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
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