Tolosa Winery

Sustainable Mildew Prevention Practices for Spring

With Spring approaching and rains coming and going during our last few weeks here in San Luis Obispo, we thought it would be good to discuss what we are going to be doing in the vineyards as the buds are beginning to break.
 
The key to maintaining a sustainable practice for mildew is PREVENTION. 
                                                                                                                                   
A reasonable question would be why not wait until it is found in the vineyard?  Mildew is unique, in that once it is established in the vineyard, the eradication and control of its spread can result in ten times the labor, fuel and material inputs.  Mildew can easily ruin wine quality and render individual clusters worthless and in this growing region, it will grow every year.
 
Tolosa will begin its prevention program at the start of shoot growth by completely washing the vine with a light mixture of a highly refined, pure mineral oil and water.  When applied properly, this important and sustainable practice eradicates over wintering mildew spores and starts the new vine growth free of infection.  From that moment on we begin to monitor our field weather stations to time the durations of humidity and temperatures conducive to mildew reproduction. This data is then used to model the timing of the next sprays.   

Later this spring Tolosa will remove unnecessary leaves and shoots around each grape cluster to minimize congestion.  By taking this important step, the resulting spray coverage will be complete as possible for total prevention, and therefore control of mildew.  An additional benefit of this work is that, if rain this year falls before harvest, these clusters will dry more quickly and as a result be naturally more resistant to mold and degradation.
Spring's first spray, monitoring field weather stations, shoot spacing, shoot thinning, shoot positioning into uniform upward growing tips, and ultimately the removal of leaves surrounding the developing grape cluster are all considered important practices in Tolosa's sustainable program to minimize wasted fuel, labor and material use .
 
Jim Efird, Tolosa Partner & Viticulturist

New Release: 2006 Tolosa Syrah

Just recently we have released our 2006 Syrah from Edna Ranch! It's such a delicious Syrah and pairs so well with an array of foods, even cheeses!
Many people that are familiar with Edna Valley AVA typically think primarily Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are the best grapes for the area, but we believe Syrah also stands up to the test.
Syrah vines grow in several vineyard blocks spread throughout our Estate. It grows in our coolest, as well as our warmest vineyard locations. Syrah requires much patience in the Edna Valley AVA; it is the last variety to ripen on our estate each year, and it is the wine which reveals itself most slowly in the winery.

Here are Larry Brook's Tasting Notes for our 2006 Syrah:  
Syrah’s characteristic perfume of black pepper is present in abundance, as well as blueberry, cedar, tobacco, and East Indian spices. The palate is primarily ripe fruit with hints of black walnut and toast. It is fresh and poised delicately between the concentrated young fruit and the spicy tannins. It is sassy and full of itself in the most charming way.

Pairings with the 2006 Syrah:
For this wine we recommend Duck confit or Mole enchiladas, but if you want to do a cheese course with this wine, which is very tasty, we recommend trying it with TELLEGIO-CARAVAGGIO, AZEITAO or COMTÉ, all very great with different flavors that compliment the spices and characteristics found in our 2006 Syrah.

To learn more on our 2006 Syrah or to purchase visit our website.

Tolosa in Mustang Daily's Best Of Issue

The Cal Poly newspaper Mustang Daily each year does a "Best for Cal Poly" edition. Today they released the voting results and we would like to say THANK YOU to the CP students that voted Tolosa in the top three in two categories; Best Local Wine and Best Edna Valley Wineries.  We know there is some tough competition in our area so we are very pleased to be a part of this issue.

To say thank you we are offering all Cal Poly students that are over 21, free wine tasting during the month of March, Monday - Fridays, just show your student id.

To see more on the Mustang Daily newspaper visit www.mustangdaily.net

Cheers!

Tolosa Blending Seminar

On Saturday, February 28th at 3:00 Tolosa will be hosting our 3rd Annual Blending Seminar. During the event participants will create our next vintage of our red wine blend, Mission V.  This blend was first developed during the seminar and is called Mission V, because Tolosa is named after the 5th Mission of California, Mission de Tolosa in San Luis Obispo.

The blending seminar is a great opportunity for anyone that would like a hands-on experience to learn more about red wine and blending techniques.  Guests will be seated in teams where they will be given 5 or more wines, to "play" with and blend into different percentages based on what they think the next Mission V blend should consist of. Winemaker Larry Brooks will give a brief overview on the wines and also share of few tips on blending that he has learned over the past 30 years, and then it's all up to the participants!

Once each team has submitted a wine, everyone will blind taste the different blends and vote on their top favorites. The winning wine will become our next vintage of Mission V and will be released in 2010.  The Mission V created this year will be a very limited amount due to low crops in 2009, so all guests participating will have early access to the wine at a 30% discount.

A tapas reception provided by The Garden's Kitchen, will following the blending seminar in the Heritage Room.

How many people can say they have actually created a wine? If you attend this seminar you could create the next Tolosa Mission V to share with all your friends!

$55 per person, Click here for tickets or call (805)782-0300 ext. 20.   
 

Young Winos + Tolosa Pinot

Here at Tolosa we've been having fun exploring internet's new ways of tapping into social networks and hopefully making new friends through our outreach.  A few months ago we became a member of the Young Winos network, which is an LA based network that started to bring twenty-somethings together on the topic of wine. They have discussions, events and ways to connect common interest of other winos in the "oh so powerful" millennial generation!

If you haven't heard the millennials are the largest growing generation and are the future of the wine industry. In a article by Wine Business they state, "Millennials take nearly three glasses per occasion, compared to 2.41 for generation-Xers and 2.13 for baby boomers. The report shows that millennials overwhelmingly associate wine with fun times. Millennials are also significantly more likely than older generations to purchase wines costing $20 or more, and they visit wine bars more frequently than those in older age groups. " (Read more on this article)

At Tolosa we realize that it's important to reach out to this generation through not just our tasting room, but through social networks, events and educational seminars. Recently we teamed up with Young Winos at a May Bartus Designs trunk show that took place  in the lobby bar of the Maison 140 Hotel in Beverly Hills. We are happy to hear they enjoyed the 2005 Pinot Noir and hope the event was a success. They've posted pictures and a review of the event on their blog , so we would like to say thank you for the shout out and we hope to team up for future events.

Cheers!

It's snowing in SLO County!

A week ago, on Monday February 2nd, San Luis Obispo was experiencing 80 degree weather, well this Monday morning we woke up to see the exact opposite: snow on the mountain ridges of Edna Valley!  Here at Tolosa, we are definitely welcoming this weather, because as most of us know California needs the rain. From the vineyards perspective this rain and colder temperatures is a good thing. Our vineyard manager, Scott Williams, says " the warm weather the last few weeks was causing high concern for two reasons; one being the low amount of rainfall effects our soil structure, causing it to dry out more than usual and two, warm weather speeds up the growing process of the vines and can cause early bud break."  The Tolosa vineyards did not have any damage to the vines, but if we hadn't received this colder weather and rain, we would have been highly concerned. Also some may be asking if this cold weather can now be harmful to the vines; Scott stated, "The vines are still dormant at this time, so the cold weather is not causing any harm.”

Let's just say that we're happy that the rain dance paid off!

Here's a picture taken this morning of the snow on the ridges above our vineyards in Edna Valley.

Unified on the web...

Last week a few of us from Tolosa & Courtside Cellars, along with thousands of others in the wine industry, attended the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium in Sacramento. I have to say a lot goes on there including the massive exhibit hall, seminars, company parties, eating and of course sampling good wines. There was a lot of buzz on the power of using the web for reaching customers, especially in this economy when wineries need to be as proactive as possible. As I was sitting there listening to the continued discussions on Facebook, blogs, videos, Myspace, YouTube, Wine 2.0... I thought, well if anyone can do all this what can make our web outlets different from others in the wine industry? Well I don't think there's an easy answer to that, but for starters we at Tolosa will be creating more videos incorporating newly released wines, local and national restaurants and hopefully much more. Starting tomorrow Larry, our winemaker, and I will be doing a little recording and we'll post the videos later this week, so we hope you find them useful and unique. We would also love to hear any comments on what kind of videos you our viewers would like to see? Or even better feel free to submit videos to us!

So please leave us any comments, questions, suggestions or your videos.
And check back later this week to see our new releases.  The videos will be posted on YouTube , the website and this blog.

Cheers- Katie
Oh and by the way don't forget to join us on Facebook, Myspace, Wine 2.0 & Young Winos