J. Cage Cellars

Wine-Stained Dream Newsletter

J. Cage Cellars 2014 Nunes Pinot Noir – Taking Home Medals
Grand Harvest Competition
San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition

Click Here to Acquire J. Cage Award Winning Pinot Noir – Complimentary Ground Shipping on orders of six bottles or more

Wow… 2015 was quite the year for the

J. Cage Cellars Wine-Stained Dream!

Jan. 20.2016 -Donna and I spent New Year ’s Eve quietly sipping J. Cage Cellars Viognier and Pinot Noir while we created what we hoped would be the winning black-eyed pea recipe for the William and Chris Winery (Hye, Texas) annual New Year’s Day cook-off. Well, we didn’t win …but it gave us time to reflect on the events of the past year and consider how grateful we are for all that has happened. Much of it, thanks to you.

It’s hard to believe that it was only 18 months ago that our family decided collectively to take a leap of faith and start creating J. Cage Cellars hand crafted wines. What had been our long held wine-stained dream quickly became a reality. We are so glad you have shared the dream with us!

2015 proved to be an interesting and complex harvest. A warm winter, a cool damp spring and a summer of drought and heat spikes made for an early and light harvest. Most of our fruit was picked 2-3 weeks earlier than 2014. While fruit quality was high, many vineyards had much lower yields than recent vintages. Fortunately for J. Cage, our grape contracts are by the ton, so we weren’t affected by the lower yields. Wineries with block or row contracts and those with estate vineyards saw yields off as much as 40%-60%.

Today J. Cage wines are resting comfortably in their barrels. Conch, Donna and myself along with our consulting winemaker Adam, last week tested barrel blends of all five 2015 wines and are very excited…we think you will love them. We are anxious to share these beauties with you when the time is right.

It looks like we will bottle our 2015 Mary’s Vineyard Chardonnay, Mounts Vineyard Viognier and Tzabaco Rancho Sauvignon Blanc in March for release in May. All our 2014 white wines won competition medals and have sold out…Be sure to reserve yours soon by becoming a Wine-Stained Dreamer.

The wet predictions of El Nino so far in 2016 have been fairly accurate; giving us much needed drought relief. Personally, I love this time in the vineyards. Some vineyards are pruned while others remain wild and untouched since harvest. The rain has allowed lush green groundcover to take hold in contrast to the bare brown vines. It’s a great time to sit back and take in the beautiful geometry of wine country vineyards.

 

If you or your friends find your way to Sonoma County, please look us up. As you know, we are too small for a tasting room…but we may be able to meet up and share the Wine-Stained Dream in person.

Here’s to a prosperous and wonderful 2016…. Keep those rains coming!

Two Generations…One Passion
…Sharing the Wine-Stained Dream
The Beery Family