Flew to San Jose and drove out to check on our grapes. Very promising. We visited the vines that produced some of the Cab and Syrah that went into the SENSEI. Looking much better than last year. We’re hoping to get an extra ton this year so we can do a little bit of experimenting.
On Wednesday We visited the syrah which comprises 50% of the PRIMER PASO in Paso Robles, which looks especially promising this year. Hopefully We will be able to source the other half of the syrah for the Primer Paso from this vineyard. It would be nice to make a blend all from the same area. We then popped in to check on the Sangiovese. These are the grapes that made up the sangio portion of the NAGA. If all goes well we will also grab a few tons of cab from here. Once again, it will be nice if we can do our blends from the same soil.
On Thursday we got a bit lost looking for our cab source in Pope Valley. Very isolated, but lovely. 1 barrel of this went into our NAGA, and 2 barrels went into the SENSEI. This vineyard also has some new Sangio planted. If it looks good, we will pick up some and try it with our NAGA blend. Over all a great trip. Everything looks great. Most likely we will be doing our first crush at the beginning of September.