Ranch Hands!

Ranch Hands is here! D’Aun and I, along with our friend Carrie, drove to Calistoga yesterday to pick up our 25 cases (a barrel of wine). Thought I’d share a few pictures!

We pulled into Envy Wines because that’s where Vince Tofanelli of Tofanelli Vineyards was bottling his renowned Zinfandel (I’ve previously written about Tofanelli here). Vince farms a family vineyard just outside of Calistoga that his grandparents planted in the 1920’s. Most of his fruit is sold to winemakers who demand the very best, so he actually bottles very little of his own wine. He won’t be bottling much more than 300 cases of Zinfandel this year. With such a low production, Vince can’t afford a large infrastructure, so he rents facilities like Envy Winery to create his own special blends.

We arrived in time to watch the process, which was fascinating. The bottling system is contained within a large tractor trailer — basically a portable bottling plant. Each step of the process — filling, corking, capping, and labeling — requires a great degree of precision. In fact, they stopped the process at one point because the labels were being applied slightly off center.

Vince has a specific style he is going after so the blending process is angst filled for him. He went back and forth for some time before settling on the right mix. To get the taste he wanted in this 2009 vintage, he went with about 95% Zinfandel, plus a bit of Grenache and Petite Sirah.

At first we considered getting involved with the blending process for our barrel, but after sampling Tofanelli wines for the last several years we have grown to trust Vince. Besides, what you taste in the blending process is nothing like aged wine. You really need experience to do it well.

Our 25 cases were the first to go through the bottling process. Vince opened one for us to taste — delicious! I love Zinfandel that has a lot of subtlety and isn’t dominated by sugar, and Vince is a master at capturing that. I must say, though, it was funny to watch Vince open a bottle that had only been sealed 5-minutes earlier … and he sniffs the cork! Even he laughed at that. Old habits die hard.

After her second sip, Carrie said, “This wine has a lot going on.” And indeed it does, even though Vince described it as “tight” and needing to open up. He explained that it will get better in the next 6-9 months, and he doesn’t plan on selling it to the public for a year. We all agreed the wine needed a bit more aging. Still great, though.

We loaded the wine into the back of my truck — a small project itself because getting 25 cases loaded took some maneuvering. Especially with the cargo cover over the bed (there was a bit of rain today). With the help of a forklift and Carrie’s strong back, we got the truck loaded and headed home. Actually, we did a bit of shopping at Dean & DeLuca and had lunch before leaving Napa Valley. Guess what we bought while shopping? Yup, more wine. But that’s a story for another time.

The next step for us is to label the bottles we plan on keeping. I’ve heard talk about a labeling party … which does sound fun. And it would be great to have help putting labels on 300 bottles of wine! Something tells me that if I serve wine and D’Aun cooks we’ll have plenty of volunteers. Though we’ll make sure the labels are on BEFORE we start serving wine!

 

The front is straightforward, but the back is the real fun (click it to see the detail). Each word means something to our family and contains a story. That’s how we want the wine to be enjoyed, with family and friends telling stories.

I’ve already distributed about 10 cases to friends and family. Great to have so many people be part of the process and enjoying this wine with us.

Let me know if you want some!