MARK MORETTI Winery Blog

Positano (San Carlos) Now Serving Mark Moretti Wine

2011-07-08T11:28:00.000-07:00

Today, Locanda Positano restaurant in San Carlos, CA has started serving our 2007 Syrah - the only Syrah chosen to be on their new wine list.
Come visit the San Francisco Peninsula's hottest new restaurant / pizzeria and order some great wine with your meal.

Check out the great reviews Positano is getting:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/locanda-positano-san-carlos
http://www.opentable.com/locanda-positano-san-carlos
http://locanda-positano.com/index.php

Sens Restarurant U.C. Davis San Francisco Network Kick-Off

2011-04-18T17:44:00.000-07:00

We are looking forward to joining all Alums and friends of U.C. Davis at the April 20th event in Sens Restaruant for the kickoff of the new U.C. Davis San Francisco Network launch.

Spring Tasting with Vintage Aggies

2011-04-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all of those who joined us at the Spring Vintage Aggies Wine Tasting. It was a great kick-off to the U.C. Davis Picnic Day. See you next year.

Bottling day Photos...

2010-09-05T17:38:00.000-07:00

2 New Vintages Bottled

2010-09-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

Here is the first look at our new 2008 Syrah - right off the bottling line.

10 Days Until Bottling...

2010-08-20T17:10:00.000-07:00

We've set the date. On August 30th we'll be bottling our two vineyards of 2008 Syrah. We have finished the blending and looking forward to getting the final wine into the bottle. Look forward to future announcements of our first tastings of this vintage.

Join Us Sat 8/20 at U.C. Davis

2010-07-16T17:05:00.000-07:00

Join us at the "Escape with Aggie Adventures" wine reception and travel fair at the Alumni and Visitors Center at U.C. Davis. We'll be pouring our latest wines. Hope to see you there. For more info see the event registration site.

Thanks to Sipping with Seton

2010-05-28T21:16:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed a great evening of wine tasting in support of Seton Hospital's medical foundation. Thanks to all who joined us.

Spring Pouring at New Hyatt

2010-04-17T18:54:00.000-07:00

Thank you to the Vintage Aggies association of U.C. Davis (Mark's Alma mater) for hosting the Spring Pouring at the new Hyatt Place on campus. We enjoyed seeing many old faces, alum, university boosters and more. We look forward to continuing our support of the university and all its efforts to continue its legacy in wine research and education.

Blending Under Way...

2010-03-15T09:55:00.000-07:00

We have been working on our next round of Santa Barbara syrah currently in the barrels. Just finished some blending experiments integrating wine from various regional syrahs. This "regional blending" will be the first time we offer a non-single vineyard offering. A few years ago we decided to expand our selection by purchasing grapes from various vineyards, within the same region, that have different flavor profiles. Our goal is to build a few fantastic options by creating a unique local wine blend. More to come...

2010-01-28T19:28:00.000-08:00

Join us at the upcoming Vintage Aggies wine pouring in collaboration with the 2010 Annual Alumni Awards ceremony. Live from Freeborn Hall on the campus of U.C. Davis.

2010-01-25T17:59:00.000-08:00

We are proud to announce that our new release, 2007 Santa Barbara Syrah, was just awarded 91 points from Wine Enthusiast Magazine. Look for the the listing in the upcoming April magazine edition!

AND, learn how the Editors taste and rate their wines. See the video.

Happy Holidays - 2009 SFWA Event

2009-12-08T19:51:00.000-08:00

It was a pleasure seeing our best clients and meeting new ones at this year's San Francisco Wine Association Holiday wine pouring. Merry Christmas and best wishes for a new year.

- The Moretti Family

Vintage Aggies Features Mark Moretti Winery

2009-11-02T15:33:00.001-08:00

Join us for an evening of wine tasting on the U.C. Davis campus for the Vintage Aggies Wine Tasting. On Friday, November 6th at the Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center, Mark Moretti Winery, along with other alumni wine makers, will be pouring their wines during the U.C. Davis Parent and Family weekend celebration.

Winery Featured at Ritz Residence Club

2009-09-02T15:27:00.000-07:00

The Mark Moretti Winery has been a guest Winery at recent pouring events in San Francisco's Ritz Carlton Residence Club and also featured in recent Club newsletters. Keep an eye on our web page for additional events.

Join us at the San Francisco Wine Association Spring Fling

2009-04-30T08:55:00.000-07:00

Come visit us and taste our latest wines. Mark Moretti Winery is one of the few boutique wines showcased at this industry event.

You are cordially invited to the first annual San Francisco Wine Association Spring Fling wine tasting party on May 7th at Crushpad, 2573 3rd Street, San Francisco.

At this fun event you'll sample incredible artisan wines produced by boutique, family-owned, urban vintners that are producing award-winning wines in San Francisco! Celebrate the spring season, meet local winemakers, and taste some fantastic vintages!

You can even purchase and take home your favorite SFWA wines (no shipping charges!).

18 boutique local wineries
50+ premium, hand-crafted wines
Fantastic urban winery venue
Just $20

Space is limited, so get your tickets today at www.sfwineassociation.com!

Pinot Wins Gold

2009-04-13T16:01:00.000-07:00

We are proud to announce that our Mark Moretti Winery 2005 Pinot Noir has just won a Gold medal at this year's Dallas Morning News Wine Competition.

(Also noteworthy is the Bronze Medal awarded to our young and aging 2006 Syrah from Santa Barbara)

Grenache & Syrah Bottling Time

2009-03-25T19:10:00.000-07:00

We just finished 2-days of bottling which included our new 2007 Syrah and Grenache Rhone offerings. We will be ageing these for about 6 months while closely monitoring their maturity. We expect to begin offering these wines in the Fall or Winter 2009.

Winery Joins new San Francisco Wine Association

2008-11-22T15:52:00.000-08:00

We are proud to announce that we have joined ( as a Founding Member) the San Francisco Wine Association. The prestigous group of San Francisco-based wineries showcases what small vintner can do with great grapes, right here in the city. Check out the press release.

'04 Cab awarded 89 Points from Wine Spectator

2008-10-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

The Nov 13, 2008 edition of Wine Spectator Ranks our 2004 Cabernet 89 points.

Want more Cab?

2008-10-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

Our 2004 Cab is sold out, but it was a hit. Do you want us to make more? If so, let us know.

Email us or sign up for our mail list and tell us what you want. We are reviewing our wine portfolio and want your input.

2005 Pinot Noir wins Silver Medal at The Long Beach Grand Cru

2008-09-29T13:17:00.000-07:00

Our 2005 Pinot just got its second award this summer in the prestigious Long Beach, CA. competition.
The Long Beach Grand Cru is considered one of the top international wine competitions in the U.S. More than 400 wineries competed with almost 2,000 wine entries. The major public tasting event attracts more than 1,400 wine and food aficionados every August. The Mark Moretti Winery 2005 Pinot Noir won a Silver medal in its category.

Accolades at the S.F. International Wine Competition

2008-07-10T15:12:00.000-07:00

The judging is complete at this year's 2008 San Francisco International Wine Competition. Our two latest releases both received recognition by the panel.

SILVER MEDAL: 2005 Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley
BRONZE MEDAL: 2006 Syrah, Santa Barbara County

You can learn more about these wines at our Winery website.

It's bottling time...

2008-05-10T14:14:00.000-07:00

We have just finished bottling our newly released 2006 Santa Barbara Syrah from the Whitehawk vineyard. Check out some of the videos attached for a close-up look at the bottling and labeling process.

Labeling Video: (Click on the play button below)

Next up, you can view our filler machine which inserts an inert Argon gas into the bottle to remove the oxygen, then fills the bottle and tops with CO2 to protect the final wine from oxidizing.

Bottle filling Video: (Click on play button below)

Checking the final product....

Loading the cases...

Now Featured on American Winery.Com

2008-04-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

We are slowly growing ... and now proud to be featured on American Winery.Com a premier wine portal for all wines - American. Check us out, because now you have more choices to grab a bottle of our wine. And, come back soon for our upcoming Spring/Fall new releases that will be bottled soon.

Harvest Photo Gallery...

2007-11-07T18:25:00.000-08:00

Our last grapes arrived on Sunday October 28th. Much of the Moretti family and friends lent a hand to help sort and crush this year's fruit. New varieties include a high elevation Santa Barbara Syrah and Mendocino County Grenache as well as other other Rhone blends.

Grapes have arrived!

2007-10-26T14:59:00.000-07:00

Our 2007 grapes have been arriving throughout the week. As predicted the fruit is impeccable and it looks to be a great harvest. The Moretti family and friends got together to help with the crushing and sorting of this year's Syrah harvest.

See our short video of the sorting/crushing activities with Mark. We'll follow shortly with another post summarizing the rest of our harvest.

Enjoy.

Harvest Update

2007-08-21T13:11:00.000-07:00

We are fast approaching our 2007 Fall harvest. We are excited to bring our wine community news, information and pictures of our upcoming harvest activities. We expect harvest to fall slightly earlier than last year and looking at the late September/October timeframe. More to come...

New Varietals are coming to Mark Moretti Winery

2007-07-21T16:09:00.000-07:00

Not everyone knows the story behind our varietal selection here at the winery. When I was deciding to make the leap from private production of wines for our extended Moretti family, to commercial wines, my goal was to make wines that were unique and expressive of the individual vineyards where they were grown. I wanted to make wines that didn't taste like all the other varietals on the supermarket shelf. I wanted each offering to by different. And, I wanted customers to come back to our wines for the pure excitement of discovering new wines.

When we started, we had an opportunity to source a single vineyard Oakville Cabernet that we couldn't pass up. In 2004, we ended up crafting our inaugural wine that has since won medals and many fans. While looking at unique opportunities to make one-of-a kind single vineyard wines, we came across the Hein vineyard. This vineyard, which practices sustainable and organic farming practices, gave us an opportunity to highlight how expressive "natural" grapes can be.

As we grow, we will be expanding our varietal offerings while focusing in on our ultimate goals for our portfolio. We are planning on introducing our new Rhone portfolio that gives us the ability to make some fantastically unique and refined wines. These wines will highlight some of the most diverse growing regions of the Santa Barbara appellation. We are sourcing grapes from high elevation vineyards with primarily sand composite soils.

Our 2006 Syrah is currently aging in French oak barrels and is already displaying a beautifully balanced wine complemented with an Old-World style of soft tannins, earthiness and blackberry fruit.

More information to come closer to harvest time.

Limited Summer Shipments due to Warm Weather

2007-07-13T21:45:00.000-07:00

Just a note to our customers - we have entered the warm summer months. To ensure we do not have wine shipments sitting in hot trucks and warehouses we are limiting our shipments. We will make shipment decisions based upon weather forecasts and urgency of delivery. It is our intention to ensure each bottle of wine arrives in impeccable condition - and not "cooked" because it sat in the back of a truck.

Pinot Days, San Francisco, June 2007

2007-07-01T10:10:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all of those who visited us at Pinot Days in San Francisco. This is one of the industry's largest Pinot events and we showcased our newly released 2005 Mark Moretti Winery Anderson Valley Pinot Noir. We got our hands on a small booth and had a great time pouring our wines to both wine industry representatives and to new and existing customers alike.

TIP: Since our 2005 Pinot is still young and only minimally filtered before bottling, we recommend decanting and even moderately aerating prior to serving. While spending

a full day opening and pouring our wines at this event we were impressed out how nicely this wine opens up both in terms of the nose and body after being uncorked. And of course this will only improve with time. See everyone again next year.

Gold Medal for our 2004 Napa Valley Cabernet

2007-01-09T09:41:00.000-08:00

The American Wine Society awarded our 2004 Mark Moretti Winery Cabernet from Oakville with a Gold Medal at their annual commercial wine competition. This year over 1000 wines were entered in the competition.