Be on the lookout for more info as we begin to release our ‘19 vintage wines this Fall!

White Sangria 🍍🍎🍑

If you haven’t tried the Windsor Run White Sangria yet, now is the perfect time! With flavors of peach, apple, pineapple, and passionfruit, this sweet wine was made for summer. We initially released White Sangria in 2019, and it quickly became one of our best sellers at the tasting room. In fact, we have several customers who visit us specifically for this wine 🥳.

Check out our virtual tasting here, and you can order our wines online at the button below!

Also, if you like sweet dessert wines, we are nearly sold out of our L’Amour Doux at Shadow Springs. This is our take on an Icewine, made from late harvested Viognier grapes. Please give us a call if you would like us to hold a bottle for you before they’re all gone.

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