As we move into the 4th of July weekend, the vines seem to have flourished during our hot dry June. While we struggled with winterkill and a late frost, over all the crops at our vineyards and the Tuckers' Rio Embudo vines look pretty good. Now we await the summer monsoon season to cool things off and give the grapes a nice even ripening period. So, let the summer showers begin!

Josh hit the ground running after his getaway to Ireland and he and the bottling crew have bottled up some exciting new, award winning releases and pre-releases. Our ‘09 Special Reserve Riesling had to be left on the vine for some time after the mid-October hard frost. The picking crew carefully picked the clusters from the naked vines as the leaves had fallen. The partially desiccated clusters, however yielded grapes with higher brix (sugar content) and the wine has very nice apricot-like fruit together with a refined mineral quality.

We left the Late Harvest Riesling on the vines even longer and it is therefore sweeter, already winning two Bronze medals at the Eastern International Wine Competition and the New Mexico State Fair Wine Competition. In the same competition our ‘09 Chardonnay won Gold and Best of Show, while the Vino de Oro and Primavera also won Best of Show. The Dolcetto, Embudo Blanco, Late Harvest Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon '06 also medalled. In the International Eastern Wine Competition we garnered six medals: ‘09 Viognier, Winemakers' Select White, Dolcetto, Late Harvest Riesling, Vino de Oro and ‘08 Vintners' Reserve.

We also did well at the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition, winning 4 silver medals: Viognier ’09 (which also scored 86pts with Wine Enthusiast Magazine), Shiraz Reserve ’07, Dolcetto ’08, and Vino de Oro ’09. Finger Lakes also awarded us 3 bronze medals for the: Rose del Bosque ’09, Winemaker’s Select White ’09, and Winemakers’ Select Red ’07. Also, our ’06 Cabernet won a silver medal at the prestigious Dallas Morning News Wine Competition as did the Dolcetto and Winemakers’ Select Red ’07. Please note, we are almost sold out of Viognier ’09, Winemakers’ Select Red ’07, and Shiraz Reserve ’07.

So, we're not sitting on our laurels, we have bottled our Canoncito Red for those who like a sweeter, fruity and refreshingly light red for the summer months and we are thinking it might be the best vintage yet: it is a blend of 90% Leon Millot from Rio Embudo Vines and 10% Montepulciano from the Mimbres Valley. We also bottled around 100 cases of our ‘08 Port made from Ruby Cabernet grown at New Mexico Vineyard in the Mimbres Valley in southern New Mexico – what a great sipping wine after dinner with a little chocolate!

We still have some ‘08 Rio Red in stock, but for the last few days the crew bottled the ‘09 Rio Red for bottle aging before release. Murdoch, Pat and Michelle's friend from New Zealand was the star of the marathon bottling sessions. Josh, our winemaker is going to barrel age our new reds in oak for an additional 3 months, so no more bottling sessions until December. As Josh, Jasper and Jose train and cultivate the vines we can hardly believe harvest is only six weeks away! So, we toast all of our wine buyers

Cheers,

The La Chiripada Gang