Our Mourvedre & Bottle Shock
Last weekend we had a small bottling run and bottled about 105 cases of Mourvedre which is a typical run for us. We got the label machine working and so we didn’t have to hand label like we did with…
Darius Miller
Its Willamette Dammit
Last week Lisa and I took an afternoon and investigated the northern half of the Willamette Valley in Oregon just south of Portland. It is a great place to visit especially if you like Pinot Noir because that’s about the…
Koi Zen Cellars 1st Anniversary
On April 24th, 2016 Koi Zen Cellars celebrated our 1 year anniversary. We planned 5 days of events and right now are very tired, but the whole event was a huge success. Thank you to everyone who came by both…
Put a Cork in IT
Cork Production, Sustainability and Carbon Footprint: This week we will be exploring natural corks and their use in the wine industry. Before opening the winery, I thought a cork was a cork and there wasn’t much to know about them.…
Are Old World Wines the same as New World Wines?
Last week I wrote about how wine generally can be classified as either Old World, or New World. Well here is a twist I think you will enjoy. France has always been known as a premier wine growing region, but…
Judgement of Paris
Old meets new at the Judgement of Paris 40 years ago. On May 24, 1976, Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant organized a blind tasting of some classic French wines against some of Napa Valley’s emerging wineries. The results shocked…
Paso Robles and Terroir
Lisa and I just spent two wonderful days in Paso Robles exploring wine country and attending the WiVi (Wine & Viticulture) convention. It has been a while since we had a day away from the winery and it was great…
Grapes and Global Warming
Is Global Warming causing early Bud Break? A lot of people ask me how the drought and global warming is affecting winegrowers around the state. I wish I had a better answer, but I don’t really know, I am not…
Highlights of some Koi Zen Cellars Parties
During our Parties, we have been having a lot of fun over @KoiZenCellars; here is a video of some highlights of some club pickups, events and parties. Check out our event calendar and sign up for the newsletter to stay…
Terroir – Or Not
Terroir is a French word with no literal translation in English and the closes we can come to is “earth”, “soil”, or “place”. This word is tossed around all of the time. Some think it is just a French marketing…