In our most recent blog, Winter at Durell Vineyard: A Time of Contrast and Renewal, we visited with Rob Harris, Director of Vineyard Operations, as the task of pruning was underway at Durell Vineyard. We now turn our attention to the winery and other big news that has unfolded over the past several months, including proprietor Bill Price’s purchase of Gap’s Crown Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir Vineyard (our first vintage will be in 2012)! Read the full Wine Spectator story by CLICKING HERE.
And now, the rest of the story, as we prepare to share some very exciting times at Three Sticks for 2013!

In the Winery: Racking, Bottling & Blending
The winter months in the winery are generally consumed with racking barrels from the previous vintage and bottling wines from the vintage prior to last. The racking process consists of carefully siphoning off wine from one barrel, to remove it from the lees, to a clean barrel. Lees are deposits of dead and/or residual yeast. As a small winery, bottling wine is done with mobile bottling lines that are built into the back of a semi-trailer truck. When the truck backs in, it’s all hands on deck to bottle, cork, cap, label and box. Whew!

This is also the time when we sequester the team for a series of meetings to select our Sonoma Valley Cabernet Sauvignon blend. The games have now begun for the 2010 vintage to find that “just right blend” sourced from multiple mountain vineyard blocks that include Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec and Petite Verdot. Early in 2012, we visited with Winemaker Don Van Staaveren to learn his blending process, which we covered in the blogs Three Sticks Cabernet Sauvignon & the Art of Blending - Part I & 2.

Hospitality Rising
As many of you know, Three Sticks Wines acquired The Vallejo-Casteñada Adobe in 2012. Considered one of the oldest occupied residences in Sonoma, the quaint home is located just off the beautiful town square. We are relocating our administrative offices to the property summer of next year, and will use the existing dining room and living room to host private tastings by appointment only for our allocation members (we will not be open for public tastings), as well as to provide a space for displaying items of local historical interest on both a permanent and rotating basis.

With our new home, we’ll have many more opportunities to share special moments with our friends and fans, which means we needed just the right person to manage these special occasions and to be your liaison to Three Sticks. With that, we’d like to introduce you to Hayden Schmidter (pictured here), who will handle all things hospitality and take the lead with allocations for our 2013 new releases. Hayden can be contacted at Hayden@ThreeSticksWines.com or by calling (707) 996-3328 x105.
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The Three Sticks Team