The Toad Hollow Gazette

Since 1983
"All the News That's Hoppinin' in The Hollow"

Fall 2000, Issue 13

Hello again! In preparation for this issue, I went back to the last couple of issues to refresh my memory of what's been going on. And lo and behold, I could just reproduce certain paragraphs without any changes (except dates, of course). It seems the unusual weather conditions I spoke about in March and October of 1999 have turned out to be not so unusual. Once again we have had a rather cool summer (70's) with intermittent periods of extremely hot temperatures (high 90's and even over 100). I'm beginning to think that "normal" weather patterns no longer exist. Just make sure you have a warm coat as well as shorts and a swimsuit available – and always have an umbrella at the ready. That and lots of Toad Hollow wine and you'll be ready for anything.

Right now (mid-August), the vineyards are looking mighty fine. We've had a very long growing season, since the winter was quite mild. Bud break occurred early on, and we managed to skate through the months where frost is an issue (right up through May). Now we're praying to make it through the next few weeks with no rain while the grapes finish doing their thing. Seems there's always something to worry about.

We produced 40,000 cases of 1999 North Coast Chardonnay, Francine's Selection, and expect to be sold out by the first of the year. We're planning to even more of the 2000 vintage, which will be released on April 1, 2001. We are striving to reach that magical number of cases where there is enough Toad to go around all year – but with no leftovers.

The 1998 Cacophony Zinfandel is still available. We're down to around 5000 cases. We're still trying to put a 1999 vintage together – one that not only tastes great, but has a reasonable price point. As Zinfandel has become a favorite amongst you drinking folks, the price of the grapes has begun to skyrocket (ah yes, supply and demand) – and since we have no Zinfandel vineyards of our own, we must purchase all the grapes, and price becomes a big issue. Our philosophy has been and will continue to be that we would rather miss a vintage than come out with a wine that is either of poor quality or unreasonably priced.

With regards to our 1999 Eye of the Toad Dry Pinot Noir Rosé, this wine was released in February 2000, and was sold out by May. Seems more and more people are learning about this delicious wine – such a wonderful warm weather beverage (although I personally drink it year round) – and such a good match with spicy foods. At the moment, everything is in place for the 2000 vintage except the stainless steel tanks to ferment and store it. So you can see that weather is not the only problem that comes up. Since we have no actual winery facility of our own, but rather custom crush our wines at someone else's facility (as do many other small wineries), having enough storage space becomes an issue. In 1997, when there was such a bountiful harvest, many tons of grapes were left hanging on the vines because of a shortage of pickers, and then a shortage of stainless steel and barrels. So we're keeping our fingers (and toes) crossed for tank space, since I personally cannot live without our Rosé.

As most of you know, we have been sold out of our 1997 Pinot and 1997 Reserve Merlot for some time. The 1999 vintage of these wines is aging as we speak. We had hoped to release both of these wines in April (at the same time as the Chardonnay), but right now it looks like the Merlot will not be ready until September 2001, since the fermentation stalled mid-way through the process and only recently started up again. And as the old saying goes, we will serve no wine before its time. Truth be told, we release all of our wines when they are quite young. This is because of both demand (we just hate running out of wine), and finances (we need that money coming in). But young is one thing – and not being near ready is quite another. So you'll just have to wait. Sorry.

Hopefully by now many of you will have checked out our French wines – Amplexus (sparkling), and the Le Faux Frog wines (Chardonnay, Merlot and Apropos Syrah. These wines are all from the same French producer, and we think you'll find them both very tasty and very affordable. As long as there is a demand, we plan to supplement our Sonoma County portfolio with these French wines. Let us know what you think.

You will hear a new voice in the office. Leslie Kempkes will be working with us full time to assist the rest of the crew here at the Hollow. We have grown dramatically over the last seven years, and frankly (that would be me also) we are frantically (me too) trying to keep up. We will miss our friend Martha Mintun who has helped out on a part time basis for the past two years. Martha's career as a videographer continues to grow. She specializes in weddings – you can contact her through us should be interested in her services.

Our travels this past year have been incredible. We have made so many wonderful new friends – and done our best to keep in touch with the old ones. Once again, I apologize for not being able to connect with everyone the way we would like to. Seems we go from one trip to another with no time in between to catch up. Please consider this newsletter a Toad Hollow hello and thank you for all the notes, e-mails, faxes, presents and good times. And most importantly, our heartfelt thanks for supporting the Toad Hollow brand – spreading the word and drinking our fine wine. We are growing by leaps and hops – and it's all because of you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

info@toadhollow.com