John Tyler and Wine Country Minute

Wine Country Minute

Read our interview with Wine Country Minute where we talk about our history in the industry as growers, our unique approach to wine clubs and our future plans for John Tyler Wines.

Grape stomping at its finest, our kickoff to harvest!

With harvest just around the corner we thought it would be a great idea to start it off right with a good old fashioned grape stomp. As part of the Grape To Glass event put on by Russian River Valley Wine Growers we hosted two groups of eager grape “stompers” ready to get their feet nice and juicy. As part of the fun, the grape stomp was designed as a relay race. The groups were divided into teams of three, one person stomped while another filled up a pitcher with the freshly crushed grape juice, and they then ran to another team member to fill up 4 wine glasses. The first team to fill up all their glasses and cross the finish line was the winner! And because everyone is a winner all guests went home with a jar of Kozlowski Farms jam! Guest were also treated to a special vertical tasting of our John Tyler Pinot Noir and Zinfandel wines ranging from vintages 2003-2005. Tyler Heck our wine maker was present to taste everyone through this one of a kind experience.
The weekend was culminated at the annual Hog N the Fog BBQ hosted by Saralee and Richard Kunde at their beautiful Grove in Russian River Valley. Guests tasted from an amazing selection of highly sought after Russian River Valley Wines, including of course John Tyler! 2009 Grape to Glass is always a one of a kind experience where guests can feel up close and personal with growers, winemakers and their families. We had a great time at this event and hope to see you all at our tasting room next year!

2009 Grape to Glass “Live like a Local”

Grape to Glass Weekend

For one weekend only we invite you to visit us at our estate vineyards and experience life in the Russian River Valley. Taste through our current release and library wines while meeting the family. Participate in the Winery Poker Run and “pig” out at the Hog in the Fog Winegrower BBQ and Live Auction. This weekend is not to be missed!
Visit the Russian River Valley Winegrowers website for more information.

Wine bloggers galore, what more could you ask for?

This past weekend Northern California wine country was invaded by bloggers, wine bloggers to be exact. They came from all over to participate in the 2009 Wine Bloggers Conferenceat the Flamingo Hotel. Hundreds of bloggers attended seminars, conferences, and tastings ranging from topics on “The Future of Blogging and Social Media” to “Search Engine Optimization, Traffic Building”.

The Russian River Valley Winegrowers hosted an after hours party for the bloggers to come and hang out and taste some of our featured Russian River Valley wines.  Nicole and myself attended armed with our laptop and camera to be sure to take in every minute of this blogging party.

A few nights before my good friend and consultant Jennifer Burke told me to make a list of the three bloggers that I wanted to meet and talk with.  I am pleased to say that I was 2 for 3 by the end of the night, meeting 2 out of the 3 bloggers on my list.  By far one of the most interesting and entertaining guests of the night was Joe Roberts or 1winedude as he is known on his blog and twitter. Joe seemed to just sort of camp out at our table (it must have been the wine) so we got to talk about a lot of things. His approach to blogging and wine blogging in specific is light- hearted and hilarious. He explained that he felt there were just too many wine bloggers out there who wrote about wine in a very serious and matter of fact way with not enough humor and fun. His blog 1winedude is all about erasing the stigma of wine that you have to spend a lot of money or know the right words in order to enjoy it. False! And his blog will definitely help you think out of the box.
I was also thrilled to meet Hardy Wallace- the overnight local wine superstar sensation who recently won the acclaimed Murphy Goode wine correspondent position “A Really Goode Job”. Hardy is also author of the blog dirtysouthwine. No matter what the controversary may say about this “competition” there is no doubt in my mind that Hardy is the man for the job. He is thrilled to be here, in Healdsburg and is excited to start what he refers to as truly his “dream job”.
So who was the third and final wine blogger on my list? I will leave that question unanswered…until the next WBC!

2005 John Tyler Zinfandel awarded 89 points from Wine Enthusiast

“The vineyard is virtually in Dry Creek Valley, so it’s not surprising to find the briary, brambly intensity of that warm Sonoma appellation. It’s a good, lush, likeable Zin, brimming with wild berry, leather, tobacco and pepper spice flavors swimming in firm, dry tannins.”

Purchase online

John Tyler on Back to Bakas

Check out Rick Bakas and his tasting video featuring the 2002 and 2003 John Tyler Pinot Noir from Russian River Valley. He pairs the wines with an Apple Soy Grilled Salmon recipe.

Summer Giveaway @johntylerwines.com

In an effort for us to stay connected with our new customers we’ve created an opportunity for you to also get something in return. For the month of July sign up for our e-mail list and be entered for a chance to win a bottle each of our newest releases.; the 2005 Pinot Noir and 2005 Zinfandel. The winner will be announced here Monday, August 3rd. Questions? E-mail kateyb@johntylerwines.com

(Customers in certain states may not be eligible due to shipping restrictions. Must be 21 years old to participate)

Pinot lovers unite

It’s here! The 5th Annual Pinot Days tasting at Fort Mason is this weekend Sunday, June 28th from 1-5:00 p.m. Touted as California’s largest single gathering of Pinot Noir, producers from over 200 wineries will be on hand to pour their wines. Be sure to stop by our table where we will be pouring our well known vertical flights and don’t miss out on our special offer!

Purchase tickets

Racers start your engines!

Join Infineon Raceway as it celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Morgan at the Wine Country Classic Historic Car Races May 30-31. The Morgan first hit the streets in England in 1909, and Infineon Raceway will host one of the biggest centennial celebrations of the Morgan in North America. In all, more than 250 historic cars will grace the road course in a weekend of racing. Race fans will also enjoy the Wine Country Pavilion, featuring some of the best food and wine Sonoma and Napa have to offer, headlined by notable Bay Area chef Victor Scargle. Nicole and Pam Bacigalupi will be pouring our estate John Tyler Wines by Bacigalupi Vineyards, come out to the races and see us!

The great state of TEXAS

When you are in the wine industry every time of year is a busy time of year. Whether it is pruning or suckering the vines, bottling wine, ordering new labels, helping customers with purchases, shipping orders or dealing with compliance issues there is always something going on at the winery no matter what time of year.  The last few weeks I have been traveling all over the country introducing our wines to new markets. My recent trip was to Dallas, Texas. This was my first trip to the state of Texas and it is notorious for being a great state to sell wine in so I was excited for the opportunity.

ZAP Grand Tasting

 I went in association with ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates and Producers) an organization that focuses solely on the promotion of Zinfandel wines. Since one of our main productions is Zinfandel it seemed like a great opportunity. ZAP had organized a “Grand Tasting” of several wineries at the Tower Club in Dallas, a very high end location in down town. In order to make the most of the visit I had scheduled some appointments witha few wholesalers a day before the Grand Tasting. Researching wholesalers is not the easiest of tasks, they usually do not have websites and finding contact information for managers can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. With the help of my mom Pam, also co -owner for John Tyler, we set up 3 appointments with wholesalers for me to meet with.  Most of the time these companies are based out of Houston, so they cannot taste your wines and give you an answer right then and there. No, that would be too easy. Instead, they attend monthly meetings where they go through and taste dozens if not several dozens of samples that wineries have submitted. As a winery that is competing for a spot in their portfolio you have no choice but to try and outshine the rest….i.e your wines must kick ass. Meeting with wholesalers in this fashion is almost like going to a job interview, you are never sure how much information to divulge all at once. At the same time you are in a very high stress environment but at all times need to seem calm and collected. At no time let them know your palms are sweating like crazy (which also could be because of the humidity) and your hands are shaking like something awful. Now don’t get me wrong I have the ultimate confidence in my product and I know that our wine can trump any wine you put next to it,  but at the same time because I am new this and traveling solo naturally I am a little nervous. 

Charlie Palmers Restaurant downtown Dallas

One of the highlights of my trip was that my hotel was 2 blocks away from Charlie Palmers new restaurant in the Joule Hotel. Drawing from the fact that Texas is now the largest producer of wind energy in the nation, the restaurant  has a “breezy” theme that features lazily spinning turbines within covered ceiling lights that impart a sense of tranquility. As I walked into the hotels lobby it was hard not to miss the large spinning turbine in the middle of the room. I met with the head sommelier Brandan, who was extremely down to earth. I asked him if he had a second to sit down with me so I could pick his brain about what wholesalers he likes to work with. This is very important, because if the restaurants don’t like buying from certain wholesalers you will most likely not be seeing your wine on some very important wine lists.  Brandan was more than generous in sitting down with me and giving me the 411 on Dallas distributors. He also gave me an entire tour of the restaurant from top to bottom. The hotel boosts a roof top bar and pool over looking Dallas city streets with very impressive views.

electronic wine list

The Tower Club Dallas

The next day was the culmination of the trip, the ZAP Grand Tasting at the Tower Club in Dallas on the 48th floor. Twenty or so Zinfandel producers joined wholesalers, retailers, restaurants and Zin lovers for an all day tasting. I was lucky enough to see a friendly face right when I walked in, Lon Lowenthal wine consultant for Centennial Wine and Spirits. I met Lon 2 years ago working in the tasting room at another winery. During his trip to California I introduced him to our family and the John Tyler Wines brand, he was taken with our history as well as our wines and has been a great advocate for us.  He was very gracious in introducing me to some key players in the wholesale and retail end of the business. With such a mix of interesting people in one area, wine makers, winery owners, wholesalers and consumers you could feel the enthusiasm in the air, everyone was excited to taste some Zinfandel.

All in all to sum up my experience, I have to say the people of the state of Texas are some of the most genuine and nicest I have ever encountered. Selling wine out of state can be tricky business. Your quest is to find a “partner” who is going to be invested in your product, like they made it with their own two hands, this can be a hard things to find. I am excited to get our wines to the Texas market, it has been something we have been working towards for 2 years. Look for our John Tyler Wines in the great state of Texas…coming soon!

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