Miner Family Vineyards Blog

Milestone celebrations abound at Miner Family Winery as we usher in a new year and new era. It’s been ten years since our Oakville wedding and ten years since we released our first Miner wine. With landmark birthdays and anniversaries on the mind, Emily and I continue to be thankful for our great friends and incredible winery family.

In honor of the ten vintages since our inaugural 1996 release, we have created the ultimate collectors Cabernet Sauvignon (each bottle is individually numbered. Winemaker Gary Brookman selected the finest barrels to create this exceptional wine. With decadent dark fruit, mocha and savory spice flavors wrapped in toasty oak, our 10th anniversary bottling is something to celebrate well into the next decade. This wine has previously only been offered to our wine club members. Each bottle is individually numbered.

Stagecoach Vineyard, Napa Valley AVA ~ Less than 200 cases available

$125 per bottle, click here to order.

Wrap up 2009–and maybe sneak in a bit of holiday shopping at nearby Union Square–with Press Club’s happy hour on Thursday, December 17th at 6pm. As the featured winery this week, Miner will host a tasting of rich winter reds: 2006 Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon and 2006 Stagecoach Merlot. The $11 tasting of two wines includes a complimentary cheese pairing featuring Cabot Cheddar. Jaime will be minding the tasting bar and can suggest wines that will pair well with your Christmas rib roast or  New Year’s Eve cracked crab.

Press Club Holiday Hours

Christmas Eve: Retail shop only: 12-5pm
Tasting Halls: Closed
Christmas Day: Closed
New Years Eve: Open until 9pm
New Years Day: Closed

One of the joys of the season at our house is taking stock of the cellar in anticipation of opening special wines with friends and family. While celebrations this year come after tumultuous times, we want your wine selections to be uncompromising in quality. We invite you to enjoy Miner wines in the coming weeks and then tell us about your experiences. Whether by email or in person, we always enjoy hearing from you.

We’ve put together two ideal six-packs featuring our most popular winter reds and all-weather whites. As a gift for a friend, it’s a great introduction to Miner wines. As a treat for yourself, it’s an unusually great price for our always premium wines.

All Red Six-Pack ~ $258  $129
2 bottles of 2006 Miner Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville
2 bottles of 2006 Miner Merlot, Stagecoach Vineyard
2 bottles of 2007 Miner Sangiovese, Gibson Ranch

All Weather Whites Six-Pack ~ $200 $99
2 bottles of 2007 Miner Wild Yeast Chardonnay
2 bottles of 2007 Miner Napa Valley Chardonnay
2 bottles of 2008 Miner Viognier, Simpson Vineyard

For guaranteed delivery before Christmas all orders must be processed before Friday, December 18th. Also, be sure to check out other items in our online store including Miner gear and glassware for a little something extra from Santa.

Best wishes this holiday season,
Dave & Emily Miner

Miner teamed up with the NHL once again to be an official wine partner for the Winter Classic. These limited release wines–Napa Valley Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon– were made exclusively for the third installment of the Winter Classic to be held January 1, 2010 at Boston’s famous Fenway Park. Over 40,000 hockey fans braved the cold to watch their favorite players battle it out at Wrigley Field for the ‘09 Winter Classic. We’re guessing this season’s game will be equally popular (and frigid). Get together with your favorite hockey fans and open a few bottles of Miner NHL wine while you watch the Boston Bruins face-off against the Philadelphia Flyers on New Year’s Day.The Miner NHL Winter Classic Wines are now available on our website:

http://www.nexternal.com/miner/Category13

Miner will donate 15% of all NHL wine sales to the Hockey Fights Cancer charity.

Another outstanding harvest season has come to a close and so we’re celebrating with friends and fans at Press Club in San Francisco next Tuesday. Come hang out with our favorite winemaker Gary Brookman and get the inside story on this year’s harvest. Try current release wines (we’re talking Gary into bringing barrel samples) and check out this very cool urban tasting room (if you haven’t already).

More information on Press Club…

http://www.pressclubsf.com/

Come Get Happy at Press Club, October 29th 6-9pm and Support a Great Cause

Swing by the Miner tasting bar at Press Club (our San Francisco outpost) for a special happy hour event this week honoring breast cancer awareness month. Taste our top tier wines, The Oracle and Garys’ or Rosella’s Pinot Noir, and we will donate a portion of tasting fees and bottle sales to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The $13 tasting of two wines includes a complimentary cheese pairing featuring the Cypress Grove Truffle Tremor.

Drink Pink All Week Long
If you can’t join us for happy hour on Thursday, please drop by any day this week to taste some great wines and support this wonderful cause. Miner and other participating wineries at Press Club will donate a portion of this week’s sales to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Meet the Maker on November 17th, 6-8pm

Press Club and Miner are celebrating the end of the harvest season with a meet the winemaker event. Come hang out with our favorite winemaker Gary Brookman, and get the inside story on this year’s harvest. Taste great wines, and mingle with celebrated winemakers on Tuesday, November 17th.

More information on Press Club…

http://www.pressclubsf.com/

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Now that we are well into the 2009 harvest, here is a run down on grapes we’ve brought in thus far at Miner Family and a quick assessment.

Day 1 of harvest came after Labor Day (a rarity for us) with the arrival of just over 5 tons of Sauvignon Blanc from Oakville Crossroad Vineyard. We will produce 350 or so cases of SB, which is down from the 800 cases we made in 2008. Also during week one, we brought in some Tempranillo and Grenache from Mike Naggiar’s Vineyard in the Sierra Foothills. Beautiful, ripe, and tasty, these two reds were pressed off skins and are now in barrel.

All of our Viognier from Simpson Vineyard has been brought in: 75 tons this year and down from the 100 tons in ‘08. Fueled by Rutherford Grill ribs and cornbread, our fierce night shift crew (Wes, Ben, and Gabrielle) pressed Viognier until the wee hours (think 3am) for six consecutive nights. We barreled down some of our Viognier but the majority is slowly fermenting in tanks. After being kept at finger-numbing temperatures, our Rosella’s Vineyard “777″ Pinot Noir has now started to ferment in half-ton bins in our warehouse. A whopping 325 cases worth of Carneros Pinot Noir from Sunset Vineyard came in this year - an indication that vineyard yields would be up,and indeed yields look like they are up across the board for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Case and point, our first block of Chardonnay to come in from Stagecoach Vineyard yielded 33% more than last year and Hudson Vineyard Chardonnay in Carneros also came in with yields above average. We will have plenty of top notch Chardonnay to go around this year and we’re planning on doing 3 vineyard designated Chardonnays: Hudson, Hyde and Genny’s Vineyard.

We brought in just over 5 tons of Marsanne from Stagecoach Vineyard last week for our La Diligence bottling (a partnership with Domaine Francois Villard/Rhone Valley, France). As for Napa Valley reds, it’s looking like they will be ripe soon and we will be prepared for an onslaught in the next week as Cabernet Sauvignon yields are likely to be high.

The winery is starting to smell good as we approach the harvest ‘09 half-way mark with around 250 tons in so far. Until next time, when we come up for air…or beer

Gary Brookman
Winemaker, Miner Family Winery

Click here to view or purchase photos of our annual concert event from Brackett Photography. If you missed the show this year, be sure to sign up for our mailing list to receive information when we announce the date for the Miner Benedetto Concert/Summer 2010. You can still purchase our 2006 Miner Benedetto Cabernet Sauvignon through our online store.

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Miner’s first harvest “off the grid” is now officially underway. We put our 1,750 photovoltaic modules to work Tuesday to crush the first few tons of fruit for the 2009 vintage. Freshly picked Sauvignon Blanc in requisite white bins arrived late morning from Oakville’s Crossroad Vineyard and the entire winery staff came out in celebration. Dave Miner led the annual champagne toast to crush - one that would be the inaugural harvest powered by our solar array. Of the nearly 50 solar power systems installed at wineries in Napa Valley, the Miner array ranks as one of the most high-profile and largest solar projects. It seems only fitting, that in Dave and Emily’s decision to adopt solar power that the winery comes full circle to the original inspiration for the Miner label - the winged sun god - represented on each bottle of Miner wine.

Miner Family Winery’s Solar Array

Specifications
• 1,750 Sharp 216-watt photovoltaic modules
• 1 Advanced Energy Solaron 333 inverter with integrated 480v transformer
• UniRac Solarmount aluminum PV rails
• Oriented 215º (SSW) at 30-degree tilt
• Array surface area: approximately 30,700 sq. ft.
• Peak generating capacity: 323,374 watts
• Annual production: 529,668 kilowatt-hours
• Enough to power 50 CA homes or 3,234 100-watt light bulbs

Environmental Benefits
- CO2 mitigation equivalent to planting 72.2 acres of trees
- over the next thirty years Miner’s solar array will prevent the emission of over 16 million pounds of carbon dioxide
- Remove the equivalent of 35 cars driven 15,000 miles/year over 30 years

Economics
- Annual savings: $91,471
- Current electric bill: $0

Miner is now running exclusively on solar power.

Click here to view current solar production status.

Miner’s solar power project was designed and managed by Sunlight Electric sunlightelectric.com

Dave Miner is heading south to San Diego for a spectacular six course feast paired with six of Miner’s finest…

Dinner with Dave Miner at Wine Vault & Bistro, San Diego
Wednesday, August 26th
RSVP ~ (619) 295-3939

Pre-dinner reception from 5:45 to 6:30
Dinner starts promptly at 6:30
$59.50 + tax and gratuity

Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho
Ceviche of Sea Bass
2008 Miner Viognier, Simpson Vineyard

Japanese Purple Clams, Bay Scallops + Bacon Sautéed in Garlic Butter
2007 Miner Napa Valley Chardonnay

Roasted Wild King Salmon
Black Truffles + Parmesan Fingerlings | Truffle Jus
2007 Miner Rosella’s Vineyard Pinot Noir

Sweet Corn + Pancetta Agnolotti | Vermouth Nage
2006 Miner Stagecoach Vineyard Merlot

Grilled Hanger Steak | Creamed Spinach Croquette
2006 Miner Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon

Chile Braised Bone in Short Ribs | Smoked Eggplant Purée | Roasted Figs
2005 Miner “The Oracle” Bordeaux style blend

Please make your reservations directly with Wine Vault & Bistro at 619-295-3939. Please leave a message with the best time to return your call if you get a recording as calls are returned promptly.