GOLD MEDAL- 2009 Orange County Fair Wine Competition

I was literally screaming with joy when I opened the notification letter as this is our third Gold this year. I just cracked a bottle of this Petite and thought it would be a good time to update the blog.

I knew this wine from the get go was going to be delicious and in the barrel it was tough to stop tasting. The Orange County Fair Wine Competition is the largest one of California wines in the world and therefor the most competitive. There is no charge to enter so there is typically 40-80 wines entered per category and this year there was a total of 3089 wines entered.

I am thrilled about this wine for the following reasons-

About 7 years ago I convinced my father to plant this Petite Sirah at his vineyard and I am so excited to be working with this fruit. My father has no regrets eitheras he receives more per ton for his Petite than any other grape and has sold these grapes to some excellent boutique wineries.

This is the year that I began experimenting with convection toasted French oak and was extremely thrilled in the barrel and bottle with the results.

While I am a huge fan of blending- this wine is 100% 2007 Lambert Bridge Vineyard Petite Sirah! I invited some friends in to work on the blend and we tried for hours on end to come up with a wine with a touch of Cab or new vintage Petite Sirah but we always went back to the original!!!

While I enjoy Cabs and Merlots- I am a bigger fan of the "Rustic Reds" (Zin, Syrah, Petite Sirah) so this wine was fun to make and now drink!

Just bottled this wine 2 months ago and it will only get better.

Now where did that bottle go......

GOLD MEDAL- Critics Challenge Intl Wine Competition

This is the second competition that I entered this year and the second Gold Medal which is always exciting. I recently bottled this wine so it will only get better with a few more months of aging.

2006 Christopher Cameron Vineyards
:: Cabernet Sauvignon ::
Lambert Bridge Vineyard
Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County

80% Cabernet Sauvignon 10% Merlot 5% Petite Sirah

Aged 28 months in French and American oak barrels.

145 Cases Produced

In our opinion this is the best vintage of Cab that we have seen come out of Dry Creek in the last decade. This wine just has it all- body, depth, fruit, and color! There is tons of ripe marashino cherry, blueberry,and a touch of anise.

Bottling!!!!

Yesterday- was quite the long one......... We bottled 200 cases of the Christopher Cameron 2007 "Lambert Bridge Vineyard" Petite Sirah and 160 cases of a 2006 Costa Azul Sonoma County Red Blend. I wanted to say thanks to the many volunteers that come in to help during crush and with bottling as it really is a big help!

GOLD MEDAL at the San Diego International Wine Competition!

Two well know wineries out of Napa (Markham and Franciscan) received Silver.
A Sonoma County wine deemed better than many (20-40) Napa Valley Merlots that were entered in this competition-??? How could that be?

In all seriousness- Napa Cab is phenomenal and of course has the edge (and hype) on Sonoma for that varietal but every year Sonoma wins more medals and in my opinion is a better county for a wide range of wines including- Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Sauvignon Blanc, and oh yeah- guess Merlot too!

Definitely put tons of time and effort into producing this wine so I guess in a way it feels good to be recognized. I have been out selling 6 wines currently to restaurants and wine shops and have been most impressed with this wine although many of the buyers have been preferring the Bordeaux blend. The bad part is that I only have about 30 cases of the Merlot left..............

2006 "Lambert Bridge Vineyard" Cabernet Sauvignon

On March 10, I bottled the 06 Cabernet and think it will be our best Cab yet! This wine spent 28 months in French oak barrels and I blended in 11% Merlot with 5% Petite Sirah. I thought about bottling it as 100% Cab, but really liked what the Merlot and Petite Sirah brought to the table.

In the past, blending has sometimes taken as up to four days to figure out the percentages but this time it only took about 3 hours. The second I tried this combination, I knew it was the one as it possesses great mouth feel, a deep ruby color, and wonderful flavors. There is marachino cherry and plum in the nose and palate with some vanilla in the background . It has balanced acidity and the tannins are well integrated after 28 months in barrel.

To be Released- June, 2009

Next up for bottling- the 2007 "Lambert Bridge Vineyard" Petite Sirah

I recently met with Jay and Bobby from the Linkery to blend a Meritage style Cuvee for their restaurant. I am really excited to be working with this restaurant as it one of those "can't miss" restaurants in this area of San Diego. The other reason is I think the food and wine pair very well together as my wines tend to be bigger with lots of fruit/mouthfeel and stand up well to the flavorful meats and dishes that they serve.

After trying many different blends (one of the pitfalls of the job, hehe) they created The Linkery Cuvee 1. This is a non vintage blend which has tons of complexity; the 2005 Cab brings depth, the 2006 Merlot fills in the mid palate and the newer vintage Cab showcases fruit and spice. All of these grapes used in this blend were sourced from "Lambert Bridge Vineyard," Dry Creek Valley- Sonoma County. The wine is going to be aged in Cask and will be gravity poured, which is great as these casks are reusable! This has tremendous upside as there will be no corks shipped over from Portugal, Glass trucked from Mexico, no tin capsule to be tossed, etc...... I am also excited about putting the wines in cask because I am not going to have to add extra sulfites as the wine is going to be consumed relatively quickly.

The Linkery
3794 30th St.
San Diego, Ca.
www.thelinkery.com

2008 Lake County Malbec

I am really intrigued by this varietal and am surprised more domestic wineries aren't producing Malbec as a stand alone wine. The grapes from this vineyard come from the Olaf Vineyard which is located on a steep hillside on the west side of Clear Lake. I used 3 different yeasts on the fermentation and did a 10 day extended maceration on the skins to soften the tannin and to add mouthfeel.