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Volume #13: July 2006

Summer Release Party
On Friday July 7th we hosted our Summer Release Party on the patio of the historic Novitiate Winery, the location of our winemaking operations in Los Gatos. This was an invitation-only event for our Wine Club members, as well as our best customers from our first full year of operation. Delicious hors dâoeuvres from Il Fornaio complemented our wines. We poured all of our current release wines, along with a barrel sample of the 2004 Choreography, our Napa Valley Cabernet blend that was recently bottled and will be released in November of 2006. This event was our way of saying thanks to our biggest supporters from the past year. One of our Wine Club members, Bonnie Morrill, had this to say:

ãI have been a member of other Wine Clubs but was never treated to such a nice social event at any of them. Thanks again to all at Fleming Jenkins!ä

For more information on joining our Wine Club, please click here.

Recent Bottlings
The week of July 17th was a busy one for us, with two public tasting events, as well as the bottling of our two latest wines: 2005 Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay from our home vineyard, as well as our 2004 Choreography.

This is our third bottling of the Chardonnay from our home vineyard, and we are very happy with the progress we have been making over the years. All of the work that has been put into the vineyard is paying off. This wine is a great example of the wine that we strive to make ö well balanced and a good varietal representation of the vineyard that it comes from.

Choreography represents our role of creating the stage for our vines and grapes to achieve their highest expression in the vineyards and at the winery. The grapes for this wine come from vineyards near Yountville that are managed by the Nord family, a family with a distinguished tradition in Napa Valley winegrowing. Choreography is a blend of the five classic Bordeaux varietals --- 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Franc, 7% Petit Verdot, and 2% Malbec. Stay tuned later this year for information on ordering this wonderful wine.

Jenkins Vineyard Update
Things are getting very interesting in the vineyard this time of year. The fruit clusters went through bloom about a month and a half ago, which resulted in a very productive fruit set. We are now getting ready to start selecting which clusters that we want to be considered to go into our Fleming Jenkins Chardonnay this harvest, and will begin dropping excess fruit in the upcoming weeks. The vines are in better balance this year than they have ever been which should result in consistent fruit coming off of the vineyard this fall. It is hard to believe that we will be harvesting within the next two months, but we are very excited to see the end result of our hard work take shape.
Best Regards,
Greg & Peggy
and the Fleming Jenkins Team