Two North Carolina businessmen are partners in a unique wine venture that will combine North Carolina investment “know-how” and passion for the finest grapes from among the most acclaimed vineyards in California wine country. The two North Carolinians are Dusty Field and Jason Earnest. These two Raleigh entrepreneurs share a winemaker’s dream: create blockbuster wines that will attract and delight a loyal following among wine fans. They have assembled a team of winemakers in Napa whose assignment is to make world-class Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Syrah. The winemakers have chosen three top vineyards that are praised for their stunning wines. That’s where the prized grapes have been “sourced”. Appropriately, this wine will boast a label that reflects the North Carolina “connection” for this adventure: It will be called Tobacco Road Cellars (TRC). The first release of TRC’s 2004 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Mélange will be on November 1, 2006. The production of this boutique winery offering is limited to ensure superior quality. Orders are being accepted now www.tobaccoroadcellars.com. Additional details on the TRC Fall Wine release and more about TRC in general can also be found at the web site: www.tobaccoroadcellars.
General Manager and Chief Winemaker, Michael Zitzlaff leads this highly experienced team along with Kian Tavakoli, a 10-year master winemaker. Zitzlaff brings international experience from his winemaking in Australia where he won international awards including 2002 International Wine Challenge in London and “Best New World Pinot Noir”. Earlier in 2000 at the London International Wine and Spirit Competition, Zitzlaff’s wines earned “Best Australian Red Wine of Show” and the Stag’s Leap Trophy for the “Best Cabernet Sauvignon of Show”. Master Winemaker Kian Tavakoli was most recently the winemaker at Clos Du Val where he ran their Red Wine program - including their highly-acclaimed reserve bottling. Before joining Clos Du Val, Kian spent four years learning cabernet winemaking at Opus One. With over 10 years of winemaking, operations and viticulture experience, Kian brings a stellar combination of sensory and production skills to Tobacco Road Cellars.
It takes great grapes to make great wine. That lesson finds expression in the selection of three top vineyards already known for their world class grapes. In Napa, the Cabernet Sauvignon will be sourced from the legendary To Kalon Vineyard located in the historic Oakville region at the base of the Mayacamas Mountain range. To Kalon experiences warm daytime temperatures tempered by the morning and evening fog influence from the Pacific Ocean. The vineyard was first planted in 1868 and was named "To Kalon," which means "the beautiful" in Greek. The Pinot Noir was selected from the special soils and coastal breezes of the Russian River Valley in the Amber Ridge Vineyard of Sonoma. The Syrah is grown from the newly heralded central coast areas near Santa Barbara at the White Hawk Vineyard, which is planted on ancient sand dunes on the south-facing slope of Cat Canyon, a side canyon of the Los Alamos Valley. This region is quickly being recognized by wine connoisseurs the world over as a top producing wine region. Fog often embraces the small vineyard in the morning before gentle afternoon breezes chase it away to allow the sun's rays to slowly ripen the fruit.
Dusty Field, President/CEO of Boylan Investment Company, a Raleigh-based real estate investment and development company, has put his management and entrepreneur background into the new winery. With 14 years as an entrepreneur, Dusty brings business-development expertise, results-oriented insight, and a passion for new business ventures. He and his successful partner, Jason Earnest, chose to invest in General Manager Michael Zitzlaff and Master Winemaker Kian Tavakoli by co-founding Tobacco Road Cellars, a start-up wine company with a new concept in ultra premier California artisan wines. In 2005, Dusty was awarded the Top 40 under 40 Award, a prestigious award that honors the most promising young business people in the Triangle, North Carolina area. Boylan Companies, was also chosen in 2005 as one of the top thirty companies to work for in the Triangle.
Tobacco Road Cellars' co-founder and Principal, Jason Earnest, is a forward thinking entrepreneur and financial professional in Raleigh, North Carolina. As Jason realizes his dream of creating a world class wine company, he is also a Partner in Boylan Financial Group, a division of the Boylan Companies, that assists high net worth individuals, families and business owners accumulate, enhance and preserve wealth for future generations.
Tobacco Road symbolizes a history of tradition in North Carolina, with a reputation and commitment to excellence. “We embrace these values and capture them into every bottle of wine to ensure our customers’ experience is delicious, enjoyable and nothing less than superior” says Jason. "This is where we grew up, where we live and run our businesses…this common bond left no alternative to name our wine company...Tobacco Road Cellars" added Dusty.
For more information please contact Jason Earnest at 888-770-3635 or email info@tobaccoroadcellars.com
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Monday, October 02, 2006
Crush 2006!
It’s a special time of year in wine country. Days are long and the work is exhausting, but there is a magic surrounding harvest. Vines are laden with sweet clusters of grapes and hopes are high about the quality of wine that fruit will ultimately yield. Despite an especially wet late spring, Tobacco Road Cellars is confident 2006 will be a good year in our vineyards. With this great news, come some more great news…U.S. wine consumption climbed 2.1% in 2005 to 273.7 million 9-liter cases, the latest increase in more than a decade of steady growth and a new all-time high on a case basis,
according to the 2006 edition of Adams Wine Handbook.
Well if you’re on our site and have a love for wine you know that we are in the hart of harvest and crush for the 2006 season. Crush seasons only lasts about eight weeks, and we must pick, transport and crush all the grapes needed for their annual supply of wine in that short time. Crush seasons are busy, hectic times for Tobacco Road personnel and twelve or fourteen-hour workdays are quite common. Our winemaking team has prepared a detailed crush plan early each season to reduce the number of high-risk decisions. Crush plans should be formulated many weeks before harvest time, and then the plan should be followed until all of the new wines are safely stored away in the cellar.
One of the first steps our team needs to decide is how many gallons of each variety will be produced. Once the varieties and quantities have been established, the more detailed winemaking issues such as potential sources of grapes, fruit costs, equipment cleaning, cooperage requirements, etc. can be addressed.
The quantity of wine produced from a ton of grapes is called wine yield, and wine yield depends on the variety of the grapes, the type of equipment available, the winemaking techniques and our production levels. Our winemaking team, using modern horizontal presses, often get 160 or 170 gallons of quality wine from a ton of fruit. Wine stored in barrels evaporates, and significant quantities of wine are lost each time wine is racked. Wine containers must be “topped up” periodically. Extra wine is always needed to keep the containers full, so we will routinely produce extra wine (10 - 15%) to use as "topping material."
Getting grapes from the same vineyard each season is a major advantage of Tobacco Road Cellars. Michael and Kian learn what to expect from the fruit when grapes from the same vineyard are processed year after year, which allows us to make any adjustments, and “fine tune” the wine easily. These small adjustments are important to wine quality, so we prefer to work with fruit from the same vineyards each season.
For many people the image of a grape harvest is linked to the hilarious "I Love Lucy" episode where Lucy stomps grapes in Italy. Although some people still make wine with the old-fashioned foot method, we have automated the crush process to extract the “free run juice”. This free run juice has an unbelievable flavor. Few people realize how sweet wine grapes are when they ripen. Sugar levels in grapes create the alcohol in the wine. In order to make wine that will remain stable and not go bad, you need sugar levels that are 21 percent or above. As harvest approaches, sugar levels are frequently checked in the vineyard and they can change dramatically depending on weather. Too much sun can mean too much sugar and not enough acidity in the grapes. Conversely, in a cool spell, grapes have trouble ripening to the appropriate sweetness. Sugar levels in grapes are measured on what is called a Brix scale. Growers squeeze a little grape juice onto a refractometer to read the results. In California, we often see wine grapes picked at a Brix of 23 to 26.
according to the 2006 edition of Adams Wine Handbook.
Well if you’re on our site and have a love for wine you know that we are in the hart of harvest and crush for the 2006 season. Crush seasons only lasts about eight weeks, and we must pick, transport and crush all the grapes needed for their annual supply of wine in that short time. Crush seasons are busy, hectic times for Tobacco Road personnel and twelve or fourteen-hour workdays are quite common. Our winemaking team has prepared a detailed crush plan early each season to reduce the number of high-risk decisions. Crush plans should be formulated many weeks before harvest time, and then the plan should be followed until all of the new wines are safely stored away in the cellar.
One of the first steps our team needs to decide is how many gallons of each variety will be produced. Once the varieties and quantities have been established, the more detailed winemaking issues such as potential sources of grapes, fruit costs, equipment cleaning, cooperage requirements, etc. can be addressed.
The quantity of wine produced from a ton of grapes is called wine yield, and wine yield depends on the variety of the grapes, the type of equipment available, the winemaking techniques and our production levels. Our winemaking team, using modern horizontal presses, often get 160 or 170 gallons of quality wine from a ton of fruit. Wine stored in barrels evaporates, and significant quantities of wine are lost each time wine is racked. Wine containers must be “topped up” periodically. Extra wine is always needed to keep the containers full, so we will routinely produce extra wine (10 - 15%) to use as "topping material."
Getting grapes from the same vineyard each season is a major advantage of Tobacco Road Cellars. Michael and Kian learn what to expect from the fruit when grapes from the same vineyard are processed year after year, which allows us to make any adjustments, and “fine tune” the wine easily. These small adjustments are important to wine quality, so we prefer to work with fruit from the same vineyards each season.
For many people the image of a grape harvest is linked to the hilarious "I Love Lucy" episode where Lucy stomps grapes in Italy. Although some people still make wine with the old-fashioned foot method, we have automated the crush process to extract the “free run juice”. This free run juice has an unbelievable flavor. Few people realize how sweet wine grapes are when they ripen. Sugar levels in grapes create the alcohol in the wine. In order to make wine that will remain stable and not go bad, you need sugar levels that are 21 percent or above. As harvest approaches, sugar levels are frequently checked in the vineyard and they can change dramatically depending on weather. Too much sun can mean too much sugar and not enough acidity in the grapes. Conversely, in a cool spell, grapes have trouble ripening to the appropriate sweetness. Sugar levels in grapes are measured on what is called a Brix scale. Growers squeeze a little grape juice onto a refractometer to read the results. In California, we often see wine grapes picked at a Brix of 23 to 26.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
