Post-bottling Update
Dear friends,
This post is too long in coming. Between bottling the ‘23 wine, then back-to-back new business pitches at the full-time gig, and now in the midst of preparing for the ‘24 harvest, it’s been a crazy month!
Below, a quick update…
On Sept. 9th, we bottled the 2023 wine...
…and I have to admit—even having had 11 months to prepare myself for the moment—standing on next to a forklift pallet stacked with almost 60 cases of sweat and dreams produced a feeling that was as unexpected as it is hard-to-describe. This project began as a wild-hare of an idea back in 2019, and it still felt like little more than a crazy idea until the moment it became seven-hundred-and-something actual bottles of wine that I now have the privilege to share with you.
At this point—don’t laugh—but the daily struggle to resist “checking the wine’s progress” under cork has become real. It’s only been about two and a half weeks in bottle, so we’ve only popped a few so far, but I can honestly report that each has been better than the last. At the moment, the wine still takes its sweet time before its aromatic energy comes to life. But after 30-45 minutes in a decanter… Wow, I really can’t wait to put one of these bottles in your hands.
Speaking of which:
As a reminder to anyone who may have stumbled onto this page without having joined the mailing list first, please join the mailing list as it’s the only way to be notified about releases and/or receive allocations of the wine.
Next up: the 2024 Alta Sueños harvest!
Late this past Tuesday night, I got the text. Besio Vineyard’s fruit tastes great, and more importantly will hit our ripeness target by this weekend. This post will go live on the afternoon of Sept. 27th, we’ve already got a 3/4 ton pickup reserved in Santa Maria, and I’m scrambling to wrap things up at the ad agency, so I can pack to head up north.
The next several weeks will be a wild ride. Corinne and I will first travel up to Santa Barbara County, where we’ll pick up the rental truck and borrow a couple macro bins from our friends Colin and Hannah McNany, who graciously host the Alta Sueños project within the walls of their own winery in Buellton. Next will be the hike north to the Santa Cruz Mountains, where Corinne and I have been invited to spend a night checking out the legendary Ascona Vineyard with Ken Swegles & Abbey Chrystal of Rhizos Viticulture. We’re incredibly thankful to those guys—they’re the ones who’ll make the next morning’s pick at Besio Vineyard possible.
After that, it’s all-hands-on-deck back in Buellton, where we’ll guide the 2024 Sueños into existence, while at the same time pitching in to help Colin & Hannah create their next incredible vintage, as well (this year, Colin will look to nearly double his winery’s production!)
So please, join the mailing list if you haven’t already, then watch your inbox for updates from the vineyards and the cellar. You can also follow along on the Instagram, where I’ll post as many stories as I can. And finally, thanks once again. All of your comments and encouragement mean the world, and your pre-release purchases have quite literally made Alta Sueños more than just a dream.
Cheers,
Mike
