Sonoma County
Did you know that Bees wax can be a great friend to the wine owner?
The melting point of bees wax is very low – so if your wines have beeswax and they melt… they are probably too warm! and you should be alarmed!
With that – over time it will patina and change in color – so we weighed the plus and minus and went with the dallop!
Hope that you enjoy the extra work this touch brings to the wine.
My family tree is a modest, but hard working story of where I come from. A strong group of mentors that taught me to care for everyone like they are family; to respect good people and cherish the time we have together. My fathers’ parents (Blackburn’s) and my mothers’ parents (Pahl’s) were a collection of entertaining characters, that included military men, athletes, entrepreneurs, entertainers, educators, horse thieves and yes, even Beekeepers. “Beekeeper” resonated with me immediately, as I grew up fascinated with bees, and their majestic service to the earth…. As this wine is a very personal project, I want to honor my family both past and present and I name my wine Beekeeper in their honor and memory. I bottle Beekeeper to continue my dedication to wine, to learn, and share my knowledge and passion with my many friends, clients, and contacts that I will continue to cherish every moment with… may we all enjoy the best in life together and protect the fragile balance in nature.
I have worked in wine long enough to know what I like and to have an informed opinion on what I stand for. I firmly believe that to be successful, you must be in love with what you are doing and know why you are doing it. I want to fight for, create, and defend the great potential of Zinfandel; it is a nobel fight worth fighting for! Zinfandel can be the most authentic expression of California…. An expression of our history, our land and our climate. My desire is to help make it a larger part of California’s wine future and to hopefully move the reputation of the varietal in an upward direction.
What a place to start!! One of the great Zinfandel vintages of the past 20 years, the 2009 is a blockbuster. The Madrone Springs Vineyard was planted in 1999, with about 4 acres of Zinfandel and 1 acre of Petite Sirah, the vines are now over 10 years old and really starting show their potential. Owned and farmed by the Mauritson Family, the vineyard is a jewel in the family vineyard collection. The fruit for this hillside selection was received on October 15th; tiny berries were de-stemmed into small bunch down boxes, and maceration and fermentation took approximately 15 days. The yields were ideal for Rockpile, about 1.5-2 tons of fruit per acre. Zinfandel, which has a reputation for uneven ripening, came in clean and uniform with great flavors, as did the small amount of Madrone Springs Petite Sirah. After 14 months in a mixture of 1 to 3 year old French and American oak, the wine has achieved optimal concentration and weight. This intensity was magnified by Rockpile’s exotic tendencies, and the spectrum of flavors will continue to evolve in the bottle. Bottled on Jan 23rd, 2011; the wine benefits from additional cellaring. We apply the labels by hand and pay careful attention to every detail.
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