Vineyard and Winery News – December 2011

Vineyard News

The harvest season this year was one with many problems to overcome for all grape growers of Sonoma County. We had an unusually cool spring and some late spring rain during the bloom period which resulted in a below average fruit set. This in conjunction with a rather significant rainfall earlier than usual right in the middle of harvest resulted in a  botrytis (bunch rot) outbreak in many vineyards. This situation affected most all growers in the county. Fortunately we were able to harvest before the rain and did not have any difficulty. We feel fortunate that our harvest went well and the quality of the fruit was excellent. The 2011vintage will result in some very nice wines.

Winery News

Contrary to the current economic situation our wine sales have been good. This is due mainly to the great support from you, our wine club members, for which we are very grateful! The 2011 wines have all completed fermentation, pressed out, and are already in the barrels. Even though the growing season was difficult – we have been very selective with the grapes that we harvest for our own production and feel very confident that we will be able to produce some exceptional wines from this 2011 vintage year.

Umlaut Society Shipment News

2009 Estate Cuvée (41% Cabernet Sauvignon  –  41% Syrah  -  18%Merlot)

2009 Syrah

We are extremely pleased with these two wines and are proud to be able to share them with you and sincerely hope that you will enjoy our enthusiasm for both of them.

We want to thank all of you who were able to join us at our Harvest Party in October. It is always great fun for us to be able to share this event with you.

Upcoming Events

January 14-15, 2012 – Winter Wineland – An event of wine, food, art, and education. Come join us!

March 2-4 and 9-12, 2012 – Barrel Tasting Weekend – Join over 100 wineries (Alexander, Dry Creek & Russian River Valleys) for this once a year trip into the cellar to sample wines directly from the barrel! This is your opportunity to meet winemakers and purchase “futures” of limited release wines. 2 weekends!

April 28-29, 2012 – Dry Creek Valley Passport Weekend – Two days of fun, entertainment great food and, most importantly, the fabulous wines of Dry Creek Valley! If you would like us to help you obtain Passport 2012 tickets you must contact me before January 1 2012.

Cheers and Happy Holidays,

Göpfrich Winery

Vineyard and Winery News – February, 2011

Vineyard News

At this time of the year we are very busy pruning the grape vines in the vineyard. Each vine must be pruned by hand and needless to say does take a lot of time. It always looks like a rather formidable job when one looks over the vineyard at what we have completed and what remains to be done. However the weather has been cooperative and we have had some very pleasant weather. Our objective is to have it all completed by mid March since we usually have bud break around the first week in April.

Winery News

Our wine sales have been good, due in large part to our wine club members. We are currently sold out of all our 2008 vintage wines. We always release our Reserve Cabernet one year later. We plan to release a very limited amount of this wine at Passport weekend April 30 & May 1. We are currently beginning to bottle our 2009 vintage wines.

Umlaut Society Shipment News

2008 Zinfandel –We blended about 9% Syrah into this Zinfandel. It has nice berry aromas, a slight spiciness, and a subtle sweet oak with vanilla derived from the barrel aging. We put this wine aside for the wine club since we are currently sold out of this wine. I think it is a perfect accompaniment for the summer barbeque/grill type foods.

2008 Estate Cuvée – This wine is a blend of 41% Cabernet Sauvignon, 41% Syrah, and 18% Merlot. We are very pleased with how this blend turned out. The blending of wines enables one to create a nice complexity in the finished wine that one can not create with a single vaietal.  A nice accompaniment  to any meal that you would normally select any one of the individual wines. Both of these wines have been sold out since before the holidays.

The next wine club shipment will go out mid – April. We are trying to avoid shipping any wine as the weather warms up so your three wine club shipments will go out in November, February and April.

Upcoming Events

 Wine Road Barrel Tasting – Mar. 4-7  & 11-14.  We are not officially participating in this event this year. However, we will be open primarily for wine club members and those people who have purchased futures from us in the past. If you are in our neighborhood, please stop in to say hello. We will have some barrel samples and futures available for purchase.

Passport Weekend in Dry Creek Valley April 30 & May 1. Be sure to visit us!

 Cheers, Göpfrich  Winery

Vineyard and Winery News – November, 2010

Vineyard Report

The harvest season this year was one with many problems to overcome for all grape growers of Sonoma County. Due to an unusually cool summer, the grapes were about 3 weeks behind normal in ripening. This didn’t seem to be too much of a problem until several weeks before harvest, when we had a hot spell for several days and the temperature  reached 105-107 degrees. This resulted in a lot of sunburned fruit, and since we are not in the raisin business, we lost about 45% of our zinfandel crop. The other grape varieties were not as badly affected. This situation affected most all growers in the county in a similar manner. Many growers fared worse than we did, so in spite of all the weather difficulties, we feel fortunate that our situation was not worse.

Winery Report

Contrary to the current economic situation our wine sales have been good. This is due mainly to the great support of you, our wine club members, for which we are very grateful! All of our 2010 grape harvest is in the cellar and has completed fermentation. In the next several weeks we will be pressing out all these wines and transferring the wine into barrels. Even though the growing  season was difficult – we are very selective with the grapes that we harvest for our own production and feel very confident that we will be able to produce some exceptional wines from this 2010 vintage year.