JUSTIN Food & Wine Blog

The best wines are well balanced. So are the best wine events!

For this Saturday’s, ISOSCELES 2009 Pre-Release Party, we are focused on creating an event that symbolized the balance and vigor of the wine we are all celebrating! Every year, the JUSTIN Team is challenged to recreate and expand on an already seasoned event. For the 2009 ISOSCELES Pre-Release Party, we are going to be doing this through a number of ways, all of which balance our traditional experiences with new features.

Personally, in my group of friends being first to do something means one important thing; that you get to shamelessly brag about it to the rest of the group! JUSTIN Winery is extremely fortunate to have such devoted fans and this Saturday we are offering you the opportunity to be among the first people in the world to try the 2009 ISOSCELES! To really provide you with irrefutable evidence that you were here, we will be taking  pictures as you savor and enjoy the 2009 ISOSCELES that will then be featured on our Facebook page with a resounding proclamation of “I Liked It First”! I will be keeping mine in my wallet and bring it up to strangers in casual conversations!

Wine is always going to be at the core for all of our events. However, there is no reason we can’t find balance in the food we present as well. As always, our own Executive Chef Will Torres from The Restaurant at JUSTIN will be providing an exquisite array of appetizers to allow our partygoers to experience foods that flawlessly compliment the JUSTIN wine lineup.

I hope you can all join us on January 28^th!

Cheers!

Brian Connor, CSW

Wine Society Lounge Coordinator

JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery

Pour a glass and join our Facebook community!

 

Happy New Year!

At the beginning of  2012, the pace of life at JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery has changed from the fermentation activity of the 2011 harvest, to more deliberate zen-like activities in our cave cellar.  With the last of the 2011 red wines finishing their malolactic fermentation our cellar crew is now concentrating on topping up barrels. 

As wine develops while being stored in a barrel, there is a small amount of evaporation that takes place through the wood of the barrel.  This  concentrates the wine slightly, but it also reduces the amount of wine in the barrel a little.  To avoid excessive oxygen contact from the air that has found its way into the barrel, we visit each barrel about once a month and add a bit of wine from the same batch of wine to displace the air and keep the wine in optimum condition. 

This “topping off”  is all done by hand and in the case of the  barrel “pyramids” lining the walls of our cave, this means a lot of climbing around with flashlights in hand.  From the JUSTIN Cabernet to the ISOSCELES, our red wines spend 16 to 24 months in barrel and topping them every month makes for a lot of work.  This attention to detail and “going the extra mile” is needed to produce a quality wine that will “belong in the company of the finest wines in the world”.

Jim Gerakaris, CSW

Certified Sommelier JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery