Six Strings Winery Wins Silver and Bronze at the Largest Competition of American Wines in the World

We are pleased to announce that we have been awarded a silver medal in the 2009 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition for our 2006 Dry Creek Valley Cabernet Sauvignon in the $25.00 to $34.99 category and a bronze medal in the same competition for our 2006 Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir in the $25.00 to $34.99 category. We also also took home two medals last year, winning a gold medal for our 2005 Pinot Noir and a bronze medal for our 2006 Chardonnay.

We are very pleased to have our wines recognized by the judges at this prestigious wine competition. This is the second year in a row that all of the wines we entered won awards. We are especially excited about winning a silver medal for our Dry Creek Valley Cabernet Sauvignon as this was our first vintage of this wine and it has been a great success. The fruit for this wine comes from a vineyard in Sonoma that is farmed using sustainable practices and will be certified Biodynamic later this year.

Thanks to the judges and to all the fans of Six Strings!

GRC

Six Strings and the economy

2009 has officially begun and I feel some obligation to write a blog entry since it has been a few weeks since we did one. In a few weeks Gary and I will get together for our annual ‘State of the Six Strings’ meeting. For anyone that has not been keeping up on the news about the wine industry there are some significant trends going one. First and most obvious is that restaurant sales are down in some areas as much as 30%. People are just not eating out as much and when they do many are skipping the bottle of wine although in some cases they are ordering wine by the glass(BTG). Since releasing our first commercial wine Six Strings has embraced BTG sales because it is a great way to introduce our wines to new fans. The other notable trend is that consumers are shying away from the pricier bottles for two reasons, one is sheer frugality and the other is to give the impression of being more frugal. A recent article in the New York Times showed some data that the price per bottle being spent has slid while overall spending on wine has stayed flat or even risen somewhat. It is true that sales of alcohol goes up when the economy is bad. For Six Strings this has not resulted in a big shift since our wines are already reasonably priced for their quality, varietal, appellation and scarcity. It does mean that the big guys are getting very aggressive with their prices and in some cases pushing us off of a wine list.
So far our winemaking plan for 2009 is largely unchanged. Our philosophy is “if you make it, they will drink!” So despite the economic uncertainty we’ll keep on chugging. It would not make sense to react too much to what is going on because it takes one to two years for a product to get to market.
By the time the 2009 wines are released the country will be in a whole different frame of mind...we hope.
IDC

Six Strings SLH Chardonnay now at Vietasia - Morgan Hill

Vietasia adds Six Strings Chardonnay to their wine list - Vietasia is a modern vietnamese cuisine restaurant in Morgan Hill. Opening in the Spring of 2008 owner Christine Levan chose Six Strings Pinot Noir as one of the local wines to kick off their wine list. Today Vietasia added our Santa Lucia Highlands Chardonnay to pair with their dishes like Grilled Pork Vermicelli Platter and Grilled Ginger Salmon with Jasmine Rice. We're grateful to Vietasia for their continued support.

Iain & Gary

Six Strings Winery group now on Facebook

We've added yet another way to connect with customers. Six Strings Winery now has a fan group on the social networking site Facebook.com. In the first day we've already got 31 members and growing. Our growers and many of our business associates have their own pages on Facebook. We plan to keep it updated with photos of our events and just like we do on the blog we'll post news and bulletins. Want to join? click here 
Look forward to meeting you there.
IDC

Dry Creek Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Released!

Just a quick note to our customers and friends that we have released the first vintage of the Six Strings Dry Creek Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.  As some of you may know, the fruit for this wine comes from the Puma Springs vineyard in the highly-regarded Dry Creek Valley AVA in Sonoma.  This vineyard is special as it has been painstakingly managed using sustainable farming practices since 2001 and will certified Biodynamic for the 2009 harvest.

The 2006 vintage is still a young wine and although it is drinking nicely now, it will continue to develop over the next 3 to 5 years.  Its 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and was aged in 50% new French oak for 22 months prior to bottling, and was unfined and unfiltered.

We only made 70 cases of this inaugural vintage so if you enjoy handcrafted Sonoma Cabernet, be sure to check this one out.  It will not disappoint.  You can find all of the details on the Six Strings Winery website.

GRC