Titus Vineyards wine maker dinner
Join Eric Titus for Titus Vineyards wine maker dinner at Fleming's in Peoria, AZ, January 29, 2010 6:00pm - 9:00pm. Cost: 85.00. Location: 9712 West Northern Avenue, Peoria, AZ 85345; 5 courses and 5 wines. For reservations call 480-585-8499 or visit the Fleming's website.
Titus TV February Live Webcast
Join the conversation during the February, 2010, edition of Titus TV. We will be tasting the newest release of the Titus Lot 1, among other things, as well as discussing Petite Sirah and the upcoming P.S. I Love you event, Dark and Delicious. Ask Eric Titus and the Titus Vineyards Crew whatever your heart's desire and get an answer in real time. This is a live webcast event and can be seen and interacted with either on the Titus Vineyards Video Page or on the TItus TV Ustream Channel.
Biale Vineyards to participate in three events
Robert Biale Vineyards is participating in three events at the annual ZAP tasting in San Francisco January 29th and 30th:

Friday morning is Flights, a sit-down tasting of Zinfandel where the discussion will focus on Zinfandel blends and the practice of using other varieties in blends and field blends.

Friday night is Evening with the Winemakers a dinner and auction event at the Mark Hopkins Hotel to raise funds for the Heritage Vineyard research project. Biale's live auction lot is expected to be a highlight of the event—a luxury aerial tour for six of the thirteen Biale Zinfandel vineyards in Napa and Sonoma followed by a barrel sampling of the vineyards with lunch at the winery in the Oak Knoll District.

Saturday is the main event at Fort Mason Center—the ever popular Grand Tasting featuring over 200 Zinfandel wineries. Biale will debut a selection of 2008 vintage Zinfandels including Varozza and Grande vineyards.
11 inches and counting
Well! It's been 11 inches and counting, so far, here on the western Rutherford Bench. The benefit of planting a diverse cover crop of legumes and grasses down the middle of our vine rows comes to be celebrated when we have so much rain. We've been planting oats, peas, vetch, bell beans, and clover amidst our Zin and Cab and olives for 22 years now and it shows: No puddles! No erosion! The mulched soil acts like one huge sponge. Our small herd of sheep—a.k.a. "The Lawnmowers" our mobile fertilization team—are just loving all of the green stuff out there in the vineyard. In the middle of it all a sweet lamb has been born: she's been named "Storm" , of course—because if we're anything here at Tres Sabores, we're pretty schmaltzy Por qué no?
Zinfandel Earns 90 Points
Hendry 2006 Blocks 7&22 Zinfandel earned 90 points in Wine & Spirits, February 2010: "Warm boysenberry flavors meet an edge of orange zest acidity in this black, smoky Zinfandel."
Biale Zinfandels to be Featured
Biale Zinfandels will be two of the featured wines at this years Flights event to be held Friday January 29th at the Mark Hopkins hotel in San Francisco. This year's event features a discussion on blending and field-blending Zinfandels. Friday night Biale will be a featured winery at ZAP's Evening with the Winemakers event that features a live auction to raise funds for the U.C. Davis Heritage Vineyard Zinfandel research project.
Fermentations finished
Fermentations are finally finished, and the work of bottling and racking begins. The transition from multicolored leaves to mist-shrouded, bare vines seems to have happened in a snap. Hendry offers daily educational tour and tasting appointments throughout the winter—please give us a call to schedule one at (707) 226-8320. Winter in the Napa Valley... quieter and less crowded. Come visit!
Harvest News from Biale
Harvest 2009 at Biale is exciting due to the season's ideal conditions. Summer's fruit thinning helped get several Zinfandel vineyards into the end zone just as the clock was running out. Biale pulled in almost all its remaining grapes before the storm of October 12 and the quality has been excellent. Many 2009 Zinfandels are now in barrel and are already developing nicely.
Harvest underway
Harvest got underway last Sunday giving new meaning to the Labor Day weekend. We brought in about half of our wonderful Hayne Vineyard Zinfandel and expect to bring in the rest over the coming days. So far we've had no hitches and, touch wood, we hope that this continues.
Tres Sabores crushes season's first grapes
Tres Sabores crushed our first grapes yesterday for a custom crush client—won't be bringing our own fruit in until early next week. That said, we're hard at work tracking the tasty progress of the grapes—they're definitely making the move towards the scrumptious flavors we want, out there, but need a bit more time on the vine. We've been enjoying absolutely perfect ripening days with cool, cool mornings. Fingers crossed that everything continues this way for another month. No rain dances, please ;)
2007 Napa valley Zinfandel Released
We released our 2007 Napa valley Zinfandel on September 1 and on September 4 it was named Best in Show at Cheers St. Helena by Wacky Words of Wine Sense. Check it out at wackywinesense.blogspot.com. Come visit and see why she described it as a "cherry crevasse she never wanted to climb out of." Harvest officially started for us today as we crushed 6 tons of Rutherford Riesling!
Titus Vineyards Harvest Live Webcast
Titus Vineyards, located on the Silverado Trail in St. Helena, Napa Valley, will be offering Harvest Live, 2009—the wine industry's live harvest webcast that allows viewers to interact in real time with a working winemaker, vineyard workers and other winery employees. Harvest Live offers participants a true behind the scenes perspective of a Napa Valley harvest that even a personal trip to wine country cannot guarantee. Participants will have the ability to ask questions and receive answers instantaneously via web chat, offering a real time experience of the 2009 wine harvest. Titus Vineyards "interactive webcasts" will occur twice daily, during the week of October 5th through 9th, at 10:00 a.m. and again at 3:00 pm (PST). Visit TitusTV!
Harvest well under way
Harvest is well under way at Elyse Winery. We just picked out first Zinfandel of the year, the Korte Ranch Zinfandel. The flavors and balance look great. Stay tuned for more information.
Two-time National Barbecue Champion Featured
On August 19th, Robert Biale Vineyards featured renowned barbecue two-time national champion and huge Biale fan, Stan Peterson of Kansas City, for a dinner demonstrating different woods for smoking meats. A variety of meats including wild King salmon, chicken, lamb, pork shoulder, pork loin, and beef brisket all were served with Biale Zinfandels. Petersen uses woods such as pecan, pear, and Kansas hedge but his newfound favorite, of course, is Zinfandel.
Harvest has begun
Harvest has begun and we're looking forward to picking our Zinfandel a little later than usual due to the long, moderate growing season. Tours scheduled daily by appointment at 707-226-8320. (PS—Mark your calendar! Come out and see Hendry the Santa Fe Wine and Chile Festival September 24-26.)