Journal Entry
July 19, 2006
It has been quite awhile since I last updated my journal. A fair amount has happened so I'll fill you in.
We sold out of our 2002s and released our 2003 reds in December. We recently received a 91 point score from Wine Spectator on the Cuvée and it was featured in the savvy shopper section of the magazine. We got word that our Merlot received a 92 point rating from Wine and Spirits and it will be featured in the October 2006 edition of the magazine. We've just broken ground on a new tank room and barrel room on our property iin Woodinville. We are in the process of buying 20 acres of property in Walla Walla above the renowned Seven Hills Vineyard and we will plant the new vineyard next Spring with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petite Verdot, and Malbec. Peggy and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary in May by taking a trip through France with our good friends Karen and Curt O’Connor. Peggy and I decided to sell 34% ownership in the winery and have been fortunate to find a single investor who wants to be a part of what we have created. Our son Jack graduated from High School and is set to enter the University of Oregon in the fall. I left my day job at F5 Networks and have joined Isilon Systems running the OEM program for the company. A full year to be sure!
The Vineyard
I am adding the business plan that I wrote below to describe our new direction and vision for JM Cellars.
The wine program we have developed at JM is based on fruit sourced from the Red Mountain apellation. JM Cellars has annual contracts with Ciel du Cheval, Klipsun, and Red Mountain vineyards all of which are on Red Mountain (Klipsun vineyard was named one of the top 25 vineyards in the world by Wine and Spirits Magazine in 2004). Stillwater Creek, Milbrandt, Conner Lee and Lewis vineyards are four incredible vineyards in the Columbia Valley appellation that are used in our wine to add complexity and unique layers of flavors and aromas to the blends we have produced.
A second wine program will begin with the acquisition of a very special piece of property in Walla Walla Washington located directly above Seven Hills vineyard. This second wine program will focus on growing Petite Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot on the new property to build a limited set of Estate grown Bordeaux-style wines. A wholly-owned subsidiary of JM Cellars will purchase the property in July 2006, and the Company will plant ten acres beginning in the spring of 2007. The first fruit will be picked in the fall of 2009 barring any unforeseen issues with Mother Nature. The plan is to grow production of the Estate wine program to 2,000 cases by 2011.
We are currently finalizing the purchase agreement with the land owners/developers who are Gary and Chris Figgins (Leonetti), Marty Clubb (L'Ecole N° 41), and Norm McKibben (Pepper Bridge). We have contracted Jim Holmes, owner of Ciel du Cheval vineyard, as our viticultural consultant to make decisions on planting, clone selections, and budgeting. Chris Banek, the current Seven Hills vineyard manager, will be contracted to handle the day to day management of the vineyard. We have named the vineyard Margaret’s Vineyard (Peggy’s given name is Margaret) .It's fun to honor Peggy with this even though she was resistant to the attention.
I feel like I did when I started the winery - a new challenge and a never ending amount of things to learn. Fortunately I am comfident that we have put together an all-star team to help plant and manage an elite vineyard.
Jim Holmes and I went out to the Walla Walla property last Sunday. The 20 acres is on a perfect slope at an altitude of about 1,200 feet. Cold air will roll down to the bottom of the slope and it is likely I will not have to install fans to fight freezing and frost. The slope is a northwest position looking over the Walla Walla valley. The Blue Mountains are close by and are a beautiful sight from our location. I plan on planting eighteen of the twenty acres and we will put a crush facility in the high east corner of our property in 2009. The facility will be mostly underground with a top floor area including a bed room and tasting room. This will allow me to pick my fruit, and crush it into fermentation tanks that can be transported to Woodinville in a refrigerated truck. Trucking whole cluster fruit is not a problem (I do it with all my fruit today), but this will be one additional way to ensure control of the fermentation process.
The project will be expensive, but I believe we have a good plan and once we begin picking fruit in three years the revenues from selling the extra fruit each year will cover the costs of maintaining the vineyard.
I am going to try and spend more time on my journal coming into the 2006 harvest so if you are interested, stay tuned. I am hiring a new assistant winemaker who I admire and who will free me up this fall to focus on other things besides doing all the labor associated with harvest. He is a great guy and I will talk more about him in future entries.
The plane is about to land.
Cheers!
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