Thursday, March 31, 2016

Cerro Prieto's Spectacular spring

A spectacular Spring hello to all Cerro Prieto club members. If you haven't seen it yet, it isn't too late. This spring has far surpassed anything I have seen to date. Green, green, everywhere green. Birds building nests, red tailed hawks flying and mating in flight, deer, quail, turkeys....all have suddenly returned. So, too, have a sometimes visitor, the band tailed pigeons. They roost in our tallest trees by night, fly all day, take a break for lunch of delicious Live Oak acorns, and then fly and soar some more. Oddly, they have started feeding on the birdseed we leave out for the finches, juncos, titmouses, grosbeaks, and Stellar's mountain jays. Nuthall woodpeckers are working every single oak tree we have and many oaks have hundreds of acorns neatly drilled into the bark.

Coyotes more common than ever before, same for turkey vultures, eating some of the predators I have shot. The place is more like a wildlife refuge than a vineyard. I love it. Just love it. Nature everywhere, and beauty galore. Wildflowers are an all time high, and nowhere near done yet. Yellow is predominant color, but plenty of purple lupine bushes, some 20 feet across. Oh, and wild radish is doing itself proud, as is wild mustard, brought here first by the monks in the early 1700s. If one cannot appreciate the abundant beauty seen everywhere, then one is insensate. This spring with these colors is one for the books.

Oh, yes, the vines are all leafed out, since 2-3 weeks ago. Everything is setting up for another classic yr. Speaking of classics, our 2013 Syrah went out along with our 2013 Merlot, the best Merlot and Syrah made since beginning the vineyard. All precursors have been Intl Gold Medal wines, but these two, my last wines, are better yet. We shipped virtually all merlot and syrah I was aware of, but after doing a personal inventory inspection, we have more than 5 cases of '13 Syrah I will sell and 17 cases of '13 Merlot. I have a lengthy list of members who want to buy "all we have left". It will be a first come first served basis, or more correctly, first to contact me gets the wine. Also I found 4 cases of the 2011 Pinot Noir, now in its fifth and best yr that I will sell. There's probably more but that is what I found that I didn't know we had. So all the above is available all at $39/btl and will sell til gone. I will send an email around to all those who wanted some wine and others who wanted to buy everything we had. Not too sure that is correct, yet we have a number of members that said that very thing. So let me hear from you and I will be around awhile, after back surgery #16. Oh, didn't mention that Pinot Noir got written up in Wine Enthusiast this yr and was a 92 pt wine with that national magazine. That's it for now and will try and stay in contact with all who wished to buy more wine. I said 2018 will be the time to drink the 2013, but already, have taken a yr off that. So drink those beginning in 2017 or mid 2017. I will let you know exactly when and will take questions for other yrs you may have. Phone# for orders is 805 226 8448. As you know you can always email me  pasodocwine@yahoo.com.

Best regards to all,
Larry