Hi from Beltane Ranch Wine! Gold Medal, Sustainability Award, Barrel Aging and Blending....

Beltane Ranch. First Wine, First Year, First Gold.

Hello friends of Beltane Ranch Wine,
Welcome to our mid-winter update. Our 2010 Sauvignon Blanc is maturing beautifully in anticipation of a late spring release (and release party!). In the meantime, see what's new with the 2009 and at the ranch...
North Bay Sustainability Award

We welcomed our California State Assemblymember, Jared Huffman to the ranch this month and are honored to have received his North Bay Sustainability Award. We spent over an hour touring the ranch and discussing the property's diversified agricultural background as well as our current projects including a ranch-wide composting program. We enjoyed meeting Huffman and his team and ended our visit with a tasting of our...

San Francisco Chronicle Gold Medal Winning Wine!

Our 2009 Estate Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc (our very first wine) was awarded a Gold Medal at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, The Largest Competition of American Wines in the World! More than 5,000 wines were judged by 60+ professional judges over the course of 5 days. We will be pouring our gold medal winning wine at the public tasting tomorrow at Fort Mason in San Francisco. Very little of the 2009 Vintage remains! Come taste it alongside additional gold medal winning varietals from other wineries. February 19th from 2pm - 5pm.

Tickets available online.

Upcoming: 2010 Beltane Ranch Estate Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc

The 2010 Vintage is maturing beautifully. After a partial stainless-steel tank fermentation, the wine was moved to new and neutral French oak barrels to complete fermentation and then age sur lies until this spring's bottling. At left, our winemaker Kevin Holt and Alex sample varied blends from the lots of Beltane Ranch Sauvignon Blanc. After a long, mostly cool growing season followed by a late summer hot spell, we harvested different vineyard blocks on September 29th & 30th, 2010. Each day's harvest was kept separate to allow us some flexibility in determining our final blend. The new vintage blend shows many of our trademark rich, crisp and fragrant characteristics as well as some favorable new refined flavors. We look forward to releasing the 2010 vintage in late spring. In the meantime the little that is left of Winemaker Kevin Holt takes a barrel sample our 2009 is available by the glass at El Dorado Kitchen in Sonoma and directly from us....pairs wonderfully with in-season Dungeness crab! The 2010 Vintage aging in French oak Barrels

Vineyard Report

The vineyards are all pruned and the buds are just beginning to swell. We're back to some beneficial rainy days after enjoying several unusually warm and sunny days. This cool, rainy weather is best for the vineyard and the level of the water table, and will help ensure the buds don't break too early. We expect bud break in early to mid march, at which point frost watch begins.

Winter Gardens and Scenery

We've had some gorgeous warm clear days this winter and the poppies, miner's lettuce, and mustard are all a little ahead this year. Here are some photos of the season. See the full album.