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June 2006
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Fitzpatrick Winery & Lodge June eNewsletter
What a fantastic Spring!
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Greetings!
No complaints here, 2006 growing season is off to a
fantastic start. With plenty of deep moisture from the
extraordinary rainy season, the vines are growing
with tremendous vigor. Flowering is just beginning
and we're expecting a great fruit set and God willing
a bumper harvest in both quality and quantity.
Enough about the 2006 harvest season, Let's get re-
excited about the 2003 vintage as we're rolling out
the wines from another great vintage. In the wine
business patience is a virtue. As new wineries spring
up every where as if a big bag of seed bounced off
the back of a passing truck, their emphasis is on
futures. Why? Because they have no pasts. But wine
is all about aging and time and patience. Here at
Fitzpatrick's the bottled past is where it's at.
If you haven't been up in a while, we have released
some spectacular wines from the 2003 vintage like
our Cabernet Sauvignon and the Tir na nOg (a
Sangiovese blend) with more on their way.
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June Selections for Buy the Box Club |
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three wines selected each month at 40% off
And the June selections are: our 2001 Robert Cowan
Vineyard Zinfandel, 2001 Cab/Shiraz and the 2003
Eire Ban.
These wines are in their prime, tasting great and
perfect to enjoy with summer fish or meat barbecues.
The elegant berry-deliscious Zin will be one of your
most versatile wines to pair with almost anything and
at only $10.20 why not? Then when the coals are hot
and beef is what's for dinner, uncork the rich smooth
character of our Cab/Shiraz. Vegetarians can savor
this fermented fruit with the flavors of roasted
veggies, grilled polenta, crusty breads and aged blue
cheeses. $10.80 instead of $18 goes down even
easier. Then there's the heat of the summer that
sometimes cries out for something chilled like our Eire
Ban. This rich pear-like sauvignon blanc pairs best
with equally rich flavors like creamy pastas, cheeses
and buttery fish. Eire Ban (our Irish White) sells for a
modest price of $10 but as a Buy the Box selection is
only $6 Pretty darn good prices for some of the
healthiest (organically grown) wine on the planet.
Offer ends June 30th. You can call and reserve cases
for a later pick-up too.
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Recent Blending Trials Define a Wine's Final Direction |
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Exhaustive work but somebody's got to do it.
Before any of our wines are readied for bottling,
blending trials are conducted with me and our long-
time friend and wine consultant Mark Foster. Each
wine is evaluated as is and attempts are made to
improve its overall character through blending. I say
attempts because every once in a while a wine is so
perfect naturally that no additions are beneficial. But
more often we can improve a wine is modest and
sometimes minute additions of another wine that may
add finish, body, color or the perfect marriage of
flavors. Bench trials are done with graduated
cylinders and pipets measuring little additions until we
exhaust all the possibilities. Notes are taken and final
blends are noted. Then the work begins in the winery
on wine type destined to be bottled.
Some of you will be excited to hear that one of the
blends will be a 2005 Queen's Gold made of barrel-
fermented Chardonnay and cold-fermented Sauvion
Blanc. And we have a final blend for a summer
favorite, the new 2005 Sierra Dreams. The long-
awaited Joyce's Preoccupations, our white port, will
be blended, cold and heat stabilized and ready for
bottling soon. We tasted through both the 2004 and
2005 reds and are excited about the possibilities. So
I'll be laboring in the cool of the wine cellars for the
next several weeks making the final preparations for
bottling. Projected releases for the aforementioned
whites will be sometime in August.
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Last minute seating for Wood-Fired Oven Pizza Night tommorrow |
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Here's your chance for last minute reservations for Friday.
We got seating available for This Friday (tomorrow)
Wood-Fired Oven Pizza Night starting with the 6pm
seating. This is a great chance to be spontaneous.
Just call us at 530-620-3248 and we'll let you know
what's available.
And remember, we do Pizza every Friday. Call us
starting the Monday of the week you want to join us.
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Our Wine Fellowship Gold Member Pick-up for June has been delayed! |
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With all good intentions, our 2004 Joyce's
Preoccupations and our 2005 Sierra Dreams will not
be ready for sale until August. Disappointing for some
but I promise the wines will be spectacular and worth
the wait. So they'll be WF Gold member pick-up on
June 18th.
But for all our Gold members who would like to join me
for a private barrel tasting, stop by at 11AM on June
18th and we'll explore what's tasting good in the
cellars. RSVP just to give me a heads up at 530-620-
3248. And if you're thinking of becoming a Gold
Member that would be a good time to join.
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Contact Information
phone:
530-620-3248
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