Dover Canyon Winery

 

Dear friends of Dover Canyon,

As you may have noticed (or not noticed actually, since nothing has been posted on the blog recently) I have taken a hiatus from writing about Dover Canyon. I apologize for my absence.

The winery is moving into harvest, which is a very exciting time of the year for winemakers; and Dover Canyon will shortly begin sending wine club shipments, which I hope is a very exciting time of the year for our wine club members!

I have been receiving emails and Facebook messages from wine club members looking forward to the fall shipment, so I just want to let you know that there have been some changes to the staff roster at the winery.

There also seems to be some ongoing confusion as the winery emails still have my name in the header, although I no longer reply in person. (Hopefully that will be corrected soon.)

I am still a partner in the winery, and I am continuing to offer my services as a business, hospitality, and media advisor.  However, I now work from my new home, a cottage on the south end of Lake Nacimiento.

Your new contact at the winery will be Glenda Laurie—Dover Canyon’s new tasting room manager and assistant winemaker. Glenda and Dan are personally handling every aspect of the wine club, wine sales, hospitality, production, online presence and media relations. I hope you will greet Glenda warmly and wish them both well in their mutual endeavors.

Many of you have become friends as well as customers. If you would like to reach me, I would love to hear from you—my personal email is mary@centralcoastwineblogs.com. 

Please feel free to drop me a line, or connect with me on Facebook.

Ciao!

'Rare, Reserve and Estate' Shipment

As many of you know, in addition to our twice annual wine club selections, we also offer an optional third shipment of 3 bottles chosen from our smallest and most select productions.

The 2009 'Rare, Reserve and Estate' shipment includes 2 bottles of our 2007 Reserve Zinfandel ($38), an exclusive blend of westside Paso vineyards, including our own head-trained, dry-farmed estate fruit.  Production of this special blend was only 200 cases.

This shipment also includes 1 bottle of the 2007 Carmenere ($36) from Colbert Vineyard.  Carmenere is a rare grape in the central coast, but this long-forgotten Bordeaux variety thrives in the mistral climate of San Miguel and produces layered wines with overtones of chocolate and garden herbs.  This gentle giant is also unfined and unfiltered.  Only 50 cases produced.

If you would like to receive this special offering or sign up for the annual RR&E shipments, please let us know!  We'll be happy to fill your order.  Shipping will begin on Wednesday.  Customers in CA, NV and AZ will receive their packages by Golden State Overnight.  All other states by UPS.  FedEx overnight and 2-day delivery are also available for an additional fee.  Please let us know if you wish to request a Weather Hold.

As always, you are welcome to add to your order and save on shipping!

Related article:  Interview with grower Denny Colbert

Facebook Top 50 — Dover Canyon is #1!

 

For those of you on Facebook, check out the list of Facebook's Top 50 Blogs on Wine.

Yes, Dover Canyon is Number One!!  With a healthy lead on all the other wine blogs at this point in time.   And I'd like to point out that these are not just winery blogs—the list includes wine reviewers, industry insiders, wine-and-food blogs, and wine travel blogs. 

I'm sure the lineup will change, considering the other fine blogs coming up in the list—blogs like Wine Camp, Catavino, Justin Winery, McDuff's Food and Wine Trail, Good Wine Under $20, and Winecast.  Links are available on the list and I encourage you to visit some of them and find new, cutting edge, and thoroughly enjoyable wine reading. 

In the meantime, we'll be trying to keep our lead by writing regularly, posting photos of the winery and vineyard, adding more videos, and looking at life from our own uniquerky perspective.

Thank you for helping us become Number One!!

Charlie's Future

 

At Dover Canyon, we do not normally sell futures.  Futures are a commodity, in this case wine, bought for future acceptance or sold for future delivery.   For some wineries, this provides an advance cash flow, and for the consumer, a discount on the anticipated price of the wine.  However, selling futures on wine also locks the winery into its production plans.  Futures buyers normally select the vintage, variety and even the vineyard that they expect to purchase.  They may decide to buy the wine after tasting it from the barrel, and will expect to receive exactly what they tasted.

We like the artistic freedom of choosing our vineyard designated wines, creating blends, and perhaps holding back some lots for further aging and possible blending, which is why we do not offer a futures program.

Charlie Lepore is a big fan of the Benito Dusi Vineyard Old Vine Zinfandel.  Charlie, like some other Dover Canyon fans, asked for an opportunity to buy futures.  "Charlie, I don't have a program set up for that," I explained.  "We do take pre-orders a few months before release."  Charlie, however, was not to be put off so easily, and after some very creative wrangling on his part, I sent Charlie our first—and only—futures invoice for one case of Dover Canyon Old Vine Zinfandel, Benito Dusi Vineyard, along with a handwritten note of congratulations and a couple of labels signed by winemaker Dan Panico. 

Charlie framed the invoice, notes and labels, and his future hangs prominently on the wall of his office.  So I guess you could say that at any given time, Charlie can point the way to Dover Canyon's future. 

Charlie, you're the best!

 

Spring 2009 Wine Club Selections

 

We are very excited about the 2007 vintage wines!  Our spring releases include three new 2007 zinfandels and one syrah.  We hope you will visit the winery soon to try the new wines.

2007 Old Vine Zinfandel, Benito Dusi Vineyard $27

A velvety black-red color presents familiar Dusi aromas of briar, cane berries on a warm river bank, and freshly turned earth.  Classic zinfandel flavors abound in this selection from Benito Dusi’s 90-year-old vines—blackberries, cranberries, moist river earth, Jonathan apple, peppercorns, and star anise. 

Benito Dusi’s eighty-year-old vineyard is planted entirely to zinfandel, rare for a vineyard of that age.   His vineyard is located on the west side of the Salinas River in the cool and windy Templeton Gap corridor.  The heavy, gnarled, and head-pruned vines are visible from Highway 101, but don’t expect to see a sign.  Benito figures, if the vineyard’s been here for eighty years, who needs a sign?  These grapes were fermented in small open tops and punched down by hand. Dusi’s trademark spice and natural complexity are augmented by sixteen months sur lies in American oak.   “A unique Zin, very Dusi.” – Dover Dan

2007 Tre Noce ( 62% Zinfandel / 38% Syrah)  $36

Aromas of black cherry, plum and pepper lead into deeper flavors of black raspberries, kirsch and licorice in this rich, expressive release from our young, dryfarmed, headpruned vineyard.

Our estate vineyard, Tre Noce, is planted to dryfarmed, headpruned zinfandel and stress-irrigated syrah. The vineyard is planted on steep slopes in the calcareous soils of west Paso Robles, and sustainably farmed by hand.  Both the zinfandel and syrah portions produced just under 2 tons per acre in 2007. The vineyard is named for three English walnut trees that remain in the vineyard from the original El Paso de la Robles rancho plantings.  This wine was aged sur lies for 16 months, in 80% neutral, 20% new oak.

2007 Reserve Zinfandel  $38

A blend of westside zinfandel vineyards, aromas of blackberry, plum, and chocolate mirror the explosively westside zin flavors of plum, blackberry, smoky bacon, tar, and tobacco, followed by a lingering finish of licorice and blackberry, typical of the calcareous soils of west Paso Robles.  There is also a touch of pastry on the finish, due to the sur lies treatment of the wine in neutral oak.  The resulting smooth, gentle tannins and natural complexity are augmented by sixteen months sur lies in neutral American oak.

2007 Reserve Syrah  $32

Jimmy’s Vineyard, in the calcareous soils and wind-kissed evenings of Templeton Gap,  contributes flavors of blueberry, licorice, and bacon, highlighted with nuances of roast beef, and peppercorn.  Starr Ranch, in the rugged, limestone-rich foothills in Paso Robles’ Adelaida Hills range, contributes a floral minerality that balances and brightens the masculine structure of this 2007 syrah selection.  This wine was produced using small open top fermentation with Rhône-style yeast, and aged for sixteen months sur lies in neutral and 20% new French oak.

Visit our website for more information, order forms, and cellaring recommendations.

The Season We Call Crush: The Book

For those of you asking if I am working on another cookbook, the answer is, "no, but . . ."

I am working on a couple of book projects in my spare moments.  And one of them is a compilation of essays called The Season We Call Crush.  The manuscript is a collection of essays divided into three parts:  101 Other Uses for a Vineyard (vineyard and viticulture), The Magic of Crush (harvest and winemaking), and ... an as-yet-untitled part on wine enjoyment and evaluation.  I'll also be throwing in a good deal of autobiographical anecdotes, mostly humorous I'm afraid, about learning the wine business, the colorful people we've met, and working in our vineyard and cellar.

Some of the posts are featured here on the Dover Canyon blog.  The finished book will be 90,000-120,000 words.  It's currently about 30% finished.  I'm also puttering along with other writing projects (excerpt coming up), so I write on this one whenever I need a break from fiction or feel inspired to emulate Wendell Berry or E.B. White. 

The Economy and Sound Decisions

This year has been a roller coaster for our local economy, which is very dependent on tourism and wine trade. The year started off well, and our March Zinfandel Festival weekend, which coincides with the release of our spring wines, was the largest sales weekend in the ten-year history of our business. Summer foot traffic dropped with the escalating prices of gas, but at the same time we enjoyed a higher percentage of first time visitors to Paso Robles from both northern and southern California. It seems people were adventuring closer to home and staying in the state, rather than driving or flying out of state for their summer vacations. Now gas prices have plummeted again, but news of a recession is tightening wallets.

On the wine discussion boards, where wine geeks and collectors gather, attitudes toward buying triple-digit bottles of Napa cabernet have veered sharply from last winter’s aggrandized boasting over rare and Veblun-priced acquisitions, to cautious consideration of quality-to-price ratios.

What does this mean for you?

Food & Wine: Top Regions, Top Red Wines

In the Holiday issue of Food & Wine Magazine, F&W chose just TWO red wines and producers from each of their "favorite" regions—wines and producers that they felt illustrate the best and most interesting red wines from that region.

Their choices for Paso Robles are (drumroll, please!):

Basic Wine Picks

2006 Dover Canyon Winery Cujo Zinfandel ($19): Big, dark, juicy black raspberries.

Benchmark Wine Picks

2005 Turley Wine Cellars Pesenti Vineyard Zinfandel ($38): Mocha and blackberry, with plenty of peppery spice.

Both the Cujo and Pesenti case productions hover around 500-700 cases per year, so both of these zinfandels are discovered by only a few diehard zinfanatics devoted to varietally correct, raspberry-peppercorn zins.  We were pretty amazed to be chosen alongside Turley, as their overall production is much larger than ours, and Turley has national distribution while our tiny production is not enough to satisfy coastal California! 

I was pleased to notice other small productions in their lineup as well, like Paraiso Vineyards pinot noir from Monterey (which resides in my own personal cellar) and Saviah Cellars Syrah from Walla Walla.  A welcome departure from the usual nationally-distributed brands, and I think F&W deserves some kudos for supporting small producers and for helping their readership discover them!

Thank you, Food & Wine!

Fall Wine Selections Ready for Pickup!

As many of you know, we release mainly zinfandels in the spring, and Rhone-style wines in the fall.  Which means it's time to Rhone up on your wines!  This fall's selection includes a grenache blend, a silky syrah, and another rendition of the Barbarian, a zinfandel-petite sirah blend.

Each of these wines is a production of only 6 barrels.  All three wines were barrel-aged for eighteen months and bottle-aged for six months. For evaluation purposes, we recommend decanting  and leaving the wine open for 1/2 hour to an hour, or splash decanting the wine prior to serving. 

To order, check out Current Releases, and splash open our Order Form.

Weather Update:  We are trying to get orders out as rapidly as possible, but there will be weather holds when temperatures rise.  So far, we have managed to squeak out a few dozen orders to the foggy, cooler coastal communities.  The bulk of our wine shipping will leave in October, when the weather is cooler.  If you have questions about your wine membership, please email us at dovercanyon@tcsn.net. 

Recent Mentions

Wine with Asian Food: New Frontiers in Taste

This gorgeous hardbound book by Patricia Guy and Edwin Soon suggests Dover Canyon sangiovese among the US wines to be paired with rogan josh, an Indian lamb casserole (page 70).  A wine's fruit, says the authors, should "enfold the spices" which in this recipe include saffron, chilies, ginger, cloves and cardamom. 

The recipes are sorted into five chapters:  fresh and herbal, savory and rich (that's us), mildly spicy or light-smoky, spicy and smoky, fiery and sweet.  There are also chapters on 'Asian finger food for wine tasting' and pairing wine with Asian food in restaurants.   Wines are sorted into categories for quick mix and match shopping by style over variety.  Each recipe has a sidebar with Old World, New World, and Alternative wine recommendations.

Full color, full page photos illustrate how colorful and succulent a single dish can be. 

What's Stopping You?  Shatter the 9 Most Common Myths Keeping You from Starting Your Own Business

Author Bruce Ballinger—an associate professor at the College of Business Management in Orlando, FL—sent us this note with a copy of his just-published book: "The success of your blog, which I read occasionally, is a remarkable story."  In the chapter on "Getting Noticed", our winery is mentioned on pages 151-152, right there at the start of the section on blogging as a way to bring attention to a small business and to engage its customer base. 

It's a well-researched book, with plenty of anecdotes and lessons from established businesses and industries, as well as stories of entrepreneurs who made the leap from other careers or studies.  The "myth-busting" chapters have lessons for all of us, newly launched or not, on risk management, budgeting, the value (or not) of advertising, using  new ideas, and growing your business.

Los Gatos Mercury News

Writer Laura Ness covers the Paso Robles wine scene, and says, "Make sure you get to Dover Canyon Winery . . . here, winemaker Dan Panico and partner Mary Baker make some of the finest hand-crafted wines in Paso, from their unctuous viognier to the robust and jammy Cujo Zinfandel, plus outstanding old vine zins and a zin-syrah estate blend."