Dear Friends of Petroni Vineyards,

Welcome to the new monthly newsletter we will be sending out to all our valued members to keep you informed and up-to-date with the goings on at Petroni Vineyards in beautiful Sonoma, California.

First of all we have great news! With all the wines from the 2009 vintage in barrel and quietly maturing in the cool of winter I am pleased to be able to declare the vintage a very successful one. In a vintage that may well be remembered as the “before or after” vintage, we can be categorized as “before”, as in we harvested all our fruit before the rains of late October set in. As it happened the fruit was deemed ripe and ready before the rain became obvious so the result

was the vast majority of the fruit was harvested at peak ripeness.  The vineyards who elected not to pick before the rain were not rewarded as the weather never recovered, staying cool with regular showers. The season had effectively ended. It is a credit to our fabulous Vineyard Manager, Samuel Calderon, that we were able to get the fruit so ripe before the inclement weather set in.

Aside from the rain that bookended the season, it could be described as cool, even and long. With an absence of heat spikes, but with ample sunshine.  The vines ripened their crops evenly with great flavor development and intensity that is best achieved with good hang time. Given the nature of the season it is no surprise that the Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnays look exceptional this year. Syrah and Sangiovese also benefited from the longer than usual ripening period building complex flavors with a deep, ripe structure. It is attributable to the outstanding site of the vineyard that even our Cabernet, the most challenging grape in a cool season, came through full and chunky with smooth fruit tannins and a certain elegance typical of a cooler climate. It is certainly an exciting vintage to watch unfold over the year and one that I am sure will please everybody.

Next month I will write about some of the 2009 varietals , including our first Petroni Rosato (Rosé). We will also take a peak ahead of the 2008 vintage as we begin to assemble the final blends for the year.  

 Ciao for now,
Martin Mackenzie

Petroni Vineyards Winemaker