The show stopping wine this year was most certainly the magnums of 2006 Endeavour Cabernet Sauvignon. This beautiful wine from our estate Dry Creek Valley vineyard was aged for more than 27 months in 100% new French oak. It is truly a special wine for what was a remarkable evening of wine and food!

Meritage and the art of the blend is something we take quite seriously at Dry Creek Vineyard.
 
Looking back at the founding of the winery, Dave Stare’s passion for the wines of France inspired him to craft the finest Bordeaux-style blends in the French tradition. Our Cabernet and Cabernet-based blends have never been 100% varietal – Dave always pursued blending the best of these varietals together to produce a complete wine. Fast forward to the 1985 vintage of Meritage and our winery became the first to use the term Meritage on a wine label – something we are very proud of! 

Today, blending is alive and well at Dry Creek Vineyard. The current release of Meritage, vintage 2008, is a blend of all five noble Bordeaux varieties. The two stipulations for a Meritage wine are: 1) no one varietal component can make up more than 90% of the overall blend and 2) the winemaker must use at least two Bordeaux varietals (and the grapes must be Bordeaux based – no Syrah for example). For this wine, we source grapes from specific vineyard sites around Sonoma County – all in an effort to produce a wine that is rich, balanced and food friendly. 

We are so passionate about Meritage that Dave was also one of the founding members of the Meritage Alliance. Today, his daughter Kim Stare Wallace sits on the board of the alliance, the organization tasked with marketing and public relations efforts for Meritage wines. As of February 2012, there are more than 250 member wineries in the Meritage Alliance!

This spring, the Meritage Alliance will be pouring wine at events on the East Coast during back to back weekends in March. First, they will be at the Charleston Wine and Food festival March 1-4 and then at the Hilton Head Wine Festival March 5-10. We hope to see you there!

There is an incredible amount of activity happening in our cellar at the moment. Most folks think this time of year is when our winemaking team is dormant, just like the vines in the vineyard. This couldn’t be further from the truth! This is actually a critical time of year – affectionately referred to as “bottling season.” We know this is not the most glamorous aspect of winemaking but it is certainly one of the most important.

In fact, we are in the middle of bottling our flagship white wine, 2011 Fumé Blanc, which, by the way, tastes absolutely fantastic! Winemaker Tim Bell reports that many of the blends from the 2011 vintage are now under way. In particular, the Zinfandels are outstanding. The fruit displays wild cherry and blueberry flavors and the balanced alcohol levels promise wines that are sure to be age worthy. Cabernet and Meritage blends are also well under way. It’s early but these wines are looking to have long lives as well.

In addition to the almost daily bottling schedule, the vineyard work continues with pruning being a central task this time of year. We have several new vineyards planted in the Dry Creek Valley and are looking forward to what the future will bring!