Port!

Yum!

That's the first, and most repetitive thing that comes to mind when I think about our Port. Old Vine Carignane...paired with chocolate, or used in a blue cheese spread. YUM!

We're in the midst of bottling our 60 cases or so of Port that we produce...super limited...super good!

I got asked an interesting question on Facebook yesterday - what characteristic is the best about our Port? Well I took that question to the man (in this case man = winemaker extroadinare Jason De Loach) and Jason took a second to think about it, and explained that he really tries to keep the Port very fruit forward. While he strives for the maple syrup qualities that are more traditional for Port, ensuring that the core fruit flavors are present is just as important.

Stop on by and grab a bottle!

Cheers,
Kate

Hook & Ladder in Pictures

For your viewing pleasure....some behind the scenes and scenery shots....

And some Scenery...

Fall is here!

It's fall at Hook & Ladder! While the weather is still a bit warm (pushing 78 here today) the leaves are changing as the vines slowly fall asleep for winter.

Harvest is almost over for us, this year we're making our first vintage of Late Harvest Gewurztraminer, and those grapes will be in towards the middle of this week. After that - we're done with the 2009 Harvest, and the Cellar Team's hard work continues into the next phase of winemaking!

Cheers,

Team Hook

Nearing the End

We're about to the end of Harvest 2009!

50...yes...50 tons of Cabernet are coming in today, so we're in our last big push!

The cellar guys have done an awesome job this year - and we've got high hopes for this 2009 vintage :)

We've got lots in the works...more to come on that soon!

Cheers,
Team Hook

Woo hoo!

Well after a pretty wet week last week, we're back to full speed in the cellar!

Jason and his guys are bringing in Zinfandel this week - huge beautiful clusters of dark purple peppery grapes!

Jaime and Kate will be at Pinot on the River this Sunday on the grounds of Rodney Strong Vineyards in Healdsburg! Click here for discounted tickets...we hope to see you there!

With the holidays right around the corner are you looking for a gift? A bottle of Hook & Ladder wine is a great present! Check out our website for our current releases!

Hope all is well!

Cheers,
Team Hook

Back in business

Well we're all dried out...or mostly dried out...and we're returning to business as usual after the Storm!

The cellar team is getting ready for the next round of fruit coming in...lots of Cab, Cab Franc, and Zin still to come!

Candice has been redecorating the tasting room - so we can better feature all of the awesome shirts and patches we get sent.   And we're gearing up for our fall Wine Club Pick Up Party on Friday!

Hope all weathered the storm without trouble!

Cheers,

Team Hook

Raindrops keep falling on my head...

The storms are here!

We've been anticipating this weather for the past week, and we are in the midst of the heavy rains right now. We're hurried in the last of our Chard and Pinot last week, and left our Zins and Cabs to fend for themselves, and we'll bring them in after the storms.

We hope all are weathering the storm without any problems!

Cheers,
Kate

Hook & Ladder vs. Mother Nature

It most definately feels like fall....dark skies, cold weather...makes you want to sit by the fire with a glass of Russian River Zinfandel!

The rain is coming next week - so Jason & crew are working double time to get ready for the influx of grapes they're expecting to get over the next couple of days.

We're about half way through our harvest...we've finished Gewurz & Sauv Blanc, are on the last legs of Chard & Pinot, and are getting into Cabernet Sauvignon this morning.

Over at our administrative office, at the Saitone Ranch, the Zin clusters look awesome!

Things are looking good as long as Mother Nature doesn't beat us to the punch! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Cheers,

Team Hook

Getting to Know....Jason De Loach

His talent for crafting elegant and complex wines has hearned him accolades and awards, but Jason isn't here for accolades. He has a passion for winemaking. We were able to pick his brain and see what makes him tick:

Favorite Food & Wine Pairing?
I don't really have a favorite pairing, as long as the food is good and the wine is good, that's the only thing that matters to me.

Favorite Aspect of Winemaking?
I love that it's both a science and an art. I'm the kind of person who likes to get my hands dirty, and since my roots are in the cellar, I'll jump in wherever I'm needed. I'll do any job!

Any Hobbies?
I work a lot, but the hobbies I keep up with the monst are flying and building model planes, surfing, and Taekwondo. I've just started golfing, and I also have my pilots license, I wish I could do it all, but I don't quite have the time!

What do you do the day after crush?
The day after crush is teh beginning of the next phase of winemaking, we really don't have any down time. But this year, after crush, I'm hoping for a "stay-cation" with (wife) Nicole.

Favorite Vacation Destination?
Maui has been the most relaxing vacation of all time, we spent two weeks surfing and snorkeling. Australia was awesome too!

Favorite Wine Related Memory?
I don't really have a single favorite...but there is a story about a friend of mine eating coffee grounds that makes me laugh everytime I think about it. That same friend slept on the floor of the barrel room once - I've had some fun times!
I think the people I've met, and the fun I've had are my favorite industry related memories!

Harvest Fair

We had a blast pouring at the Harvest Fair this weekend! We were slammed both days, and made lots of new friends!

The Cab Franc was a huge hit...as was the Reserve Pinot :) If you haven't been out to try some, please come on by!

The guys have a rare "light" day today..."light" meaning no grapes are coming in, but they've got all kinds of sidejobs to get finished today. This week will be a busy one for us, with grapes coming in everyday from here on out!

Cheers,
Kate

Pressing & Pumpovers

Bongiourno!

Today's menu in the cellar consists of pressing and pumpovers, with a side of topping off!

Chardonnay and Merlot are what's in store for the cellar guys today. We're de-stemming and pressing our Chardonnay, and our Merlot is being pumped over. The smell on the crushpad is awesome right now!

Here are some pictures of the Chardonnay being dumped (excuse the finger in the iPhone shots):

Our big tank - a whopping 1400 gallon tank - almost full of Merlot was being pumped over by Alex and Josh

And our Pinot...the barrels of Pinot were being moved around and topped off:

Clearing Room

Wine Stained Barrels are beautiful!

Next week looks like it's going to be a busy one at H&L...not only do we have lots of fruit coming in, and fruit to press off....there are innoculations, top offs, and all the general "winemaking duties"!

We hope you get the chance to stop by and see us before harvest is over!

Ciao,

Kate

Harvest and Fair

Gimme a Harvest! Gimme a Fair! Put 'em together...Harvest Fair!

Yes it's time for the Harvest Fair! We love this fair for a mulitude of reasons:

1) Get to taste award winning wines (a certain Cab Franc comes to mind)
2) Grape Stomp Competition - it's just fun to watch people pretend to be Lucy
3) Yumm..Turkey Leg!
4) Great artisan foods and cheese!
5) Micro brew tasting (as the saying goes - it's takes a lot of beer to make great wine)
6) Music, Petting Zoo, Llama parade, and Easy Oven Bake Off

If you're in town - definately come by this weekend! We'll be there Saturday and Sunday pouring our award winning wines :)

And in case you're curious what the cellar guys have been up to? Got a couple of "action shots" this morning for your viewing pleasure:

It's a beautiful day in the neighboorhood...

It feels like Fall at H&L! Wind is blowing, it's slightly cold but the sun is out...we love this time of year!

Harvest is still going, so far we've brought in Pinot, Chardonnay, more Pinot, more Chardonnay, Gewurz and Merlot! Expecting some of our Bordeaux varietals and possible some Zin towards the end of the week :)

This weekend iss the Sonoma County Harvest Fair - pretty exciting time to be in town! We are proud to announce that we've won the following awards:
Best in Class - 2007 Cabernet Franc
Silver - 2008 Sauvignon Blanc
Silver - 2007 3rd Alarm Reserve Pinot Noir
Silver - 2006 Zinfandel
Silver - 2006 Merlot

We're really proud of Jason and his guys who are pretty much rockstars!

Cheers,
Team Hook

Gewurz

I think I overdosed on Gewurz grapes yesterday.

It amazes me how much Gewurz grapes taste like the final product!

I had a sugar rush that lasted long after I got home from work :)

Cheers,
Kate

Chardonnay!

Early this morning the boys finished up crushing the Pinot Noir...and we've moved on to the whites (for the moment) (;

More pictures to come soon!

More Crush Pictures

Yum! Pinot Noir waiting it's turn!

Into the De-stemmer they go!

Being De-stemmed

Lastly - into the open top fermenter!

We're finishing up our Pinot crushing, and are getting ready to move onto Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc...with the rest of our reds to follow! The smell in our "backyard" aka our crushpad is fantastic! Sweet juice, the beginning of fermentation...we couldn't be happier!

Hope everyone is having a great End of Summer....Fall is fast approaching!

Cheers,

Team Hook

Keeps Going...and Going...and Going...and Going...

Everytime I head to the cellar to check out the guys in action...I see visions of pink rabbits beating on drums...

got the Energizer tag line stuck in your head now? Sorry about that :)

But these guys do just keep going...and going...and going. More Pinot came in and is processing, beautiful color, a deep garnet - the flavor, sweet...with a little hint of something I can't quite get my palate around...

Fantastic Fruit.

We're gearing up for the big rush, of the guys working late into the night trying to keep ahead of the guys picking. At which point I know the cellar crew probably won't be beating on the same beat, but I think that's how it's supposed to be - each guy doing a little bit their own way under Jason's watchful eye - that's how we differentiate ourselves..

Until then, well, probably from now on, I knot I'll be envisioning our crew as Pink Energizer Bunnies :)

Cheers!
Kate

Some Crush Pictures

A quick snapshot of what the guys have been up to over the last 3 days - crushing Pinot Noir! Check out our Facebook page for more pictures!

Cheers,

Team Hook

Harvest!!

We're on day 3 of Harvest...Pinot, Pinot, and Pinot!!

Things have been running fairly smoothly, and we're off to a great start to what will be the biggest Harvest we've had! I tasted the juice of the Pinot from Los Amigos - and even as basic grape juice it's got awesome flavor :)

We've got a small crew running our crush - and if you watch them, it's almost a cross between organized chaos, and a perfectly rehearsed dance. Truck pulls in, Jesus pulls the bins off and weighs them, Greg dumps the fruit into the de-stemmer, Jon moves back and forth from the line to his lab, Josh and Alex shovel stems and tighten hoses, and Jason oversees it all. Over and over again....

If you have any free time over the next couple of months, try to stop by and see what we're up to! There aren't many places where you can actually see first hand how the process works!

Cheers,
Kate

Harvest!

Grapes are coming in tomorrow or Friday - looks like some Pinot from our Los Amigos Ranch!

Jaime and Josh are home, and Mike is in town for a couple of days :)

Lots going on here - but will have lots of pictures and information soon!

Cheers,

Kate

The calm before the storm

It's been awhile since we've last blogged...but we have good reasons!

Jaime and Josh have been across the country, back, and across again this month! Kansas, Ohio, Arizona, South Carolina, Texas....selling selling selling! Tradeshows, tastings, dinners, you name it - we did it!

Jason and the cellar crew have been bottling the last of the Zins and Tillermans and we're getting prepped for harvest! Cleaning, moving barrels, all the general maintenance that goes into getting ready for harvest.

There is an eerie calm about all of us, like we're waiting for the rush to hit...

The guys think that we're going to get our first hit around the 2nd week of September - so if you're thinking of making a trip, that is the time! We crush right outside the tasting room, so you can come take a look and see what the process is all about!

Cheers,
Kate

The Scene

Wanted to let you see a little bit of what's going on here at Hook & Ladder as we gear up for harvest, so I snapped a couple of vineyard shots for your viewing pleasure:

We're getting close to verasion, and this Zinfandel crop looks like it's going to be fantastic!

In the cellar we're getting ready for our last big bottling push before harvest, Jason and his guys are moving ahead at full steam to prepare for the next 4 months!

Jaime & Josh took on the Steamboat Wine Festival last week, and they're still in Colorado for some tastings & market work. Check back for an update from Ms. Schilling herself from the streets of Denver!

Until then...

Cheers!

Team Hook

Gearing up for Harvest

I got the chance to sit down with Jason for a couple of minutes this morning (probably the last free minutes he'll have until after harvest) to talk about what's going on in the Cellar right now, and what he's looking forward to.

Jason is definately in "all systems go" mode - he rambled off a laundry list of things to get accomplished before harvest, including: moving open top fermentors, blending the 08 Pinot, bottling some 08 Zin, sanitizing everything in sight, bottling a special Zin run (07 Saitone), and getting as much sleep as possible!

We're really looking forward to the bottling of our 08 Zin - Jason and Jon have been raving about it for the past month! We're also doing a 75 case production of 2007 Saitone Zinfandel, which we only do when the fruit is outstanding!

As Jason talked...and talked...and talked about gearing up for harvest, it was easy to see why our wine is so great - the passion that goes into it...you just don't see that at the "ginormous conglomerate" wineries!

Off to go take some pictures of the vineyards - the clusters are getting big, and soon we'll be well into verasion! I'll post those soon!

Cheers,
Kate

Taste & Travel & Tillerman

These upcoming weeks are going to be crazy busy for all aspects of Hook & Ladder!

Jason and his team are pushing forward with their last rounds of bottling before we begin harvest! Lots of bottling, and long days are ahead for the next month in the lives of our production team...

Our 3-person sales force will be logging thousands of miles over the next 4-5 weeks. Jaime will be in Colorado, Portland, South Carolina, Arizona, and New York. Josh is currently in Kansas, and will be in Texas, Colorado, Arizona and Ohio - all before he gets recruited to help Jason in the cellar. And Mike, well Mike is doing what he does best - getting the Hook & Ladder name and story out there! Mike will spend August criss-crossing the country, Vermont, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Chicago, New York, Boston...you name it!

We're doing our best to stay busy! And busy keeps us out of trouble!

In other news to report: we have moved on to our 2007 Tillerman! We are really excited for this wine, and we expect it to be just as popular (and maybe a little more) than our 2006! The 07 Tillerman boasts a slightly different profile than previous vintages with more Cab Franc and less Sangiovese. The 07 is composed of: 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Cabernet Franc, 15% Merlot, and 10% Sangiovese.

Jason is very excited for this vintage - and wants you to also watch our for the Zin we'll be releasing in the fall!

Hope you're having a great Summer!

Cheers,
Team Hook

Bottling Frenzy!

The big truck pulled in...and off they went! Jason and his crew have been bottling like crazy for the past few days. We've got brand new 2008 Chardonnay, 2007 Tillerman Red, and 2007 Estate Cabernet!

We also had our wine club party last week! We love getting the chance to have a room full of our biggest fans, and to get to chat with them :) Thanks to all for coming!

We've got big things on the horizon, so check out our website, be our friend on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter!

Cheers,
Team Hook

Pick up Party & Pork

Hi All -

This Friday 7/10 is our Wine Club Pick-up Party at the winery! We're looking forward to seeing you, and Candice is cooking up some home-made pulled pork & coldslaw - yum!

The July 2009 shipment consists of our 2008 Chardonnay, 2007 Cabernet Franc, and 2006 3rd Alarm Reserve Zinfandel.

We hope you stop by and see us, and if not, we know you'll enjoy your wine club shipment!

Cheers,
Team Hook

Happy 4th of July!

Well, really - Happy 2nd of July! We're headed out for some camping on the beach, and wanted to get another post in before we left :)

Next week is our Wine Club week, which we are super excited for...but that's another blog for another day.

We really just wanted to say "Thank You" to all the past, present, and future members of our Armed Forces (not to mention those fire & police forces)! It's because of you that we are able to do what we love to do...make red wine, white wine, and even a blue wine if we wanted!

Words cannot describe how much we appreciate your commitment and dedication to this country, and to humanity. We wish you safe days and restful nights.

Cheers,
Team Hook

Welcome!

Welcome to the brand new blog for Hook & Ladder Winery! We're excited to get this up and running, and invite you to check back often for posts from our team! You can look forward to cellar information from: Winemaker Jason De Loach and Assistant sinemaker Jon Woelfel, news from the road from our sales team: Jaime Schilling and Josh De Loach, and our "Jane of all trades" Kate Mann will fill in the rest!

If you haven't already, check us out on Facebook and Twitter!

Cheers!
Team Hook