Brief #Harvest15 Update from #Sonoma & #SantaBarbara County #Wineries

Harvest 2015 update!  To fully appreciate the art of winemaking, VAULT29 is taking you behind the scenes during the busiest - and most exciting - time of year in wine country. Two boutique California wineries, Stomping Girl in Sonoma County and Pali Wine Co. in Santa Barbara County, have called the 2015 harvest season "a wrap." Let's take a quick look...

STOMPING GIRL

Husband and wife duo, Uzi and Kathryn Cohen, craft superb boutique pinot noir and chardonnay from top vineyard sites like Hyde in Carneros. Harvest 2015 was a wrap in late August where the grapes from Hyde Vineyard were picked and pressed marking this harvest the earliest to date. Learn more about this dynamic duo and Stomping Girl Wines.

Hyde Vineyard Chardonnay ready for press

Proprietor, Kathryn Cohen

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PALI WINE CO.

With the weather being so warm it’s another early harvest season for Pali Wine Co. They began getting grapes in mid-August! One of their highlights is that they picked their first ever harvest from their Pali Sta. Rita Hills vineyard. The staff went out before sunrise for the first pick and harvested about one ton of Pinot Noir grapes for Rosé. Learn more about this boutique winery from Santa Barbara County.

Wine Families

"Wine Mic Monday" is a VAULT29 series based on an "open mic concept" where wineries take over our blog...because every glass and bottle of wine has a story. Last week (Season 1: part 3), we recapped stories shared by wineries from the Central Coast. In Season 1: part 2, we took a look back at our stories from Sonoma County and in Season 1: part 1, we revisited Napa Valley experiences.

This week is the forth and final recap of Season 1 where we look back at family owned and operated wineries in California. Get to know Trombetta: A mother/daughter duo; Esterlina: The largest African American owned/operated family winery; Stomping Girl: An Israeli husband/wife team; and Hardball Cellars: A family's love for baseball and wine.

A Mother/Daughter Duo

It's pretty unusual to find a mother/daughter duo in the wine industry. Meet Rickey Trombetta Randcliff and Erica Randcliff: the duo who turned a home winemaking venture into a commercial endeavor with the release of their 2010 Gap's Crown (Sonoma Coast AVA)  Pinot Noir. At the start of the venture, Rickey was a home winemaker with a "learn-by-doing" approach in the vineyards. As things progressed, Trombetta eventually collaborated with California's famed winemaker, Paul Hobbs. Today, you can find Rickey tending to Trombetta's marketing, sales, and office needs, while Erica focuses on the wine production side of the business. With three Gap's Crown pinot noir vintages now under their belt, they've recently checked off one of their long term goals: adding a chardonnay to Trombetta's portfolio. Get to know more about this award-winning duo and find out what wine influenced Erica to become a winemaker.  Read more.

Largest African American Owned/Operated Winery in the US

Meet the Sterling Family: growers in Sonoma and Mendocino counties who later established their own family winery operation in 2001.  As California farmers & winemakers for 3 generations, the Sterlings have pooled their collective talents and experience from farming, medicine, law and business to drive the successful family wine enterprise. Today, Esterlina Vineyards & Winery is the largest African American owned family vineyards and winery operation in the U.S. They produce award-winning wines with international demand and recognition from their facilities in Sonoma County. Esterlina wines have been featured on White House Menus with President Bush in 2005 and 2008, and specifically requested for President Obama’s Inauguration celebrations in 2009 along with numerous industry accolades. Read more about this gem of a family.

Israel Tradition, Husband/Wife Duo

Stomping Girl Wines was founded in honor of Uzi Cohen's grandmother, who began a family winemaking tradition in Israel. Back then, Uzi was recruited to help pick the grapes during harvest on the family's vineyard property, while his younger sister helped with foot stomping. Two generations later, in 2003, Uzi and his wife, Kathryn, carried on the tradition and began making wine in their home wine cellar in Berkeley, CA, and enlisting the help of friends and their three children. Today, they are dedicated to producing vineyard designate pinot noir and chardonnay using traditional, minimalist techniques influenced by time spent in Burgundy. In addition to their emphasis on vineyard designate wines coming from family-owned, sustainably-grown vineyards, they also deliver the same top-quality pinot noir in stainless steel kegs for restaurant by-the-glass programs. Read more about this dynamic duo...

A Family's Passion For Wine + Baseball

For the Westerberg family, the passion for wine, baseball and family combine for an unbeatable combo in Hardball Cellars! Mike and Cindy are transplants from Oregon and were raised by hard working families in the Willamette Valley. In the mid 1980’s, they followed their family to Napa where they planted roots and fell in love with the Northern California wine country. Their "Coaches" who influenced their passion for wine was none other than their parents and grandparents who made wine for well over 50 years in Oregon. In the "Rookie Years," Mike spotted an ad in the Napa Register for some u-pick Zinfandel fruit on Glass Mountain Road in St. Helena. He grabbed garbage cans and took his kids along for the ride to the vineyard. Hardball Cellars has an exceptional line up of Napa cabernet sauvignon, merlot, pinot noir and chardonnay. Get to know their "Game Plan", "The X and O's" of winemaking, the "Five Tool Player"and more! Read more..

Stomping Girl

"Wine Mic Monday" is a VAULT29 series based on an "open mic concept" where wineries take over our blog...because every glass and bottle of wine has a story. This week we are proud to feature Stomping Girl Wines -- a husband and wife duo crafting superb boutique pinot noir and chardonnay from top vineyard sites like Hyde, Beresini & Lauterbach Hill.

A Snapshot of Stomping Girl Wines by Kathryn & Uzi Cohen

Uzi & Kathryn Cohen, Stomping Girl Wines

Stomping Girl Wines was founded in honor of my grandmother, who began our family’s winemaking tradition in Israel, recruiting my younger sister to foot stomp and me to help pick the grapes during harvest on our family vineyard property. Two generations later, in 2003, my wife, Kathryn, and I carried on the tradition and began making wine in our Berkeley, CA, home wine cellar, enlisting the help of friends and our three children.

Today, working in partnership with grapegrowers at top vineyards such as Hyde Vineyard and Beresini Vineyard in Carneros and Lauterbach Hill in the Russian River Valley, we are dedicated to crafting superb Pinot Noir and Chardonnay using traditional, minimalist techniques influenced by time spent in Burgundy. We produce close to 1000 cases per year in Sebastopol, CA. Active in both Sebastopol as well as our urban outpost in Berkeley, we feel extremely lucky to be able to pursue our passion.

Our current release includes the 2012 Hyde Vineyard, Carneros, Chardonnay; 2012 Lauterbach Hill Russian River Valley, Pinot Noir; and 2012 Beresini Vineyard, Carneros, Pinot Noir. 

Producing small lots of Pinot Noir requires hand punching the cap that forms on top 2-3 times a day. The grape skins rise to the top with the help of the C02 that is created during fermentation by the yeast consuming sugar. Punching the 'cap' that forms incorporates the skins back into wine below and helps in extraction of flavors and tannins.

In addition to our emphasis on vineyard designate wines coming from family-owned, sustainably-grown vineyards, we are also proud to deliver this same top-quality Pinot Noir in stainless steel kegs for restaurant by-the-glass programs.  Our gravity-filled, reusable steel kegs substantially reduce our carbon footprint: there is no empty packaging to recycle or send to the landfill and CO2 emissions from transporting the wine are greatly reduced. Look for Stomping Girl Pinot Noir on tap in select Bay Area restaurants as wine on tap becomes more and more popular!

Our limited production Pinot Noir and Chardonnay is available to Wine Club members, on our website www.stompinggirlwines.com and at select wine shops and restaurants in the Bay Area, Southern California and New York. 

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