Happy New Year

From all of us at Chateau Julien Wine Estate - We wish you a great New Year and much happiness and prosperity.

Chateau Julien releases Bravura in 2007

The year 2007, will mark our 25th year in the wine business. We have been planning for the past two years to release our first proprietary wine. The name we have chosen is "Bravura" meaning the result of our hard work and effort. This wine will be released soon. The blend is Merlot and Malbec. Bill Anderson, our winemaker of 25 years, believes this is his personal best effort. We thank him for all his hard work and dedication to this wine.

More Holiday Cheer

More Holiday Cheer as Santa visits with Bobby Brower and Andrew Gogliucci. Then Santa gives more Holiday cheer to Racheal Dreyer (with her Dad, Mark (Operations Manager).

Happy Holiday's

Patty and I wish you all the Happiest of Holiday's to you, your family, friends and loved ones!

News Flash! Santa visits Chateau Julien Wine Estate

This year was such a great year that we received a suprise visit from the North Pole. Wow - It was Santa, in person! Children and adults alike were all thrilled! Happy Holidays to all!

The Highlands Inn menu and what happens when the day is over!

As promised, the menu from the Holiday Dine Around at Highlands Inn. This was incredible! Thanks to Robert Weakley and the Chef for putting this together for us. We will be back next year. Any finally, Glenn Hammer (picture taken by Pat Phinney) after about one minute in the limo. A tired and happy guy!

Bring Your Best to Baja

"Bring your best" was created 5 years ago. A group of us Carmel Valley folks decided to have a Holiday gathering at the Baja Cantina and bring a great bottle of wine (or many great bottles of wine). Then we added food, with lobster, Pate', cheese (the good stuff) and a Executive Platter from the Baja kitchen. We can't wait till next year. What a month of parties!

Food, Food and more Food!

Seafood, shrimp, oysters, tuna and more! Opps, forgot the scallops! Check out the white and black truffels!

Goose Liver and Risoto

Wow - a 1600 calorie begining!

Dine Around Group moves to Highland's Inn

On what promised to be a very wet day, the group moved from Bernardus to Highlands Inn for the second course. The food and wine to be announced!

Holiday Dine Around - Carmel Style

What we believe to be our 10th Holiday dine around, the group - consisting of Glenn Hammer, Patrick Phinney, Bill Boykin, Tom Kincheloe and Bob Brower had a feast and incredible wine selection this year. We started at Bernardus, Pictured first, you can see Chef Staminof was joining us as the meal progressed. This luncheon started at noon and ended at 8:00pm. More on the wines and lunch on the next blog post.

Holiday Cheer at the Wine Estate

The Chateau is decorated and prepared for our guests. A gala party was held on December 7th to celebrate the Holiday Season. Great food and wine for all. Happy Holiday's.

Want to find the Best Local Spot!

It is right here in Carmel Valley. Visit the Baja Cantina and get your fill of local Carmel Valley everything. You can meet all the locals and even some who want to be! The atmosphere is incredible. You can see the entire restaurant profile on itunes - podcasts - under Chateau Julien Wine Estate.

Closing up the Vineyard - 2006

As 2006 comes to a close (December 6, 2006) we began the cleanup of the vineyard by discing the vineyard in Carmel Valley. Simply this is turning the ground over and removing any vegitation that has grown since harvest. Rain is forcast for the weekend and this is a great time to clean up. Next, pruning? January, what?

Chardonnay "Sur Lie" 2006

Once again, the labor intensive process of stirring the Chardonnay to add intensity of flavor. The barrels are removed from there storage location in the "Chai" and each barrel is hand stirred to place the lees back into the wine. This keeps our winemaker up at night, until bottled.

Holiday Spectacular at Chateau Julien Wine Estate

Once again, we had the Holiday Spectacular at the wine estate. This was the fourth annual event with this incredible group. The Chai came to life with the Choral Project. Daniel Hughes founded the Choral Project in 1996. He is an accomplished composer/arranger and has a new choral series through Santa Barbara Music Publishing. Try not to miss this event next year. It was sold out early.

Blake Sterling Resh celebrates 1st birthday

Blake (Bob and Patty's) second grandson turned 1 year old on December 2nd. You may remember Blake from our very first blog posts in January 2006 when we created this blogspot. Blake's mom and dad (Dr Eric and Dawn, Esq.) reside in Maryland.

What are you doing for Valentines Day - 2007

I am going to El Paso, Texas for a Chateau Julien Wine Estate winemaker dinner. This will be the fourth annual dinner at Jaxon's. Kate and Gary have 4 restaurants in the West Texas area and are freinds of the winery. Look for our Pinot Grigio and Sangiovese at their great restaurants. See you in Texas.

The first bottling of "Bravura"

Today we celebrate the bottling of our first proprietory wine called "Bravura". This wine is a blend of Merlot and Malbec, grown on our Estate vineyard. Our winemaker, Bill Anderson, created this special bottling to celebrate 25 years of winemaking at Chateau Julien Wine Estate.

Celebrating our Annual Winemaker Dinner

As November comes to a close - just a few more pictures of our annual Winemaker dinner held on November 11th. Good news!!! Tomorrow, November 30th we are bottling Bravura. This is our "proprietory wine" made to celebrate 25 years of great winemaking at Chateau Julien Wine Estate.

Pictures of our Grandchildren

Aren't pictures of your grandchildren great. Here is Jessica (age 7) and Alexa (age 4), they live in Pittsburgh Pennsylvannia. We miss them because we do not get to see them often enough.

Winemaker Dinner - November 11th, 2006

Our guests enjoy a great time at the annual Winemaker Dinner held in November of each year. The event, held at the Chai, was a memorable and sellout.

Consumer Warning on Wine Appellations

As reported by "Rich Cartierre's - Wine Market Report" be aware of the wine appellation on your wine purchase. "A sizable portion of foreign wine is being blended with California" wine "and then sold under an "American" appellation label". To better understand this, look at the wine label and if you see the words "America" as opposed to Monterey or Napa or California, this wine may contain some foreign wine. ATF laws permit up to 25% of foreign wine to be blended legally. "Records at the federal Tax and Trade Bureau show that there are 1,602 wine labels approved over the last 18 months with an American appellation". Truth in labeling??

Winemaker Dinner 2006

We recently celebrated our annual Winemaker dinner on November 11th. The event is a black tie affair with a multicourse dinner prepared by Chef Teplitzsky. This is the first of many postings on this great "sold out" event.

Happy Thanksgiving - We are going to Fresno!

Our son, Bobby, is hosting dinner for Thanksgiving and we are going to take a couple of days to visit with him. Tomorrow we visit the school of Enology at Fresno. To our loyal blog fans, we will post again by the weekend.

You got me - I said Monza was done - but not yet!

Picture (2) is Tony Aniello - on the lookout for all the blondes in Monza (he looks pretty happy)
Picture (1) is Tony Nobles - on the grid and getting ready to race.

Vines "Go to Sleep" for 2006

Just 16 days after harvest the vines have lost most of their leaves and are ready to go to sleep for 2006. While this apprears to be a dormant time, the crop for 2007 is being created by the vine. The process of a winter sleep, rain, frost and other elements are now at play.

Who is competing with California Wine Sales!

Recent news published by Rich Cartiere's Wine Market Report indicates the following -
"Old World wine producers France and Germany have staged a double digit volume and revenue growth comeback in imported bottled table wine shipments into the U.S. markets."
"While the Old World is seeing its shipments surge, bottled table wine shipments into the U.S. from the three key New World wine producers - Australia, Chile and South Africa - are declining"

p.s Chateau Julien has enjoyed excellent export growth for 2006 - opening 2 new foreign markets.

Cort Brower Resh turns 3 years old

In the world of
the Brower family, our 1st grandson, Cort Brower Resh was 3 years old last week. Another blondie and a great kid. Naturally!!!! The son of Dr. Eric Resh and Dawn Brower-Resh, Esq. Wow - tell me about the silver spoon!

Chateau Julien introduces our 25th Celebration wine "Bravura"

Tomorrow night, November 11, 2006, we will put together the final blend (Cepage) for the 2004 Vintage "Bravura". This is our first proprietory wine and is a blend of 50% Merlot (flagship) and 50% Malbec. We grow both of these varietals in our South County vineyard - at the Estate. We will taste 25 years of winemaking at the "sold out" dinner event.

November 8th, 1980 - 26 years ago today

Bob and Patty celebrate their 26th wedding anniversary today, by working the entire day at the Chateau. Dinner out tonight, however and where?

Substance in Red Wine Appears to Let Mice Live Longer

As reported by the Wall Street Journal on November 2nd - "The mice were part of a new study showing the reseratrol at high doses can block many of the deleterious effects of high-calorie diets in mice, enabling them to survive significantly longer than they normally would on fattening fare"

The study was conducted by researchers at harvard Medical School and the national Institute on Aging.

Perhaps another glass or red wine would't hurt!

Monza - Just one more time!

On your left, Jean Todt stops by to visit with Tony Nobles and Kevin Crowder. Great to see him. Next picture is Tony Nobles, trying to sleep in his Formula 1 car (couldn't be the late night party!). Possible?? I think not! Alright, I will be done with the Monza event, finally.