SUMMER 2005

Wine Honors

Last year Guy sent our 2003 Dry Riesling and 2003 Rose' to the 28^th Annual International Eastern Wine Competition held in May in Corning, New York. Both wines received bronze medals. This year Guy sent our 2003 Syrah and 2003 Port, which both received silver medals, and our 2004 Chardonnay which received a bronze medal. This was very exciting for our small young winery.

Vineyard 2004

We got a good start on pruning the vineyard in 2004 and called in Tony Fernandez from Palisade, CO in mid-April to complete the job. Everything looked great. We had several light frosts in early May, which our over-head frost protection handled fine, but we had 26 degrees for 6 hours on the 12^th of May which took its toll on last years crop – a really ugly event right at bud-break. Tony’s crew returned mid-June to sucker and cut out dead wood. The rest of the growing season was great.

Construction Complete

The roof over the crush pad behind the winery was completed last spring and provided a great shady place for the 2004 crush. The new 3,500 square foot barrel storage building was completed last spring. It’s a terrific building, and maintained a cool and humid atmosphere all summer without any cooling or misting systems. We added an interior wall to provide a cool and dry case storage area.

New Equipment

Before the 2004 crush, we added a new 1,500-gallon and 4,000-gallon stainless steel tanks, four 1,000-gallon stainless steel holding tanks and 100 oak barrels. The new stainless steel hopper and conveyor system and Puleo 24 hectoliter rotary press are our pride and joy.

We bit the bullet and purchased a Fimer 9-spout bottling line with both cork and screw cap capability – yes, screw caps. When you understand that the industry tolerance for “corked” wines is 2%, and that at some wine competitions as much as 10% of wines are “corked,” it is pretty much a no-brainer that screw cap closures are the way to insure that the wines we make and the wines you buy have no cork taint. Aesthetically corks are lovely, but not reliable. Of the hundreds of cases of wine we have opened in our tasting room only 2 have been “corked”, but we will experiment with screw cap acceptance. (There’s a great article in the March 2005 Wine Spectator).

This spring we installed a six-unit “Selective Inverted Sink” frost protection system for the vineyards, which successfully moved the cold air and evened out the air temperature across the vineyards on several very cold mornings around bud break. We consider this a sound investment as we had far less frost damage than in previous years. Now we are thinking of replacing our cute little crusher-stemmer with one that will have not only a larger capacity, but will process more gently. Technology moves on and so must we.

Harvest 2004

We experienced our largest crush to date – 40.7 tons. Our 2004 harvest began down-canyon at Canyon of the Ancients Farm in early September, here in mid-September, and then it rained off and on for days. It never rains like that and grape growers statewide were facing the same frustration we were of waiting for the sugars to raise again before harvesting. We finished picking down-canyon the end of September and here October 10^th – just a few days before our first light frost. We also purchased Gew?miner from Moab, UT and a little Chardonnay and Merlot from Palisade, CO.

New Crooked Creek Wine Releases

In keeping with our philosophy of providing excellent quality wines at moderate prices, we are releasing six new wines under our Crooked Creek label; the 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon, 2003 Syrah,

2004 Chardonnay, 2004 Dry Riesling, 2004 Gewurztraminer and 2004 Sweet Merlot. Check our list of wines for descriptions, prices and ordering information.

New GUY DREW VINEYARDS Label

We always planned to bottle our premium quality wines under the GUY DREW Vineyards label.

Inspired by a huge monolith of red flagstone and a lovely little arrowhead we found on our property, Anya Bruno helped us design this new label. We hope it expresses the essence of where our grapes are grown and our wine is made. Anya is a graphic designer in San Francisco and is the wife of Richard Bruno who was our consultant in the early years.

New GUY DREW VINEYARDS Wine Releases

After five years, encouraged by the results of vineyard management and controlled yields on the quality of our grapes and increasing proficiency and expertise in the cellar on the quality of our wines, we have selected two wines of premium quality to receive our new GUY DREW Vineyards label; the 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2003 Port. These are both lovely wines we know you will enjoy. Check our list of wines for descriptions, prices and ordering information.

Spring Planting

We have not planted during the past two years due to the drought, but planted 2 acres of Riesling at our vineyards here in early June. Bill Russell prepared part of his old apple orchards north of Cortez and planted 5 acres of Riesling. We are thrilled to have more grapes grown in Montezuma Valley.

Mesa Verde Country Winefest

We will be hosting the third Mesa Verde Country Winefest in Cortez on October 7^th – 9^th. Get your reservations made early for the Winemaker Dinners on Friday night as last year’s dinners were sold out very early. We will again invite other Colorado wineries to participate at the Winefest in City Park on Saturday where you can enjoy great local art, music and cuisine. For specific details as they become available check mesaverdecountry.com and make plans now to join us in October.