This Spring, Fenestra installed a new solar power system that is used to power the winery. We are the first winery in the Livermore Valley to install such a solar power system.  The system was installed by SolarCity and can supply up to 16 kW of power.  The system is installed on the south facing roof of the winery and can supply 75-85% of the winery's power needs. Click here for the Fenestra Press Release. Check here for more pictures of the solar power system.  (Flash Version Here)

Over the winter, Fenestra grafted about one acre of the Syrah grapes over to Grenache. The new Grenache graft is in the northeast section of the Syrah vineyard that is to the right as one drives into the parking lot. The first fruit is expected in 2009 with the first full produciton in 2010.  Nova Vine Nursery supplied the grafts, which originated from Budwood and Tablas Creek. With the new addition, Fenestra will now have about nine acres of Syrah, Mourvedre, and Grenache. Click here for more pictures. (Flash version found here)

We have an interesting and exciting group of new releases: the 2005 Grenache and the 2005 Pinot Noir, both from Livermore and the 2005 Alvarelhão from Lodi. The grapes for our first bottling of Grenache came from Rik Hansen’s vineyard off Arroyo Road, surrounded by houses. I really like this wine. It is fruity, spicy and full
of flavors.

We have been making Pinot Noir from Tenuta Vineyard (near Fenestra, off Kalthoff Common) since 1998 and have shown that this finicky varietal can produce an excellent wine in Livermore Valley. Our 2004 vintage won a Gold Medal
at the 2007 S.F. Chronicle Wine Competition, and previous vintages have won awards as well. Alvarelhão is an obscure varietal grown originally in Portugal, but we get our grapes from Silvaspoons Vineyards in Galt. Previous vintages were made in small quantities and sold only to the members of our wine club. This is an unusual wine — very fruity, smooth, with little tannin and a unique flavor profile.

We will be offering tastes of the following wines (all from the 2006 vintage): a Cabernet Franc from Ghielmetti Vineyard; two Petite Sirahs, one from Ghielmetti and one from Ruby Hill; two Cabernet Sauvignons, from Thatcher Bay and Walker Vineyards; and a Tannat from Silvaspoons Vineyards.

Most of you are probably wondering, what is Tannat? It is grown mostly in southwest France where it is a major component of blends, particularly the “black” wines of Madiran. Interestingly, it is the principal wine grape grown in Uruguay. It produces wines that are darkly colored and tannic. I included this wine not because I think it is a fine wine, but because I thought people would like to try it. We won’t bottle it as a varietal but will use it for blending into True Red. The Cabernet Franc is a big, imposing wine with deep color and good structure. This wine should age well. Both of the Petite Sirahs are very good wines, but I think the one from Ghielmetti Vineyard is better with very dark color, full body and rich flavors.

We are also releasing the 2004 Livermore Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2003 Livermore Valley Merlot. Both were made from grapes grown by Scott Burkhart of Thatcher Bay Vineyard. The Merlot is also available in 375 ml bottles. When we were supposed to be bottling the 2003 Port, someone (me) hooked up the hose to the Merlot tank instead of the Port, so we have Merlot in half-bottles labeled as Port. Therefore we will have to re-label it. All of the 2003 Livermore Valley Cabernet Sauvignon was lost in the Mare Island warehouse fire, so the 2004 vintage is being released.

The other two new releases are the 2005 Malbec and the 2005 Touriga, both from Silvaspoons Vineyards, which were the Fall Fanatic selections. The Malbec is a little lighter than previous vintages, but the Fanatics still love it. Try the Touriga if you are looking for something different from the usual California red; it is a unique wine. It is a blend of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and Tinto Cão.

We made a small amount of a new wine this year, Torrontes, from Silvaspoons Vineyards. It is a popular white wine in Argentina, and is a cross of the Mission grape and Muscat of Alexandria.

I have been impressed with the quality of the grapes we have gotten from Ghielmetti vineyard, which is on Reuss Road off Tesla Road. Last year we got Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Franc and Petite Sirah from there. This year, in addition, we are getting Malbec and Mourvèdre.

Overall the quality of the 2007 vintage should be good, with the red wines being better than the white wines.

We have several exciting new releases, including some that were poured at our barrel tasting in February. New dry white wines (all 2006 vintage) are the Livermore Valley Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon; the Lodi Verdelho; and the Contra Costa Sauvignon Blanc.

Verdelho, a new varietal
Verdelho is a little-known Portuguese variety used in making Madeira wines. We made it as a fruity, dry and crisp wine with no barrel aging. It is the perfect summer
wine. Ron Silva whose vineyards are near Galt grew the grapes. Although this is our first vintage, I intend to continue producing this delightful wine.

Two Sauvingnon Blancs

You will be able to compare the two Sauvignon Blancs. The Contra Costa wine comes from Tom Bloomfield’s vineyard and it is more assertively varietal than the Livermore Valley bottling, which comes from the new Ghielmetti Vineyard on Tesla Road. The latter wine is richer and more elegant.

A New Dessert Wine — Sweet Viognier!

For those of you that like more fruity wines, we are releasing the off-dry 2006 White Riesling at 2.3% residual sugar, and a luscious dessert wine, the 2006 Sweet Viognier at 5.5% residual sugar. Also we will release the Lodi 2003 Petite Sirah.

Our 24th Annual Barrel Tasting featured 6 wines: 3 whites and 3 reds. For the whites, there will be a comparison of Sauvignon Blancs, one from Brentwood and one from a new vineyard in Livermore Valley. The other white being tasted is Verdelho, a Portuguese variety that we get from Silvaspoons Vineyard near Lodi. Guests will also be able to sample a 2005 Barbera, a 2005 Grenache and the 2005 Zinfandel. All of these wines were made from Livermore Valley grapes. If you are not familiar with Barbera, it is an Italian varietal that is noted for high acidity. These Barbera grapes were grown by Rios-Lovell winery; the Grenache came from Rick Hansen’s vineyard off Arroyo Road, and the Zinfandel was grown by Sblend Sblendorio at his home vineyard off Mines Road.

We are very excited to announce that Fenestra received several awards at the 2007 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, including best of class and double gold for the 2004 Mourvèdre! Overall we received four golds, two silvers and three bronzes. Many of these wines have limited availability, so hurry to get yours soon!

San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition

Double Gold 2004 Mourvèdre, Estate, Livermore Valley

Best of Class 2004 Mourvèdre, Estate, Livermore Valley
Gold Medal 2005 Viognier, Contra Costa Co.

Gold Medal 2004 Pinot Noir, Livermore Valley

Gold Medal 2004 Touriga, Lodi, Silvaspoons Vineyard

Silver Medal 2005 Chardonnay, Livermore Valley

Silver Medal 2004 Tempranillo, Lodi, Silvaspoons Vineyard

Bronze Medal 2005 Riesling, Arroyo Seco

Bronze Medal 2002 Merlot, Livermore Valley
Bronze Medal 2002 Port, Lodi, Silvaspoons Vineyard

You will be able to taste two samples of the 2005 Chardonnay, one that has gone through malo-lactic fermentation and the other that has not. Malo-lactic fermentation lowers the acidity and creates a more complex wine. Also you will be able to compare barrel samples of 2004 Touriga Nacional and Tou-riga Francesa as table wines. In addition, we will pour samples of older Ports. We have barrels of older wines that are intended for Tawny Port, going back to 1998, made mostly from Zinfandel, Petite Sirah and Syrah.

Interested in what we poured at  recent Barrel Tastings? Here is the 2005 and 2004 barrel tastings.

We will be releasing True Red ™* Lot 19 * at our Barrel Tasting Feb. 18, 19 and 20, 2006. Lot 19 was bottled January 6, 2006, much earlier than normal because we had been out of True Red since late November due to the loss of most of Lot 18 in the Wines Central Warehouse fire Oct. 12. Like its predecessors, Lot 19 is a complex blend of mostly Rhone varietals with Carignane as the principal component at 23% and other varieties like Mourvè-dre, Petite Sirah, Grenache, Zinfandel, Merlot and Syrah comprising 8 to 14% each. I think Lot 19 is a worthy successor to Lot 18.

The other new releases are the 2003 Touriga from Silvaspoons Vineyard (Lodi) and the 2004 Dry Rosé. The Touriga won a Double Gold and a 98 at the 2005 California State Fair. Previously this wine was sold only to the members of our wine club, the Fenestra Fanatics, but now it is being released to the general public. It is an outstanding and unique wine. There is a 3 bottle limit per customer. The 2004 Rosé is a bit lighter and crisper than the ’03 vintage, and was made from 50% Syrah and 50% Mourvedre.

Many of you have probably heard or read about the fire at Wine Central on Mare Island that occurred October 12 of this year. We were stunned when we read about the fire because Fenestra Winery had about 5000 cases of wine stored there which is presumably is at a loss. Altough our wine is covered by insurance, that is not going to replace the lost wines we were aging for sale to the public. The biggest blow was the loss of most of our remaining True Red™, *Lot 18* (1232 cases). *Lot 18* is one of the best True Reds. Becuase we only had 150 cases on hand at the winery at the time of the fire, True Red™, *Lot 18* is limited to three bottles per customer until we run out.

Apart from the True Red™, *Lot 18*, we had many other red wines stored at Wine Central, including most of the 2001, 2002, 2003 Estate Syrah and most of the 2002 (and all of the 2003) Livermore Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Many of these wines were very good.

For more information on the fire, check out:

SF Chronicle story of the fire

Fire deliberately set? (and also here) (and a lot more here)

We are releasing the 2004 Chardonnay from Livermore Valley, the 2003 Tempranillo from Silvaspoons Vineyards near Lodi, and two dessert wines: a white, the 2004 Late Harvest Viognier from Tom Bloomfield's vineyard near Brentwood (375ml bottles only) and the 2000 California Port (375 and 750 ml).

The Chardonnay is a blend of wines from two vineyards - Dr. Griest's vineyard at Tesla and Vasco Roads and Tenuta Vineyard off Kalthoff Common. The 2003 Tempranillo is the first general release of this wine. Although we produced one in 2002, it was available only to our wine Club, the Fenestra Fanatics. Our new Port is a blend of three varietals: about half of Zinfandel, and a quarter each of Syrah and Petite Sirah.

We are releasing the new True Red (Lot 18). Lot 18 is even better than Lot 17; it has a greater amount (33%) of Syrah in the blend, and therefore bigger body. It has already won a Gold Medal (at El Dorado County Fair Wine Competition). The other new releases are all in short supply and are former “Fanatic” wines: 2004 Semonnay, 2003 Malbec and 2000 Estate Syrah Reserve.

Like our previous Semonnay blends, this one has 57% Chardonnay and 43% Semillon, from Livermore Valley vine¬yards. The Malbec, which is from Silvaspoons Vineyards, got a Gold Medal and Best of Class of Region (Lodi) at the California State Fair. I selected a section of our Estate Syrah vineyard that was riper for the Reserve batch and that wine was in newer barrels for a longer period of time than the regular Estate Syrah.

We have hired a new Assistant Winemaker, Brent Amos. Brent was formerly Assistant Winemaker at Fritz Winery. We welcome Brent to Fenestra and look forward to working with him. Our previous assistant winemaker, Adam Mettler, went to work for his family's winery and vineyards. We were sorry to see him go.

Pinot Gris/Grigio is a clonal variation of Pinot Noir. When these grapes ripen, the skins take on a gray or light brown color. Known as Pinot Gris in France, it is usually made as a fatter, rounder wine, whereas Italian Pinot Grigio is usually leaner and more crisp in style. Our wine is more in the light Italian style.

Our 2004 Semillon comes from a new Wente vineyard near the Wente Visitors center. Our previous vintages came from the old Figoni Vineyard, but the vines declined and were pulled out. This wine continues our tradition of producing fine Livermore Valley Semillon.

In addition to the white wines, we are releasing the 2002 Cabernet Franc, 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon from Smith & Hook Vineyard and the 2003 Dry Rosé. Both the Cab Franc and Cab Sauvignon were previous Fanatic Selections. The Cabernet Franc is an elegant wine, but in short supply. We didn’t make any Cab Franc in 2003 or 2004 because the yields were very low from the vineyard (owned by John Kurtzer).

After a relatively light Cabernet Sauvignon from the 1998 vintage, the 1999 vintage marks a return to the big, bold and distinctive wines from Smith and Hook Vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands in Monterey County.

Like out previous Rosés, the 2003 vintage is a blend made from Rhone-style varietals.

We sampled two white wines and three red wines at our 22nd Annual Barrel Tasting held on President’s Weekend February 19, 20 and 21, 2005. The white wines were Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc from Tom Bloomfield’s vineyard near Brentwood in Contra Costa County. We have been buying Viognier from Tom for several years now, and it has been quite successful, so we thought we would try these other two varieties as well.

For the three red wines, we selected two Cabernet Sauvignons and a Merlot from Livermore Valley vineyards. The Merlot and one of the Cabernets were from Thatcher Bay Vineyard and the other Cabernet is from Matt and Clare Walker’s vineyard on our side of the valley. Thatcher Bay Vineyard is owned and managed by Scott and Lisa Burkhart, and is located near the intersection of South Vasco and Tesla Roads. Walker Vineyard is a new planting and is close to Tenuta Vineyard on Kalthoff Common.

Not only was the 2004 crush early, but it was short and intense. Normally the two months of September and October are when we crush most of the grapes, with occasional lots coming in at the end of August, and not uncommonly, some in November. This year we crushed our first grapes August 6, and had finished by the end of September.

Most of the grapes came in during the first two weeks of September and it was a very hectic time. Because of the hot dry weather, many of the grapes were quite ripe and high in sugar (25o Brix or higher). Although ripe grapes usually produce flavorful wines, they also present problems for the winemaker.

High sugar musts (crushed grapes) yield high-alcohol wines and may lead to sluggish or stuck (incomplete, stopped) fermentations. Stuck fermentations are susceptible to bacterial spoilage. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is usually added to prevent such spoilage, but one doesn’t want to add it until the wine has gone dry and completed malo-lactic (ML) fermentation. High alcohol and cold weather also inhibit yeast and ML fermentation. So the winemaker has the dilemma of trying to get the fermentations completed while avoiding spoilage.

This is the earliest crush, by far, that I have seen. We crushed our first load of grapes, about 4 tons of Pinot Gris from Brentwood, on August 6. Since that first load, we have crushed 3 tons of Sauvignon Blanc, 4 tons of Pinot Noir, about 6 tons of Viognier and 4 tons of Grenache, all before August 21. The Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc, and Pinot Gris all came from Tom Bloomfield’s vineyard near Brentwood, the Grenache from Silvaspoons Vineyard near Galt, and the Pinot Noir from Tenuta Vineyard in Livermore. So far, the quality has been good to excellent.

New Wines
Our new releases are the 2003 Sauvignon Blanc and the 2001 Pinot Noir. Both wines were produced from Livermore Valley grapes. Dr. Bud Greist, whose vineyard is on the corner of Tesla and Vasco Roads, grew the outstanding Sauvignon Blanc, and Ron and Nancy Tenuta grew the excellent Pinot Noir grapes. We crushed only 1.3 tons of the Sauvignon Blanc, so it is a very limited production, only 83 cases. However,
we produced a fairly large amount of the Pinot Noir-- 350 cases. Previous vintages, starting with 1998, yielded only 100-150 cases and they were sold to the members of our wine club, the Fenestra Fanatics.

Rhone Rangers
We are members of the Rhone Rangers, an organization of American wineries devoted to the production and enjoyment of Rhone-style wines. As a matter of fact, I am on the Board of Directors. A group of Bay Area member wineries are establishing a local chapter, and Thomas Coyne and Fenestra Wineries are hosting a summer event on July 31. See our Calendar of Events for details. We urge you to join the consumer group of the Rhone Rangers, currently called “Sidekicks” and share the pleasure of the Rhone wines--Syrah, Petite Sirah, Viognier, etc. We make six wines, including True Red, that are Rhone varietals or Rhone  blends.

Last year at our barrel tasting we poured 2002 Alvarelhão and 2002 Tempranillo. Both are Portuguese varietals grown by Ron Silva of Silvaspoons Vyd. I thought that people would like to try these again, one year later. Rarely do we bottle 100% varietal wines; instead I blend in other wines. You will be able to taste the unblended wine and the blended wine as I intend to bottle it.

People ask me “how are the grapes this year”? It is difficult and premature to give a simple, straightforward answer to this question. First of all, the new wines need a few months to clarify and lose their young “greenness” for a winemaker to be able to properly evaluate them. Overall, however, I would say that it should be a pretty good vintage. Obviously some wines will be better than others. The Cabernets and Merlot from Livermore Valley are particularly promising. We got Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon from Thatcher Bay Vyd. (just off Tesla Rd), owned and operated by Scott and Lisa Burkhart. Also we got Cabernet from a new vineyard in the Vineyard Estates (Ruby Hill) owned by Matt and Claire Walker.

More Portuguese Varietals!
We are also continuing and expanding our production of Portuguese varietals from Silvaspoons Vyd. near Galt. As table wine, we produced Tempranillo, Touriga Nacional and Alvarelhão. Port wines were produced from Touriga Nacional, Touriga Francesca, Tinta Cão and Souzão. In general, these wine have good color and
interesting flavors; it will be interesting to see how they develop and how well they blend together.