Our Wines Are In Bottle
Looking through our previous newsletters, we realize that they are as much a chronical of our weather as they are of all that we have done in our almost two years at Tira Nanza. Such is life in agriculture that weather is always on our mind, but as crazy as it has been lately, this month we have something far more exciting to talk about: our first wines going into bottles! As I write this, it’s a beautiful day 70 degree day, and we are preparing to bottle our first vintage of Tira Nanza Viognier and Malbec Rose. The minor miracle of getting all our materials (bottles, labels and corks) here on time during huge shipping and production delays has been expertly orchestrated by Sydney, and come tomorrow afternoon these wines will be in bottle and ready nearly to ship!
Our excitement over this first bottling can hardly be contained. Those of you who have followed along have seen a solid snapshot of all the time and energy that has gone into making these wines. To finally see that hard work culminate in a finished product ready for consumption is equal parts exhilaration and relief. Bottling itself is hardly anybody in the wine business’ favorite task as it means the constant clinking of glass, monotonous work and a healthy amount of tinkering to get label placement, cork depth and fill height just right. Even still, we’ve been looking forward to tomorrow for quite some time. We are so happy with how both of these wines look and taste and there is something incredibly rewarding in putting them into bottle knowing that they next time they are opened it will be to be enjoyed by one of you.
Wines tend to appreciate a short rest between bottling and consumption so we are looking at opening up our release for purchase in early April with shipping dates in mid-April. It is a tiny bit longer to wait but will ensure that every bottle you will receive will be ready to go the day you open the box. We have finally worked out shipping compliance with every state we plan to ship to… except New York. We are expecting our final approval from them any day now. When you purchase you will either input your shipping information or you can select local pickup if you are in the area and want to come out and get your wine in person. We will be sending out the email to purchase the first release to our Allocation Members in early April followed by an email to the rest of our mailing list a few weeks later to purchase any remaining bottles. If you are unsure if you are currently on our Allocation List, please feel free to e-mail Sydney (sydney@tirananza.com) and ask. We appreciate all of your support and patience and cannot wait to get these wines into your hands!
As far as other happenings on the ranch and vineyard, the growing season is off to quite an interesting start. A beautifully rainy December yielded way to a bone-dry January but we still have received more rain than last winter. 85 degree days in early February, or what Californians know as “fool’s spring”, led a large portion of our Viognier in our upper vineyard into budbreak a full five weeks earlier than last year. Almost no sooner had these buds appeared than winter returned with renewed gusto. February 22nd brought a hail and ice storm that was enough to scare us but luckily left the small fragile buds undamaged. Then 3 days later we recorded the coldest temperatures we have yet had at the ranch, 25 degrees at our house! We were lucky that our lower vineyards were still dormant and our upper vineyards that are home to the Viognier stayed warm enough for us to escape without any significant damage.
Our vineyard development rolls steadily onward as we finalize the preparations to plant almost 6 new acres of Syrah on some of the highest quality sites our ranch has to offer. The enormous potential of these new blocks is invigorating as they will be the first new vineyards we plant on the ranch. The hope is that these vineyards will enter into production with the 2023 vintage.
As I’m finishing this letter, the bottling line is clanking away in the background completing the last wine to be bottled before ours, and by the time you read this our wines will be safely in bottle. It has been a heck of journey to get them there and we truly hope they bring you the same joy that their production has brought to us.