September 2009

The 2009 harvest is upon us and we working like crazy to get orders out the door.  We've had some setbacks in our customer service department as we recently had 2 of our 4 staff member leave prior to harvest (bummer!) Problem is that you can't train someone in the middle of the storm on how to take order, track orders, answer technical questions etc..  So we have moved some staff from other areas of the company to try and cover this defecit.

We stopped posting here very much because we have our new Social Network site up call The Press.  You should defnitely check it out. We are now over 350+ members.  A great place to ask questions, blog about your own experiences, and ask questions of other members.

Our commercial winery website is now also up at Olin Wines so please check that out as well.  We will busy making old vine zin and cabernet come October.  You can purchase the wine in our showroom and in various other venues around the East Bay.

Cheers,
MoreWine! Team 




April 8, 2008

Well, we all know it's been a while since the last blog post here on the MoreWine! site. Between everything that's been going on around here it's been tough to find a chance to sit down and keep our customers in the loop. We'll be working hard to get more regular posts up in the coming year. For now, here are a few highlights of what we've had going on around here and what's on the horizon for the coming year.

• Olin Wines Winery is Legal! As many of you know from conversations with us over the past year, we've been in the process of establishing a small commercial winery here on our Concord, CA "compound." Well, after about a year of paperwork and waiting and more paperwork we are finally legal and under production. The 2007 harvest from our contract vineyard was frozen by the folks at Brehm Vineyards and we finally got around to fermenting and pressing it this March. Check out the gallery below for some pics of our press day.


• New Website Structure Many of you have probably already noticed that just after the holiday season this year we re-arranged the website in an effort to make the site easier to navigate and the products you need easier to find. As always, we'd love your feedback. So if you guys have any comments or suggestions, please send them along to info@morewinemaking.com.


• New Red Winemaking Manual on the Way! That's right, our trusty old Guide to Red Winemaking has gotten a makeover. As part of the process, we've expanded the scope of the paper to include more detailed descriptions of the processes that you go through, and hopefully some clearer explanations of some of the science that goes into winemaking. Also, we've separated the "how to" portions of the paper from the "why" portions. The paper is in its final editing stages and should be up on the site by the end of April.


• Home Winery Packages Coming Soon! Ever wanted to just make the jump to barreling your wine, or to step up your production level, but stopped because being sure that you were each and every little thing for the job was just too daunting? Well your days of worry are over, as MoreWine! is on the verge of releasing Home Winery Packages designed for a wide range of production scales and budgets. Keep an eye on the website and your e-mail inbox as we'll be letting you all know as soon as they're available.

Pressing 2007 Cab in April 2008

As we mentioned above, 2007 was a strange year for us for winemaking. Between a busy season, the end of the bonding process and Tristan having a broken collar bone, we just had to wait to make our 2007 wine. So come early March 2008 we were finally ready to get the bins down and the fruit from the freezer and get our fermentation underway. Our official stance is that we wanted to show support for our Southern Hemisphere bretheren who are all in the midst of harvest and crush right now. After a beautiful, 10 day ferment, our 6.5 tons of Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon was ready to press out, so the whole crew met up this past Saturday to turn the normal MoreFlavor compound into a real-deal, working winery. In what was easily our best-run pressing to date, we processed 11 half-ton macro bins in about 12 hours. Below are some snapshots from the afternoon.

Our Presses out and staged while we continue to prep

Winemaker Shea Comfort cleaning the big tank

Must pumping into the press

Collecting free-run and waiting for the press to begin the squeeze

Shea tastes the press-run

Who says you need a pretty winery to make great wine?!

Olin's daughters finally learn what Daddy is doing all the time

Spent Pomace