Sagrantino and Aglianico are the first new varietals and will be released in March.

SAGRANTINO
The mysterious dark red, almost black Sagrantino belongs only to the region of Umbria, Italy of which there are only 250 acres planted. Some think it is related to Greek varietals, others insist its heritage is linked to France. The wine often exhibits flavors of blackberry jam, pine, and a contrast between savory and sweet. It’s rich and tannic with tremendous aging potential.

AGLIANICO
Aglianico is Italy’s third regal wine after Nebbiolo and Sangiovese. Enology professor Scienza of the University of Milan believes it is domesticated from a wild vine indigenous to the Italian peninsula dating back to the Bronze Age. Others believe it was transported by the Greeks and that the name is an adaptation of Ellenico (Hellenic in Italian).

Aglianico flourishes on the slopes of Mount Vulture in Basilicata (south of Naples and Mt. Vesuvius). It is regarded as being assertively aromatic, packed with berry flavors, particularly blackberry, and cloaked in wooly tannins (think black tea on your tongue).

As visions of sugar plums dance in our heads this holiday season, the smell of gingerbread fills the air in the Jacuzzi Family Vineyards’ tasting room.  After hours of baking, preparing royal icing and hand chipping chocolates, the gingerbread replica of the winery is waiting for you to come and admire.  It’s the 4th Annual Gingerbread Winery Contest and our second year participating alongside 12 others.

 
The template for the buildings was made from the original blueprints. The stonework on the walls is composed of royal icing covered gingerbread and bits of different color chocolates, which were melted paper thin and broken off to look like stone.  It’s hard not to want to eat the red licorice that covers the roofs of the many buildings that make up the Jacuzzi Family Vineyards’ winery complex.  Who would have known that pretzels could be made into windows?  Or that caramel could be turned into flower pots with sprigs of rosemary imitate plants and Italian cypress trees? 

 Put on your mittens and warm coat and come visit us.  Sample our unique and luscious Italian varietal wines including the premier of the 2008 Late Harvest Aleatico.  You can also browse our gift shop to find many exciting and unique gift and food items to finish your holiday shopping. 

We hope to see you soon and that you’ll vote for our gingerbread house and give it a 10! 

Let’s start with the appetizers. It’s nice to begin with a fresh, well balanced white wine to get your guests’ palates ready to receive whatever tidbits you provide. With that in mind, it’s time to choose a cheese that will provide a contrasting flavor to your white wine. Tangy and sometimes tart in flavor, goat cheese will pair nicely with most whites, including sparkling. In our lineup of Jacuzzi Family Vineyards wines, the Sei Sorelle, a non-oaked Chardonnay, is a crisp, medium bodied white with balanced acid, and a definite crowd pleaser. For guests who consume reds only (RO), our Sangiovese or Pinot Noir, with medium body and light tannins, will marry as well.

It’s time to sit and enjoy lively conversations and sumptuous foods. The first course can be something as simple as a spinach and walnut salad with a sweet vinaigrette dressing, or a cream based butternut squash soup. If you take the salad route, choose a wine that has citrus flavors such as an Arneis, or you can show off your versatility and open a bottle of Vernaccia, which will compliment the sweet yet tangy dressing. It’s hard not to have a buttery Chardonnay during a festive dinner, so make everyone happy and pull out a nicely chilled bottle with the creamy soup, perhaps our Giuseppina. For the RO imbibers, the medium- bodied, light tannin wines (Sangiovese and Pinot Noir) are very versatile and will add layers to each dish.

I think it’s time to bring out the bird…my mouth is watering! I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you’ve prepared fowl for this holiday event, along with the traditional stuffing and gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and please don’t forget the pumpkin pie! What better to cover the vast chasm of flavorings than to pick a wine that is well rounded, fruity, and all around food friendly…not overly tannic (for RO). Make sure you choose a full-bodied, fruit forward wine that will not overwhelm the mixed flavors at the table. Wines to include in the mix: un-oaked Chardonnay, Primitivo, Pinot Noir, Nebbiolo, and Barbera. Each of these wines have an earthiness and layers of complex fruitiness that allow for great range… from mushroom gravies to fruit sauces, and even dessert.

Above all, choose wines that you most enjoy all year-round. If you want to try something new, host a pre-holiday tasting with some friends. You don’t have to make the full dinner, but you could make some similar items such as a turkey panini with cranberry sauce and brie. KISS (keep it simple silly) and you will be able to enjoy the holiday!

I have always been a believer of the adage, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” I live in British Columbia, Canada, and my “who you know” is my best friend, who just happens to work for Jacuzzi Family Vineyards. I was coming in for the weekend for a visit and Jennifer had an assignment. We were to go to the Executive Hotel Vintage Court in downtown San Francisco and serve Jacuzzi wine for the cocktail hour. Well, of course I would love to help out a friend in need. We planned on making a night of it – a nice dinner and a stay at the Vintage Court Hotel. I quickly became versed on the 2006 Rosso Di Sette Fratelli Merlot (which has layers of flavor…chocolate, tobacco and berries all working together to create a deliciously complex and elegant wine finishing with silky tannins) and the 2008 Arneis (a crisp, citrusy, light white). We served the two varietals from 5 to 6 pm; I found it funny that most of the guests wanted to try the Arneis, merely for the fact that they’d never heard of that type of grape before. 

I was really having a good time…a good portion of the guests at the hotel were Canadians. We had a good talk about Canada’s wines versus California’s wines. We all agreed that the California’s wines are superior, by far. I also met Jeanne, the Sales Manager for the Hotel, who recommended the E&O Trading Co. for dinner that evening. Jennifer and I sat at the kitchen chef table, which gave us a fabulous birds-eye view the chefs in action. It was the best seat in the house! We brought a bottle of Jacuzzi’s 2006 Valeriano with us for dinner. The rich cherry and herbal characteristics made  it a great pairing with the spicy Asian tapas. After dinner we enjoyed a walk in Chinatown and a night in the City…Thanks Jacuzzi, for giving me a great excuse to have a working visit with my best friend!

Deborah Crowder

2009 Jacuzzi Family Vineyards' Staff Harvest

The Jacuzzi Family Vineyards team joins in the Fall harvest and crush.

We were out in the fields picking the Merlot grapes and enjoyed participating in the process of de-stemming, pumping, crushing and pressing.

Some of the grapes that have been picked and are in the process for this 2009 harvest are:

Dolcetto
Sagrantino  (New varietal)
Primitivo
Nero D’Avola
Barbera
Pinot Grigio
Vernaccia
Tocai Friulano  (New varietal)
Arneis
Moscato
Chardonnay
Malbec
Nebbiolo
Sangiovese
Aglianico  (New varietal)
Montepulciano  (New varietal)

Come meet our team and enjoy our hospitality.  We look forward to introducing you to our wonderful Italian wines and fun in the tradition of the Jacuzzi Family Vineyards.

Tools in hand, we’re ready to pick!

The Columbus Day Celebration in San Francisco

The Jacuzzi Family Vineyards tasting room team had great fun on Sunday, October 11, 2009, while participating in one of the oldest celebrated Italian Heritage Parades held in the North Beach district of San Francisco.  The streets were lined with over 100,000 onlookers, all enjoying the festivities fused with Italian culture. The Jacuzzi float exhibited the full flare of Italian enthusiasm and was inspired by the family’s true Italian Heritage, originating from the Friuli Region, and honored Valeriano Jacuzzi and his descendants who have over 130 years of winemaking wisdom.

Generations Dedicated to the Art of Discovery

Tasting Room Staff

Jacuzzi Family Vineyards welcomes you to taste the new release of Gilia’s Vernaccia. Gilia, the last surviving sister of Valeriano Jacuzzi, turned 101 on September 12^th this year and in keeping with the Jacuzzi tradition of honoring family and heritage, Fred and Nancy Cline named their new varietal after her.

These Vernaccia grapes were planted toward the bottom of 
the southern hills of Sonoma, Carneros.  Although they are windswept and subjected to the moderate and cool temperatures of the Pacific Ocean and San Pablo Bay, these grapes burn very easily.  A unique growing fashion has been developed using a tangle of tendrils and leaves to provide shade for the sun-sensitive fruit, a process which has taken a few years to perfect.  Watering (during the berry ripening period) is done in short bursts, which helps to control water stress.  

 The Vernaccia was handpicked and de-stemmed without crushing and immediately pumped to our tank press where the juice was gently squeezed from the grapes.  The wine was then racked (decanted) off the grape solids and inoculated with a pure strain of wine yeast.  Fermentation preceded at a cool 50 degrees F and kept in temperature controlled stainless tanks. Keeping with the Italian tradition, we have blended a small amount of Chardonnay into the wine.

The varietal was thought to have been brought by the Etruscans to the San Gimignano region of Italy where it is known to produce ripe and powerful white wines. During the Renaissance Vernaccia was considered Italy’s finest white wine and in 1966 it was the first Italian white wine to be awarded the DOC status.  

 Pair with grilled fish or seafood, pasta with cream sauces and prosciutto with melon or just enjoy on its own.  It is Spectacular!  Happy Birthday Gilia.

Featured Wines: 
Pinot Grigio  2007
Bianco Di  Sei Sorelle  2006
Moscato Bianco  2007
Barbera 2007
Rosso Di Sette Fratelli 2006

The God Mothers of Timothy Murphy School at St. Vincent’s School for Boys is a group of volunteers who actively support the school’s educational program through fundraising, direct financial contributions, and volunteering time, talents and services.

 Timothy Murphy School (TMS) is a not-for-profit State of California Certified special education day school in Marin County for boys (K-12) who have been victims of neglect and whose behavioral needs cannot be met in a regular school setting.   For more information visit their website at  www.godmothers.org.

Jacuzzi Family Vineyards’ harvest began on Friday, August 28, 2009, at 6am when our Estate grown Pinot Noir measured a 20° brix.  This harvest was about a week behind last year’s schedule due to the milder weather that occurred during the growing season.  A noticeable difference from last year’s crop, this harvest’s berry clusters were full and tight making it much easier for the picking crew to grab, sever and toss into their bins.  A brigade of two teams kept an arduous pace, filling 2 macro-bins (one macro-bin holds a half ton of grapes) every 2 hours, on what was anticipated to be a scorching hot day.  By noon all 19 acres had been picked and nearly 11 tons of grapes were ready to be converted from bulbous clusters to translucent juice.  The fragrant fruit entered the hopper where the stems were removed and the grapes gently crushed into a pulpy material called ‘must’.  The must was transferred into fermenting bins where it will ‘cold soak’ for a few days. During this process the juice gains color and fruit flavor…..and oh, what a flavor! After a couple days of cold soaking, the must is inoculated with yeast and fermentation begins.

1. Good storing conditions are vital – the enemies of wine are heat, light, oxygen, low humidity and if you really want to get into it – vibration.  

2. Ideal storage conditions aren’t necessary – if you don’t have a state-of-the-art wine fridge, check the conditions of a basement, floor storage or closet.

3. Buy wines that will age – knowing where the wine is from as well as its varietal are key pieces of information to figuring out age-ability.

4. Buy wines that you like – there is really no point in aging a wine for years on end if you don’t even like it, no matter what the pros say!

5. Don’t buy too much of a particular wine or wine style – your tastes preferences change and at the end of 5, 10, 15 years, you might be stuck with a lot of something that you’ve outgrown.

6. Buy enough of a wine so you can follow its evolution – vertical tastings of a particular wine are fun and educational. Or open a bottle of the same wine every 5 years to taste the evolutionary changes.

7. Don’t assume that only expensive wines age well – some of the best kept secrets can be found for under $15

8. Buy only from the best vintages – these are typically the wines that will age the longest and best as well as increase in value.

9. There’s always another vintage – if you miss out on the chance to swoop up that great vintage vino, don’t panic…another is sure to come along soon.

 What are your thoughts? Do you have any to add?