HarveyFamilyWineBlog

Making Room for the 2009 Harvest

In July, as the grape bunches are growing to full size, we are making room for the incoming vintage by bottling.  We are now bottling the wines taking up the space in the tanks and barrels that we will need for the new vintage.  This week we are bottling the Jana 2008 Old Vine Napa Valley Riesling and California Rose as well as the 2007 Scott Harvey Mountain Selection Amador County Barbera.  Bill and I have spent the last two weeks tasting through the final blends to make sure they are right.  From there the work orders are cut.  Yesterday was spent at the winery with the crew making sure the wines turn out like the final blends in the lab.  Tomorrow, we’ll be up at 4 AM to leave at 5 to spend a long day on the bottling line.  It’s a long process from bud break to bottling and exciting when the wine finally goes into the bottle.  Of course when we get home, we’ll just have to pop a few of the new wines for one last check. 

 

 Here's a video we took last August 22 when the grapes were being picked.  It's close to one year from vineyard to bottle.

It takes a lot of beer to make great wine

Scott and I do a lot of wine and food pairing dinners so we were intrigued when Mike & Ken from Silverado Brewing Co. invited us to their Brewer's Dinner last week.  There was a great group of about 40 people--with several other winemakers present.  While enjoying a Blonde Ale during the reception, one of the first people we met was Doug Ernst from the St. Helena Star.  He was introducing himself to everyone.  We understood why when at the end of the evening, Doug went up one side of the table and down the other and remembered everyone's name that he had met during the reception. Very impressive.

Not being much of a beer drinker, I was wondering how I was going to make it through four courses and five beers.  My concerns were allayed.  These fresh beers were not heavy at all and paired beautifully with the menu Chef Bernardo Ayala prepared.   My favorites were the Amber Ale paired with the Grilled Black Mission Fig Salad and the Wheat Ale with the Cedar Planked Pacific Black Cod.  I made it through every course and even had beer with dessert!--A Hefeweizen.  We were happy to hear that the Brewing Company is going to do these great dinners once a quarter so we can let our friends know not to miss this amazing experience.

What wine goes with Alligator?

Scott loves to try weird foods.  When we travel, he'll pick the strangest thing on the menu.  He is a very adventurous eater.  For me, growing up in the midwest, I'm  pretty traditional when it comes to food.  As much as he loves making wine, I think he would covet Andrew Zimmern's job on Bizarre Foods. 

Much to my dismay, Scott has found some local sources to satisfy his exotic tastes.  There's a great  vegetable/fruit stop off of Highway 80 that we pass quite often going from Napa Valley to Amador Country.  Scott discovered much to his delight, that in addition to great prices on oranges and apples, they carry alligator in the freezer.  He couldn't resist.  While it comes marinated to try to mitigate its chewy character, Scott barbeques it with a butter/garlic sauce.  The marinade and the sauce can't quite disguise its rather fishy flavor.  This is one food that doesn't taste like chicken.

The question we then had was what wine would be best with the alligator?.    There was no doubt--it was the Jana Rose. Riesling would've also worked because of its versatility.  What wine would you choose?

We have a freezer full of Rocky Mountain Oysters, rattlesnake, goat, and elk.  I'm sure there will be other delicacies added so stay tuned for some unique food and wine pairings.

Hosting a Wine Club from Sacramento gives us a gourmet feast

Napa Valley, the private wine tour - part 2

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Wine & Magic - what a great combination because wine is magic

Scott and I had the opportunity to do a combination wine tasting and magic show at Monks Wine Lounge in Chico recently.  The magician, David Minken, is an international champion and through a personal connection, the town of Chico was very fortunate to have him perform there.  His expertise is close-up magic so David presents his sleight of hand to an audience of under 50 people.  He normally appears in Southern California, for the Magic Castle and celebrities like Johnny Depp.

A wine tasting is the ideal prelude to the show.  Scott and I had the opportunity to introduce five of our wines to the participants at the wine bar.  The wine was accompanied by delicious appetizers prepared by chef/owner Kevin Coy.  His wife, Keely, is the sommelier.   The tasting/show benefitted the local Humane Society.

Chico was an impressive little town.  We did 4 shows in two nights so it gave us a chance to explore the area.  After browsing the Saturday morning Farmer's Market, Bidwell Park was the ideal place to stroll.  It is one of the largest municipal parks in the U.S.  We stayed at a delightful B&B, the Goodman House,  owned by Tom and Margo Graham who are wonderful hosts.

All in all, wine, magic, gourmet food and Chico made for a perfect weekend.

How to Subscribe to Blogs

Blogs contain an amazing amount of free information.  In my past lives in the wine industry, I dealt mainly with managing the distributor channel.  Since Scott and I formed our company five years, it's a whole new world out there.  Everyday I learn more about effective websites, social networking, blogging, etc.  The information can be overwhelming but extremely useful.  Some of the best tips I get come from Mike Duffy's Winery Website Report.  One of his latest is how to Subscribe to an RSS feed.  I found this video very useful--especially in managing many different blogs.  I hope you will, too and assist you in subscribing to our blog.

Why the New York Giants are my team

We have a company of wonderful shareholders who we encourage to participate as much or as little as they want to in our company.  For instance, one of our shareholder benefits is called "tag along rights". Whatever I'm doing that day, be it blending in the lab or doing a wine tasting or walking the vineyards, any shareholder has the right to go along and participate.  Also, if the company can help a shareholder in a particular cause, we will make it a priority to try and help.

One such cause was the Rich Seubert Celebrity fund raiser for the Marshfield clinic in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  The company is fortunate to have Charles Dowd as a shareholder.  He not only brings the company tremendous expertise as a financial guru sitting on both our financial board and our board of directors, but also helps promote our brand through a local charity.  Annually, the Marshfield Clinic in Eau Claire holds a fundraiser benefitting the heart clinic sponsored by Rich Seubert, the offensive starting center for the New York Giants.

The day started out with the Seubert Celebrity Trap Shoot.  We as contestants got to match our trap shooting skills amongst the whole New York Giants front line.  Rich Seubert was able to convince the rest of his starting line to support the Marshfield Clinic.  In was in the cheering section, since I haven't shot a shotgun for over twenty years.  Rich is from the Eau Claire area and the clinic saved his grandmother's life.  I haven't been one to watch or pay attention to football, but after this day, the team I'll follow will be the New York Giants.  What a great and giving bunch of guys.

After the Celebrity trap shoot we held a wine tasting featuring the Scott Harvey and Jana Wines.  Notice the tasting was held after the trap shoot, not before.  Following the wine tasting we all participated in a great evening and celebrity dinner where the wines served were also our wines.  All the wines were donated by sharholders, Chuck and Barbara Dowd along with their daughter, Katy and son in law, Frank.

It was a wonderful day with over $200,000 being raised for the clinic and our wines getting tremendous exposure thanks to the Dowds and the LoRussos.  In the picture from left to right are Frank (who is a doctor at the Marshfield Clinic,  Katy, the big guy with the Super Bowl ring on is Rich Seubert, next is TJ Burns (the marketing director for Buck knives), myself with beer in hand, Chuck Dowd and last is CJ Buck.  He also supported the day giving out the wonderful Buck Knives as prizes.  Personally, I have always carried a small Buck pocket knife since I was a teenager and still have one in my pocket today.

Missing Wine at the New World International Wine Competition

Scott and I flew to Southern California yesterday to show off his latest award on his 2006 Scott Harvey J&S Reserve Barbera at the 19th Annual Wine Extravaganza 2009 Gold Medal Showcase & Auction.  This fundraising event benefitting The Unforgettables Foundation is hosted by Jerry D.Mead's New World International Wine Competition .   Scott had received a Double Gold Medal on his wine and we had shipped the wine weeks ago.  To our dismay, we arrived to find out the wine hadn't.  There's always so much to prepare and get ready for a marketing trip that sometimes we don't check the obvious--confirmation that our wine will be at the wine tasting table when we arrive.

The evening wasn't a total loss. Scott bid on a case of his second favorite wine (after Barbera) --Riesling.  We are now taking home a case of the Gold Medal winning Trinity Oaks Riesling.  It was a lovely event with a lot of great wines benefitting a very worthwhile cause. 

Lazy Sunday Surprise

When your home is your office, weekends can be just another day at the office--except quieter.  During the week our house is Grand Central Station.  Scott and I were enjoying a glorious day just working in the garden and enjoying our idyllic setting.  We had just finished a delightful lunch along with some Jana Rose and it was nap time.  Lo and behold, a car drives up and three strangers disembark.  They were visitors from Seattle that wanted to taste our wines.  We informed them we had two tasting rooms--a coop in Napa-- Silenus Vintners, and one in the gold country of Sutter Creek. This was our home. They had hunted us down from a publication that posted our address and said Open 10:00-4:00. (Our house is not easy to find situated in a 70 acre vineyard).  Wine Country This Week is a great publication and we use it as a reference all the time--especially when we have out of town company.  We were flattered that they made such an effort but will be contacting Wine Country to alleviate any further weekend surprises.

 

Star Trek and our InZinerator Wine

The long anticipated release is finally here.  We know who was one of the first in line--our nephew, Michael Harants.  Michael has been an artist as long as I can remember.  His creativity was amazing.  We all marveled at his imagination.  It was natural that when he went to Cal State Long Beach, he would major in art.

True to the stereotype of the "starving artist", Michael found it difficult to get work after graduation.  Timing was great for us because we had just started our wine company and needed a graphic artist for our label development.  Michael was available and eager. He came up with several concepts for our InZinerator label and we took them all.  Because of the comic book style art, we originally thought our target market would be comic book collectors and gamers.  It was Michael's suggestion to produce a DVD with the label art.  It enabled him to use many of the skills he had learned. We had originally planned to market our wines at venues like Comic Con but were told it was a family event and we were unable to promote an alcoholic beverage.  The DVD became Michael's resume and launched his career. It helped him snag the job on the Star Trek movie working on special effects for one of the Starships.  We're very proud of him but, alas, can no longer afford him.