NC son's boutique winery Tobacco Road Cellars made from California grapes continues to get attention across the US

Although North Carolina is home to over 70 wineries - few produce their wine using grapes from California. With the boutique wine industry booming across America, I thought you may be interested in knowing about this NC-based company (hence, the name) and, perhaps, telling their heartwarming story of how the search for the perfect Holiday gift turned into a company.

Four years ago, two old friends, East Carolina University grad and real estate developer, Dusty Field, 35, and Jason Earnest, a 29 year old financial broker, while drinking a cherished wine from Field's cellar, decided they had found the perfect gift. They were going to make their own wine and gift it as one-of-a-kind holiday gifts to their friends and family.

Most ideas conceived with the assistance of good wine and good friends don't make it to the next day. But this one did. Within a week, Field and Earnest purchased two tickets to California - to learn how to make wine, of course.

Today, Tobacco Road Cellars [www.TobaccoRoadCellars.com] is found in the most prestigious restaurants, country clubs, and collector's cellars. Their wine has been acclaimed all over the country. Recently, probably the most reknowned wine reviewer, Gary Vaynerchuk (as seen on Letterman and Nightline) called their wine "STUPID GOOD." (www.WineLibrary.com)

The Gift of “Pretentious Wine for Unpretentious People”

6 December 2007 -- Napa Valley, California + Raleigh, North Carolina -- Don’t let their Southern drawls fool you. These guys know their wine. These North Carolina based entrepreneurs’ penchant for California grapes led them to Napa Valley four years ago on a whim to create their rnearly half of their production to the lucky recipients. The other half (or so), they swear, they drank themselves.
Today, owners Jason Earnest and Dusty Field have nearly a dozen bottlings under their belt, a harem of collectors and wine enthusiasts vying for a bottle or two of their limited production, and the endorsement of the nation’s best known wine aficionado and blogger – Gary Vaynerchuk (www.WineLibrary.com), who touts the wine as “STUPID GOOD.” (Watch his reaction to our wine on video at www.TobaccoRoadCellars.com)
--- Note to Media: A b-roll package is available ---
Following on the extremely successful release earlier this year of their 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, “VITALITY,” Tobacco Road Cellars is offering two gifts designed to showcase their extraordinary wines this holiday season.
2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve-Napa Valley
This 2005 Private Reserve is a limited first edition 300 bottle series designed by contemporary artist Peter Sergison commissioned by Tobacco Road Cellars. Each bottle is numbered and hand signed by Earnest and Field and will make a fine addition to any wine collector’s cellar. Each year connoisseurs throughout the world wait, glass in hand, to savor this quintessential wine experience.

One Bottle: $290
Three Bottles: $870
Twelve Bottle Case: $3132

Regency Club Membership –
We’ve narrowed our favorite vintages to the pinnacle three – Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Syrah and are offering the trio priced at $180.
This gift comes with membership to our Regency Club. This exclusive club was established with the same care and attention lavished on our wines and vineyards. Only 300 memberships are available and must be ordered in December 2007.
Limited Offering Priced at $180
To purchase these gifts or any of our wine, please visit www.TobaccoRoadCellars or call Dusty, Jason, at +1.888.770.3635.

Exclusive Release Party

We're so elated with our latest vintage that we can't keep it to ourselves...so we're throwing a party!

Mark your calendar for October 25th and join us for an evening full of good friends, great wine, & lots of surprises.

Join Us
Thursday, October 25, 2007
5:30 until 7pm
2319 Lake Dr.
Raleigh, NC 27609
(near St. Mary's and Glenwood Ave)

Call the winery at 888.770.3635 to RSVP

Harvest 2007 Amber Ridge Vineyard Updates

Brix: 21.0pH: n/aTA: n/a

Our 777 block is around 20 to 21 brix with medium sized berries and thick skinsl, but still tannic skin and green seeds. Still has another 3 weeks to go. 667 has slightly larger berries... probably 19 or 20 brix. Will probably pick them a week apart. The 115 is still looking great. Smaller berries/clusters and more like 18 or 19 brix... another week behind the 667.There is a fair bit of green "second crop" that we need to be careful we don't pick, but even if a little bit gets picked it is easily sorted out on the line.

Harvest TimeframeSaturday September 8, 2007 - Thursday September 20, 2007

Learn more about Veraison, Brix,
Veraison signals the coming of harvest. It is the stage of the ripening process when grapes begin to soften and change their color. At the beginning of veraison, the berries are hard, green and about half the size they will reach when fully mature. In addition to the outward changes to the berries, this 30 to 45 day period marks an increase in the level of brix, or fermentable sugar produced in the grapes.

Sugar concentration is a major physical property analyzed in grapes and wine. The amount of sugar available will determine the sweetness of wine flavor. Residual sugar is also important to know as any sugar present in wine is a potential substrate for microbial growth. Sugar concentrations are commonly analyzed by measuring the density of juice or wine. Brix is the unit of measurement used in the United States when analyzing density. One degree of Brix is roughly equivalent to 1% sugar in solution or 10 g/L of sugar. Density measurement is normally done with a hydrometer.
Sugar concentrations in ripe grapes will range in Brix values from the low to upper twenties. Full physiological ripeness in grapes is about 25 Brix. Values higher than that come from dehydration of the berries as they begin to raisin. Residual sugar levels below 0.4 Brix, or 4 g/L sugar are considered complete fermentations.

Amber Ridge Vineyard SOLD!

Our Pinot Noir producer...Amber Ridge Vineyard was recently sold to Far Niente/Nickel & Nickel...but business is still as usual here at Tobacco Road Cellars!

Here's the full story: http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Features/0,1197,3830,00.html.

As you’ll see, Amber Ridge is the most expensive vineyard per acre ever purchased in Russian River!

The owner, Frank Darien, has done a fantastic job creating the vineyard but felt that someone with deeper pockets needed to be involved to take it to the next level. Even though the farming has been excellent so far, there is still room for improvement with newer precision viticulture techniques that require more investment to implement. The same vineyard management company is farming the site this year and likely into the future. We have the same sections of the vineyard we had last year and our current contract goes through 2010.

So the net from a quality perspective is that this is a positive development. We will meet with him next week but expect that 2007 will be business as usual and then likely see new techniques applied by next year.

Local Entrepreneurs Debut Wine at Prestigious Cary Hotel

Cary, NC–April 6— Tobacco Road Cellars, the winery venture of two Raleigh entrepreneurs, hosted a night of food and wine on March 4, 2007 at Herons Restaurant in The Umstead Hotel to celebrate the release of their 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Mélange. Special guests included Skip Holtz, ECU football coach, and Herons' chef Phil Evans. Chef Evans was presented with a congratulatory plaque commemorating the cover of Luxury Living magazine that featured him last month. Holtz said of the evening, "It was truly an honor for me share the evening with everyone from Tobacco Road Cellars. They are running a first class operation and more importantly making first class unbelievable wine."

Dusty Field, President/CEO of Boylan Investment Company, a Raleigh-based real estate investment and development company, and his partner, Jason Earnest, co-founded 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 area.

Their new venture combines North Carolina investment experience and passion with the finest grapes from the most acclaimed vineyards in California wine country. They have assembled a team of winemakers in Napa to make world-class Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Syrah. The winemakers have chosen 3 top vineyards praised for their extraordinary wines.

General Manager and Chief Winemaker, Michael Zitzlaff leads this highly experienced team along with Kian Tavakoli, a 10-year master winemaker. Zitzlaff brings experience from Australia where he won many prestigious international awards, including the title of Master Winemaker.

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" remarks Earnest. "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" adds Field.

Tobacco Road is available in fine dining establishments throughout the Triangle, as well as select wine merchants and online at www.trcwine.com.

Tobacco Road Cellars Syrah to Debut at Beaufort Food and Wine Festival

San Francisco (March 19, 2007) – Tobacco Road Cellars is pleased to introduce the newest entry to their portfolio, the Tobacco Road Syrah Napa Valley 2005.

Tobacco Road Cellars, a boutique Napa Valley winery, was founded by two North Carolina businessmen, Dusty Field and Jason Earnest. Embarking on a unique wine venture that combines their investment “know-how” and passion for the finest grapes from among the most acclaimed vineyards in California wine country, they aim to create blockbuster wines that will attract and delight a loyal following among wine fans. In December of 2006, the first release of Tobacco Road Cabernet Sauvignon Mélange Napa Valley 2004 was met with rave reviews and sold out in just two months. The great news is the sold out 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon will be featured in several four and five star restaurants and hotels around the Triangle area of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, including Second Empire, Sullivans Steak House, The Umstead Hotel & Spa, Franklin Street Hotel…just to name a few. A complete listing of restaurants, hotels, country clubs and retail can be found on our website at www.tobaccoroadcellars.com

“Our goal has always been to make the Tobacco Road brand synonymous with extraordinary quality and we have equally high hopes for the release of the Tobacco Road Syrah”, states owner Jason Earnest. 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. The Tobacco Road Syrah White Hawk Vineyard is dense, chocolate-y and rich, yet not heavy or ponderous in any way and is produced with 100% signature single vineyard syrah. This wine seems like a contradiction-it is so concentrated, yet light on its feet with very sleek tannins beautifully integrated in the finish.

The Tobacco Road Syrah will represent the winery at the third annual Beaufort Food and Wine Festival in North Carolina. Beginning on April 26, 2007, this four day event will showcase great wineries from around the world. Thousands of food and wine enthusiasts from the region will be in attendance, with the Beaufort Food and Wine weekend being the largest tented wine festival in NC. The festival’s history of attracting exhibitors that are dedicated to excellence in their craft and attendants who enjoy partaking in their first-rate culinary and wine offerings creates a perfect backdrop for the public debut of the 2005 Tobacco Road Syrah.

In addition, Tobacco Road Syrah will be offered online at www.tobaccoroadcellars.com at a suggested retail price of $44.

SOLD OUT! 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Melange

We are extremely excited about the latest news from our winery. The first vintage of Tobacco Road Cellars is SOLD OUT! After a short two months we have sold out of the 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Mélange and the only places to carry it now are select restaurants, hotels and one retail outlet in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC market. Tobacco Road’s first vintage Cabernet Sauvignon is made with the inspiration of three world class Napa Valley vineyards, Bozzini, Moulds & To Kalon. A truly impressive and complex wine, the 2004 Mélange was an atypically powerful, opulent, flamboyant offering. Dense ruby/purple with the nose of this wine displays the desired characteristics of deep cherry, graphite, cocoa, earth and a touch of toasty oak that follows through on the palate. The tannins are full but lush, and the palate follows up ripe, black fruits, more cherry, milk chocolate, food friendly acidity and good grip. It is truly a big wine and we knew it wouldn’t be long until others found out for themselves.

A Look Back at the 2004 Harvest:

Our harvest was one of the fastest and earliest in California history, starting at the beginning of August two to three weeks earlier than normal. Our vineyard managers and winemaking team reported a crush of excellent quality fruit and yields per acre that were normal to light. “The crop came in less than estimated and we are very pleased with the wine quality from the 2004 vintage”, said winemaker Kian Tavakoli. “High levels of color and dense flavors should result in some memorable wines,” he added.

The spring and summer months were textbook perfect for grape growing and for a while it looked like the pace of harvest would be nice and even. Mother nature had other ideas, of course, and instead everything was accelerated when a heat spike in early September put a bump in the road for our vineyards. “The early crush helped bring in the crop safely before the early arriving rains,” said Jason Earnest. As sugars rose, acids dropped and our crew found themselves working into the wee hours of the morning to keep pace with optimal ripeness. We had four days of 100-plus degrees that accelerated ripening, making us hustle to get everything in before the grapes turned to raisins. But because the season got an early start, the grape clusters had matured nicely and were ready for picking. We saw unbelievable color, beautiful aromas, and concentrated flavors in the fermenting tanks. As the weather cooled, the grapes were able to ripen more gently and evenly, putting a high potential Cabernet Sauvignon in the tank for us. Our early barrel tastings indicated that the color and tannins in the wine were huge, but in balance with the fruit flavors. And we were right!

Don’t miss the opportunity to get your hands on our next release: Now taking Pre Release Orders!2005 Tobacco Road Syrah White Hawk Vineyard Santa Barbara.

Tobacco Road Participates in Triangle Wine Experience

The Triangle Wine Experience, a three-day food and wine experience, is the area’s premier charity event, filled with winemaker dinners, educational seminars, festive parties and a black-tie gala & auction! Sample fine wines, enjoy exquisite dinners, learn more about wines of interest, and bid on rare collections. Tobacco Road Cellars was proud to donate a custom wood crate featuring three 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Mélange to Friday nights’ event at Raleigh’s Exploris museum. On Saturday evening, Tobacco Road poured wine at the extravagant Black Tie Gala featuring over 200 wines from around the world.

The Frankie Lemmon Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, was established for the sole purpose of supporting the Frankie Lemmon School and Developmental Center. Through fundraising and “friend-raising” events, the Foundation provides much needed assistance – ensuring the availability of therapeutic, specialized education for children, ages 3 to 6, who have developmental delays, language impairments, learning disabilities or mental retardation.

Tobacco Road Donates to Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes

The 2006 Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes, held the team’s annual “Casino Night,” raised more than $150,000 for the Kids ‘N Community Foundation. The Kids ‘N Community Foundation supports children’s charities and educational programs throughout North Carolina.

The night featured Tobacco Road Cellars wine available for tasting and casino tables with Hurricanes players and coaches serving as the dealers. Games available to play included Blackjack, Roulette, Craps and Texas Hold ‘Em. Each participant received special gaming cash to use during the evening, and had the option of purchasing extra cash with all additional proceeds going to the Foundation.

In addition to the casino games and wine tasting, Tobacco Road Cellars donated a custom wood crate featuring three 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Mélange for the silent auction.

The Carolina Hurricanes Kids ‘N Community Foundation provides much needed funding to children’s charities and education programs throughout North Carolina. With ongoing support from annual special events and the corporate community, the Foundation has funded scholarship programs, youth hockey, educational and literacy efforts, children’s health programs, the arts and other children’s related initiatives. Annually, the Foundation provides cash and in-kind contributions totaling nearly $1 million to charitable and educational programs in North Carolina and Tobacco Road is grateful to be a part of such a wonderful organization.