As promised, FiddleFest was a fiddlin’ good time! Thanks to all who joined us at the barn at Fiddlestix Vineyard for, hands-down, the best FiddleFest ever! Theresa’s chocolate extravaganza cake tasted as good as it looked and the Hitching Post II wowed us again with their grilled culinary delights. Of course the real show was the selection of the wines on the table! And for those of you who weren’t able to join us, click here to see what you missed. Many thanks to Marvin Bernstein and Bob Dickey for the visual documentary that truly captures the moment. A big thank you also goes to Kathy Marcks Hardesty for her fabulous comments (click here to read all about it!) in the New Times SLO highlighting the event.

And now back to the vineyard! I am duly excited because it appears that the vineyard is somewhat recovering from this year’s spring frost damage. More than usual, second crop is emerging (about 20% in the affected blocks), but as always, it will be removed when we do our green drop at about 80% veraison. In my mind, it is definitely worth the reduction in fruit in order to maintain even ripening and to achieve the highest quality fruit out of the vineyard. That’s why we make such good wine!

In the cellar, I have diligently tasted through all of the ’07 reds with the help of my award-winning staff (which required a blind tasting of each and every barrel and is not nearly as easy as it sounds!). I am happy to report that we all agree that there are more Lollapalooza-potential barrels than ever before and, in addition, two possible Doyle barrels! Seven Twenty Eight has been blended and put back into barrel and boy are we exited!

As you know, the 2005 Doyle first goes out to our Stradivarius Club and then will be released to the general public on November 1st. Click here to be put on our wish list and be sure to specify the number of bottles you would like.

Stay tuned for more updates on the vineyard as we prepare for the 2008 harvest…and I might even share stories of my immersion studies in Oaxaca, Mexico. Cheers!