December
2008
The 2008 Holiday Season is fast approaching. Paulette & I wish you a very joyous holiday season.
When you need a special Holiday Gift for that 'difficult-to-buy-for' friend or relative - Think about our St. Helena 2005 Sympa Reserve Cabernet and/or the 'Une Experience Unique' - our Adopt-a-Vine gift. We have plenty of both for you to say - Happy Holidays and/or Thanks for being my Friend' this year!
2008 Harvest
 Great harvest this year! The tonnage was down by some 25% BUT the quality was near perfection. We began the harvest on October 2nd by bringing in Block #1 (that's the home of Sympa). This was followed by Block #2 (Scandale) on October 5th and finally Block #3-4 (home of Ravenous) on October 10th. We finished pressing on November 12 and into those new French oak barrels on the 13th. A long and challenging growth season capped off with the best fermentation, press and M/L (second fermentation) finale to date. Our expectations for the 2008 vintage are extremely high.
New Directions
This year has ended with a major step for us here at St. Helena Winery. We have decided on an expanded direction for our small family winery. We are going to grow our winery to meet a need voiced by our loyal consumers by adding some additional wines (to be released in 2009).
This past year, Paulette & I polled some of our customers to find out what we do right - AND where we need to improve. We found out that:
- our wines are a tremendous hit
- when our customers come to the winery, they connect (for life) to this place we call home
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- we need improve market awareness of St. Helena Winery
- add white wines to our family offerings
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So, what you will see from us in 2009 is the addition of both a Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay to the family. We will be releasing the following:
2006 Sympa Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon in August, 2009
2006 Scandale Estate Cabernet Sauvignon in August, 2009
2006 Ravenous Cabernet/Petite Sirah Blend in May-June, 2009
2006 'Un-named' Sauvignon Blanc in March, 2009
2006 'Un-named' Chardonnay in March, 2009
Also to compliment the need to have national brand awareness for our winery we will be making a small change to our packaging - highlighting the "St. Helena Winery" name with Sympa, Scandale and Ravenous taking a supportive role. We will be showing you the new labels in all of our 2006 offerings.
In addition to our planned growth we will be adding to our wine making team, a well respected Napa Valley WineMaker, in a consulting winemaker capacity, so that we can take our wines to that next level. We will make this announcement, in connection with a national wine magazine within two months... You will all get an advance copy when we are able to release it. |
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"Name That Wine"
We thought it would be fun to have you to help us pick the fanciful names for our two new white wines.
Just email me, peter@sthelenawinery.com with the name of our new Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay by December 31 2008.
If we chose your name we will sell you a mixed case of all five of our wines for $1 (for legal reasons).
*Please remember our Francophile leanings knowing that Paulette is French. |
Again, Happy Holidays - and if we can help you with that 'Une Experience Unique' gift idea, let us know so we can get it out to you as soon as possible.
Cheers,
Peter Story
peter@sthelenawinery.com
www.sthelenawinery.com
707-967-WINE (9463) |
