History of New Year's Traditions

Whether your popping bottles of Tobacco Road Cellars "Private Reserve", your favorite box wine or bubbly this New Year's, I found it interesting where the celebration all came from. New Year's is the oldest of all of the holidays and it started in Babylon about 4000 years ago when they recognized the beginning of spring. They considered it the season of rebirth, planting new crops and enjoying the new warm weather. The Babylonian New Year lasted for 11 days and each day had its own celebration...I think I know why they call it "Amateur Night" now.

The Romans continued to observe the holiday in late March, but their calendar was continually tampered with by various emperors, so the Roman Senate and Julius Caesar eventually declared January 1st the beginning of the new year.

People believed that their luck could be affected by what they did and who they were around on the first day of the new year, so it became common for people to celebrate around the middle of the night with family and friends. As far as the idea of eating black eyed peas, cabbage and ham to bring good luck...uhh I think I will pass. After doing several dozen body shots and enjoying a few cocktails then throwing back the bubbly...I'm thinking an order of hot wings, pizza and a milkshake are more in order. I hope the restaurants don't care when I show up in my pj's. (http://tinyurl.com/yfc82km)

Celebrate Life's Great Occasions!

TRC in South Florida Restaurants and Wine Shops

Just finishing up with our distributor Strategic Importers out of Boca Raton in the South Florida market. We have had a great time introducing our wines to South Florida and especially meeting all of the wonderful people. We shared our wines with fine wine retailers and restaurants from Palm Beach to South Beach and everywhere in between.

Our Syrah, Pinot Noir, Cabernet "Vitality" and Cabernet "Private Reserve" can now be found at such places as the Boca Resort, The Addison, Rustic Cellar and Ferraro's Ristorante in Boca Raton. We are also featured in La Bottega and Uva 69 in Miami. We will be back in South Florida in March for several wine maker dinners and in-store wine tastings and will be sure to keep everyone updated.

Thank you for your continued support and we hope everyone had an amazing holiday. Please send us any pictures of you and your family enjoying our wines this holiday and New Year's. info@tobaccoroadcellars.com

Celebrate Jimmy V Week

Today is the last day of the inaugural Jimmy V Week -- a week-long initiative featuring special content across ESPN platforms and programs to drive awareness of and donations to The V Foundation for Cancer Research. It may be the last day of Jimmy V week, but it is not the end of our battle to eradicate cancer.

The V Foundation for Cancer Research was founded in 1993 by ESPN and the late Jim Valvano, legendary North Carolina State basketball coach and ESPN commentator. Since 1993, the Foundation has raised more than $70 million to fund cancer research grants nationwide. It awards 100 percent of all direct cash donations and net proceeds of events directly to cancer research and related programs. The Foundation, which has received five consecutive top 4-star ratings from Charity Navigator, awards grants through a competitive awards process strictly supervised by a Scientific Review Committee. For more information on The V Foundation or to make a donation, please visit www.jimmyv.org.

At Tobacco Road Cellars, we embrace the history of tradition and reputation for excellence that one of the richest characters in Tobacco Road history helps create…Jimmy Valvano. It was an honor to create the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon from the world’s premier vineyards in Napa Valley and pay tribute to Mr. Valvano with our limited edition “V”. This special bottle will make a great holiday gift and we will donate 10% from all proceeds of the “V” bottle to The V Foundation for Cancer Research. See the bottle at http://tinyurl.com/yhdjmh9

Tobacco Road Cellars To Introduce Four New Wines In Stylish-Red Carpet Event

August 18, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) – Tobacco Road Cellars, a boutique Napa Valley winery owned by Jason Earnest and Dusty Field of Raleigh, North Carolina, will introduce four new Cabernets during a stylish red-carpet celebration and silent auction to be held Thursday, October 8, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the RBC Plaza pool deck high above downtown Raleigh.

The event is entitled “Bacchanalle: A Cultural Intervention.” According to Tobacco Road Cellars co-owners Jason Earnest and Dusty Field, the evening will include tastings of the new wines, catered dining that will pair the wines with haut cuisine, music, VIP suites for the winery’s Regency Club members, and lavish decorations.

The evening’s silent auction will offers such items as an original handpainted surfboard by Raleigh artist Clark Hipolito of ArtCo Surf that will be signed by the Carolina Hurricanes, other signed items by such sports luminaries as the Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward, Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski and various wine packages from Tobacco Road Cellars. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Frankie Lemmon Center School & Development Center in Raleigh.

Clark Hipolito has also created an original work of art for one of the Cabernets’ labels and will be unveiling his new series “Cultural Intervention” during the event.

Earnest calls Bacchanalle “an alchemist experience blending visual art, high design, fine wine and extraordinary personalities.”

The Cabernets Tobacco Road Cellars will introduced during the Bacchanalle event are “Vitality,” “Tradition,” “07 V” (honoring former NCSU basketball coach Jim Valvano with a portion of the proceeds supporting the Jimmy V Foundation), and the Private Reserve.

Earnest describes “Vitality” as a “deep, mid-red with violet hues with great blue fruit and black berry aromas, lifted raspberry and black cherry with dark, brooding notes of fig, coffee and spice. It’s an excellent mid-weight palate entry with dense fruit weight supported by heaps of fine-grained oak and fruit tannin. The wine has fruit-forward style that’s very well backed up by layers of deep, softly drying tannin.”

“Tradition” offers “sweet, ripe, black berry with a warm alcohol lift of spice and nutmeg,” he said. “It has rich, mouth-filling black fruit flavors with solid, blocky tannins. Very firm finish, drying but sweet at the same time. The Palate lingers and shows lots of classy French oak palate weight. Firmer acid helps lift the tannic finish, which will soften nicely over the next three to five years.”

Of the Private Reserve, Earnest notes, “This is a very solid, deep, dark red/black wine with purple hues. It offers aromatics of black fruit, chocolate, mocha and berries that draw you into the wine. It has a lovely solid entry with gobs of firm tannin. Its rich fruit weight is a class above other wines and supported by an amalgam of French oak flavors of vanilla, toasty oak and spice. It has a huge palate that just keeps going and going. Big blocky tannins appear a little proud at present, but given time it will soften into a true classic Napa Cabernet for those patient enough to wait.”

And the ’07 V is “supple, fleshy and very defined as berry fruits lead into a classy, sexy, fine-grained tannin finish that lingers on and on,” he said. “The French oak is evident but not obtrusive -- quite elegant and fine boned but overall very classy and seductive. It’s delicious!”

Tickets for the Bacchnalle event are $100 and only 250 will be sold. An after-party will also be held at Solas restaurant and lounge on Glenwood South for ticketed guests only. To order tickets go to http://www.bacchanalle.com/ or call 888.770.3635.

For more information on Tobacco Road Cellars, visit http://www.tobaccoroadcellars.com/.


About Tobacco Road Cellars

Award-winning Tobacco Road Cellars was conceived when two North Carolina-based entrepreneurs and wine enthusiasts, Jason Earnest and Dusty Field, went to Napa Valley to create a wine to give as holiday gifts. The results were so successful that they decided to create their own boutique winery committed to producing world-class wines from California grapes. The partners now have several years of bottlings and have been endorsed by Gary Vaynerchuk of winelibrary.com, who called Tobacco Road Cellars’ 2005 Private Reserve “stupid good.” The winery’s 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon received the 2008 Gold Medal in the International Wine Competition held in Riverside, California. For more information visit http://www.tobaccoroadcellars.com/.


The origin of the word Bacchanalle:

Bacchanalle – pronounced bak-uh-ney-lee-uh – was coined by the Tobacco Road Cellars owners and Raleigh interior designer Clark Hipolito. It incorporates the root word bacchanalia that, in Greco-Roman religion, refers to any of the several festivals of Bacchus, or Dionysus, the wine god. And it mixes with the word, “Biennale”, which is Italian for "every other year" and can be used to describe any event that happens every two years. It is commonly used within the art world to describe an international manifestation of contemporary art -- for example, the Biennale de Paris, which was created in 1959 by André Malraux. The term is most commonly used in the context of major repeating art exhibitions. According to Jason Earnest of Tobacco Road Cellars, it also refers to Hipolito’s visual style for his design projects: “faux paint effects, banquet-hall tapestries and lighting, large furnishings, etc.”

2007 California Pinot Noir is Unparalleled

In the September 30th issue of Wine Spectator Magazine, the cover story is on the best ever California Pinot Noir. The surge in quality for the over the last decade in California is a reflection of so many new wineries as well as emerging growing regions such as Anderson Valley, Santa Lucia Highlands and Santa Rita Hills. The 2007 vintage has been so well received due to the purity of ripe fruit flavors, finesse and complexity in aromatics. The flavor profile of many of the 2007 vintage display a range of flavors from wilted rose to wild raspberry, cherry and blueberry to more mineral and spice. Everything just fell into place with this vintage and the two most important factors were the perfect weather and low yields. The weather wasn't too hot and not too cold which allowed us to get the fruit as ripe as we wanted without pushing the sugar levels too high. The article claims that the 2008 vintage won't be nearly as good due to the frost damaged vineyards which is a benefit to how we make wine at Tobacco Road Cellars. One of our properties in the Russian River Valley was hit pretty hard by frost in the 2008 vintage and our vigorous vineyard management and planning saved our Pinot Noir that year by moving the entire production to three vineyards in the Santa Lucia Highlands. Our wines are tasting truly amazing in barrel right now and we believe will stand up quite nicely to the 2007 Russian River Pinot Noir that we made.

James Laube of Spectator makes a point to say that Sonoma is the place to begin when looking at what California Pinot Noir is all about, especially the Russian River Valley. One of his highly rated Pinot Noirs comes from Kosta Browne and Amber Ridge Vineyard in the Russian River Valley. He scored the wine an impressive 94 points and priced at $72. This makes us extremely happy to know that we are delivering mid 90's scoring wines for $49 to our customers and restaurants. Most recently the Pinot Noir has been picked up by such restaurants as Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse in Charlotte, NC and Dolce Vita Wine Shop in Greenville, NC. We greatly appreciate the continued support and look forward to continuing to make world class wine for each of you in the future.

Give us a call at the winery, 888.770.3635 if you would like to know more about our 2007 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley or any of our wines.

Coach K and Grant Hill Visit the Winery in Napa Valley

We had the fortunate opportunity to host Coach K, his family, Grant Hill, Michael Stewart and several Duke University supporters at Tobacco Road Cellars in Napa Valley this week. We greatly appreciate the interest Coach K has taken in our wines and story...We take great pride in our pursuit of making the perfect wine and look forward to creating a history of Tradition like Coach K has done at Duke University. We started this winery to share our wines with family and friends and obviously with the name Tobacco Road Cellars, had inspiration from several key people in the North Carolina area. The history of Tradition and reputation for excellence that Coach K has built with the Duke Basketball program over the years and the long time rivalry between Duke and University of North Carolina is a staple in the Triangle area of NC..."Tobacco Road". For us there was no better name of our winery than Tobacco Road Cellars and it has been a goal from day 1 to have Coach K as a supporter of our wines and our mission to share these wines with everyone we can. We set up lunch at Taylors in St. Helena and had the group of 25 over for burgers, fries and Tobacco Road's finest. That's how we like to do it...Black Tie and big fancy dinners are sometimes a lot of fun...but we would rather relax outside with a bacon cheeseburger and a bottle of Private Reserve. We brought the 07 Syrah, 07 Pinot, 06 Tradition and Reserve as well as a special treat...barrel samples of our entire 2007 vintage of Cabernet...Vitality, Tradtion, V and Private Reserve. We had a great afternoon and look forward to sharing our wines with everyone again soon. Coach K and Grant Hill were a major inspiration for us and hopefully we greatly appreciated them taking the time to come learn more about what we're doing at Tobacco Road on the west coast.

Vote For The Next Wax Color

This is an exciting time of year at Tobacco Road Cellars...we just bottled the 2008 Pinot Gris and 2007 Syrah and we're getting ready to bottle the 2007 Cabernet's in the next several months. Before we can do that, we have to decide on the next wax color for the 2007 Cabernet "Vitality". We allow our supporters to vote every year, based on school colors from our home state of North Carolina.

This is your chance to decide...so cast your vote and spread the word!

www.tobaccoroadshow.tv

Tobacco Road Cellars to Sponsor Two East Carolina Alumni Association Signature Events

East Carolina alumni Jason Earnest ’00 and Dusty Field ’94, owners of Tobacco Road Cellars winery, have signed on to be title sponsors of two of the East Carolina Alumni Association’s signature events—the Pirate’s Bounty Scholarship Auction and the Alumni Awards Ceremony and Dinner, both held annually in the fall. A complimentary one-hour wine tasting will be provided for attendees of the Pirate’s Bounty Scholarship Auction and guests of the Alumni Awards Ceremony will enjoy Tobacco Road Cellars vintages throughout the evening.

“The Alumni Association is always looking for partners with high quality products, impeccable reputation, and a recognized brand. Tobacco Road Cellars is a brand that exemplifies quality and prestige. We are proud to align the East Carolina Alumni Association with fellow Pirates and an award-winning company,” said Paul J. Clifford, president and CEO of the East Carolina Alumni Association.

“As alumni, we value our East Carolina education and believe in the good things the Alumni Association is doing for student scholarships and to recognize alumni achievement. We’re pleased to be able to support the programs of the Alumni Association through this sponsorship,” commented Earnest and Field.

The East Carolina Alumni Association will inform, involve, and serve members of the ECU family throughout their lifelong relationship with the University. Visit us online at PirateAlumni.com.

# # #

CONTACT: Jennifer Watson, Assistant Director for Membership & Marketing at 252-328-4902, Jennifer.Watson@PirateAlumni.com, or the East Carolina Alumni Association at 800-ECU-GRAD.

Tobacco Road Cellars Magazine Cover

“We both really love wine,” remarked Dusty Field ’94 about he and business partner Jason Earnest ’00, “so it all started when we decided to have our own wine made to give as gifts to friends and family. It was a huge hit and people wanted to buy it from us.” With a little nudging from friends and a little more tasting of their product, the duo was convinced their supporters were right—hence Tobacco Road Cellars was born—a boutique winery that bottles ultra premium Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Gris. This is the story of two proud ECU graduates who met after college through a mutual friend. They soon realized they had many things in common with similar life goals and aspirations, so they decided to combine their talents and interests into consumable profits. In the few short years since Field and Earnest started Tobacco Road Cellars, their wines have received numerous accolades from the industry and a fan following that includes the likes of ECU Head Football Coach Skip Holtz and his wife Jennifer.But let’s go back a few years, to before Tobacco Road…You could say that Dusty Field has that entrepreneurial spirit in his blood—or perhaps in his fingertips—for everything he touches seems to turn to gold. Field was not a typical college student. Yes, he enjoyed going to class, participating in his fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon, and having a good time with friends, but Field also caught the business bug early-on. Despite being a biology major whose original intention was to be an optometrist, Field knew that earning a living was critical to survival. “I have to give credit to my parents for instilling in me a sense of financial responsibility. They provided a way for me to attend college, but I had to come up with ways to pay for the extra-curricular activities I was involved in. My fraternity brothers used to joke on me because they’d be at a location as a patron and I’d be there collecting quarters from my pistachio and gumball machines.” Little did the brothers of Sig Ep know how Field’s first business venture would lead to bigger, better, more profitable businesses in the future. “With the vending machines, I learned on a small scale how to negotiate commissions, how to factor in your cost, and how location was a big factor on profitability per machine. I always worked hard, but I learned that if you work smarter you could get a lot more accomplished than by just manually working hard. It might not have been the most glamorous job, but in terms of hours spent and money earned I was usually better off than my friends who worked at restaurants or in retail.” With the continued success and growth of his vending machine business, Field decided to add pay telephones, then ATM’s, and finally armored cars to his business—all potentially dangerous when changing out money. Field was very fortunate in that his safety was never threatened, but he took precautions—including fast food bags and his black lab—to be inconspicuous. “I’d walk into a convenience store to service one of my ATMs with a McDonald’s bag with $10,000 in it. I figured no one would think I’d have anything important in a McDonald’s bag! And of course my dog was always good protection, too.” After Field’s ATMs had spread into 32 states with 1,400 machines, his interest turned to armored cars. “When I say I’m going to do something I strive to deliver on that promise. One weekend the armored car company that we were using to service the ATMs didn’t do what I needed them to when one of our machines in a large mall ran out of money. So I decided that in order to have the level of service that I expected I needed to start my own armored car company. I wasn’t willing to risk my business based on someone else’s shortcoming.” In 2003, at just 31-years-old, Field sold the ATM company for $7 million, and the armored car company shortly afterward for $1 million. But Field had no intention of “retiring early” or just taking it easy—he set his sights on real estate and partnered with Tyler Morris, a long time friend who had plans to build condos in Raleigh. The two formed Boylan Companies, a multi-faceted real estate company with development, construction, management, commercial, and realty capabilities, of which Field is the CEO. It was through charitable work Field was doing for Boylan Companies that he met his future business partner.Enter Jason Earnest.“My dad owned his own real estate company, so growing up I always knew that I wanted to go into business for myself. My degree from East Carolina is in finance, which certainly helps when you’re an entrepreneur. I had a great time at ECU, and it was through my fraternity Kappa Sigma that I was exposed to leadership roles and got involved with community service and other charitable work. That’s a tradition that I’m proud to continue with Tobacco Road Cellars.” Earnest and Field understand that letting people taste their product is the best way to make sales. But they use this tactic for the good of others, not just to increase their bottom line. “When we hold wine tastings in people’s homes we allow the host/hostess to choose which charity they would like a portion of the sales to go to. Some of the organizations that we’ve recently contributed to are Muscular Dystrophy, Duke Hospice, and Band Together (who then makes donations to groups like the Boys and Girls Club and Big Brothers Big Sisters).” “It was actually through our individual philanthropy work with Band Together that Dusty and I met. After I graduated I worked with Principal Financial Group where I assisted individuals with financial planning and managing assets, and with small businesses for things like retirement plans. Principal Financial Group was a sponsor of a Band Together event, and coincidently, Boylan Companies was too. I wanted to learn more about Boylan Companies, so a friend got me in touch with Dusty. We met, discovered that we share the same visions on a lot of things, and were able to partner on some projects. The wine came shortly after that.”Earnest had received a bottle of wine as a gift from a friend. He thought it was the ultimate gift because the friend’s signature was on the label—and it wasn’t just written with a Sharpie. He thought for sure the guy must own his own vineyard, but quickly learned this wasn’t the case. “We [Earnest and Field] got in touch with some contacts we had in California and went out to make our own wine.”Fast forward to today…“California Grapes. Carolina Attitude.” is the tagline on the Tobacco Road Cellars’ press kit. It’s a testament to the superiority of the “Tobacco Road” region, the inspiration for the company’s name. “Dusty and I are entrepreneurs, naturally, and like to start things from the ground up and make them succeed. Our focus from day one has been on quality and making the best wines that we can make. The name “Tobacco Road” is a tradition of excellence in North Carolina and the region, so our wines have to live up to that name. We’re involved in every detail from choosing which vineyards to use and bottling to label design and marketing.” The pair did their homework and learned that there is much more to making a delicious wine than crushing and fermenting grapes. It’s truly a two-part process that begins with the vineyard and ends at the winery. Tobacco Road Cellars does not own it’s own vineyard, but takes advantage of doing business with multiple vineyards to pick and choose the best harvest of grapes each season. Many factors determine berry quality, including weather conditions, soil acidity or alkalinity, and the viticulturist’s method of tending the vines and collecting the ripened grapes. Then it is up to the winery to complete the process—de-stemming, crushing, fermenting, aging, filtering, and bottling to produce the perfect blend. All that attention to detail has paid off—Tobacco Road Cellars won a gold medal for it’s 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon “Vitality” at the 2008 Riverside International Wine Competition in California; the endorsement of Gary Vaynerchuk, host of Wine Library TV; and praise from numerous industry experts like Scott McKeon and Bart Holstein of Wine God Collections.In the beginning, Tobacco Road Cellars was primarily focused on red varietals, offering Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Syrah, but like any good business the company has continued to grow. Pinot Gris, a white varietal, was added in 2007 and 2010 will bring Chardonnay to the offerings. Tobacco Road Cellars’ wines are available at many restaurants, country clubs, and wine shops in the Triangle area, Greensboro, Charlotte, and Asheville, North Carolina, and true connoisseurs can enjoy Tobacco Road Cellars’ wines delivered to their door through membership in the Regency Club. As most businesses do, Tobacco Road Cellars uses traditional marketing methods to sell their wines, but these business savvy partners also utilize today’s popular technology and a few non-traditional methods to advertise. “Tobacco Road Show,” a link on the company’s Web site www.tobaccoroadcellars.com, provides fun, entertaining videos of enthusiastic customers, sommelier reviews, and Field and Earnest enjoying the fruits of their labor. Tobacco Road Cellars also has a presence on Facebook, MySpace, and You Tube. The company offers a music CD Vitality, a collection of new age music perfect for sitting back, relaxing, and enjoying the perfect glass of wine, and Excellent Courses, a cookbook from Ravenscroft School in Raleigh, North Carolina.For Field and Earnest winemaking is not just a business, it’s a passion, and this passion is renewed each season when they begin the process for the year’s reserve—a tradition that has been practiced for thousands of years and continues through these two ECU graduates.

Tobacco Road Cellars to participate in Charlotte Heart Ball

Napa-Tobacco Road Cellars (TRC) will donate an exclusive in-home wine tasting to the fundraising auction for the 51st Annual Greater Charlotte Heart Ball. The boutique California winery will donate a private in-home wine tasting conducted by label owners Dusty Field and Jason Earnest. Auction attendees will be able to bid in the silent auction for a chance to host up to 30 of their friends for the tasting. TRC will handle all of the planning, logistics and set-ups while providing a fun but enlightening experience, centered around California wine.

“The American Heart Association plays an important role in advocating good heart health and we want to do our part to help raise the necessary funds to do so – especially in tough financial times such as these,” said Jason Earnest, label co-founder.

Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in North Carolina and the consumption of red wine in moderation has been linked to good heart health. TRC plans to donate similar tastings this year to other heart balls throughout North Carolina in an effort to help raise funds for heart health advocacy statewide.

About the Charlotte Heart Ball
The 51st Annual Greater Charlotte Heart Ball will be held at the Charlotte Convention Center on the evening of February 7, 2009. For more information on the ball and the Charlotte area chapter of the American Heart Association, please visit http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3056391.

About Tobacco Road Cellars
What do you get when two forward-thinking entrepreneurs share a passion for California Grapes? The answer: a boutique winery poised to become an exciting force in the winemaking industry. Following the principle of excellence associated with the “Tobacco Road” basketball lore in North Carolina, Jason Earnest and Dusty Field founded a wine label committed to producing world-class Cabernet, Pinot Noir and Syrah. Forget the pretension. Forget the inapproachability often associated with wine. Tobacco Road Cellars delivers without either of these; it has soul. Simply stated it is Carolina Grapes, Carolina Attitude.

Tobacco Road Cellars’ wines are available in select restaurants and independent wine shops in North Carolina, including Del Frisco’s of Charlotte. Tobacco Road Cellars can be found online at www.tobaccoroadcellars.com.