The absolute best time
When should you buy my wine? IT'S NOW, and I'll give you three good reasons why.
If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try. ~ Anonymous
Reason #1 - The opportunity to support an obsessive winemaker in return for a few exceptional wines
Every year, around this time in the harvest season, there comes a day when I suddenly rock back on my heels and let out a long, deep breath. It’s finished. All my grapes for the year have been picked and processed and are now in various stages of fermentation. I am fully committed.
Once an integral part of those halcyon days of summer, burgeoning with prolific purple clusters swelling with promise and growing sweeter by the day, the vineyards I’ve recently culled now look thin and violated, their bounty eviscerated in the cold of night with the quick slashes of a moon-shaped harvest knife under the orb of a headlamp and ignored concern for spiders, sharp trellis wire or roosting birds.
But the harvest has now moved to the cellar, which smells incredible—yeasty and fruity and fecund. A bone-deep weariness I’ve managed to keep at bay with caffeine, adrenaline, and fear of failure, takes charge and there is nothing I can do now but surrender to the sore, knotted muscles in my neck, and back, and butt, and legs—and give in.
I mentioned fully committed, and that’s the niggling feeling. This is the most expensive time of the year for a winemaker and it never fails to give me pause when I see all the wine that has to be sold to finance all the wine that still has to be made. Fifteen tons of grapes, my biggest harvest yet, and finally enough to earn the dubious distinction of “very small winery”—meaning any establishment producing at least 1,000 cases a year but no more than 5,000 cases, at which point you’re classified as a “small winery.” What the hell have I been for the past four years?! A “boutique winery” I’m told.
Alright then, the 1,008 cases I’ll start hawking 30 months from now; I guess they finally represent a sort of puberty. Although I’ve been having fantasies fueled by enological passion for several years now. It’s just such a damn slow business—a human-like coming of age story! You might need a corresponding lifetime to do this thing right, and I haven’t got that much time.
Reason #2 - Risk and Reward
Let’s review.
In 2021, our first vintage, I made three wines—a Red Blend, a Malbec, and a Chardonnay—272 cases in total. The Malbec and the Chardonnay are sold out. There are 71 cases of the Red Blend remaining. Funny thing, that 2021 Requisite Red is the first of our wines to actually have time to age a little and it has developed into a sensational cuvée. A perennial favorite amongst those who have made its acquaintance! Now is the time to buy this wine.
In 2022 I went big and made four wines—a new vintage of Requisite Red, another proprietary Rustic Red Blend, a Cabernet Sauvignon, and a Rosé—602 cases in total. Forgot the Rosé, it was so good there’s now only, like, three cases left. But the reds rock. These have been my all-time biggest medal winners and points earners. One was actually awarded 99-points! But it was a hot year, and these are big wines, and they are still years away from what they will become—except one. A breakout bottle that blew away folks at half-a-dozen big wine tastings we did this spring in Colorado. There are just 52 cases of our 2022 Aerie Cabernet Sauvignon remaining. It’s an utterly delicious blend of two Sonoma Cabs and it’s only going to get better. Except you may never know if there aren’t any left. Now is the time to buy this wine!
For our 2023 vintage I made 570 cases of commercial wins, and a whole lot more for private clients who wanted their “own barrel of wine.” But it was also a year of new wines with a blockbuster Vermentino taking top honors at every competition, and a single vineyard old-vine Zinfandel and a single vineyard Syrah joining new vintages of Requisite Red and Aerie Cabernet Sauvignon. Honestly? The reds aren’t due to be released until March, 2026 but they have been drinking so well now for long enough that I’m beginning to feel guilty not making them available earlier. One of them, the new vintage Requisite Red, is already a bonafide standout. I think it’s because I toned down the alcohol a little and blended in some Cab Franc, a magic grape. It’s truly become my first pick if I could only drink one of our reds and I didn’t know what was for dinner! 2024 Daniel’s Pride Vermentino (only 23 cases left!) and 2023 Requisite Red (third in a line of legends). Now is the time to buy these two wines!
My 2024 vintage wines are all still in the barrel, the reds having already been there a full year, and are not to be bottled for another six months. But in those barrels are approximately 600 cases of fan favorites with three new wines including a Sangiovese, an Albariño, and a Rosé of Pinot Noir.
My 2025 vintage wines, the 15 tons of grapes worth that I was waxing about a bit pensively at the start of this newsletter, are just now being barreled down to begin their 18 months of élevage (aging) in beautiful French oak Burgundy bottles. There’s a reason for that. Drumroll We are making our first Pinot Noir—just tasted it this week, sublime! Mic drop Plus some other amazing surprises that I’ll reveal to you over the next few months. I promise, you will not be disappointed.
Reason #3 - Time of Year
You need exceptional wine, delivered right now, for all your holiday invites and personal entertaining over the next three months, and I need cashflow to pay for all the winemaking described above. What could be simpler, or more worthwhile for both of us?
So I’m making it easy. Go to tinyvineyards.com right now. I’ve put together a Holiday Case Special of three bottles of each of the four “gotta have” wines described above: 2024 Daniel’s Pride Vermentino (you gotta have a white), 2023 Requisite Red (you gotta have a fresh, never-fail foodie wine), 2021 Requisite Red (you gotta have a refined mid-body red), and 2022 Aerie Cabernet Sauvignon (you gotta have a Cab). These will cover you for any eventuality.
You can, of course, put together any combination of bottles you want from any of the wines available on the website. But you won’t get the 2023 Requisite Red as it hasn’t been released yet, and you won’t get the same discount. At full price this Holiday Case Special costs $462. But show your winemaker some love and continued support and it’s yours for $393, with FREE SHIPPING of course. That’s pretty much like getting two bottles for free and not having to drive to the wine merchant!
And these really are the four best wines for the fall and winter holidays, and in my opinion the four best wines I’ve ever made… so far.
Cheers! And thank you.