Tolosa Winery

Successful Roll Out the Barrels

We concluded this years four day event, Roll Out the Barrels, on Sunday May 4th, and I've finally caught up again! It was a great event that is put on by our San Luis Obispo Vintners in early May, beginning with Barrels in the Plaza on Thursday evening. I would have to say our Friday night winemaker dinner with Claiborne and Churchill Winery was definitely a highlight. We had an amazing six course meal prepared by Jose Dahan, which was incredible and complete with eight different wines. My favorite pairing would have to be the rack of lamb with the Tolosa 2004 Heritage Blend!

For Saturday and Sunday’s passport event, we decided on the Italian theme. I think we had decided on our caterer first and then centered the theme on them! Our catering company was Bello Forno, who did a great job preparing over 150 pizzas in their mobile wood fire oven! What could be better than homemade gourmet pizzas, wine and an accordion player in the background??
Well thank you to all those who were able to join us for any of the ROB events and we hope you enjoyed the wine, staff and food. Please let us know any comments or feedback you have!
Ciao- Katie Noonan

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is just around the corner, and if you don't have plans we've got them for you here at Tolosa. For the weekend of May 10th & 11th, 2008 Tolosa will be offering cheese plates that pair with both our red and white wines. Guests can enjoy these artian cheeses on our patio while relaxing with thier mom or playing bocce ball or croquet. Cheese plates will be $10 for club members and $15 for non-members. We will have tables reserved, but if you have a larger group give us a call.

Cheers!

Economic Stimulus Package Time Near

If you, like me are wondering what to do with that check in the mail, consider the following options:

-Pay off that credit card bill now so that for the next three months at least, you’ll be below your maximum amount allowed.  Now, what will that accomplish?

-Think green and for $300-$600 you can convert your old car so that it will run off a corn ethanol mix (unless you’re fortunate enough to own a McDonalds franchise allowing you to use the used French fry oil).  You may even get on Al Gores mailing list!  On second thought, the corn commodity price has increased 85% over the past 52 weeks.

-Buy basics and consider the world’s perilous commodity market.  I’m thinking water, gasoline, batteries or even jockey classic briefs-size 36 please!  On second thought, who would be that paranoid!

-Be a good citizen and shop American.  You may still think globally, but what could be better than to shop locally.  That’s it!!!!

This weekend, drop that list of chores you’ve made up and visit Tolosa winery.  Just relax and have a taste indoors or out, bring a picnic lunch, enjoy the sun and sip the “nectar of the Gods”. 

Consider these incentives to spur our economy.;
-Buy a case of wine and get 10% off. 
-Join our wine club and save 35% on the days purchase. 
-Existing members are welcome to come on by and enjoy a 20% savings.
- You can also use our online cart if your not in the area. 

What could be better than to “plow that federal check” right into the economy of San Luis Obispo County!

You too have the opportunity to be an economic stimulator.

-John Shakley

Tolosa Gives Back...

As Tolosa’s Wine Club Coordinator, I have been researching wine clubs around the nation, and have even joined a few.  Wow! There are a plethora of wine clubs to choose from!  Some are brand specific, others are region specific.  Most offer benefits such as discounts, access to limited wines and invitations to exclusive events.  Tolosa’s wine club offers all of these benefits, and more… 

With such an abundant amount of clubs, I’ve noticed that many consumers are practicing “club hopping”.  They will join a club for one year, cancel their membership, then join another club, and so on and so forth.  This has caused wine club retention to lower.  We decided to come up with a plan of action.  Commencing January 2008 Tolosa decided to create Longevity Rewards for its members:  Members active for 1 year receive $50 Tolosa Bucks, 2 years $100 Tolosa Bucks, and 3 years $150 Tolosa Bucks with an upgrade in membership to receive a higher discount.  This program not only thanks members for their brand loyalty and support, but encourages them to be more active by visiting our tasting room and shopping cart in order to redeem their Tolosa Bucks.  We have received a lot of positive feedback from members and hope to share our wines with them for many years to come.  To read more about Tolosa’s wine club, click here.

Members, we encourage you to leave any comments or suggestions regarding our new benefits!

- Brittney Blete, Wine Club & Tasting Room Manager

Tax Day Toast

Nothings certain in life except for death, taxes and Tolosa wine! Well we've put our own opinion on that saying, but we hope that you are able to toast to the completion of 2007 taxes with a refreshing glass of Tolosa No Oak Chardonnay or relax by drinking a bottle of Pinot Noir. 

And remember you don't have to feel guilty about drinking that extra glass of wine because we have our economic stimulus payment coming shortly. Cheers!

Habitat for Humanity journey for Tolosa winemaker

In March, I took some time away from winemaking to travel to El Salvador as a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity’s ‘Global Village’ program.  Kristin and I joined about 100 other volunteers from the United States, Canada, and Barcelona for a week of hard work, constructing simple, decent homes for people who need them.

Although Kristin has volunteered on Habitat trips for the past few years, travelling to India and Africa, the trips always seemed to coincide with harvest or other busy times at the winery.  This time, I was able to go, and I see why it has been such a gratifying experience for her.  We worked side by side with the family members whom will become the new homeowners, played soccer with their kids, shared meals with them, and learned from each other.  The work was hard, and the food was simple and repetitive, but we enjoyed the time that we spent, and it was amazing to see how much progress we made over the course of the week.  I think of all the great little kids that we met, and about how they will be growing up in these houses that we helped to build with our own hands, and how they will have a clean, safe home to call their own – it feels pretty good!

You don’t have to go to a different country to help other people around you – there are a lot of opportunities all around us every day.  I’m thankful that I was able to make this trip, and hope that I will have more opportunities in the future.

I guess I better say something about wine, since this is a winery blog…  A couple things that I noticed about wine in El Salvador; most of the wine was from Chile and Italy, and the few wines that I recognized were at least 2-3 times more expensive than they would be the U.S.  All the wine was served cold, even the reds, and they were brought to the table in an ice bucket.  As it turned out, that wasn’t a bad idea, as the wine quickly warmed up to serving temperature in the tropical temperatures!  (We drank a lot more of the local beer, which wasn’t bad at all, and Nicaraguan rum, which was quite delicious, and quite inexpensive!)

Lots more of my photos on my flickr.com account:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18097654@N05/sets/72157604280281956/

-NRC

Tolosa No Oak on Wine Library TV

Tolosa's 2006 No Oak Chardonnay recently was reviewed on Gary Vanerchuk's top rated and very entertaining show online. You can find the show  "Random Bag of Wines From Around the World" by clicking here.  It's a great wine show, although you have to be ready for Gary's upbeat personality and random outbursts, but it is definitely entertaining.

His website is http://tv.winelibrary.com/

Also thank you to local wine club member Paul for pointing this show out to us. Cheers!

Tolosa Staff Pruning

The Tolosa Staff, each year during the early spring months, has the opportunity to go into our vineyards with owner/vineyard manager Jim Efird. Jim has an amazing wealth of knowledge and is a great resource for our staff when it comes to learning about the vineyards. This year the staff did some cane pruning on Pinot Noir vines located near the tasting room building.

Roll Out the Barrels 2008!

Save the Date! May 1st-4th, 2008 for the annual San Luis Obispo Vintners Roll Out The Barrels Event.

Thursday, May 1st, 2008
Barrels in the Plaza, visit www.slowine.com for more information & tickets.

Friday May 2nd, 2008 6:30pm
This year Tolosa will be hosting a winemaker dinner in conjunction with Claiborne and Churchill Winery at the new Marriott catered by top local chef Jose Dahan. The six-course dinner will be paired with eight of the best wines produced by these two wineries. Dinner guests can also receive a discounted room rate at the Marriott in San Luis Obispo. Tickets are $115 pp. To purchase click here or call (805)782-0300 x20.

Saturday & Sunday Open House 11:00-4:00pm
Bon Giorno paisano!
Please join the Tolosa famiglia for an magnifico afternoon of sun, food, accordion music and lawn games. Should Mother Nature cooperate, the skies should be blue, the sun full, wind light and of course the crimson vines in full bud.
Just as in Tuscany’s Merlot region, Bolgheri, we will gather together and pour the last of our spectacular 2004 vintage, paired with wood fired pizza on Saturday by Bello Forno and delicious olives, bread and cheese on Sunday. When you tire of that, you can always dance with your partner, play soccer and bocce ball with friends or simply stretch out on your picnic blanket to nap in the sun. To purchase passport tickets visit www.slowine.com, $40 pp.

Cheers!

World of Pinot Noir & our Single Block Wines

I showed two of our three single vineyard block '06 Pinots over the past weekend during WOPN (World of Pinot Noir).  These are new wines for us and not yet released. Our intent with them is to show the widest range of structure possible from our vineyards at the highest quality level. We consider all three of these bottlings to be of the best quality, but they are wildly different in personality, you might say. I showed the most delicate one, the "Lily Gil" from block 593 first to a small roomful of amateurs and professionals during a Riedel seminar that featured one Burgundy Pinot, one Oregon Pinot and two Central Coast Pinots. All of the wines were really delicious, but the Tolosa "Lily Gil" got the most comments from Georg Riedel because it is so very different from the typical California Pinot. He was in a sense shocked - pleasantly so. He said that he didn't know it was possible to make such a delicate and complex wine in California. He was effusive in his praise.

I next showed the wine from block 597 which we call "Beyond" to John Haeger author of the justly famous book, California Pinot Noir published by UC Press. This you might guess from its name is just the opposite of the "Lily Gil". It is big and dark and well structured. We tasted it alongside the 2006 Tolosa Estate Pinot Noir for comparative purposes. Despite its fairly massive flavor weight this wine drank beautifully and I was surprised by how open and delicious it was. John liked it as well and tasting the two wines lead us into a long discussion of use of whole clusters in wine making and many other esoteric topics. Unique and individual wines such as these are a stimulant to the mind as well as the appetite.

-Larry Brooks, Winemaker