4-28-06

Dear Colorado Wine Club Member,

Budbreak, as you may have read in this month’s E-News, is about complete in the Grand Valley.  Buds are extremely important to winemaking.  What’s in a bud?  Shoots, leaves, flowers, nodes –it’s got pretty much everything it needs to ripen grapes for your wine.  It’s all compressed in microscopic detail, just waiting for the soil to warm enough to stimulate the vine to start pushing.  However, if the bud or shoot experiences a freeze and dies, there are two more buds buried in the node that will grow in its place.  The secondary bud has about half the amount of fruit as the primary bud.  The tertiary bud, in most cases, has no fruit, but the buds formed during the growing season will contain next years crop.  You can see that the grapevine is very determined to ripen grapes, and has numerous contingency plans to help it do just that. 

This month’s wines for the Vintner’s Choice Colorado Wine Club are:

Stone Cottage Cellars

This fabulous wine comes from a very small boutique winery in Delta County.  We’ve carried the wine here at the Colorado Wine Room since January.  It was the highest ranked Syrah in the blind panelist tasting, and took third place overall.  There were only about 40 cases bottled, so this is a very limited production, and we’ve already sold about 20 cases through our store.  To top it all off, the package is as classy and gorgeous as we’ve seen.  Bravo, Hellecksons!

Garfield Estates 2005 S Squared

This vintage of the S Squared is a blend of Semillon and Viognier.  It’s perfect chilled on a hot afternoon like we’re bound to start seeing here in the Grand Valley on a regular basis.  The wine is light, crisp and refreshing with great flavor.  Enjoy it with mild cheeses, and fruit before dinner, or enjoy it all by itself while visiting with friends or relatives.

As always, enjoy the wines in good health!

Sincerely,

Glenn & Natalie Foster