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We are a month away!! On Sunday, April 21st from 6pm to 9pm we are holding our first Reflections of the Decades Tasting Party!

Join us for a fun tasting event of six vintages of Reflection and food pairings.  Each guest will be given a passport through the decades where we will be pouring six vintages from our library cellar to showcase our Reflection blends from 2006 through 2011.  So where do the decades come in?  Each passport holder will have access to six decades with a fun food and wine pairing twist.  The vintages of each Reflection will be associated with a decade; the 2006 will host the 1960s, the 2007 the 1970s and so on.

For those of you that enjoyed our 10 Year Library Release Party last year, this event will be held in a similar format.  Each station will have its own unique wine and food pairing where you can enjoy each pairing at your own leisure.  Come enjoy a night of tasting and “reflection” where you can mingle around with the Wiens Family, wine club members, and fellow guests.

Check out this epic food pairing menu!

• 2006 Reflection (1960′s) – Groovy Classic Steak Diane served over Mom’s Mashed Potatoes
• 2007 Reflection (1970′s) – Psychedelic Pasta Primavera
• 2008 Reflection (1980′s) – Radical Louisiana style Blackened Red Fish served atop a Black Bean Rice Pilaf
• 2009 Reflection (1990′s) – Boo Ya! Grilled Shrimp Pad Thai with Toasted Peanuts
• 2010 Reflection (2000′s) – Get Jiggy Chicken and Sage Meatloaf serve with a Portobello Risotto Cake
• 2011 Reflection (Current) – Epic Sicilian Meat Lasagna with a Spinach Salad tossed in 2011 Reflection Vinaigrette

These library vintages will be on sale for this one night only and most have very limited supplies.  This event will sell out quickly so please order your tickets today!

Price: $50.00 ($40.00 Wine Club)

For tickets: http://www.wienscellars.com/temecula-events/index.php

*All tickets will be held at will-call.  Tickets cannot be refunded 7 days prior to the event date.

Love the wine you’re with,

Bonjour!

This Saturday March 2nd, and Sunday March 3rd, marks one of Temecula Wine Country’s biggest annual events… The World of Wine Winter Barrel Tasting, here in Temecula Valley Wine Country!

Thirty-five of Temecula Valley Winegrowers Association’s wineries will host this event.  The self-guided tour means guests are free to roam the countryside with a map and tickets, visiting each winery at their own pace, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.  The best part about your travels?  Well drinking “around the world” of course!  There will be food and wine pairings at each winery so that tourists may receive the full experience as they travel from country to country.

Wiens is proud to represent FRANCE!  We will be serving our 2011 Solace paired with Baguettes avec d’ Avocat, Crevettes sauce Marie Louise, Crostini with avocado and shrimp salad, topped with Marie Louise sauce and our 2011 Obscura (From the Barrel) paired with Tranche Grasse de Boeuf Braisee a la mode, Beef sirloin tip braised in red wine, served with braised carrots and onions over buttered noodles.

Here are a couple of photos from last year’s World of Wine when Wiens represented Italy!

A basic breakdown on the 2013 TVWA World of Wine:

When: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Where: 35 wineries in Temecula

Tickets: $99 for Saturday & Sunday, $79 for Sunday only, $69 for designated drivers

Phone: (800) 801-9463

Online: http://www.temeculawines.org/

Bon Voyage!

A bottle of wine is the end product of a winery.  It is the winemaker’s pride and the investor’s financial return for his venture.  Before purchasing, the prospective customer will have an eye on a bottle, and part of his or her decision to buy a specific wine will depend on how it looks.  More importantly, when the bottle is opened for tasting, it must meet the customer’s expectations.  Because wine is kept in the winery cellar or warehouse for a certain period of time, then at the store, and finally at the customer’s home before it is opened and consumed, care must be taken to ensure that the wine will age in the bottle without spoiling. Here are some interesting facts about the way we do things here at Wiens.

~ The first thing you should know about bottling is it is not an easy process. It is an extensive process and includes intensive manual labor.

~ The typical season starts at the end of January and runs through July ending just before crush starts around August.

~ It takes about two weeks up to a month to receive approval from the Tobacco and Trade Bureau for the label.  It will spend roughly ten days at the printer after that.

~ It then takes one day to filter, and one to three days to bottle.

~ After that the wine can be cellared anywhere from two months to two years before being released.

~ Reds are bottled at 60 degrees and whites are bottled at 45 degrees.

~ We bottle everything from our Port sized bottles to our Magnum sized bottles on site. The only thing we don’t bottle on site is the Champagne. The reason being is because it requires tanks and a bottling line that both have to be pressurized.

~ There are three types of green colored glass that we primarily use:

~ The Antique Green and Champagne Green for our reds

~ The Dead Leaf Green for our whites, such as our Solace, Chardonnay, and Viognier

~ The Flint or Clear bottles are used for our White Crowded, Sauvignon Blanc and Malvasia

~ The smallest lot size we’ve had on site is ninety cases (any of our Reserve red wines for the Cellar Room). The largest lot size was about 1,300 cases (which was our Red Crowded – clearly the “crowd” pleaser).

~ It takes two to three people to operate the machine. One loads the glass (Say hi to Blake), one to box and conduct the packaging (Meet Teddy), and one to act as the technician or to direct the bottling process, (in this case Brian, not pictured).

This picture was taken by our very own Brian Marquez! He is our Production Manager and a five-year veteran here at Wiens Family Cellars. His favorite Wiens wine ever produced was our 2008 Sangiovese and his go-to wine would be a Syrah.

~ The bottling machine helps minimize the oxygen exposure from the holding cellar to the bottle. The “vacuuming” or removing of the oxygen out of the bottle slows down the aging process of the wine. By the time the cork gets placed, our goal is to have primarily no amount of oxygen pick up (Lowest oxygen pickup to prevent oxygen exposure to the wine, which ultimately prevents premature aging).

~ We use synthetic corks so we don’t have to worry about spoilage or cork failure, otherwise known as “cork taint” which is the smell or taste of wet cardboard caused by TCA.

~ The wine will pass through a sterile filter prior to entering the bottling line and eliminate any leftover yeast and bacteria cells.

~ Doug, Joe, or Brian will check the pH levels, dissolved oxygen and the sulfites prior to filtration and bottling day.

~ During each bottling run they will pull one bottle from the line every hour to do a “quality check” to make sure that the bottles have a vacuum, are filled to 750ML, and to check temperature.

~ When running at full speed our bottling line can produce 1,200 bottles an hour. (That’s 100 cases an hour!)

~ The Wiens family originally used to contract a mobile bottling line.  It took all of the family members to meet one weekend and crank out as many bottles as possible.

Love the wine you’re with,