Tolosa Winery

Crab & Chardonnay Pictures

Tolosa's 4th Annual Crab & Chardonnay Fete was a great success. We would like to thank all the guests who attended and of course Cracked Crab of Pismo Beach for doing such an amazing job! If you attended the event and would like pictures email katie@tolosawinery.com

Cheers and we are already planning the "grand" 5th Anniversary event, which will include whole King Crabs, so make sure to mark your calendars for January 2010! 

Surveying 2008 Wines

     
On Friday January 23rd, a group of us surveyed the '08 Pinot Noir lots. This is the first step   towards making blend decisions for the Tolosa brand wines. At this stage we simply break down the wines into three categories, A- Estate or above, B – “SLO” quality, and C - bulk wine. This accomplishes two things. It gets the bulk wines out of the way and also gives us guidelines for the actual blending tastings which we will start in another week or two towards the goal of having the basic blends made in late February. The important thing about making blends early is that it allows the aroma of the wine to begin developing. As usual we will be barrel selecting as well once we get our blend lots decided.
We also tasted the '08 No Oak Chardonnay tanks. This was just a routine tasting to make sure that they were developing correctly in the tank - they were. We won't be blending that wine for a while yet. We'll keep you up-to-date in late February & March on the progression of the 2008 wines.
Best, Larry Brooks- Winemaker

Introducing Barrel Tastings!

Tolosa Winery is proud to present barrel tastings now offered on Sunday- Friday by appointment. Barrel tastings will take place in our cellar's new barrel tasting location, so guest will be able to see where the wine is made and the barrel and tank rooms. 
Tastings will include selection of 3 barrel futures that will be rotated out
every 3 months. Right now we are featuring our

• 2007 Syrah,
•  2007 "1772" Syrah
• 2007 Salaal (Syrah, Grenache)

Futures will be sold by the case (12 bottles) at a 20% discount and 30% discount for members. Futures cases will include tasting notes and one bottle from each case will be signed by our winemaker. No other discounts apply to futures purchases. Futures allocations are limited. RSVP directly to our Concierge at 805.782.0500 ext. 12 or request your reservation online at www.tolosawinery.com under Tasting Room, Tours & Education.
Barrel Tasting is $10 for Public and Free for Club Members.
Here are a few photos of the new Barrel Tasting Room:
        
We hope to see you in the cellar soon!

Menu for Hope Prize Winners!

We would like to congratulate the winner, Dr. Sofia Touami, of Tolosa's Menu for Hope Prize donation for a Tour and Wine & Cheese Tasting for six guests, along with our 10th Anniversary Magnum of Pinot Noir.

The "Menu for Hope" charity raffle raised $62,206.86 in support of the UN World Food Program! This is an amazing amount and Tolosa is happy to have been able to play a small part in raising money.

For more information of the list of raffle prizes and winners visit the following Blogs

• Chez Pim
• Vinography

Skip The Gloom and Doom

Match Those Blues With The Right Wine!

If you, like me, are tired every day of frightening global headlines, plummeting 401 K balances and soaring deficits, do what I do. Turn off the TV have a glass of wine and concentrate on the positive. On that note…. I have GOOD news for you!
For the twenty fifth week now, we’ve had not only huge increases in our tasting rooms daily sales but phenomenally successful wine and cheese Saturdays! Though pairings have been repeated, the menu and our guests for that matter, have not once been the same.
This is how it works. For $20($15 Heritage Society) we serve four artisan cheese and wine pairings. My objective is, that upon conclusion, no one is particularly struck with A wine or A cheese, but what a deft job we did creating the match.
As an example, I personally am not wild about blue cheese or wines with residual sugar, however when Valdeon Blue, a decadent, creamy rich, sycamore leaf wrapped blue cheese met in my mouth with our Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc, I have to say, for the first time since I was seventeen, I almost saw stars!
I’ve had help with this of course. Katie Noonan originally slapped me around a bit with the basics including:

-Cheese will always pair better with whites! Joanna Simon, the award winning wine writer of The Sunday(London)Times, is even more candid when she writes “How we ever came to regard cheese and red wine natural partners I cannot imagine!”

-Sweet with salt! See previous paragraph. -Like with like. Spicy with spicy. One dimensional soft triple cream? How about one dimensional Chardonnay!

 -Tangy with tangy! Goat cheese and tart Pinot Gris come to mind.

I work every Wednesday with John at Monterey Wine & Cheese Co., putting together a menu which I post later that day on the web. His help, Joanna Simons and of course “Cheese-A Connoisseur’s Guide to The Words Best, by McCalman & Gibbons, provide my inspiration. The learning however, comes from you when you visit. When I ask you “Well, what did you think of that?” I seldom get just a head nod. And that, more than anything I read, determines what might be on the next menu!

Drop in any Saturday and Jill and I will be anxious to share a new idea. We also offer reserve tasting for $10, complimentary for Heritage Society. Let’s just not talk about the stock market!

-John Shakley, Concierge
View weekly menus online at www.tolosawinery.com under calendar of events.

Tolosa Crab & Chardonnay Fete

January 24th, 2009 6:00pm

It's almost time for the 4th Annual Crab & Chardonnay Fete at Tolosa! Each year this event has been known to guarentee a great time, which is why it sells out so quickly! We only have about 20 tickets left so if you were debating it, thinking about it or putting it off you better make up your mind fast! It's really a great deal, if you've ever been to the Cracked Crab in Pismo Beach you know that they're seafood is the best in the county and if you haven't been this is a great chance to try them out! The evening is full of fun with live music, a five course meal and all inclusive Tolosa Wine! Below is the menu for the evening and like I said tickets are selling fast, so if you don't want to miss out on this great event purchase tickets online today or call the tasting room at 805.782.0500. Tickes are $100 for club members and $115 for non-members.

Menu:

Starters- 
Raw oyster bar featuring live shucked West Coast oysters
Jumbo Lump Crab Fritters with Meyer lemon aioli
Prime Filet Sandwich- Rare seared tenderloin of beef with fresh arrugla, tomato and spicy chipotle

Salad-
Local mixed greens and vegetables tossed in a light white balsamic lemon vinaigrette.

Soup-
Crab Bisque- Rich and creamy sherry based with chunks of crab. Served with warm sourdough rolls and fresh whipped butter

Bucket-
Alaskan Bairdi, Dungeness, and Gulf Domestic Shrimp steamed with red potatoes, corn and Cajun sausage.  Served with drawn butter, triple mustard and tequila cocktail sauces.

Dessert-Key Lime Pie

For questions contact Katie Noonan. Cheers!