Harvest 2011- Celebrating 55 years of grape growing in Russian River Valley

Fall and harvest are finally here and we want to share with you what has been happening in the vineyards! Our Fall 2011 Free Run Wine Club has just shipped to all our members.We are excited to be releasing our 2007 Zinfandel sourced from our own, Bacigalupi Vineyards in Russian River.

This winter we will also be releasing our first vintage of Petite Sirah. This highly anticipated release is coming soon and with only 200 cases produced it is sure to sell out fast. To pre-order e-mail tastingroom@johntylerwines.com or call the tasting room at 707-473-0115.

We will also be pouring for Winter Wineland 2012. To purchase tickets visit The Wine Road website and come visit us over this fun weekend of food, wine and art!

Happy harvest and cheers from John Tyler Wines & Bacigalupi Vineyards

Fall 2011 newsletter side1
Fall 2011 newsletter side2

ZAP!

ZAP’s 20th Anniversary Festival January 27-29, 2011 celebrates the legacy and future of Zinfandel. Renowned producers will present their Zinfandel’s over four days of events. Zinfandel has quickly become one of the most popular grape varieties and is second only to Cabernet in the most acreage planted. Whether its Lodi, the Sierra Foothills, Napa or even my own back yard of SonomaCounty the success of Zinfandel as a prominent wine in California is everywhere. With a whole weekend of Zinfandel inspired events such as food and wine pairings, winemaker dinners and of course the Grand Tasting on Saturday the 29th at Fort Mason, this event is sure to be ZINSATIONAL!

This year Katey and I will be pouring our new release 2006 John Tyler Bacigalupi Vineyard Zinfandel which was just awarded a Gold Medal at the 2011 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.  We will also have some special library wines on hand to showcase the unique style of our wines and their incredible age-ability. See you there! For tickets click here

~Nicole Bacigalupi

Isn’t Fennel a seed?

 Let’s be honest, I am no Martha Stewart. A lot of the cooking talents in my family lie with my grandma and mom. While I am learning to host my own delectable flair I still don’t know that much about the names of ingredients, spices ect. So imagine my surprise when my family and I attended the 6th Annual Russian River Valley Winegrowers Crab and Fennel Fest to find out the fennel is actually a very fibrous plant and a seed. I had always thought that Fennel was a seed but I learned that Fennel is also a hardy herb that when cooked is aromatic and flavorful. Crab and Fennel were the guests of honor and the event included all you could eat Dungeness crab with fennel, pasta and salad. The food was great but the best part was of course, the WINE! What makes this wine tasting unique is the emphasis put on vineyard designate wines. An entire table was dedicated to tasting vineyard designates from all over the Russian River Valley and allowing the public to meet the winemakers and growers behind these wines. There was no shortage of noteworthy producers including those of Williams Selyem, Merry Edwards and Papapietro Perry. This was Pinot Noir heaven!
Following dinner was the much anticipated spirited and fun-loving hermit crab races. 5$ gets you a ticket to bet on your own hermit crab from “Crabby” Chardonnay to “Zinful” Zinfandel you could chose which varietal hermit crab would wine the race. The winning ticket holder received great auction items such as dinner at Dry Creek Kitchen and an overnight stay at Hotel Healdsburg. Wanting to support my favorite varietal I placed my bet on the blue hermit crab representing Pinot Noir. Sprayed with a little “go juice” the crabs were slow to move at first but slowly crawled out of their shells. I’ve never been so intrigued by hermit crabs before! It was a long, well fought battle but in the end ”Crabby” the Chardonnay crab prevailed as the winner and I accepted defeat.
 For an auction donation John Tylerdonated 6 bottles of wine as well as a tour and tasting of Bacigalupi vineyards, including the famed Paris Tasting block. The lucky winners will spend a day with the family sampling our latest vintages and paired with an artisan cheese selection. 
What a great Sonoma County event, looking forward to the next one. And now I know what fennel is so no big surprises next year. Hey, you learn something new everyday!

Free the SO2

Taking barrels samples is an important and ongoing process in the world of winemaking. As the wine progresses and changes over time it is vital to consistently keep a close watch on the state of each barrel and additionally, the lot as a whole. Today we took samples of all the 2008 vintages mostly looking for levels of free SO2. Free SO2 or free sulfur protects the wine from oxidation and remains an invaluable tool for inhibiting bacteria that otherwise might spoil wine. Locally we use Vinquiry for all our wine analysis. They are quick with results and very friendly to work with. While sampling for SO2 this also gives us the opportunity to taste the lots combined to get an idea of how the wine is developing. The following are the notes from this barrel sampling.

2008 Pinot Noir Free Run, 20 barrels- At this time the wine shows a supple texture which is difficult to come by with a young Pinot Noir. You tend to get all the viscosity and weight but loose all the varietal character of the fruit. We tend to extend cap time by controlling the temperature for a long, cool fermentation

2008 Pinot Noir Free Run in T-bins, 9 barrels- We added 5 tons of whole clusters for fermentation. The whole berries lend themselves to letting you hold onto the carbonic maceration, adding more fruit character. This wine has a little sharper edge to the finish from slightly higher acid.

2008 Pinot Noir Press Wine, 2 barrels-We barrel the press wine separately from the free run so I can blend appropriately. This wine is progressing very well with good weight and nice fruit. It will assimilate nicely with the free run juice.

2008 Zinfandel Free Run, 12 barrels- What I love most about our Zinfandel is that it is technically dry (no residual sugar) but it doesn’t appear to be so when you first taste it. We are also producing a 100% Zinfandel, single vineyard designate designed to showcase the true varietal characteristic.

2008 Zinfandel Press Wine, 2 barrels- Great fruit, good acid and tannin

2008 Petite Sirah Free Run, 5 barrels- This is our inaugural vintage and what I like best about this wine is it’s incredibly balanced, already at an early stage. The trick with PS is finding the right balance between tannin and acid. Additionally like all well made wines it has a deep and vibrant color.

Mustard time

 If you’ve driven through wine country lately there is probably something in the vineyards that you have noticed. This is the time of year that mustard plants are thriving in the vineyards. Their colors in the setting of the vineyards are particularly beautiful but did you know that there is also a benefit to using mustard plants in the vineyard. I sat down with my dad, John Bacigalupi and talked with him about the advantages.

“You can actually eat the bloom of the plant. It’s kind of hot and spicy like eating a radish. My understanding is it started out as a government subsidy to farmers who planted mustard in their vineyards. The tap root (a long root) of the mustard plant would open up the soil and aerate it. The plant produces a great amount of green matter that would be disked into the soil to replace organic matter. Farmers have been experimenting with planting mustard in vineyards for many years to get the natural chemicals from the plant into the soil and lower the Nematode counts. Nematodes are microscopic worms that live in the soil; some are beneficial and some are harmful and can carry diseases. We use mustard as a cover crop in several of the vineyards that tend to have more nutrient deficient soils. The plants will be present in the vineyards through late March.”

Every year the Napa Valley Mustard Festival celebrates the mustard plant featuring fine foods, local wines and of course all kinds of mustard.

Zaptastic!

 The ZAPtasting for 2009 at Fort Mason has come and gone and what a good time it was. From several perspectives and from someone who has been to her share of wine tastings both as a producer and as a consumer I have to say that this was a pretty great tasting. In the past ZAP has gotten a bad rap as a tasting focused on Zinfandel but at the end of the day turns into a “drunk fest”. Now with 275 wineries pouring Zins you can see how this would be an easy thing to have happen. This I would have to say that this is actually true for some of the past events but there seemed to be a different vibe among the 8,000 plus people that attended this tasting. There will always be that small group of people who don’t know when to put the wine glass down but this year, that group was much smaller then it has been in the past. With the exception of the guy who grabbed the wine bottle off our table and started pouring it for himself people where generally well behaved.
            For once I noticed a much higher presence in the 20-30 something age category. We all know that this age bracket has become a big percentage of new wine consumers and drinkers in the past few years. Being someone who falls into this category I also know that they are stereotyped into the group of wine drinkers who want to taste but never buy. This year I would have to say that there were more 20 something’s actually genuinely interested in the wine, our family story and signing up for the mailing list.  Wineries are more and more looking for new ways to pull in that millennial purchasing power and I think that tastings like these are a great place to start, especially in a city like SF. We poured both the 2004 and 2005 John Tyler Zinfandel (our new release).
            Tasting events like these are great opportunities for wineries to talk directly with consumers about their products. For smaller wineries who don’t have a tasting room, these venues are often the only time they get direct to consumer contact. After the success at SF ZAP we will also be heading to Austin, Texas for their ZAP event in May. Watch out Texas, we’re coming to your city!

Road trip

VERY early Monday morning my mom; Pam and I took a little road trip to our state’s capital to attend the Family Winemakers of California’s annual meeting. For those not familiar with the organization FWM was founded in 1991 to give a voice and presence to small family wineries in the public policy arena.  At this particular meeting many important items were discussed that affect wineries and growers including new and current wine regulations and labor laws. Representatives from both the ABC and the TTB spoke and let me tell you… after their presentations it is no longer a mystery as to why most wineries employ a full time staff member to keep abreast of all the new laws as it is truly a daunting task.

Label, label, label

As a small winery, 100% family owned we usually end up doing a lot of the activities and household wine chores ourselves. Today, the task was labeling. We are getting ready to release our 2005 vintages of both Pinot Noir and Zinfandel. Labeling and bottling can be one of the biggest expenses wineries occur (besides the grapes themselves).  High tech bottling lines tend to cost anywhere from $200,000 to several million dollars. Instead we rent a labeler for about $85 a day.  We also purchased a capsule machine for $1,200 and this way our costs a decreased but we have to do everything by hand which is both very time consuming and exhausting! I can honestly say that I have personally touched every bottle of our 2005 vintage, now who else do you know that can say that…?

The logistics is the most challenging part of this operation because the flow has to be easy or else someone gets behind and then it slows you down. One thing I have become more conscious of from this experience is now I often wonder if people really check to see if the label of a wine bottle is on straight. We easily spent 1 solid hour and several cases of wine making sure that the labeler was putting the labels on straight. After some time looking at bottle after bottle it was getting more and more difficult to tell the crocked labels from the straight ones. Eventually we got it all figured out.

I would have to say that today is proof that you can do anything with hard work. Our passion and commitment to this family label and the industry is what it is all about for us and we enjoy every minute of it.

Working wine sisters

Katey and Nicci Bacigalupi at the age of two

In launching a new (and improved) website I have been combing the house looking through old pictures, trying to find photos that really represent our family and who we are. I came across this one of Nicci and me. It was taken in October 1985 so we were about 2 years old. Growing up on a ranch we were destined to be cowgirls. Climbing trees, scraping knees and chasing lizards; as you can see we got introduced to all that at very young age. I can remember the one day I got stuck in the tree outside our house. I climbed up this very large walnut tree we have in our yard. I was so focused on getting to the middle of the branch that after I had got there I realized I had no way to get down. I couldn’t turn around to climb back down and it was too high to jump. I was so scared, but I waited until my dad got home and he could get a ladder and help me down.

Family businesses aren’t easy, in fact I would definitely take bets that they are way harder to work in then just hiring a bunch of people that you don’t know. But can they can be very successful; look at the Gallo’s, the Foppiano’s and the Seghesio’s, all family run wineries that have been around for nearly a decade. It is true that sisterly love is very strong, and probably the strongest of them all are twins. Over the 25 years of our existence we have learned how we are very different and how we are frighteningly the same. Working for the family business has been both of our dreams for a very long time. We realize the opportunity put before us and are anxious to learn the inevitable up’s and down’s of the business. But finding this picture helps to bring back the simple thoughts of life. When you were two years old and the highlight of the day was getting a ride on the tractor.

Spending some time with the owls

Owl Box

It is hard to believe that it is January with all the beautiful weather we have been having recently. This weekend my dad and I set out to accomplish the very messy but important job of cleaning out the owl boxes. In keep with our sustainable farming practices, a few years ago my dad hand crafted 6 owl boxes and put them at the Frost Ranch vineyard. Using owls as a natural predator to help manage pest populations in the vineyard is not a new idea but with the increasing popularity and importance of sustainable and organic farming the use of this technique has increased. Hawks, bats and owls are beneficial predators that hunt unwanted rodents in the vineyard, reducing the need to use pesticides.

Annual cleaning of owl boxes is a small time frame, usually between Nov- Jan. Using gloves is a must and if you run into an owl while cleaning try to disturb them as little as possible. Today we did not run into any owls but there was evidence that they had been used, which is exiting! As you may imagine a strong stomach is good to have when doing this activity as owls tend to regurgitate a lot of what they eat. Nevertheless it’s all part of the job. This winter my dad has plans to build up to 5 more boxes to increase the presence of possible owl habitation in the vineyard. I look forward to next years cleaning!

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