September 29, 2021
We finished our 2021 harvest today! Last Wednesday, our Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon came in after its early morning picking. Lush and flawless. (See photo). Today, our Chardonnay as well as our Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc all came in on schedule. Lovely year.
Most importantly, the fires and smoke that have blanketed key parts of California again this year steered mercifully away from Napa Valley. Yeah! Although we were nervous all summer about those fires, the grapes made it through with flying colors.
Our focus now moves to prayers for a wet winter to douse the parched terrain across the state after yet another year of drought. May the weather gods be kind!
August 9, 2021
We have just contacted our nationwide allocation list of clients announcing the Fall release of our wines. The 2019 Chardonnay is spectacular right now. Rosemary is happy again to be enjoying our own wine…the previous vintage sold out many months ago.
For our Red, we have reserved and set aside a portion of our 2016 for you to taste again this Fall. Why’s this? Sadly, we lost our entire 2017 red grape crop to the smoke and fires of that harvest season. The highest quality Napa red grapes were still on the vine when the fires came in early October, 2017. Sadness indeed across Napa Valley.
Fortunately, our 2016 Napa Valley Red Wine is a year older and totally ripe and delicious. We love it with lamb chops or a pasta dish with a mildly spicy sauce.
If you want to join our allocation list, please drop us an email with your request.
March 7, 2021
The bad news: we have no more Chardonnay to drink (Rosemary is very sad) and no more to sell. Since our launch of Silverpoint Cellars in 2008, we store all our bottled wines at a professional storage facility in Sonoma. I’ve contacted them several times over the last 2 months saying “is there any of our Chardonnay remaining from any of our vintages”? “No”, they apologetically answer.
The good news: on Friday of this week, we bottled our 2019 Chardonnay and our 2018 Napa Valley Red Wine. We stole a bottle of the Chardonnay off the conveyor belt and gave it a quick taste. Wow! Clean, fresh, lively …. and delicious. Our winemaker, Don Van Staaveren, was with us. He went out on a limb to say that this “is likely the best Chardonnay ever produced by Silverpoint Cellars.” Don doesn’t say these kind of things easily or frequently. But, we agree with him.
These newly bottled wines are now headed to storage to rest and mature a bit for the next 6 months. Look for this Chardonnay in September!
October 7, 2020
Since mid August of this year, fires have continued to burn across California and on to Oregon and Washington. The smoke has extended from Vancouver to San Diego.
The Wine Country in Northern California has been singed by flames and choked with smoke. Here at Silverpoint Cellars, we’ve seen two primary effects on our wine business;
* We have lost our entire crop of Red grapes for 2020. These grapes “died on the vine” as drought, record high September temperatures and 45 days of exposure to smoke caused dehydration, shriveled berries and smoke taint. This is a repeat of 2017 when we lost our Red crop during the catastrophic Napa/Sonoma fire of early October.
* Better news is that the large, sophisticated wine making facility we use to make wine and store our full barrels of finished wine escaped damage. This facility serves many, many small wineries like ours for whom owning your own equipment and space makes no sense. As you can see from the video below taken on September 28, fire came to its very doorstep. Firefighters and winery workers stopped its advance. Destruction of this building and its valuable stacks of wine in barrels would have been devastating.
So, it’s on to 2021! The smoke is dissipating very gradually and our first rain in six months is expected this weekend.
September 23, 2020
Our Chardonnay grapes were harvested today in the cool pre-dawn hours. Looking very good. Wine from these grapes will be released in precisely 24 months. Check them out in the attached videos taken as they arrived at the winery to begin their journey to the bottle.
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July 17, 2020
This week, we completed the most fun wine event of each calendar year for Silverpoint Cellars. We met with our winemaker to test barrel samples of our Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlo, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot to determine the final formula for our 2018 Napa Valley Red Wine. We taste each sample and then taste different combinations of these samples to come up with our preferred blend. Hard work!
As always, we had unanimous agreement as to the best blend. Our 2018 Napa Valley Red Wine will consist of 61% Cabernet Sauvignon and 13% each of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. These wines will now be blended and then bottled for release in the Fall of 2021.
Here are some photos of co-owner and co-founder, Rosemary Dunbar, as she prepares to taste. Also shown is our winemaker, Don Van Staaveren, as he takes notes on all the samples before him.
Cheers!
March 31, 2020
In this crazy period we are all enduring, grapes are still growing and wine is still being made. Last week, we bottled our 2016 Napa Valley Red Wine. I grabbed the first bottle as it came down the line and tasted it with Rosemary later that evening. Wow! Wine Spectator has rated the overall 2016 vintage of Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley at 98 points. That’s the highest rating since 1997. It tasted like it.
Our 2016 Red is comprised of 79% Cabernet Sauvignon from Rutherford and 7% each of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot from the Antinori Family Estate on Atlas Peak. Rich, voluptuous and balanced.
We’ve not put it down for 6 months of calm aging in the bottle after leaving the barrel. Look for it in September 2020.
Cheers!
October 2, 2019
Today in the pre dawn hours, our Chardonnay grapes were harvested at Rodgers Creek Vineyard (Petaluma Gap – Sonoma County) and delivered to our winemaking facility. These Wente clone grapes arrived looking good and very ready to begin their move towards delicious wine. Pic below.
September 20, 2019
Yesterday, Rosemary and I visited our grapes growing at the Antinori Family Estate (Antica) in Napa Valley. This is our source of Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot which we blend with Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon to create our proprietary blend, Silverpoint Cellars Napa Valley Red Wine.
Perfect weather so far this growing season. Grapes are looking delicious. Now aiming to harvest these grapes close to mid October.
September 9, 2019
The 2019 harvest is drawing near. The weather this summer has been near ideal with late August temperatures in the 90’s pushing the gradual maturation of the grapes. So far, we’ve had no freezes, no rains, no hail, no storms and no fires. Crossing our fingers 🤞 that this pattern holds for the next 45 days!
This week, we are releasing our two newest wines:
Silverpoint Cellars Chardonnay (Petaluma Gap – Sonoma County 2017)
Silverpoint Cellars Napa Valley Red Wine (2015).
Both the Chardonnay and the proprietary Red continue our sharp focus on lush but balanced wines that are complex, refined and food friendly. Rosemary and I have been tasting them as they have matured throughout 2019. Now, they’re ready to go.
Please enjoy!