As we head into June, I am wondering where the time has gone! The school year is ending (which is the way I keep track of time with a 3rd and 6th grader) and the joys of Summer travel creep up on us yet again. The rains (which have not seemed to stop yet) have made this season one of the most lush and beautiful since I started making wine in this area in 2005. Santa Ynez to Santa Maria and up through the Edna Valley are alive and the vineyards are just ridiculous. The ample rainfall has let to healthy canopies and vines that are exploding with growth. Controlling the vigor will be the name of the game this year, but with careful farming and attention, 2019 should be amazing.
This release consists of wines which pair well with long lazy days in the sun and the bounty of foods that make up summer cuisine. Firstly, our second vintage of Rare Groove #3, a 2017, is fresh and vibrant. The 2017 Opening Act Chardonnay is again a stunner in what is surely a legendary vintage for our local Chards! The 2017 Headliner Pinot Noir is chock full of red fruit and cherry but just a hint of cocoa and cinnamon add to the overall complexity of this fine vintage. The 2017 Syrah, called The Hook, is the first varietal Syrah I have made since 2010. Dark and rich, this wine will be a great pairing to any red meat on the grill. Finally, a re-release of the 2014 Guest Star Pinot Noir from our library. I always talk about how age-worthy our wines are, so now we will prove it, with (at least) a five year old wine with most future releases.
As always, help us spread the word to your wine-loving friends and enemies, and holler at us @TimbreWinery on Facebook and Instagram. Without further ado, we present our release. Click here for individual tasting notes and information about each of the new wines… Cheers!
2019 has started off with a bang, or more appropriately, a splash! The storms have been coming one after another and, while many of the fine folks I know have said enough(!), all I can say is keep it coming! Rain this time of the year helps to clean off the roots of the vines, and flush the soil they grow from, which after years of irrigation have become crusted with salts from the ground water used to water those vines. The water also fills the soil and helps the vines feel good about producing a healthy crop… It signals to the vine that things are good. My hope is that the rains of 2019 also start to recharge groundwater, which was drastically affected by the sustained drought here in the West, so that we are ready for the next dry spell, which seems like an inevitability! Also, I haven’t yet hit the slopes this winter, so I want the snow to keep coming for when we do get our butts on the hill!
While I am excited about 2019 and the start we have experienced, I am not going to lie… the talk of the town right now is all 2018! I was recently at a Pinot Noir winemaker symposium associated with the World of Pinot Noir; the event brought together Pinot Noir winemakers from across California. We tasted over 60 Pinot Noirs from the 2018 vintage, and the consensus was clear… 2018 is going to be legen- wait for it – dary! I am sure I have used that line before… sue me. But it’s true. The 2018’s are going to be amazing, for all varieties.
The first 2018 we are releasing is the Opening Act Rose of Pinot Noir. Along with the Rose, we are also releasing some other future classics, and some library offerings. At 6 years of age (and counting), the 2013 Lead Vocals Chardonnay is showing great. The 2016 Locavore Pinot Noir should sell out, in my estimation, 2 weeks after the release. And the 2017 Guest Star Pinot Noir, this first of the 2017 Pinot Noir releases (of which there will be a few stunners coming out this year). For those lucky enough to get a bottle, we are also re-releasing the 2010 Presqu’ile Pinot Noir. This wine is showing great, and the tasting notes are fun as well. A couple of other gems are included in the white-only, and Backstage Pass allocations.
I would like to make a quick shout out to our team members! With us from the beginning we are thankful for the efforts and hard work of (in alphabetical order) Anne who brings a level of sophistication (and you know we need it), Bethany who herds us as if we were 3rd graders, Denise who keeps us smiling, and Lori who keeps the place free of spiders! New members to the team include Darlene who makes sure y’all get your wine, and Rylie and Vanda (daughter and mom and a great duo). Of course Jenn keeps the books balanced and made much of our fine furniture to boot! Thank you all!!!
As always, help us spread the word to your wine-loving friends and enemies, and holler at us @TimbreWinery on Facebook and Instagram. Without further ado, we present our release. Click here for individual tasting notes and information about each of the new wines… Cheers!
Our Fall Pick Up party is this Saturday, October 20th
at 6 PM!
Join us at the tasting room from 6-8 PM.
We will be opening all of the new wine club shipment releases along with plenty of other surprises.
BBQ, lots of bottles popping, and fun people- YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS OUT!!!!
Please RSVP to anne@timbrewinery.com if you would like to join us.
Speaking of new releases, you can read all about them here….
Every year we tell ourselves that writing a release letter during harvest is a bad idea and that we should get on it a little sooner. Well, as the saying goes, why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? Or at least that’s how I think it goes ;)… the unseasonably cool weather to start the growing season did continue through summer and, in fact, created a later harvest this vintage. As of writing this release letter we still have Pinot Noir hanging and this will officially be the latest start to our chardonnay harvest ever, with our first pick on October 1st. I haven’t even started looking at the non-Pinot Noir reds. This harvest has had near perfect conditions with temperate days for slow ripening, and cool nights for holding acidity. I don’t know if there has been another like it in my career so far. Average yields mean healthy vines, and I think 2018 will be one for the history books.
Recently, Vinous, a publication led by famous wine reviewer Antonio Galloni, wrote some unbelievably kind words about our region and Timbre. “Santa Barbara is one of the world’s elite grape growing and wine producing regions. This report focuses mostly on the 2016s, which are just being released onto the market. In 2016 Mother Nature gifted producers with the conditions to make striking wines of grace and finesse.” About Timbre he said “Josh Klapper is one of the many young winemakers who make up Santa Barbara’s dynamic scene. His 2016s are wonderfully finessed, translucent wines with real character.”
It is those 2016s which make up much of this release (and part of our recent Summer 2018 release) with help from our first cider release from 2017 called the Frying Pan, dry-hopped with Citra Hops. The grape varieties represented this time around include the 2016 Lead Vocals Chardonnay and Pinot Noir bottlings. Also on tour, the 2016 Supergroup (Bien Nacido and Presqu’ile Vineyards) and Guest Star (Turner Vineyard) Pinot Noirs. Finally, a red blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon called Rare Groove #1. Like the Rare Groove #2 and #3 from the last release, it is a wine club exclusive and will be gone very soon after release.
As always, help us spread the word to your wine-loving friends and enemies, and holler at us @TimbreWinery on Facebook and Instagram. Without further ado, we present our release. Click here for individual tasting notes and information about each of the new wines… Cheers!
– Josh, Alex, & chiasa–
p.s. Please place your order by October 20th to receive 10% off your purchase. If ordering online, use the code Fall2018TW at checkout to receive the discount. Wines will be shipped/delivered after 10/22/18 via temperature-controlled truck. If you would like to place an order by phone call Anne or Chiasa at 805-270-4308!
ORDER ONLINE HERE, USE THE CODE FALL2018TW AT CHECKOUT TO RECEIVE THE 10 PERCENT OFF YOUR ORDER
2018 has been an amazing year for Timbre! Our tasting room turned one in late April and we are in more places across the country (and internationally) than ever before. Since the start of the year we have made visits to Georgia, Florida, New York, Illinois, & Louisiana and it’s been so great to connect with old and new friends in all these different parts of the country.
Back in California, unseasonably cool weather to start the growing season has created conditions in the vineyards which point to a late harvest this vintage. After years of hot, dry summers, and freakishly early harvests, it looks like we may finally have a year that we used to consider “normal.” What this means, is plenty of hang-time for the grapes to develop complexity, while still maintaining balanced levels of potential alcohol. Of course, anything could happen in the next few months leading into harvest, but we are already feeling very optimistic about the 2018 Vintage. Before the harvest madness hits, we will be enjoying these long summer days with some wine from our new release.
This release includes a couple of firsts for us, a rose made from 100% pressed Pinot Noir fruit. The fruit was picked and then loaded directly to the press so that there would be almost no skin contact whatsoever. We also bottled our first Sauvignon Blanc from Brave & Maiden vineyard in the Santa Ynez Valley called Rare Groove #3! Racy and fresh, this wine (for wine club members only) is going to be a new classic for us… The other wines you may be getting include the new 2016 vintages of Opening Act and Headliner Pinot Noir. Finally, in 2016 we made a Red Blend of Grenache and Syrah, also from Brave & Maiden, that we call Rare Groove #2. With only 23 cases made it will live up to its namesake as ‘hard to find’.
As always, help us spread the word to your wine-loving friends and enemies, and holler at us @TimbreWinery on Facebook and Instagram. Without further ado, we present our release. Click here for individual tasting notes and information about each of the new wines… Cheers!
-Josh, Alex, & Chiasa
p.s. Please place your order by July 14th to receive 10% off your purchase. If ordering online, use the code summer2018TW at checkout to receive the discount. Wines will be shipped/delivered after July 21st via temperature-controlled truck. If you would like to place an order by phone call Anne or Chiasa at 805-270-4308!
ORDER ONLINE HERE, USE THE CODE SUMMER2018TW AT CHECKOUT TO RECEIVE THE 10 PERCENT OFF YOUR ORDER
It has been a really cold winter (with a couple of weird heat events) and as such the cellar has been frosty. What makes for challenging human conditions, also means that this year, the wines are crazy fresh and pure. In the past few weeks though, the rain has been steadily falling and the central coast is green! It is an amazingly beautiful time to visit the area which, for a few short months, looks lush, and will soon boast an unbelievable bounty of wildflowers… While you’re here, come to our tasting room in the village of Arroyo Grande and join the Wine Club. Members can take advantage of comp tastings, special wine club events, and much more! In the coming releases, we look forward to releasing our first wine club only wines. Stay tuned for details…
Sometimes, wines get released because… well… they are the new wines and it is just time to release them. This time around, when tasting through the Spring 2018 release, the wines were all just ready to go! The 2017 Opening Act rose is absolutely singing right now… We snuck a few bottles into the tasting room in the last few weeks and the consensus is, get your hands on this wine while it lasts! The 2016 Opening Act Chardonnay, mostly from Bien Nacido with a touch of Sierra Madre fruit is also jamming right now so don’t miss out.
As always, help us spread the word to your wine-loving friends and enemies, and holler at us @TimbreWinery on Facebook and Instagram. Without further ado, we present our release. Click here for individual tasting notes and information about each of the new wines… Cheers!
-Josh, Alex, & Chiasa
p.s. Please place your order by April 6th to receive 10% off your purchase. If ordering online, use the code SPRING2018TW at checkout to receive the discount. Wines will be shipped/delivered after April 9th via temperature-controlled truck. If you would like to place an order by phone call Anne at 805-270-4308!
Order online here, use the code SPRING2018TW at checkout to receive the 10 percent off your order
