Hi! I’m another northern California (Berkeley) home winemaker, and 2018 is my 21st vintage. I concentrate on Rhone varietals, syrah, grenache, mourvedre (and petite sirah). I used to make zinfandel, but it wasn’t consistent, and I’ve made a couple of pinot noirs over the years. The Rhones are blended in three proportions, syrah/grenache/mourvedre, grenache/syrah/mouvedre, and mourvedre/syrah/grenache; each batch has roughly 70% of the first varietal. Each batch also gets a shot of petite, for color and backbone. I do set aside some grenache to bottle without blending.
My first batch was some Amador cabernet sauvignon, and the grapes arrived when my brother was visiting with their newborn daughter. That daughter is now in college, and I’ll be pouring the wine for her when she visits Cal next month (I last opened a bottle of it about a year ago, and it was excellent).
