Author Archives: Doug Williams

2015 Recap

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Winter 2015 Vineyard
2015 was a remarkable year at Turtle Vines!

– We started the year getting a wonderful review of our 2013 Pinot Noir from The Prince of Pinot.
– Our 2014 Sauvignon Blanc was a hit at Eight Restaurant and sold out!
– We are now selling grapes to Hanzell Vineyards, one of the oldest and most respected Pinot Noir wineries in the United States.
– Mother nature reduced our 2015 grape harvest by 60%, but should produce an amazing vintage!
– We finished the year by having 2 restaurants carry Turtle Vines Pinot Noir on their wine list. Muir’s Tea Room here in Sebastopol and Millennium Restaurant in Oakland (the #1 rated Vegetarian restaurant in the World)
– Lastly, we continue to get the love and support from our many friends, family, colleagues and supporters of our vineyard and winery!!!

We hope your 2015 was just as eventful and we wish you a wonderful 2016.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Turtle Vines

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Version 2

Order today or Tuesday and enjoy our 2012 or 2013 Pinot Noir for Christmas with free shipping on orders of 6 or more bottles. We will be taking orders until 12/18 for your New Years celebration.

PS Turtle Vines dish towels make great stocking stuffers!!!

ORDER HERE

In addition, we are pleased to announce that our 2013 Turtle Vines Pinot Noir (89 Points from the Prince of Pinot) is now available at Millennium Restaurant in Oakland. Millennium was recently named the #1 Vegetarian Restaurant in the World by the Daily Meal! In addition you can purchase it locally at Muir’s Tea Room in Sebastopol and…we were also featured this summer at Eight Cuisine and Wine Restaurant.

Due to our restaurant commitments, only 3 cases of the 2012 and 8 cases of the 2013 Pinot Noir are available for sale, so order soon! Sorry but the 2014 Sauvignon Blanc is sold out 🙁

2013 Turtle Vines Russian River Valley Pinot Noir is 80% Pommard and 20% 667, 13.9% alcohol, pH 3.79, TA 0.58, 5% whole cluster fermentation, 13% new French oak. Drinkable now through 2018. Retail price, $38 a bottle.

The Prince of Pinot: 88-89 Points “Moderate light cherry color in the glass. Aromas of red cherry, spice, and Herbs de Provence. Light in weight, but flavorful, with a good mid palate attack of cherry and raspberry fruits complimented by a hint of oak. Light on its feet and easy to cozy up to, with a refreshing cut of acidity on the finish.”

2012 Turtle Vines Russian River Valley Pinot Noir is 80% Pommard and 20% 667, 13% alcohol, pH 3.9, TA 0.58, 5% whole cluster fermentation, 13% new French oak. This feminine-style wine has the taste of ripened strawberry, currant, and cassis and is drinkable now through 2017. Retail price, $34 a bottle.

2015 Fall Wine Announcement

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2013 PN

Turtle Vines – Fall 2015

Greetings from Sebastopol!

California in the News
With much of California suffering from drought and fires, we feel quite fortunate to be in Sebastopol. Although the “Valley Fire” just north of Calistoga is a little over an hour away, we were never in danger. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the many fire victims that have lost their homes and belongings.

Although California has been in a drought for four years, the aquifer that supplies our home and vineyard is pretty full. Of course we are doing everything to conserve, like letting our beautiful lawn die, so that we can save what we need for our crops. The way we farm, our grapes use very little water.

Harvest
2015 was our 4th harvest and vintage. Where does the time go? Unusually high temperatures in the spring produced a very early “bud break”. This was followed by a month of cool and damp weather. All this resulted in very small berries. The good news is that small berries make great Pinot because of the increased skin to juice ratio. The bad news is that it reduced our anticipated tonnage by 55%.

Grape Sales
Besides making and selling Turtle Vines wine, we also sell some of our grapes. This year we are happy to announce our relationship with Hanzell Vineyard, one of the pioneer wineries in Sonoma County. In fact, they have the oldest continually producing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vineyards in North America! Our grapes will go into their non-estate Pinot Noir that will be available nationwide at select high-end restaurants in a few years.

2013 Turtle Vines Pinot Noir
We are very pleased to announce the release and immediate shipment of our 2013 Russian River Pinot Noir. 2013 was a wonderful growing season with a warm but not hot summer, followed by a cool and dry fall that was perfect for Pinot Noir fermentation. We could tell this was a special vintage at harvest and it continues to get better with age. The wine is smooth and fruity and finishes with a hint of acidity, typical of Russian River Valley Pinots.

Here’s how the Prince of Pinot describes our 2013 Pinot:
The Prince of Pinot: 88-89 Points “Moderate light cherry color in the glass. Aromas of red cherry, spice, and Herbs de Provence. Light in weight, but flavorful, with a good mid palate attack of cherry and raspberry fruits complimented by a hint of oak. Light on its feet and easy to cozy up to, with a refreshing cut of acidity on the finish.”

How to Buy
We are offering the 2013 Turtle Vines Pinot for $38 per bottle. Shipping is free with an order of 6 bottles or more. Buy a case and, in addition to free shipping, you will receive a Turtle Vines Collectors edition dish towel.

PURCHASE NOW

We still have 4 cases left of our 2012 Pinot offered at $34 per bottle with the same shipping and towel offer.

Other News
Our Turtle Vines 2012 and 2013 Pinot Noir, as well as our 2014 Sauvignon Blanc was selected by Eight Restaurant of Sebastopol for their “Wine Down Wednesday” this summer. It was a fun event and gave us a chance to showcase our wines. (See picture below)

Due to limited availability, our Sauvignon Blanc is no longer available for direct sales but can be enjoyed at Muir’s Tea Room in Sebastopol, while supplies last, along with the 2013 Pinot Noir.

Doug and Joanne Williams
www.turtlevines.com
408-209-8745

Eight wines on table

Wow, How Can Harvest be Right Around the Corner?

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Veraison 2015

 

We have veraison!!! (grapes turn from green to red)

What does that mean:
– I have to finish any final preparations to the vineyard before the nets go up in 3 weeks…drop week canes, final sprays, leafing, etc.
– With the light crop I have this year, looks like harvest will be the end of Aug.
– I need to bottle my 2014 Pinot Noir to free up space for the 2015!!!

BTW, my new harvest estimate is:
– 3 tons Pinot Noir
– 250 lbs Merlot
– 180 lbs Sauvignon Blanc

Where did the year go? I know I’m getting older but it seems like I just finished making wine from 2014.

IT MUST BE SUMMER IF WE ARE DRINKING OUR SAUVIGNON BLANC !!!

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Joey with 2014 SB

 

Some people can tell it is summer by which flowers bloom, or how much daylight we get…but we can always tell it is summer the first time we open a bottle of the previous years Sauvignon Blanc.  This year was no exception…yesterday we opened our 2014 Turtle Vines Sauvignon Blanc !  We think it is our best vintage yet.

2015 Harvest Predictions based on Bud Break

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May 2015 grapes

Last year my harvest prediction was only off by 3%, so it is time to go out on a limb and see what we will get this year.

First…when will we harvest?  This year our Bud Break was 2/25/15 and Bloom was 4/21/15, both of those were 2 weeks ahead of last year…and the vines are growing like crazy.  However, it has been much cooler than the last 2 years for much of the last 6 weeks which should have slowed growth down…but it doesn’t look like it.  The real prediction will come at veraison, but that is not for a months…so as of now I’m predicting Sep 2nd, 2015 for the Pinot at 24 brix.

Now…how much.  Last year was 3.8 tons and this year the clusters look healthy and large.  The Pommard clone at 100% and the 667 clone is around 80%.  So…3000 vines at 3.5 pounds/vine at 90% = 4.73 tons.

In addition we should have 240 pounds of Merlot and 300 pounds of Sauvignon Blanc which we will harvest the end of September.

Stay tuned to see how my predictions work out!

 

Sprayer Troubles!

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Sprayer Fan

I used this “Homemade” ATV sprayers for my vineyard the last 3 years, and last month the fan axel broke.  What did this mean?  For 3 weeks I had to back-pack spray to prevent powdery mildew.  For those of you not familiar with this…You fill a spray pack with 4 gallons of water with organic spray material, like Stylet Oil, and then pump it to pressurize it continually and walk with 40 pounds on your back for about 5 miles.  Not a lot of fun…but it should prevent disease later in the year.  The good news for me is it has not been to warm, so the disease pressure is low!

Finally after waiting for 2 weeks for the replacement fan, I got it up and running last week and it seems as good as new.

 

What’s going on the last Month at Turtle Vines?

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May 2015 row

Well…we have been busy here here at Turtle Vines the last few month.  I will just catch you up on the highlights!

For my Birthday this last January Joanne gave me a Vinmetrics 300 so I can now do pH/TA and Sulfur tests on our wine and grapes during harvest season.  We tried them out and compared them to our local lab and found it to be quite accurate and pretty easy to use, although I had to channel my high school chemistry lab (thanks Mr Fletcher).

We bottled and labelled our 2014 Merlot…sorry not for sale as we only had 4 cases, but if you are lucky enough to be in town, I’ll open up a bottle.  It is the perfect pizza wine.  Last week I labelled our 2013 Pinot and spun capsules on the tops.  I REALLY like this wine, as does the “Prince of Pinot”, so if you want some order it fast when I release it in the next few weeks.  We also bottled, labelled and capsuled our 2014 Sauvignon Blanc (8 cases).  This year it is much more like a traditional Sauvignon Blanc since we had more Clone 1 than last year.  And I researching an easy way to make Champagne on a small scale!

Lastly, as you can see from the picture above, the vines have grown like crazy this year.  Not only did Bud Break and Bloom happen 2 weeks ahead of last year, but the last 6 weeks were perfect for plant growth…warm with a few instances of rain.  We have finished shoot thinning and moving wires…but we now have to shoot straighten to prevent powdery mildew, hedge the top at 6.5′ for the perfect amount of foliage, leaf and weed whack around the base.  Hoping to finish these by the first week of June, and then the vineyard will be in great shape for the rest of the year.

 

 

Flowering 2015 – So early!!!

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We are almost 2 weeks ahead of last year for Bud Break and now Flowering…looks like an early harvest unless we have a cool summer.  This is the first one I have seen this year and as you can see from the picture below, it is on one of the healthiest canes…already to the third wire.

My guess right now is we will harvest around the 23rd of August this year…normally time for Champagne Pinot.

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