Brown Estate :: It's A Napa Valley Thing

February Fundraiser for Haitian Relief

2010-02-01T20:22:00.001-08:00

We are very pleased to release our 2008 Petite Sirah on February 1st to kick off our month-long fundraising push in support of Haitian relief efforts. For the whole of this month, we will be donating ten percent of all of our online wine sales to Architecture for Humanity, a brilliant organization that is already on the ground in Haiti taking practical steps to begin the rebuilding process.

Over the past several years, our participation in the Napa Vintners' annual Auction Napa Valley fundraiser — which supports Napa Valley hospitals and community service programs — has inspired us to think outside the box, in turn expanding the Brown Estate family of wines.

From small lots we have crafted for the auction, we have developed our beloved Chaos Theory zin blend (fourth vintage to be released in May), our highly stealth Brown Recluse reserve cab (a handful of pre-purchased cases will go out to their owners this fall), and most recently our first ever Petite Sirah.

Since we began making wine under the Brown Estate label fifteen years ago, our survival and growth have depended upon word of mouth generated by a passionate enthusiasm for our little endeavor that we have shared with you and you have shared with us, and with your friends and family members.

If you happen to be chatting up Brown Estate to fellow wine lovers during the month of February, please be sure to mention that this is a good time to buy wine online. Oh! And grab some of our 2008 Petite Sirah while you can — only 100 cases made!

Countdown to ZAP!

2010-01-21T17:34:00.001-08:00

January is a quiet time in the Napa Valley, partly because it is a slow travel month. As the sleepy residue of the holidays dissipates, we typically use the first three weeks of the year for strategic planning.

Our calendar year begins in earnest the last weekend in January, when we participate — as we have for the last ten years — in the annual ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates & Producers) tasting at Fort Mason in San Francisco. ZAP is the largest single varietal wine tasting event in the world, and without question our most important marketing tool.

Beyond the invaluable exposure we receive there, ZAP is probably the best morale boost a zin producer can get. There's nothing like five or six hours of face time with thousands of zinfandel fanatics — and hundreds of other zin producers! — to remind us of why we love doing what we do.

As it has continued to attract more and more consumer attendees each year, ZAP has acquired a reputation for being overcrowded. In reality, ZAP is like a Twitter meetup of zin fans. Everywhere you turn, someone's got a tip about a wine or a producer you've got to check out. If you're a true zin lover we believe you must make the pilgrimage to ZAP at least once in your lifetime. There literally is nothing else like it in the world.

This year we will be pouring our new 2008 Napa Valley zin, along with a bonus or two. To coincide with ZAP we have established a new Zinfanatic membership program. As well, we currently are offering free shipping on all 12-pack orders. Get your zin on!

Time In A Bottle

2009-12-19T23:00:00.000-08:00

If there's one unassailable tagline for 2009, it's What a year! However you choose to spin that sentiment, there's no denying it's apropos. As we wind down the commerce aspect of this calendar year, we are taking stock of all of the challenges and rewards 2009 has brought our way. The net result: we're still here – and as far as we can tell, so are you! That itself is cause for celebration.

The year 2010 will mark our thirtieth anniversary in the Napa Valley and our fifteenth crush. As we look forward to these milestones, we want to thank each and every one of you for your fantastic support of what we still think of as our little endeavor. Your enjoyment of our wines, the stories you share with us, the ambassadorial work you do on our behalf, and your unwavering enthusiasm for all things Brown Estate – these gifts mean more to us than we can convey.

Robert Louis Stevenson famously referred to wine as poetry in a bottle. We think wine may be the closest thing there is to time in a bottle. Because the fruits of our labor literally bear a time stamp in the form of vintage dates, our wines are for us like time capsules reminding us of where we've been and where we aspire to go.

As such, when you pop the cork on a bottle of Brown, you unleash a little bit of our collective heart and soul. And that vintage date? It's the equivalent of We were here. Every bottle of wine we produce is a testament to our love for and dedication to this wondrous business that is our livelihood. And we are grateful for the opportunity to share it all with you.

Happy holidays, and all the best for a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2010!

Zin Up for the Holidays!

2009-10-31T23:24:00.000-07:00

Year after year, Mother Nature is consistently steadfast and fickle, wonderful and treacherous. Following significant frost damage and a subsequent shortage of fruit in 2008, we enjoyed a brilliant 2009 growing season that made up for the ravages of the previous year.

The result was a beautiful crop. But just as we were reveling in anticipation of the stellar wines of 2009, Mother Nature threw us a curve ball in the form of October rains. Whereas we typically harvest through Halloween, the forecast of wet weather for Tuesday October 13th compelled us to hustle to bring in as much fruit as possible by October 12th.

This translated into an expedited and abbreviated harvest and crush at Brown Estate this year; by the third week of October our vineyards were picked bare, our fermentation tanks were full, and our heads were spinning from the speed with which we had just gotten it all done.

In the midst of all of this farming and winemaking excitement, our highly anticipated 2008 Napa Valley zinfandel was preparing to take the stage. Our weekly tastings found this wine showing exceptionally well – just in time for the holiday season.

The nose, color, and palate of this classic old school Napa zin bespeak its Brown Estate provenance. A superbly well-balanced zin with a long, expressive finish, it is so perfectly suited to both traditional and modern holiday meals that we are making it available beginning November 3rd especially for the occasion.

For the sixth straight vintage we are keeping it real at $36 per bottle. So zin up for the holidays and raise a glass to what's good!

In Chaos, Zinfandel!

2009-09-14T12:32:00.000-07:00

Winemaking is the basis of our livelihood, and as such we take it very seriously. But in life we try not to take ourselves too seriously, which is one of our secrets to running a successful family business.

Is there any grape besides zinfandel that could fit more perfectly into this rubric? We think not. Despite being California's heritage grape, as well as the focus of the largest single varietal wine tasting event in the world (the annual ZAP festival at San Francisco's Fort Mason), zin is an underdog in the world of wine. And it is commonly underestimated by the uninitiated, making it a fitting metaphor for Brown Estate.

Cabernet sauvignon, on the other hand, is widely regarded as the "king of red wines." The irony is that while producing cab sauv is a pricey proposition – particularly when it comes to barrel aging requirements – out in the vineyard zin is a far more demanding grape to grow.

With our Chaos Theory proprietary blend, we have married these two disparate varietals into a sumptuous wine bursting with the fruit and spiciness of zin and bolstered by the structure and texture of cab sauv. The result is a serious wine – superbly drinkable, eminently ageable – that just may give you a wink and a nod.

Until our 2008 Napa Valley zinfandel debuts early next year, we are releasing our 2006 Chaos Theory at a matching price point of $36 per bottle to take the edge off of your Brown zin cravings. Give it a swirl, a swoosh, and a swallow, and see why we say, "In vino, veritas – in chaos, order!"

Halcyon Days of Summer

2009-08-15T11:11:00.000-07:00

It's a well-known fact that summer vacation is serious business in France. During the month of August, some segments of French commerce close down while proprietors and employees enjoy a four- to five-week respite from the workaday routine. Those of us in the U.S. wine industry who source bottling supplies (capsules and glass, for example) from French vendors are keenly aware of the need to get it done before August, or postpone it until September.

For years we have admired the French model, and this year we decided to emulate it — sort of. With the vineyards in a dynamic growth phase, a major bottling scheduled for the month of September, and harvest and crush following close on its heels, we are in no position to hang out a "Gone Fishing" sign. But we have closed the tasting room temporarily, until September 21st, in order to do some facility maintenance and plot our course through the fourth quarter of 2009.

In the meantime, we have been very fortunate, thanks to a wonderful partnership we established in the fall of 2008, to be able to refer would-be winery visitors to Ma(i)sonry in Yountville, which is serving as our off-site tasting room. In addition, we have enjoyed the stalwart support of local restaurants and wine shops that have kept Brown Estate in stock consistently. And finally, as always, we have our customers (the best on the planet) to thank for keeping your palates and perhaps even more importantly your hearts loyal to Brown Estate. Your fabulous enthusiasm for everything we do – from our winemaking program to our hospitality in the tasting room – is what keeps us on point, and we are grateful to have the opportunity, continually, to share with you the fruits of our labor.

Enjoy the rest of your summer, and come see us in the fall!

Got Chardonnay?

2009-07-04T22:05:00.000-07:00

Since we produced our first vintage of Chardonnay five years ago, this small-volume, under-the-radar wine has gained a fervent following among certain of our members (you know who you are). As well, it has found its way onto the lists at New York's The Modern at MOMA and Thomas Keller's French Laundry and Bouchon.

We have to confess we're rather partial to it ourselves. Our iconoclastic Napa Valley Chardonnay is lean and crisp, with tropical notes that make it a divine warm weather wine. Robust on the palate, it has the long finish you've come to expect of the Brown Estate family of wines. It's a brilliant way to welcome your guests for a summer soirée, or a superb accompaniment to your al fresco meal.

The only trouble is there isn't enough of the 2007 vintage to go around. Our Library members each received two bottles in the spring shipment, but unfortunately due to limited availability, we will not be shipping the customary one bottle each to our Estate members this year. We have a mere sixty cases remaining, and priority will be given to Estate and Library members, as well as to those who historically have stocked up on our Chardonnay each year.

If you are unfamiliar with this wine but intrigued by the proposition, next time you're in the Napa Valley, pop into Ma(i)sonry in Yountville. Our 2007 Chardonnay will be available to taste there for a limited time beginning the week of July 20th.

Welcome to Brown Estate 3.0!

2009-06-22T15:29:00.000-07:00

For those of you following the adventures of Brown Estate on Facebook and Twitter, you may have caught wind of the fact that we have been working for the last two and a half months on updating our Website. You may also have begun to wonder when it would ever be done.

Well, you are looking at the third incarnation of brownestate.com since we first went live on the Internet back in 2003. Were you with us then? Do you remember what our first Website looked like? We changed things up from the original in 2005, and here we are halfway through 2009 with what we hope you will agree is our much improved new site, inspired by simplicity of design and ease of use, which are guiding principles of Web 2.0.

The most significant update we have made, apart from the design and layout, is to our online store. We have taken steps to make it much easier for you to purchase our wines online; from our home (or main) page, you are just one click away, via the Wines link, to selecting the wines you want.

We also have added an interactive photo gallery, which will be expanded down the line to include thematic photo albums. And we have incorporated our blog into our Website, and have added links to our Twitter and Facebook pages. As well, you will find up-to-the-minute news on our main page via our live Twitter Feed (at right).

We welcome your feedback, so let us know what you think!

How Dare We?! Or, Why We Think We're So Cool

2009-05-18T12:39:00.000-07:00

Here's a little insider news for those of you following us on Facebook and Twitter: We are in the process of updating our Website. It used to be that a tidbit like this would be accompanied by terms such as "the stone age" or "the 21st century." But nowadays it's all about Web 2.0, and that's where brownestate.com is heading.

As with many of our projects, brownestate.com 3.0 (because it will be the third incarnation of our Website since we've been online) has been slow coming. We are very deliberate about everything we do because as a small family-owned and -operated business whose survival depends entirely upon wine sales, we can't afford to make a lot of missteps.

One day while meeting with our "WebDev," as he calls himself (that's developer, not devil) we were discussing Brown Estate's presence on FB and Twitter. When we mentioned the tag line we use in both of these spaces - "The Coolest Winery in the Napa Valley" - he asked whether we put the word "Coolest" in quotes - as in, "The 'Coolest' Winery in the Napa Valley," a punctuated version of tongue in cheek. When we told him no we don't, that we just state it plainly, he remarked with a slight grin, "Wow. That's bold."

So how dare we anoint ourselves the coolest winery in the Napa Valley with no qualms or quotation marks? It's all about our customers.

Come to the winery any busy Saturday, or for one of our events, and you are bound to witness one of the most diverse groups of people you will ever see in a Napa Valley tasting room. That alone is pretty cool, but when total strangers from varied backgrounds and walks of life start interacting - talking, laughing, making toasts, shoulder-butting each other, exchanging contact info or, not infrequently, leaving the winery to have a late lunch or early dinner together - that's the height of cool in our book.

We have always been enchanted by our customers, and we've long been aware that our little off-the-beaten path, diamond-in-the-rough operation attracts a special brand of wine enthusiast. As the growing season for our 14th vintage gets under way in earnest - and as a new round of herculean farming and other operational efforts commence - we continue to marvel at the fact that the Brown Estate brand remains relatively esoteric. This is due largely to the fact that we rely entirely upon word of mouth to bring us potential customers. (Sidebar: FB and Twitter are like word of mouth on a rocket ship to the moon, which is why we love them both.)

All of which is to say there is a certain amount of work involved in discovering Brown Estate in the first place, and as those of you who have made the trek know, there is a whole other set of gyrations involved in actually getting to the winery.

Consequently, we do not take it lightly when you venture to visit us, and we do our best to make sure you have a completely unique Napa Valley experience. In turn, you reward us over and over again with a steady procession of the coolest customers in the Napa Valley - be they you, or your family, friends, or co-workers whom you refer to us.

There's a little preaching to the choir going on here, we know, but we thought it important for the uninitiated to understand that at Brown Estate, cool is as cool does.

You, dear customers, put the cool in Brown Estate. And for that, we love and thank you!

The Story of our Betelgeuse Rosé

2009-04-20T11:34:00.000-07:00

Being in the wine business, we have frequent occasion to dine out, often in the line of duty. We do our best to support restaurants that have our wines on their lists, and we also try to keep up with new local eateries that may be potential restaurant accounts. Needless to say, this aspect of our work is very enjoyable; a significant part of our business is providing hospitality to our customers, so when we have a chance to be the recipients of someone else's hospitality, it's a real treat for us.

In the course of our dining adventures during the summer of 2006, we found our wine tastes trending toward rosés. Specifically, we were drawn over and over again to a lovely French rosé from producer Domaine Tempier in the Bandol region of Provence. Our fondness for this wine evolved over time into something of a romance, and eventually we began thinking about the possibility of adding a rosé to the Brown Estate lineup.

Now those of you who know the history of our Chardonnay can imagine what a far-out proposition this was. Years ago, with our tiny Chardonnay vineyard in mind, our mother began lobbying for a white wine that she could enjoy in the summer with crab salad and other warm-weather fare. Winemaker Dave Brown (Mom's youngest) was reluctant to venture into white wine production, but Mom persisted, and eventually he agreed to make a little Chardonnay just for her. Our first vintage of Chardonnay was 2002, and since Mom couldn't drink 180 cases by herself (not even with our help!), we quietly began asking visitors if they wanted to try our new Chardonnay. Slowly but surely, our Chard gained a fervent following. It is now considered one of our specialty wines, and its placements include The French Laundry, Charlie Trotter's, and Bouchon.

Our rosé concept had a similarly hard row to hoe from notion to reality, but in 2007 we found a Merlot vineyard in Yountville, where we all own homes, and struck a deal to purchase grapes for the first time in the history of Brown Estate. A portion of these grapes went into barrel as traditional Merlot (stay tuned for that story), and a portion was dedicated to the production of our new rosé.

Now began the challenge. What to call it? How to package it? Given the fact that we have made our name in the wine industry with our distinctive Zinfandels, and given the dubious regard in the wine world for White Zinfandel, we knew we had to proceed with caution. And that meant not bottling a rosé in our traditional Brown Estate packaging.

The inspiration for our Betelgeuse package is sealed in the family vault. But all credit is due to winemaker Dave Brown for coming up with the name, the pronunciation of which refers playfully back to both the scarab beetle that is our Brown Estate logo, and the colloquial name in the wine industry for what we produce: juice. The small print on the Betelgeuse bottle tells the rest of the story:

*bee-tle-joos n. [1.] A red "supergiant" star that sits on the right "shoulder" of the constellation Orion. Betelgeuse is one of two extant first magnitude supergiants; it is Orion's second brightest star, the ninth brightest star in the sky, and one of the largest stars visible to the human eye. [2.] A stellar rosé table wine.

That second definition, along with the tag line on the back of the bottle – "The sky's the limit" – give you a sense of the fun we had in putting together our Betelgeuse package. The name and packaging originated entirely in-house, and we were so pleased with the results that we began talking about the possibility of making Betelgeuse into a second label. By setting it apart from our official Brown Estate line, we left the door open for this little side project to become something more.

This story will be continued, and in the meantime if you happen to be in Yountville, pop into Ad Hoc for a glass of Betelgeuse!

Budbreak in the Chardonnay!

2009-04-06T11:34:00.000-07:00

We have budbreak in the Chardonnay! The countdown to the 2009 vintage has begun.

Historically our Chardonnay production has varied dramatically from year to year due in part to the fact that the dense clay soil in which this vineyard is planted presents a serious challenge to the vines. However, its rich mineral content is a key factor in making our Chardonnay such a unique wine.

The vineyard suffered frost damage during the 2008 growing season, and we are expecting to bottle only about 35 cases of our 2008 Chard. David is on frost patrol now for the 2009 growing season – let's hope Mother Nature goes easier on us this year!

The Future Is Now - Twitter @brownestate!

2009-03-24T15:33:00.000-07:00

So one brisk but sunny day in November 2008, a hip young couple came to visit us at the winery. It was a busy Saturday, we had Deneen's aptly titled "Winehouse" playlist rockin' the joint, and as usual there was a great mix of people enjoying the wines, cheeses, and moody milieu inside the Brown Estate tasting room.

When our heroes (for they have indeed become our heroes!) were ready to check out, they handed me their order form with an @twitter.com email address. I'll cut short the suspense: we had in our midst Twitter CEO & Co-founder Evan Williams, and his wife Sara Morishige. They purchased their wine, went on their way, and left us feeling like something important had happened. But back then, we were not yet plugged in to Twitter -- nor would we be for another four months.

As these things go, Evan Williams's name and contact info were entered into our Mailing List following their visit. In the months thereafter, Ev and Twitter were everywhere we turned for information, because Facebook had tried and failed to acquire Twitter, and Twitter was fast becoming the new everything, the very Zeitgeist.

Fast forward to March 2009. Brown Estate's Web 2.0 offensive is in high gear with increased activity on Facebook and an official Twitter presence. Backstage, Deneen and I began brainstorming about approaching Ev and Sara to see whether they would mind if we mentioned somewhere, somehow that they had been to the winery. We wanted their permission to name-drop them.

We never got around to soliciting them, though, because running this little enterprise keeps us jumping on a daily basis. But this past Friday, March 20th, we emailed our Mailing List announcing a few things, including a link to Brown Estate on Twitter. The night before, Thursday the 19th, we had 22 people following us on Twitter. By lunchtime Friday the 20th, we were approaching 400 followers on Twitter. At this writing, we have 515 and counting.

Initially, we thought the Friday surge in Twitter activity was attributable to converts from our Mailing List. Sort of, but not really. Turns out at 7:50am on Friday the 20th, after receiving and obviously reading (yay!) our emailer, Evan Williams "tweeted" about Brown Estate being on Twitter. Not only that, he gave us a generous endorsement in the process.

That's Ev's tweet, and right above it, his announcement that Sara is pregnant. One historic moment for us, one historic moment for Ev.

We are still pinching ourselves. Ev has nearly 340,000 people following him on Twitter. That's up from around 310,000 when he tweeted about us last Friday (note the growth rate). That means Ev's tweet about Brown Estate is reaching an audience 60 times larger than our Mailing List.

Thank you Ev, and thank you Sara. Sara arranged their visit to Brown Estate, and when we looked her up on Twitter after discovering Ev's tweet, we found that she actually posted a tweet of her own about us from the road the day they visited the winery. Get it, girl.

We are true believers in the power of Web 2.0, and we thank each and every one of you for your support and love. You brought us here in the first place.

Cheers,
Stefanie at Brown Estate

Hardly Just Grapes!

2009-02-26T00:18:00.000-08:00

Soon after the 2009 ZAP tasting, we received an email from Shea Coulson of the Vancouver-based "Just Grapes" wine blog requesting a visit to the winery. Little did we know that following his visit, Shea would write one of the most thoughtful and just downright nicest reviews Brown Estate has ever received.

Thank you, Shea!

Vinography Report on ZAP 2009: "The Best Zinfandel In California"

2009-02-25T00:40:00.000-08:00

In its post-ZAP report this year, the well-regarded Vinography wine blog named Brown Estate among "The Best Zinfandel in California."*

For those of you who have never attended ZAP, we highly recommend this three-day Bacchanalia devoted exclusively to zinfandel. It is the largest single varietal wine tasting event in the world. The Grand Tasting takes place the last Saturday in January each year at San Francisco's Fort Mason. Imagine two Costco-sized buildings filled with three hundred wineries (owners and principals only!) pouring nothing but zinfandel for five-plus hours. Add upwards of ten thousand zinfandel fanatics to the mix and you've got complete purple-mouthed mayhem. It is an extraordinary event, and something every zinfandel lover should experience at least once in his or her lifetime.

Bookmark the ZAP site via the link above, get your tickets for the 2010 tasting, and belly up to the Brown Estate table next January 30th!

*Correction to the linked article: Vinography mistakenly attributed the price of our 2007 Napa Valley zinfandel ($36 per bottle) to our 2007 Chiles Valley zinfandel ($45 per bottle).

Brown Estate in Yountville?!

2009-02-23T02:25:00.000-08:00

Did you know that all three Brown siblings live in Yountville? Well now you do!

But that's not the only reason we love Yountville. This dynamic little town is the lodging capital and the epicenter of fine dining in the Napa Valley, as well as home to Ma(i)sonry, a glorious new collective tasting room in which Brown Estate is a winery partner.

Ma(i)sonry, at 6711 Washington Street in Yountville

Located at the north end of Yountville on Washington Street next to the old PJ Steak restaurant, Ma(i)sonry is housed in a historic stone building that has been refurbished to perfection by Michael Polenske of Blackbird Vineyards. The concept is part art gallery, part interior design/home furnishings, part tasting room. Put it on your to-do list. There's nothing like it in the Napa Valley, and it is well worth a visit.