March 2004 IT'S
ALL ABOUT THE VINEYARD
The
quality of a bottle of wine is only as good as the vineyard its
fruit came from. As the saying goes with real estate, "it's
all about location, location, location." Well with
wine, it's all about the "vineyard, vineyard, vineyard."
From the beginning, when we chose to buy a vineyard,
we decided to take great pride and care in them. We learned and
experienced early on that to produce great wine, you need to have
great vineyards. There are usually two routes with tending to vineyards.
One is to hire full-time employees that will care after your vineyard
day after day and year after year, or hire contractors or vineyard
managers. Both can work, but we opted for full-time employees that
would know our vineyard, build a relationship with the vineyard,
and be able to anticipate the changes in our vines.
The team responsible for maintaining
consistent quality of our vineyard is mentored by Bulmaro Montes,
former vice president of vineyard operations at Joseph Phelps
with over 27 years of experience.
Our
day-to-day team consists of three great men; Javier Montes, Octavio
Olivera and Fernando Olivera. These men have a combined 41 years
of experience and take great pride in tending to our vineyard.
The proof of the pudding is our recent rating of 92 points by Wine
Spectator. This is
validation of our commitment to excellence and that we're doing
it right!
The Napa Valley wine country is currently coming
alive - gray skies are turning blue and the life cycle in the vineyard
is beginning. Current activity includes pruning and tying the vines,
which is the pivotal practice prior to budding. There is probably
no better time to take a wine country tour, or better yet, a Napa
Valley wine tour.
In April, we will be mowing and disking the rows between the vines,
nurturing the bud break and protect the vineyard from the traditional
spring freezes.
In June, we will be bottling our vintage 2002 and thus, we look
forward to continually delivering quality wines, with our distinctive
deep purple color and fruit forward taste.
NEW PHONE NUMBER
We now have a Toll Free telephone number for our
customers to contact us, 1-877-245-6006. We look forward
to hearing from you!
Adopt-A-Vine
Don’t forget to think about who would appreciate
“adopting a vine” in our vineyard. Why not get a wine
gift that will make your friends feel liked they’ve just bought
a vineyard? Call us today or order online!
Thank you for reading.
Peter
and Pauletter Story
info@sthelenawinery.com
www.sthelenawinery.com
707-967-WINE (9463)

|