A couple of months ago, Bimmer Udsen found out that her husband and co-owner of Castoro Cellars winery had been selected as the 2009 Paso Robles Wine Industry Person of the Year, however she needed to keep the news a secret from Niels so the presenting of the award would remain a surprise.  In the months and weeks before the award ceremony Bimmer worked hard to keep the award a secret and proceeded to invite members of the Castoro Crew to the ceremony and of course ensured that her two sons would be attendance.

As the date approached Niels remained oblivious and everything seemed to be in place for a good surprise . . . . but then it started to rain and snow in the golden state.  Niels is an avid skier, as is the whole Udsen family, and during the week leading up to the award ceremony the whole family was enjoying some time up in the mountains at the Kirkwood Ski Resort.  As the storm got stronger and the snow began to dump Niels suggested the family stay longer, perhaps through the weekend.  At that point Bimmer reminded Niels that they had two tickets to the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance Ball on Friday and they needed get back.  Niels, who had forgotten about the ball entirely said, “We don’t need to go to that we went last year and this year it is snowing so we have a good excuse to miss it.”  At this point the family knew they were going to have their work cut out for them if they were going to get Niels back in time for the Ball.

Fortunately, due to bad weather, the mountain closed down and Niels decided it was excusable to head home to the land of no snow.  When Friday night rolled around Niels still had no idea he would be receiving any kind of award and he was unaware both of his sons were secretly changing into formal attire at the house next door with plans of surprising him at the event.  When Niels arrived at the Ball he was surprised to see so many people from Castoro at the event but he was easily convinced that is was because there were extra tickets given out this year due to a lower than usual attendance.  Then, Luke and Max arrived along with Luke’s girlfriend Lauren and Niels began to suspect something was up, however once again he was easily convinced it was a last minute thing because of the extra tickets.

At this point everyone around the table was struggling to keep the smirks from their faces.  Could Niels truly be this oblivious to what was going on?  YES.  It wasn’t until they began to announce the winner that Niels’ face turned red and he realized what had just happened.  It was truly a sight to see and there couldn’t have been a more deserving winner of the award.  Niels has done so much for the Paso Robles wine industry and community over the years and many people thought he must have already received the award, including himself.  He admitted afterwards that he didn’t suspect he was receiving the award because he thought he had already received it.  In his defense he had won a similar award before but it was presented by the Paso Robles Mid-State Fair not the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance.

To say the least, spirits are high at Castoro Cellars and we are all proud of Niels for the recognition he has gotten for all of his hard work over the years.

Til’ Next Time

Luke

Blog 1/9/10

Like any process people take pride in, the making of wine is a very intricate and time consuming process.  The journey from the berry to the bottle can be long and challenging for some grapes and rather short and easy for others, which is one of the many reasons winemaking is such an exciting challenge.  In this blog I want to focus on the final aspect of wine production, bottling.  Bottling is a very technical and amazing process that most people, unless they have spent some time at a winery, brewery etc., haven’t experienced.  Bottling is the final stage for a wine before it reaches the dinner table and let me tell you, it is quite a fascinating stage.

For the past few days I have had the opportunity to work on the bottling line at Castoro Cellars and it is truly amazing how much wine can be bottled in a single day.  On a good day of bottling at Castoro 2,200 cases of wine are produced.  That is 26,400 bottles a day and roughly 75 bottles a minute when the line is running optimally.  Watching this process unfold and being a part of it is really a crazy experience.

At the beginning of the day, around 6am., the bottling line is sterilized and prepped for the day’s bottling while the glass is organized and made accessible for bottling.  Once the line has been sterilized the next step is setting up the labeler, which is actually one of the most technical aspects of bottling.  The labels are kept on spools inside of a machine that dispenses them appropriately onto the bottles when the bottles trigger a laser sensor located on the machine.  Every different wine bottled has a different label and often uses different glass, which makes the labeling process very complicated.  For every wine there are specific placement specifications for the labels and getting them to be exactly where they are supposed to be can be tricky when the bottles are flying by at 75 to 80 bottles a minute.

Once the wine has been connected to the bottling line and all the materials are ready to go the bottling day begins.  At Castoro, the bottling lines are completely contained within mobile trailers much like the ones you see on the freeway towed behind semi trucks.  At the back of the trailer there is a loading dock where pallets stacked with boxes of empty wine bottles are loaded onto the trailer.  Once the empty glass has been loaded the empty bottles are put onto a conveyer belt that sends the bottles through the line on their journey to becoming a finished product.  On the journey through the line the bottles are gassed with nitrogen (to remove oxygen), filled with wine, corked, capsuled, labeled and finally put back into boxes and loaded onto a fresh pallet to be stored in one of our warehouses to await distribution.  The process is in essence a giant circle in which the empty glass is taken from the warehouse loaded into the bottling line, sent through the line to be put back into the warehouse as a finished product.  It is truly a fascinating process to experience and we are very fortunate to have an excellent bottling crew at Castoro who bottle fine wine day in and day out.

For more information on bottling at Castoro Cellars visit www.castorobottling.com

Happy 2010,

Luke

Blog 11/27/09

With the 2009 harvest in the bag it’s time to start the transition into post harvest life at Castoro.  For the past two and a half months the winery has been operating almost 24 hours a day and often times 7 days a week.  Only those who have worked a harvest on the cellar floor know how intense it can be and also how rewarding it can be.  Once harvest it over there is a brief period of time where it seems like no one really knows what to do because everyone has become so accustomed to being so busy all the time with truck after truck bringing in more and more grapes to be processed.

As you can imagine, in the aftermath of harvest the winery desperately calls out for some TLC and once we have all emerged from the blur that was yet another harvest we begin the process of cleaning, organizing and repairing the winery.  With so much equipment getting so much use in such a short period of time there is bound to be parts that need repairing, pieces that need organizing and plenty of things that need cleaning.  That’s why our current focus out at the winery is cleaning, cleaning, cleaning and of course organizing.  It’s not always the most fun but until every piece of equipment is ready for next year, harvest isn’t officially over.

As usual we enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving feast out at the winery this week with Niels and Bimmer Barbequing three turkeys and the rest of the staff supplying one of their favorite dishes potluck style.  The food was absolutely amazing and everyone went home with full bellies and high spirits.  It really makes a big difference to treat your workforce as family and take the time to show your appreciation for all of the hard work they put in.

Until next time,

Happy Holidays

Luke

Blog  – 11/12/09 Topic : Harvest

After a long and challenging couple of months, today marks the last day of the 2009 harvest for Castoro Cellars!!  That’s right I said it, “harvest is over!”  We wrapped up our harvest at Castoro by picking our Whale Rock Carignane and Whale Rock Charbono, two Old Italian workhorse varietals.  As we finished picking the final clusters it began to rain, which is a wonderful sign from Mother Nature that harvest is truly over.

Although harvest is over, there is still plenty of work to be done around the winery.  For the first time we are pretty much 100% out of tank space at Castoro.  We literally have full tanks of wine everywhere and it can be a bit challenging to deal with.  A lot of careful thought needs to go into every movement of wine at a time like this.  Luckily, with no more grapes coming in, we will have plenty of time to figure out what we are going to do with all of this Dam Fine Wine.  We have truly been blessed over the years at Castoro to have had such an amazing crew of dedicated workers on our team.  We really feel that we can take on any challenges that come our way and we continually are able to put more and more thought and care into the wines we make.  Most of this is thanks to our customers and all of the people around the world who enjoy having a glass of Castoro with dinner or a sip of late harvest Zin on the ski slopes to warm the soul!!

On a musical note, we just enjoyed two nights of amazing music at Castoro with Grammy nomintated Canadian favorites The Duhks.  The Duhks performed at Castoro this past Thursday and Friday and both shows were absolutely amazing.  Both nights The Duhks had the crowd on their feet cheering for more.  We were fortunate enough to have the Duhks stay with us for a couple days before the show as well as the two nights they played.  As with most touring acts, any down time is greatly appreciated and staying at Castoro was like a mini vacation from the road for The Duhks.  On Wednesday night they cooked Niels, Bimmer and Chris an amazing meal and ended the night challenging Niels to a long game of darts in the wine cellar.  Life on the road is incredibly tough and The Duhks know all about it.  They have been on the road for about 8 years off and on and about 2 years non-stop.  They play music they love and they play because they love to do it, and it really shows.  If you haven’t had a chance to hear their beautiful music you can check it out at www.duhks.com .

Til next time . . .

Stay posted,

Luke

Blog 11/3/09 Topic: Sustainability

In times of increasingly present environmental issues it can be easy, as a company, to be seen as jumping on the “environmental bandwagon” when practicing or promoting environmentally friendly behavior.  The truth of the matter is there are many companies doing just that and it is our responsibility as consumers and producers to be aware of it.  Sustainable practices are something that has been a fundamental part of Castoro Cellars since the beginning and it has been a long and challenging effort.  It is never easy to know what the best option is and what impacts different practices will have.  A big part of what we have done at Castoro Cellars is trial and error along with constant observation.  There is no right answer or golden ticket to sustainability; it is truly an ongoing effort that requires a lot of dedication and patience.  We have been growing vineyards organically at Castoro for quite sometime and like anything else there have always been struggles and challenges we have had to overcome.  Is it more sustainable to grow a vineyard organically if it requires more tractor trips through the vines?  These are the kinds of issues we face on a daily basis and with time we monitor and observe our impacts and from there we are able to make what we feel is the best decision for Castoro Cellars and our close business partner, Mother Earth.

Co-founders Niels and Bimmer Udsen, didn’t start adopting sustainable practices because they saw it as a marketing ploy, they did it because the great outdoors and having a strong connection to nature has always been an important part of their lives.  I can vouch for this as their son and someone who has been inspired to live a similar lifestyle in regards to the surrounding environment.  Attempting to be sustainable is something that should come from desire and not because everyone else is doing it.  Niels and Bimmer have that desire and because of it have been working to lessen the impact Castoro Cellars has on the planet for over 25 years

Blog – 10/20/09 Topic :  Harvest

Fall is definitely upon us here on the Central Coast and the 2009 harvest continues to be a busy one.  After having a frightening seven inches of rain last week we had another day of rain again yesterday. Luckily this time we were able to get all of our Zinfandel out of harms way and into tanks before any damage could be done to the grapes.  As I mentioned in the last blog, rain can be potentially harmful for the grapes during harvest, especially Zinfandel, so we are very glad we were able to get all of our Zin picked damage free!

Although the hours have been long and the work has been hard this harvest, the spirits remain high on the cellar floor.  I recently got a chance to chat with Chris Hawkins, one of our new cellar hands, about his harvest experience.  This is Chris’s first time working a harvest and his first time working for a winery.  He admitted to me that he knew harvest would be busy but he had no idea it would be this busy.  Chris has been working nearly seven days a week on the day shift for the past three weeks and he told me everyday has been as busy as the day before and sometimes busier.  Even though the work is hard Chris said he enjoys it because the crew is great and, as a newbie, he feels like he is learning something new everyday.  Last week he dug out his first tank and he said by the end of it he could hardy pick up the shovel.  “Honestly the work has been tough, but it’s a good tough.  My body feels great and I have learned a lot about making wine.” – Chris Hawkins.

In the world of bottling, things have been quite busy as well, with 6,000 cases bottled a few days back in a single day.  It can be hard to keep up with all of the bottling going on around here but in order to make room for all the incoming grapes we have to bottle everyday.  Soon enough things will start to slow down and as the winter approaches we will have plenty of Dam Fine Wine in the works.  Stay posted for more inside info!

Cheers,

Luke

Blog 10/13/09 – Topic: Harvest

Welcome to the first Castoro Cellars Harvest Blog!  As you can imagine harvest is well under way here in Paso Robles, California and as usual there have been plenty of surprises this harvest, including the weather we are currently experiencing.  We have gotten over an inch of rain today, which can pose quite a challenge in the harvesting of certain varietals, especially Zinfandel.  In the past couple of days we have been in a mad dash to selectively pick as much of our ripest Zinfandel as possible.  Niels put it best when he said “Zinfandel and rain really don’t get along this time of year.”  This is because the Zinfandel clusters are very tight and when the water gets into the clusters it can get into the skins of the grapes and cause them to burst. Once this happens the clusters begin to rot, which doesn’t leave you with much to work with.  Luckily, we were able to pick our Whale Rock Zin, Primitivo and Carignane before the rain hit.

Even though the rain can bring picking to a halt it isn’t all bad.  Having a break from the constant influx of grapes gives us some time for cleaning and rearranging that we usually don’t have.  Without too many grapes coming in for a couple days we will be able to move wine around, press and clean tanks and get the winery ready for another round of grapes.  After a month and a half of harvest the winery can get a bit hectic, kind of like your house after a big party, and having a couple of days to pick up the pieces can be like a breath of fresh air.

According to our Winemaker Tom Myers, even though the weather has been funky this year, the average yields per vineyard have been up about 10% and the overall quality is looking very good, which means we should be in for some delicious wines coming out of the 2009 harvest.  As I am sure you can imagine, working in the agricultural industry is always very tricky, which is partially what makes it so exciting.  We can never predict what Mother Nature will have in store for us, so all we can do is pay as close attention as possible and roll with the punches.  We are very fortunate at Castoro to have an amazing staff that will, without a doubt, make the most out of whatever conditions come our way.  We are very confident this year will be a year to remember and we plan to continue improving our Dam Fine Wines every year!  Stay posted for the next 2009 Castoro Cellars harvest Blog.

Cheers,

Luke