In the beginning of the pandemic, we launched our online wine store, and have been gratified by your response. As promised, the 2018 Napa Valley (Coombsville) Merlot was bottled on June 15 and is sitting in storage for a couple of months until it has time to settle. We’re proud to be able to offer this delicious addition to our repertoire. Bay Area residents who bought the Merlot will receive their shipments in August. I will ask those in other parts of the country if they would be willing to wait a couple of months more to avoid any possible dangers of shipping during the hottest weather. We use very high-quality styrofoam shippers, but the perils of wine being left out somewhere in extreme temperatures suggest that waiting a bit might be prudent.

Your response to the very tasty, low-alcohol 2017 South Block delighted us. It turns out that this vintage will be the only iteration of that block as a separate wine. Because the south end of our property is more exposed to the marine air that rushes in daily through the Petaluma Gap, the fruit there ripens more slowly than in the North Block. A section of the South Block was planted to an Italian clone, VCR 118, which produced beautiful, abundant fruit, but ripened much later than the Dijon clones planted in this same block, making it hard to coordinate the harvest on our small planting. Last year, we grafted these vines over to a highly recommended Dijon clone (828) that we had not previously planted. And so this elegant South Block version ($23) will only exist in the 2017 vintage. Without any more age on it, this has already blossomed into the perfect wine for summer.

I’ve posted a short video of the VCR 118 vines being grafted to clone 828. I was fascinated by the ease and facility of the vineyard worker, Chuy from Jalisco, who did the grafting. What you see here is Chuy among the VCR 118 vines that have been cut off at the fruiting wire. The bag on his shoulder contains the “wood,” canes clipped from clone 828 vines, from which he extracts one, shaving off chips that contain buds. Then he inserts the bud chips into cuts he makes in the vine trunks, and tapes the chips securely into the trunks. I love the grace with which he catches the bud chip as it flies through the air. When these buds sprout, they will become the shoots for the new 828 clone.

We were so happy with the fruit that went into our 2018 Merlot that we tried to acquire more from the same source for 2019, but the property was put on the market and the vineyard went untended. The silver lining for us is that, at the last minute, we were able to score some superb Cabernet Sauvignon from Dry Creek Valley, which is famous both for its Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel. At a recent tasting, when the barrels were being topped up, this wine surprised us by revealing itself as good enough, despite its tender age, to drink with dinner that night. It will mature in the barrel for another six months before it’s bottled. With appropriate fanfare, we’ll release it next year.

The Lockdown Special remains in place, including the sale prices and free shipping on orders of a half case or more. If you want to buy fewer than six bottles, drop me an email: wayneroden@comcast.net

Our efforts continue to find and use the best materials for mask-making. This was step one for adapting a pair of pantyhose to seal the sides and edges.