2023 greetings
It's been about two years since I put up a blog post so this is well overdue.
It's been a challenge for all Lodi wineries as wine tourists very gradually return, as the worst of the Covid pandemic is behind us. Despite this, our wine club has been critical in helping us get through the decrease in tasting room visitation. For all our wine club members, we offer our humblest thanks.
That said, here are updates on upcoming releases. As you can see from the picture on this post, today the 2022 Grenache Rosé and Torrontés labels were delivered. We plan on bottling these two, and two 2021 vintage wines - our first Cabernet Sauvignon, and our second Tempranillo, when we can get a bottling date schedule. I hope to have the Rosé and Torrontés ready for when the weather warms up, and the two reds later in the summer. These four wines are finished and all tasting wonderful in barrel. If you visit before we bottle them, ask for a barrel tasting if any of these interest you. I also should be bottling another round of wine club exclusive wax-dipped magnum bottles of a special 2022 blend, but I'll up it to 24 this time. I bottled just twelve of the 2021 magnum bottles and they all sold in less than two days.
Later next year we'll have our second Wegat Vineyard Old Vine Zinfandel and Petite Sirah (the previous were from the 2018 vintage). We have a very exciting Old Vine Carignane coming next year also, and I can't wait to start showing it off. If everything goes as planned, I've secured three lots for this harvest - Grüner Veltliner, a white grape of Austrian origin, and reds Montepulciano and Peloursin, both of which we made in 2017. I hope to purchase three more red lots for this harvest.
On a personal note, I retired from my Johnson & Johnson job of 17 years last year, in which I was a pharmaceutical scientist. While it was quite demanding working that full time job which required a one-hour commute to Vacaville plus making wine here, it allowed me to pay my house and winery off completely. So I'm a the winery a lot more now and I hope to make a bit more wine going forward. I'm grateful to recognize that our wine club is increasingly buying up most of the wine I make (rather than selling at our tasting room to visitors), I do need to keep ahead of that. All of this allows me to continue making varieties that either I find personally interesting, or making wines I've never made before in pursuit of broadening my winemaking horizons. The Torrontés grapes I bought last harvest was purely out of curiosity, as I had never even tasted one before. I'm not sure I've ever had a Grüner Veltliner either, so we'll play it by ear also!
Thanks for reading and for enjoying Drava Wines.
-Steve
