What a difference experience makes

2011 presented California winemakers with some unusual challenges, but ones that weren’t necessarily unique, provided you’d been making wine the past decade or so. The cold growing season and resulting late harvest made for a virtual "mirror image" of 2010. The frost issues we had to deal with were similar to those in 2008. The extra dose of the botrytis reminded us of 2006. And the very unusual rain storms mimicked a few vintages that we experienced when we were sourcing fruit from Oregon. While learning things the hard way isn’t always fun, we’re extremely glad we had those experiences to rely on when making decisions regarding the 2011 harvest.

In many ways, our 2011s will be a carbon copy of our 2010s. Rich yet refined, with good density and concentration of fruit, but without being heavy. Another vintage that leans more towards elegance than raw power. And these are wines that we couldn’t have made without going through the trials and tribulations of past vintages.

AVA Pinot Futures Release

Russian River Valley, Santa Lucia Highlands, Sta. Rita Hills

As with the 2010s, the 2011 AVA Blends will represent the "softer side of Loring". Of course, that’s relative to our bigger, bolder style – so don’t worry, there will be plenty of rich, complex, tasty fruit in every bottle! We’d just like to stress that we don’t consider these wines to be "lesser", but rather a slightly difference experience from our Single Vineyard Designated Pinots.

Although we’re going to have to raise prices for this vintage, given how low the yields were, we’ve decided to hold the line on the Futures Pricing for you, our most valued customers. The after futures and tasting room pricing will go up from last year’s $29 a bottle to $32 a bottle (provided any are left), but you can get these wines now for the same price as the 2010 Futures.

We feel there’s no better value in California Pinot Noir than our AVA Blends.

$26.50
a bottle if you buy a six pack

$25.00
a bottle if you buy a twelve pack

Note 1: These wines won’t ship until sometime in Nov-Dec (weather permitting). That’s one of the reasons we offer them at such a great price.

Note 2: We’ve cut back on vineyard sources/acreage of Pinot Noir so that we could produce more Chardonnay. And yields were down yet again in 2011 – down 40% compared to 2009. Due to that, there won’t be very much of these wines this vintage, and they’ll only be available directly from us. Don’t wait too long to place your order, or you may miss out.

We’ll be offering these wines in pre-defined sets. Since that’s another way for us to be able to offer the discounts, we can’t allow substitutions or modifications. We’ll try to give you as many options as possible while still keeping it streamlined and cost effective for us.

These wines are now available for purchase to List Members through our
on-line ordering system

If you have any difficulties please email us.

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