Introducing the Stomping Girl Wine Club

Response to our plans to offer a wine club has been enthusiastic and we are happy to officially announce the Stomping Girl Wine Club!  We anticipate this will be a perfect way to maintain close relationships with our customers and be able to offer you the best possible discounts and benefits. 

Club Benefits include:

• Shipments of four (4) bottles of wine three times a year

• 20% discount on all wine

• Preferred access to our library wines

• Complimentary tastings

• Free or discounted entrance to Stomping Girl events

• and more…
  

 

Pinot Report review of Stomping Girl Wines

We just have to toot our own horn, once in a while.  We can’t help it.  Like proud parents of shy toddlers that are growing up.  Here is a recent review, click here for full PDF of the review , from The Pinot Report.

2008 Stomping Girl, Lone Oak Vineyard, Santa Lucia Highland, Pinot Noir – 90 Points

“Deep and earthy…”

Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands Lone Oak Vineyard
Medium-deep ruby color; deep, black cherry and earthy
aromas with some spice and oak notes; rich, black cherry
and earthy flavors with some sweet oak notes; silky
texture; good structure and balance; long finish. Deep and
earthy Pinot with a lot of interesting flavors.

2008 Stomping Girl Split Rock Vineyard, Sonoma Coast, Pinot Noir – 91 Points

“Spicy and complex…”
Stomping Girl Wines
Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast Split Rock Vineyard
2008
Medium-deep ruby color; lots of complex, pretty aromas
of cherry and earth; deep, full cherry flavors with complex
spice and earth notes; silky texture; good structure and
balance; long finish. Spicy and complex Pinot that is a
great match for grilled meats.

 

 

 

Stomping Girl Celebrates International Women’s Day

Stomping Girl Wines is named in honor of Uzi’s independent and hardworking grandmother who grew grapes and made wine on the family property; for Uzi’s sister who was originally “employed” to stomp the grapes for the family wine; and for Kathryn, Lea and Hannah–our modern day Stomping Girls who stomp the grapes, punch the cap, press the wine and are involved in our family winery.  (read more about our history here)

To honor and recognize these women in our family and women everywhere, Stomping Girl is celebrating International Women’s Day this March 8th by donating 10% of our wine sales between now and March 8 to a non-profit group called Mujeres Unidas y Activas.  This group educates and advocates for Latina women, many working as domestic and childcare workers on issues such as immigration law, domestic violence and women’s health.  Stomping Girl is proud to be able to contribute to MUA.

To help you help us donate 10% to a good cause, we are offering Free Shipping anywhere we ship in the US on orders of 2 bottles or more placed by March 8th.  Click here to order and use promo code: IWD.

There is not a better day to raise a glass and salute the women who make a difference in your life than International Women’s Day.   Cheers!!

 

Stomping Girl Release and Wine Pick-Up Party

The moment we’ve all been waiting for is here! Come join us in celebrating the inaugural release of Stomping Girl wine. We’ll be pouring our newly released 2008 Pinot Noirs, serving food and enjoying good music.

What: Stomping Girl Release and Pick Up Party
When: February 6, 2010, 2:00 – 4:00pm
Where: 2323 4th Street, Berkeley, CA
Cross street is Bancroft, our driveway is across from Kiss that Frog

RSVP: Party@StompingGirlWines.com
Please RSVP by February 1

Why Pick Up? If you order wine by February 1, you can pick it up at the party, get 10% off and pay no shipping.  Order wine at stompinggirlwines.com using coupon code “PreRelease” or by calling 707-317-6617.

 

2008 Stomping Girl Pinot Noir Released!

After much anticipation, we are proud to announce the inaugural release of Stomping Girl Wines.  Our two 2008 Pinot Noirs are so seductive that it is difficult not to keep it all for ourselves! Alas, we are releasing it…

Order Now and Save

Order yours before February 1st and save 10%.  Just put your order in the shopping cart and use the coupon code: PreRelease.

Celebrate with us at our February 6th 2-4 PM Release Party at the winery at 2323 4th St, Berkeley, pick up your wine there and also save on shipping.  Just place your order by February 1st and designate Pick up/Local as your shipping option.

Otherwise,  wine orders will be shipped out on February 1st, weather permitting.

Unique Opportunity

Stomping Girl produces very small lots of handcrafted, artisanal Pinot Noir and 2008 is our first commercial vintage.  Consider this an opportunity to buy some to enjoy now and some to tuck away in your cellar for future special occasions before it’s gone.  After all, there is only one first release of Stomping Girl Pinot Noir.

 

Stomping Girl Holidays

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!  We had a great 2 week break starting off with a road trip to Seattle.  On the way, we spent 2 days in Oregon seeing a couple of friends and wine tasting in the Willamette Valley.  We wish we had had more time to spend in the Willamette Valley but we had just enough time to taste some impressive Oregon Pinots at the incredible Domaine Drouhin; the serene, indeed, Domaine Serene; and the beautiful Stoller Vineyards.

Domaine Drouhin vines in winter

Domaine Serene

Stoller Vineyards

After a fun, relaxing and indulgent Christmas week with family in Seattle we rushed back to spend the 2nd week with our big, “stomping girl” who was home from college for a short break. I know it’s cliche but all I’m going to say about that is they grow up way too fast!!

Now it’s back to work and we are in high gear preparing for the release of our 2008 Pinot Noirs–putting the final touches on our online ordering site, printing up tasting and technical notes and planning the February Release Party.  Stay tuned and we hope to see some of you there!

 

Stirring the Lees and Topping Barrels

About a year ago, Uzi wrote about the “chore” of topping off.  Back then we only had 2 half barrels in our home cellar and 4 barrels at the winery to worry about.  This year we have 17 barrels at the winery to stir and top.  While we still don’t see it as a chore, it is a bit more work.  They are stacked two high in the back of the barrel room and special maneuvers are required to properly stir the lees and top off the barrel without overflowing.  But it is still a great opportunity to smell and taste the wine and to, for lack of a better word, touch base with the wine…even while it is resting snugly in the barrel.

So earlier this week at the winery, we sniffed, stirred, topped and tasted all 17 barrels of our 2009 Pinot Noir.  Pinot always seems to be evolving, from the moment of harvest all the way to the last drop in your glass.  But at this point in time, we found that our Carneros Pinot has an incredible nose, our Russian River Pinot already has a luscious mouthfeel and luscious flavors and our Sonoma Coast has nice fruit forward character.  Can’t wait to see what we discover next time…

in the barrel room

 

Bottling Sonoma Coast – 2008 Split Rock Vineyard

Last Thursday we bottled the last of our 2008 wines.  “Last” sounds like we made many wines, we only made wine from two vineyards, but it does feel good to have our 2008 vintage safely in bottles. Now we wait for the delicate Pinot to recover.  As many of you know, wine goes thru a shock when it is bottled and needs some rest to recover before it is ready to drink.

Even though the bottling process is mostly automated, contrary to our home wine bottling in the last 7 years, we still make sure we touch every single bottle and leave our prints on  it. Such are the joys of winemaking.

Take a look at the steps in pictures:

First the bottles are emptied of oxygen, filled with wine and the wine level is adjusted.

Bottling Machine

Corks are inserted and the red sleeves are put on and spun into place.

Corks inserted and bottle sleeves put on.

Next, the labeler applies our lovely label to the bottles.

Labels applied to Stomping Girl Pinot Noir

Then the bottles come off the line and are boxed by hand.

Kathryn boxing Stomping Girl Pinot

 

Stomping Girl Barrel Tasting

Stomping Girl Wines had a great turn out for our first barrel tasting event featuring our ’08 Pinot Noirs–Lone Oak Vineyard, Santa Lucia Highlands and Split Rock, Sonoma Coast.  The wines are developing fantastically with cherry and spice flavors coming through and nicely balanced on the  palette.  We also pulled a barrel sample of our ’08 Las Brisas, Carneros, Pinot–it’s displaying nice cherry fruit flavors and a silky, velvety texture in the mouth.

Thanks to those who came, we had a great time.  And thank you to Maureen Sullivan for taking the photos!  Here is one review of the event.

 

Stomping Girl Wines adds Beresini Vinyard to 2009 lineup

 

Beresini Vineyard

We are very happy to announce the addition of Steve Beresini Carneros vineyard to our 2009 lineup.

Steve has a meticulously maintained small vineyard in Carneros that has been producing world class Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for many years by the likes of wineries such as MacRostie.  The vineyard was planted in 1989 making it one of the more mature Pinot vineyards around, even by Carneros standards.  Low yield and careful management of the vines produces superb wine. When Steve called to say he might have some fruit available for me I had to drive right over and see it. 

Stomping Girl will have three rows dedicated to us, two of the Pommard clone and one of the Calera clone. These 3 rows will give us only a tiny amount–maybe four barrels of wine.  And that is fine by us because we choose to produce small lots from grapes carefully grown by small family-owned vineyards.

Steve, who has been growing vines and making wine for more than thirty years, takes excellent care of his vineyard. He was the winemaker at one point at Niebaum-Coppola Winery and worked alongside the legendary André Tchelistchef, who consulted with Neibaum-Copola at the time.

While tasting his 2008 from the barrel, all Calera clone, we talked about his winemaking protocol. I tried to learn his winemaking secrets, what makes his wine so luscious and round, so aromatic and bright cherry red. He got a distant look on his face and reminisced about Andre, a mentor to him.  Then he said, “It’s really simple, it’s all starts in the vineyard, so when I walk around the vines and I’m suckering and pruning, I say to myself, ‘I am just walking around, making wine.'”

We are lucky to have this extra winemaker in the vineyard.

Steve Beresini and his vineyard