If any of you were at the Harvest Festival this past weekend, I’m sure you’ll agree with me when I say that it was an absolute blast! So many happy people everywhere I turned and such a good atmosphere. Not to mention, we had just about perfect weather. Nice and warm with clear skies and little to no wind.

We kicked off the 2011 Harvest Fest at Castoro this year with a Friday night “Barefoot Barrels Bash” dinner catered by local favorite, Thomas Hill Organics. The food was amazing to say the least and the wine wasn’t too bad either! We were also lucky enough to be serenaded by the Barflyz, a group with members from the Steve Miller Band. All in all it was a great way to kick off this festive weekend.

On Saturday and Sunday the grape stomping continued along with live music by Soul Sauce (they were really fun). It was really great to meet a bunch of new people and see lots of familiar faces from over the years. One of the biggest hits over the weekend was definitely the barrel tasting. It’s really exciting to try wine straight from the barrel for a couple of reasons. First of all, it looks pretty darn cool, and second of all you get a hint of what’s to come and what the aging process is like for different wines. I was personally very impressed with the upcoming Zinfandel Zinfusion and the Whale Rock Pinot Noir, which is a first for us from that vineyard. Another really fun wine from the barrel was the 2011 Viognier, which is still fermenting as it was only picked about a month ago. This one really caught people off guard, as it was cloudy in color and very fruity on the nose. Trying the Viognier like that has gotten me very excited to try the finished product.

All in all it was another great Harvest Festival weekend and we survived the party, which is quite a feat when it lands in the middle of the busiest time of the year for us! Thank you all so much for coming out and celebrating the good life with us and please come back soon!

Cheers,

Luke

P.S. The photo of the two drinking from the Barrel wands are Niels and Bimmer our fearless, but fun leaders : )

In my last blog I wrote about the impact of climate and weather on the harvest and how this year we are experiencing a year of low yields and exceptional quality. This continues to be the case and as of late we have been blessed with amazing ripening weather! Warm dry days with little to no wind is the kind of weather that will get our reds off the vine before we run into more trouble! Earlier this week it was 102 degrees in San Luis Obispo, just one degree shy of their record! Yikes!

As of now pretty much all of our whites have been picked and although the yields have been way down, the quality is very high and that is really the most important thing. This week we have been picking Zinfandel from our Dos Viñas vineyard, which is a 30-year-old vineyard and the first Zin we have picked in 2011. If all goes to plan, the rest of our Zin will be next followed by Merlot and finally our Cabernet. Our Whale Rock Pinot has also come in and is looking to be a real gem. This is only the second year we have harvested Pinot from our Whale Rock vineyard in Templeton, which means we have not yet released the first vintage but when we do, be on the lookout because this is a great wine!

In other exciting news, the Harvest Festival is right around the corner, taking place October 21st-23rd. Friday night we are having a “Barefoot Barrels Bash” with dinner provided by Thomas Hill Organics and music by the Barflyz. Tickets are on sale now so don’t miss out! All weekend long there will be live music, grape stomping, barrel tasting and of course plenty of Dam Fine Wine! Please check out the events page on our website for more details on this fabulous weekend. http://www.castorocellars.com/events.php

Cheers,

Luke

As I’ve written many times before, we farmers are truly at the whims of Mother Nature, which is an amazing and challenging reality. Last year we experienced the latest harvest ever at Castoro and this year is right on par with last year. Cooler than normal summers being a huge factor in this shift.

This year we are experiencing another challenge on top of the late ripening of the fruit. Back in April many parts of the Paso Robles appellation were hit with a brutal frost, which left a lot of damage throughout certain vineyards. Until now the extent of the damage was relatively unknown, but we will be the first to tell you now that it is not good! On average, our yields this year have been significantly down from years past and as Niels put it “big crops tend to get bigger and small crops tend to get smaller!” For example, we usually get 3-4 tons per acre on our Chardonnay, this year we got less than a ton per acre and there is really nothing we can do about that! Another favorite, our Blind Faith Pinot Noir comes from two separate blocks and one of them literally has little to no fruit this year (yikes)!

As of now we are about 20% of the way through harvest and even with the grim figures we remain positive and optimistic out at the winery. Resilience is very important in Ag Business and we have been doing this for a very long time. Even though the yields have been extremely low, the quality has been very high on everything that has come in and we are excited about what it has to offer. As I mentioned, one block of our Blind Faith Pinot Noir is looking very sparse but luckily the other block is yielding some good fruit, which will allow us to keep this wonderful wine in production (however small it may be)! If all goes to plan our Blind Faith Syrah will be coming in tomorrow and the BF Zinfandel is looking very strong as well.

With rain in the forecast this week we have more challenges ahead, but rest assured our Dam Fine Crew will make the most of this harvest, however small the yields may be. With that said, expect 2011 to be a harvest of great quality and low quantity!

Cheers,

Luke

I know it’s harvest time, and usually my blogs this time of year are harvest related, but I wanted to take a minute to write about an event Castoro has been involved with the past few years. Niels, having grown up in Ventura California, loves the beach and loves surfing. As a kid he surfed daily and often spent time in the Ventura hills, camping and exploring with friends. Although he settled in Paso Robles he never lost his love and appreciation for his stomping grounds, which is why it was an easy decision to get involved with the Ventura Hillsides Benefit Concert, benefitting the Ventura Hillsides Conservancy.

The Ventura Hillsides Benefit concert is a wonderful outdoor event that hosts amazing musical acts from year to year, including Jack Johnson, Keb Mo, Toots and the Maytals, David Lindley and many more. For Niels and Bimmer, getting involved with this event was a no brainer, not only is the event for a wonderful cause, it’s a great excuse to spend a weekend on the beach in Ventura with wonderful music and hopefully some good waves! This year the line-up is as solid as ever and the wine will be Dam Fine, so if you live in the area or if you just want to get away for a weekend please check out this wonderful event. The setting is fabulous and the music is always well worth it!

For more information on the event please visit http://www.venturahillsides.org/

The Ventura Hillsides Conservancy is a land trust operating in the Ventura region to protect and conserve open space resources through acquisition of land and easements, stewardship of protected lands, and public education about local natural resources.

- And don’t worry, there will be more grapes in soon and many more harvest updates to come!

Cheers,

Luke

It seems like only yesterday I was writing the first harvest blog for the 2010 harvest and now I’m writing the first harvest blog for 2011! Crazy how time flies, especially when you’re having fun! As many of you may know, this year is another “late harvest” (not referring to the dessert wine) brought on by milder summer weather. The grapes love the summer heat and when we don’t get that intense heat they take a little longer to ripen.

This week we are happy to say our 2011 harvest is officially underway and one of my favorite varietals, the Dos Viñas Fume Blanc or Sauvignon Blanc, was the one to break the ice. By the end of the week we will have picked all of the Fume Blanc and Viognier from our Dos Viñas vineyard with the Stone’s Throw Viognier soon to follow. The Blind Faith Pinot Noir is getting close as well and is looking to be our first red of 2011.

As long as the weather holds out and we don’t see any early rains, we are looking to have a very good harvest in 2011. So far, this year is looking very similar to last year in terms of temperature and last year was a great harvest, minus the early rains in September and October. Our winemaker Tom is anticipating a very high quality crop based on this year’s weather patterns and crop level and I have a feeling he knows what he is talking about!

In other good news, our winery is now certified organic, which was quite the process, but well worth the mountains of paperwork! We can now put organic logos on our labels and even produce organic wines if we choose! Pretty exciting stuff if you ask me!

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more harvest updates and enjoy the warm days while they last! (Maybe even with a glass of Dam Fine Wine!)

Cheers,

Luke

Recently my Mom sent me a handful of vintage Castoro photos that she had come across while making an album for our 25th anniversary celebration a couple years ago. When I saw these photos they immediately brought back memories of growing up with the winery and the culture that surrounds it. Some of these memories include staying home from class to help pick grapes, running around during festivals and parties, drinking lots of Castoro grape juice, following workers around the winery with a million questions and of course selling pumpkins at the tasting room! (see photo below). All of these memories and experiences are just as much a part of Castoro as the wine itself and are part of what makes Castoro truly unique. At Castoro we not only cultivate grapes, we cultivate an atmosphere that promotes family, friendship and good memories. If you look at the photo below of my friend Travis and I dancing, you’ll notice a band playing behind us. That band is Zzah who just played at our wine festival party this year for the 17th consecutive year! If I had to guess I’d say that photo is probably around 15 years old and when I saw Zzah this year they had me dancing once again, and who knows I may have even thrown in some of the same dance moves!

Now that September is rapidly approaching it’s starting to feel a lot like harvest time, and before we know it our first lots of grapes will be trickling into the winery for processing. With every year comes a slightly different experience and with each experience comes new memories and new chapters to the story of Castoro. With that said, thanks to all of you who have stuck with us over the years and a warm welcome to those of you who are just now discovering our wines. If all goes to plan, 2011 will be a harvest to remember!

Cheers,

Luke

For any of you who may have grown up in Paso Robles, you can probably agree that the Paso Robles Mid-State Fair is a very distinct part of the summer here, bringing with it many memories and the only traffic jams Paso Robles ever experiences! Although I rarely attend the Fair these days, I have many fond memories of extreme heat, crazy rides, farm animals and plenty of junk food! I even saw one of my first big concerts at the Fair, which opened a whole new side of the experience to me. Before that moment I don’t think I even knew there was anything else to do at the Fair besides go on rides and stuff my face with churros. The older I’ve gotten I have discovered there a lot of things at the Fair I never paid much attention to and though I still rarely go, mainly due to the crowds and the heat, I can now appreciate how much a part of Paso Robles the Mid-State Fair is, especially for the wine industry.

This year Castoro is very involved at the fair and many of our wines did very well in the Mid-State Fair Wine Competition! One wine in particular, our 2008 Primitivo, did especially well bringing in a Gold medal and a “Best of Class” honor. On the evening of the 27th our winemaker Tom Myers was at the fair presenting our Primitivo for Italian grapes flight night in the Mission Plaza and this coming Friday Mikel and Sherry, our assistant wine-makers, will be doing “live in the Fair vines” from 4-6pm with the KRUSH 92.5 for Zinfandel night at the Fair. Over the years the local wine industry has become more and more involved in the Fair and more and more people are now coming to the Fair for wine-based events. To me this relationship is wonderful and shows how much Paso Robles has grown with the wine industry and vice versa. Hopefully in years to come this relationship will continue to grow and more and more people will discover the wine side of the Fair! With that said, give our 2008 Primitivo a try and see for yourself what all rage is about! (I promise you won’t be disappointed!)

Cheers,

Luke

This past Saturday at Castoro Cellars to celebrate our 28th Anniversary we were fortunate enough to welcome arguably the most established artist we have ever had perform at our tasting room. Dave Mason, formerly of the band Traffic, came to rock the house and that is exactly what he did! Dave has had an amazing musical career that has spanned over decades and has included playing with artists like Jimi Hendrix, all four Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton and many more. Due to his influence and success he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

Being able to see such an amazing artist in such an intimate setting was a real treat for all who attended the sold out show, and believe me everyone was having a blast! It would have been one thing if Dave had come for a solo show (which would also have been awesome) but he brought his entire band of world-class musicians and their sound was so tight. By the end of the show there were two beach balls flying through the crowd (a first for a Castoro concert), plenty of dancers and a lot of happy faces. I think Niels really summed up when he said, “if you would have asked me when I was a teenager playing Traffic on my stereo if I thought one day I’d be introducing Dave Mason, one of my favorite artists, on stage at my own venue. I would have said not in a million years!” It’s amazing the opportunities life will throw at you, often when you least expect it, and having Dave at Castoro was one of those rare opportunities.

Throughout the night Dave played all of the old classics his fans have come to love over the years and he even mentioned that he refrains from playing newer material because the old stuff is what people really come to hear. I really don’t think anyone could complain about that, especially after he closed the show with his rendition of “All Along the Watchtower” a Bob Dylan song he recorded with Jimi Hendrix in the 70s. The bottom line is that the band delivered and they delivered all night long!

To sum it up, thanks to all of you who attended the event and please share the time you had at Castoro with your friends and family.

Cheers,

Luke

The long awaited 2010 Tango is finally in the bottle and will soon be ready to hit the shelf! Many of you have been inquiring about this wine for some time and we couldn’t be more excited about finally getting to share it with you! Many of you had a chance to sample this wine out of the barrel at the Wine Festival in May and after seeing your reactions we knew we had something special here.

The 2010 Tango is really a unique blend consisting of 43% Chardonnay, 29% Chenin Blanc, 24% Viognier, 4% Muscat Canelli. This wine has a tinge of sweetness and can be described as “off-dry” with a great sense of fruit coming from the Chenin Blanc and Viognier. The complexity in the fruit profile is complemented with a silky mouth feel, leaving you with hints of vanilla and butterscotch derived from the few months this wine spent in oak barrels.

The bottom line is, you gotta try this wine! According to our winemaker Tom, “The intensity and complexity is there with no bitterness or harshness and the 2010 is as good as ever!”

And remember “It takes two to Tango,” so make sure to share it with a friend!

Cheers,

Luke

As wild as it may seem, we are now in the midst of June and thus far summer has yet to appear for more than a day or two at a time. As we looked over our data from past years we came to the conclusion that this is the coolest year on record for us since 1999. Although this is not all bad, we do really look forward to that summer heat Paso Robles is known for.

The heat pushes the grapes forward in their journey to becoming ripe and typically eliminates the chance of rain for at least a couple of months. The impact of the rains we experienced last week is yet to be known but is likely minimal. Rains this time of year can effect pollination but we won’t know for a couple more weeks if there is any major impact from this rain. We will, however, most likely experience an explosion of weeds sprouting in the vineyards but that is just the reality of farming, especially organic farming. In other vineyard news, we have just finished planting new lots at our Blind Faith vineyard and will soon be doing some more planting at our Whale Rock vineyard, ever increasing the quality and diversity of Castoro Cellars wines.

At the winery, June isn’t typically considered an extremely busy time of the year but it is an exciting time because we are preparing and bottling new releases. For example, the much-anticipated Tango is now ready and should be in bottle with in a week or two and on the shelves shortly thereafter. We have also recently bottled the 2009 Castoro Zinfandel and 2009 Blind Faith Syrah, both of which are sure to please. Our Blind Faith Pinot Noir has recently been transferred to barrels as well, in order to give the wine a couple months on oak before being bottled.

All in all, we are very excited to share our new wines with all of you! In the meantime we will continue to wait patiently for the summer heat to hit! As usual, don’t hesitate to check out the events page on our website because we’ve got a lot of fun in store for this summer.

http://www.castorocellars.com/events.php

Cheers,

Luke