BLOG
So This is Christmas
Greetings snd salutations from our cabin on the hill.
We hope this update finds you well. We have a few updates to share with you during these holiday times.
The Ledge / Decker Kitchen winemaker dinners were a resounding success, both the 5:30 and 7:15 seatings were sold out and the wines paired brilliantly with the food. If you are in the Thousand Oaks area, don't hesitate to pop in for a bite and some wine. We have Grenache Blanc on tap (they bought our last keg) and several Ledge wines by the glass and bottle. For some reason our G2 Vineyard Tannat is enjoying an upswing in popularity, and we have been fielding a ton of requests for this wine. Decker Kitchen purchased the last case of the 2015 vintage and we are blasting through the last 7 cases of the 2014. It is not up in the store, but it is available by request via email by clicking here.
In other wine news, we are preparing to bottle our 2019 James Berry Vineyard Rosé, which is 95% Counoise and 5% Cinsaut. We picked it for the purpose of rosé and will be bottling about 80 cases of this wine, so keep your ear to the rail for this release. As for the reds, our 2018 Bien Nacido Syrah is on the horizon for a 2020 spring release, as well as the new MCA Cuvée, which will be a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Cinsaut. We are getting more ande more Rhône-ly, and beginning with the 2019 vintage, Ledge will only producing Rhône varietal wines.
On the vineyard front, rehabilitation is in effect, as we are preparing to fill in damaged and gopher gobbled vines. We have a hefty chunck of Syrah, Grenache, Roussanne Cinsaut and Counoise on order and will be working hard to get the estate vineyard back to it's full potential.
Ciera has been working hard on the administrative front, streamlining wine club options and making things more efficiant in general for you all. We will be hosting LedgeFest again this April 18th for all wine club members, complete with library wine offerings, new releases, live music, food and panoramic views of the Willow Creek District from the comfort of our "field of dreams", which is a large meadow just beyond our Grenache vines.
We hope to see you soon.
I'll check in with you again on January 1st, 2020.
Peace be with you!
Mark
Dec 25, 2019 at 11:11 AM
Permalink
It's All in the Movies
There are only a few seats left for our 5:30pm Ledge Winemaker Dinner at Decker Kitchen in Westlake Village this Sunday 12/22/19. If you would like to try to snap them up, RSVP here: 818.735.9577 or by emailing info@deckerkitchen.com
We will be pairing 5 wines with 5 courses, prepared by Graham Harris, owner and chef at Decker Kitchen. Graham is an old family friend who actually helped us plant our first block of Syrah here at the Adams Ranch Vineyard in 2005. We also played in a band together. We are close friends and very excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. This dinner will kick off an exclusive relationship with Decker Kitchen and Ledge Vineyards, one in which we hold regular wine tastings and winemaker dinners, as well as offer Decker Kitchen some exclusive library wines for tastings as well as for purchase at the restaurant.
Fun side note, next door to Decker Kitchen is the Regency Theater, where I onced worked as an usher tearing tickets and sweeping up popcorn. I should add that I was highly overqualified and applied for this job because the theater chain was owned by Regent Entertainment, who had just won an oscar for the film Gods and Monsters starring Ian McKellen and Lynn Redgrave. My thinking was that if I worked my ass off as an usher, I could gain employment on their productions in Hollywood. The gambit payed off and I soon found myself working on several of their productions in the art department. This eventually led to my working at Sony Pictures as a sound effects editor. This was an amazing time in my life, but one that led me to the realization that I needed to work outside, ultimately on a farm, and with any luck, our family farm in Paso Robles. Thankfully the stars aligned and I was able to invest my time and all available resources into planting and farming the Adams Ranch Vineyard. A huge factor here was that I was able to apprentice at Saxum and eventually become their first employee.
So this humble and artsy corner of Westlake Village holds a very dear place in my heart and we hope that you stay tuned for our future tastings at this restaurant and wine bar. Who knows, maybe we can pop next door and catch a flick at the Regency. I'll smuggle in the wine.
That's a wrap on this one.
Until next time, we'll see you at the movies.
MCA
Dec 18, 2019 at 11:11 AM
Permalink
That Big Fat Moon is Gonna Shine Like a Spoon
Happy 12/12/19 earthlings!
Interested in tasting Ledge wines over the hoilidays? Email us at info@ledgevineyards.com
Full moon fever is upon us.
It will actually be completely full tomorrow, 12/13/19, but you'd never guess by looking at it tonight.
It's the last full moon of the decade and it's blasting over the horizon and slipping up into the stars as I write this.
I spent today riding my broom around the wine cellar and making these final blends (to be bottled in January):
2017 MCA Cuvée (Paso Robles)
(Grenache 40%, Syrah $40%, Cinsaut 20%)
Sourced from Adams Ranch Vineyard, James Berry Vineyard, Adelaida Vineyard and Rolph Family Vineyard.
Aged 26 months in new and used French oak vessels, 300-500 liters.
15.2% ABV
2019 MCA Rosé (Willow Creek, Paso Robles)
100% Counoise from James Berry Vineyard
Slowly bladder pressed and cold fermented in a stainless steel tank over the course of 3 months.
13.5% ABV
I'll check in again at the 3rd quarter moon.
Soon,
MCA
Dec 11, 2019 at 11:11 PM
Permalink
Fields of Gold
Whelp, we did it.
We got about 30 tons of organic compost cast thoughout the vineyard just in the nick of time. It started raining like hell immediately afterwards. Close call. The last thing we needs is a big tractor stuck in the muck out there.
Next up in the vineyards before we ring in the new year is to do a vine count and continue operation rehabilitation. In the spring we will bring in 2 year old nursery vines to fill in some gaps in the vineyard.
I was really happy with how the Bunkhouse Block of Syrah performed in the cellar. The Bunkhouse is planted to Shiraz Clone 7 (Australia) and Syrah N Clone 747 (France), whereas the Ledge and Meter by Meter blocks are the Estrella clone, named for the Estralla River plantings of Gary Eberly who supposedly got the source material from the Chapoutier family's Hermitage Vineyard in the Rhône. I may experiment with other clones, depending on what is available for 2 year olds.
In other good news, Ledge made the top 100 wines of the year from critic Jeb Dunnuck, who compiled his list from over 10,000 reviews of wines from all over the world. We ranked 42.
Pretty cool.
All of the 2019 wines are safely in barrel and taste great. We are a bit more ripe across the board this year with the Adams Ranch Vineyard delivering brix around 27 and both James Berry Vineyard and Bien Nacido coming in over 28. We used a bit more new oak than usual as a result. They will soak it right up and find their zone. I am confident of that.
Excited for 2020!
My daughter has a loose tooth. She won't let me pluck it out. Bummer.
I'm enjoying the rain and my family.
Are you in need of wine for the Holidays? Visit the Ledge online wine shop and stock up. Some cool verticals up for sale.
Hope this update finds you well.
Cheerio,
MCA
Dec 4, 2019 at 11:11 AM
Permalink