Miner Family Vineyards Blog

The Oracle, Napa Valley Red Wine 2006

93 Points, Wine & Spirits Magazine, April 2010
“Dave Miner sources most of the grapes for this blend from Stagecoach Vineyard, planted at 1,500 feet on Altas Peak…It’s a cool savory red with fine tannin ripeness. While oak is a formidable part of the structure, the fruit tannin is what gives a lasting impression, with a complexity that includes ferrous elements and a mushroom-like fruitiness. This has the concentration and stature to benefit from ten years in the cellar.”

Premiere--Napa Valley Vintners’ Barrel Auction–is an annual tradition for members of trade that has turned into a week chock-full of pre and post-auction dinners and parties around the Valley. The Miner crew will be kicking off Premiere week with our friends at BarBersQ this Wednesday, February 17th. Make a reservation online and join Dave Miner for a mid-week Memphis-style barbeque in Napa.

Premiere Napa Valley Dinner

BarBersQ, Napa

Wednesday, February 17th

5:00 PM – 8:30 PM

Reservations Recommended

Happy Hour at Press Club
Thursday, February 11th
6pm to 9pm

The Oracle, 2006 Napa Valley Red - $15 per glass (regularly $30) 10% of all sales will be donated to a Bay Area breast cancer organization

For the debut release of our flagship wine, The Oracle, we’re picking up half the cost of a glass as part of our Happy Hour for a Good Cause. We will also be giving away two sets of courtside club seats for an upcoming Warriors game at Oracle Arena. Join our e-Miner mailing list for your chance to win.

NEW AT PRESS CLUB

~ Press Club now offers wine service by the glass (and the bottle).

~ Stay late night with Press Club’s new extended hours: Friday & Saturday now open until midnight with local DJs spinning in house.

More information on Press Club…

http://www.pressclubsf.com

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/

[MEDIA=50]

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