Spilling the Beans

I've tried (more or less) to keep the name of my employer a secret. In this age of digital media, I thought it best to keep my commentary separate from the reputation of the winery, especially since negative remarks can spread so quickly throughout the Internet.

Since I no longer work there, however, I think it's now safe to reveal the name: JC Cellars. If anyone was truly curious, it wouldn't have required much work to figure it out (especially since I've posted pictures that were dead giveaways, such as the ones uploaded on September 21st).

Why now? Why reveal the name a few weeks after my last day? Well, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate published its review of JC's 2008 wines and the results are absolutely spectacular. I just had to share:

Robert Parker Reviews JC Cellars' 2008 Vintage

It would be terrific news if one day the winemaker behind all these brilliant wines, Jeff Cohn, gets his own winery and vineyard. He certainly has a knack for putting together super wines, generally from Rhone Ranger varietals, but also Zinfandel.

95+ points - 2008 Buffalo Hill Rockpile Vineyard Syrah

94 points - 2008 Smoke & Mirrors

94 points - 2008 Twist of Fate Syrah

94 points - 2008 Eaglepoint Ranch Petite Sirah

93+ points - 2008 Rockpile Vineyard Syrah

93 points - 2008 Sweetwater Springs Zinfandel

93 points - 2008 Fess Parker's Vineyard Syrah

93 points - 2008 Misc. Stuff

92 points - 2008 Iron Hill Zinfandel 

92 points - 2008 The First Date

91+ points - 2008 Sweetwater Springs Petite Sirah

91 points - 2008 The Impostor

91 points - 2008 Stagecoach Vineyard Marsanne

90 points - 2008 Ventana Vineyards Grenache

As my wife pointed out, when a wine named Misc. Stuff scores a 93, you're doing pretty well.

   

M.I.A.

My apologies for disappearing for the past month. The harvest ended rather suddenly, as we expected to get a good-sized load of white grapes in mid-November. Unfortunately, the grapes were harmed by the rains and literally disintegrated into mush when picked. We never even bothered to truck them up to Oakland.

And so my colleagues and I spent our last few days cleaning up the mess we made during the busy weeks of the harvest. We cleaned out the fermentation tanks, the racking tanks, our tools, and the cold room. We even washed down the forklift, which has been thoroughly coated in wine when the bins were emptied into the press!

The harvest of 2010 ended with a whimper, but there's more interesting info/news to come...