sandlerwine

Sign up on the Contact Us link to receive an allocation of the following wines that were just released November 10th to the Sandler Mailing List.

2010 Bien Nacido Vineyard Pinot Noir

After an 8 year absence, I'm thrilled to be making wine again from Bien Nacido. I first set foot in the vineyard in 1999 when I was the winemaker at Testarossa. It was in this vintage that I saw how magical Pinot Noir can be in the Santa Maria Valley, and to this day, that '99 Bien Nacido Pinot we made at Testarossa is still my favorite Pinot I've had a hand in producing.

The 2010 Bien Nacido Pinot comes from a year when we didn't have much of a summer until early September. Temperatures soared up and down the coast, but especially down south. The fruit at Bien Nacido went from seeming like it was a month away from ripening to being ready in less than a week. I would say this is a bigger Pinot than I normally produce, but it still has that Santa Maria spice and charm. Based on my experience with the ageability of Santa Maria Pinots, this 2010 has a long life ahead of it with its dense structure and rather closed state at this young age.

2010 Clos Pepe Vineyard Pinot Noir

Another vineyard I worked with starting in 1999 is the Clos Pepe Vineyard. This the the 2nd Sandler Clos Pepe Pinot I've produced, and like the 2009 version, it comes entirely from the Pommard clone of Pinot. I have to give a huge thanks to Wes and Steve of Clos Pepe for allowing me to buy tiny quantities of their fruit. There wasn't enough for Sandler in 2011, but I hope to be back in there for the 2012 harvest.

Similar to how the Bien Nacido ripened quickly during the heatwave of 2010, the Clos Pepe Vineyard also went from a very late veraison to harvest in a little over a month. This 2010 Clos Pepe Pinot is typically large-framed for this vineyard, and it's an entirely different wine from the lighter-bodied '09 Sandler Clos Pepe. With a deep core of ripe fruit and a fairly high tannin level, this 2010 Clos Pepe should rest in the cellar for a few years. It should begin to show well sometime around 2014.

2010 Keefer Ranch Pinot Noir

And finally, the only vineyard in the world so far that has budded over a specific block of Pinot Noir for Sandler is the Keefer Ranch. After working with Keefer since 2004 at Freeman, I asked Marcy Keefer if I could purchase some fruit for Sandler in 2008. She knew I was a big fan of the clone 23 Pinot at her vineyard, so she asked if I would like to commit to an acre that she would bud from Dijon 777 to the Swiss clone 23, aka Mariafeld. The answer was yes in less than a second.

The 2010 Keefer Ranch Pinot Noir is the first wine I've made entirely from clone 23, since the 2009 had a small amount of 777 blended in. The vintage up north in the Russian River Valley had a similar heatwave in September, but it wasn't as severe as down south. We harvested Keefer on October 8, 2010, a bit later than "normal," however, since 2005, October harvests have become the new normal for coastal California Pinot. This is the most approachable wine of the trio being released now, but as typical for Keefer, it has the highest acidity too. The 2010 Keefer Pinot is quite similar to the 2009 with its lively, fruit character and gentle palate. Although it's drinking beautifully already, it should also cellar well for at least 5 years, probably longer.

The next Sandler release should be in either February or March 2012 and this will include the 2010 Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir, 2010 Buck Hill Zinfandel, 2010 Connell Vineyard Syrah, and a new wine for Sandler, the 2010 Boer Vineyard Grenache.

The next Sandler release will be 11/24/10, and will consist of 2 vineyard-designated Pinots, Keefer Ranch and Clos Pepe Vineyard, as well as the Buck Hill Zinfandel and the Connell Syrah. Those of you on the email list will receive an email with instructions on how to order.

Sandler/Point Concepcion Winemaker Dinner Friday 2-12-10 in Vail, CO

Please join Ed Kurtzman and Peter Cargasacchi for a Sandler and Point Concepcion Winemaker Dinner

at Sapphire in Vail, Colorado.

This Friday night, 3/12/10, 8pm. Only 27 seats available. $65 plus tax and gratuity

Sapphire Restaurant

Vail, CO

970.476.2828

www.sapphirerestaurant.com

5 courses 4 wines:
Oysters Rockefeller wtih lemon hollandaise
-Point Concepcion, "Caponera", Chardonnay, Santa Barbara County, 2008

Serrano ham crostini with fig jam, arugala, Parmesan
-Sandler Wine Co., Pinot Noir, Santa Lucia Highlands, 2008

Duck Breast with foie gras and french toast sandwich, spiced red wine 
and lingonberry demi, baby carrots
-Sandler Wine Co., Zinfandel, "Buck Hill Vineyard", Sonoma County, 2008

Red Wine braised short ribs, creamy polenta with manchego cheese, 
braised endive
-Point Concepcion, "Encantado", Syrah, Central Coast, 2004

Chocolate shortcake with balsamic strawberries, hot chocolate demi 
tasse

Sandler at the WORD UP Tasting February 21 at Fort Mason SF

 

Four New Sandler Wines Released 11-27-09

Please sign up on the Sandler Email List to receive the release letter in order to purchase the following new releases:

2007 Sandler Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir

2006 Sandler KASARWIL Cabernet Sauvignon

2008 Sandler Connell Vineyard Syrah

2008 Sandler Buck Hill Vineyard Zinfandel

Harvest 2008 in the Barrel

By the end of August this past summer, it looked like the harvest of 2008 was going to be both early and fast.  Every winemaker I talked with thought it was a repeat of 2004, when most vineyards were picked by the end of September, and we were all free to watch the Red Sox win their first mlb crown in 86 years.  There were definitely a lot of early ripening vineyards this year, and for me that meant plenty of work with Freeman, ROAR and August West during the week of Labor Day.  But then everything changed, the weather cooled, ripening slowed to a standstill/crawl, and most vignerons went back into 2005, 2006, 2007 mode--we waited until October . . .

The big news for Sandler in 2008 is that I got some Keefer Ranch Pinot Noir for the first time.  It's not much, and most likely it will be a mailing list only wine, but it's a start.  The fruit I got from Keefer is all clone 23.  This is a project I've been talking to Marcy Keefer about for several years now, that is, doing a Keefer PN entirely from this single clone.  I can't thank Marcy and Craig (Strehlow--the great winemaker for Keefer Ranch) enough for this opportunity.  The two barrels (one new, one used) will most likelly be bottled next summer and released in November 2009, if everything goes as predicted.

October was a much busier month for Sandler when the Buck Hill Zinfandel and the Connell Vineyard Syrah both arrived at the August West/ROAR winery in San Francisco.  After the worst frost damage in over 30 years, yields were down in all vineyards this year.  Luckily though, I somehow received small increases from both vineyards.  We'll finally break the 150 case mark in Connell Syrah for 2008, and the Buck Hill Zinfandel will go up from 119 cases in 2007 (just bottled 2 days ago) to around 140 cases for 2008.

Speaking of the 2007 wines, if you're not already on the mailing list, please click on the Contact Us link and sign up.  The emailer will go out next week on Thanksgiving night and will include the release of the 2007 Connell Syrah, the 2007 Buck Hill Zinfandel, and the 2006 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir.

Thanks for reading and best to all.

Ed Kurtzman

11-21-08

Pre-harvest News 2008

After a short spring of travel and a long summer of bottling for August West, Freeman and soon ROAR, it's almost harvest time. I'll be getting Connell Syrah and Buck Hill Zinfandel once again, and I'm still in search of the Pinot Noir site which would become Sandler's first vineyard-designated PN. Hopefully, I'll find it this year.

The only Sandler bottling I did this summer was the 2006 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir. Thanks to my close contacts at August West and Freeman, I was able to buy 5+ excellent barrels of wine from them. We bottled 130 cases of the '06 Sandler on August 8th. This will be released in late November. More details about the vineyards that went into this wine are forthcoming with that release.

As far as the 2007 Buck Hill Zinfandel and Connell Syrah go, I didn't bottle them this summer. Both wines are improving as they sit on their lees, month by month, and it seemed they'd be bottled too early if I stuck with the original July 29th bottling date. So, sometime as this '08 harvest is winding down, Kaleb will come down to San Francisco and we'll bring in the small, but experienced crew and get those wines bottled in time for the November release.

I'll try to write about some interesting harvest stories as they occur this fall.

Happy summer to all, Ed K

2007 Wines Update

As of March 1, 2008, the 2007 Buck Hill Zinfandel and 2007 Connell Vineyard Syrah are progressing wonderfully in barrel.  Buck Hill is a new vineyard for Sandler as of the 2007 harvest, and I just signed up for 3 more tons in 2008 with vineyard owner/farmer Randy Apel.  This '07 Buck Hill is definitely a bigger, more traditional Zinfandel than the leaner, less fruit forward and more food friendly '06 Dry Creek Zin.  But some good news on this '07 Zin, I just had the sugar checked yesterday (Zinfandel is a notoriously slow fermenting wine) and it is offically dry.  Finally.  No Zinfandel Port for Sandler in '07!

My early assessment of the '07 Connell Syrah is that it has much more in common with the peppery, tannic and backward '05 Connell Syrah than it does with the riper, rounder and more accessible 2006 version.  With the short descriptors I used, you may guess I prefer the '06, but I actually think the '05 and '07 will evolve into the wines of preference.  Time will tell.

The cellar at the August West/ROAR San Francisco winery has warmed up from a frigid 48 degrees at the end of January to a tolerable 56 degrees by the end of February.  This is allowing the malocatic fermentations to continue.  They had come to a standstill during the 2 coldest consecutive months I've experienced in my 19 years as a resident of California.  Maybe I've become de-climatized to temps below 50, but it sure felt cold. 

Ed K