It’s almost been a year since the current batch of wine was made; so it’s time to start thinking of bottling it!  We’re going to be doing a bottling party on a weekend at the end of summer pretty similar to what we did last year (which I think all of you attended).  We’re on track for about 26-ish bottles per person (plus a surprise from me and Leah!).  So start collecting your empty bottles if you haven’t already.  You can buy them for about $1 each if you don’t have enough.

Please let me all (as in multiple) of the dates below that you are available.  Hopefully there will be a day that works for everybody, and we won’t have any problems.

August 6th – Saturday

August 7th – Sunday

August 20th – Saturday

August 21st – Sunday

August 27th – Saturday

August 28th – Sunday

It’s really important that you’re there to bottle.  All of the wine has to be bottled at once otherwise it might spoil.  There’s a total of 400 bottles of wine, so hopefully it goes as smoothly as it did last year.

Also, you will need to bring just over two cases of empty wine bottles, so start collecting and de-labeling your empties.  Give them a rinse right after you drink them, so the sediment doesn’t cake on the bottom.

There’s a really cool party that Oak Barrel (the store that supplies our grapes) puts on in the middle of the summer.  They invite all of their customers to come and bring a bottle or two of anything they’ve made.  Everybody tastes other people’s wine.  Leah and I went last year and it was really really cool.  It’ll be 1pm-4pm on July 16th.  Ohh and it’s free too.  Feel free to join Leah and I if that sounds like fun!

Who is interested in doing this again next year?  If you’re interested, feel free to check out the grape list for this year.  The leading candidates are:

• Syrah – Amador
• Barbera – Amador
• Cabernet Franc – Lodi 

Looking forward to another successful year ….