13 Feb Explore Winter Wonders with Mesa Del Sol

Hello Friends of Mesa Del Sol,

As winter settles in, our vineyards may be dormant, but there’s plenty of action happening beneath the surface. 

In this edition of our newsletter, we invite you to delve into the heart of our winemaking process. From Farmer Gary’s antics in the soil to exciting updates on our vineyard expansion and upcoming releases, there’s something for every wine enthusiast to savor. 

So grab a glass of your favorite vintage, cozy up by the fire, and read on as we journey through the winter wonders of Mesa Del Sol Vineyards.

The best is yet to come!

Gary & Stacey

It’s All About The Dirt

If you’ve been following us on social media, you’ll find some short reels of Gary that Stacey had some laughs shooting. Starring in his debut role, “Farmer Gary” explains the importance of soil management during the winter months. Always the consummate professional, Gary did a great job off-script sharing his genuine enthusiasm for our sustainable practices. 

We think Gary is ready for his close-up! How about you? 

As our vines enjoy their winter beauty rest, it’s time to get our boots dirty! We’ve been busy planting our cover crop, which acts as a natural fertilizer and nitrogen fixer. For this, we need to bring out the big guns – namely, our tractor – to disk the soil in every other row and ensure the roots can access all these good nutrients. 

We disk every other row because – in regenerative viticulture – less is more. Yes, we want to add fresh nutrients every year, but too much tilling can actually disturb the fragile soil microbiome. The fruits of our labor will be apparent soon enough as tender sprouts break through the soil, transforming our winter vineyards into a resilient, healthy blanket of green. 

Que Syrah, Syrah! 

We finished planting 400 vines of Mesa Del Sol’s beloved Syrah just in time for National Syrah Day, which falls on February 16th. This varietal is a favorite among our wine club members because of the distinct flavor profile imparted by the exceptional Arroyo Seco terroir. 

Taste the evolution of Mesa Del Sol Syrah for yourself when you reserve one of our vertical tasting bundles! Choose between 3 or 6 bottles and download our free tasting guide, which is designed to help you detect the nuances between each vintage.

Let us know which is your favorite and share your tasting experience by tagging us on Facebook or Instagram. 

Life On The Vine

Included in this planting were also some Grenache and Sangiovese vines, but that’s not all!

Drumroll please…Mesa Del Sol is getting into the Cabernet Biz! Call us crazy but we decided that we needed to add a 7th varietal to our brood. Come spring, we will be grafting Cab onto 5 rows of our existing Zinfandel vines to produce the very first Mesa Del Sol Cabernet Sauvignon. 

It’s amazing how one can graft a new varietal onto an entirely different vine. We are very interested to learn more about this practice so we are consulting with an experienced grafting farmer to guide us through the process.

We expect a yield of approximately 4 tons or about 200 cases. However, as the saying goes, all good things take time. Our new addition won’t bear fruit for 2 years and then we wait another 18 months for release. Stay tuned for more updates from the vineyard.

Introducing Tyler Russell’s Inaugural Vintage!

We are honored and excited to be releasing our 2022 vintages in April or May 2024. This marks our first vintage produced by our new winemaker Tyler Russell. 

By the time this newsletter is published, we will have sampled our wines at Tyler’s winemaking facility in Tin City, near Paso Robles. It’s always an interesting learning experience to taste directly from the barrel. 

We anticipate a bigger, bolder wine this vintage due in part to our later harvest but in larger part to Tyler’s unique style of winemaking. This is one of the reasons we decided to work with Tyler and we can’t wait to share the results with you. 

Spring also marks the second shipment to our wine club. As a member, you’ll be the first to enjoy our newest releases – all delivered right to your door! There’s no better time to join our club and take advantage of member pricing.

Check out our website to learn more. 

Honey, what did you do all day? 

The rainy (and lazy) days of winter give us time to enjoy the little things. 

When we make our weekly trip to the estate, we have our routine. Aside from jumping in his ATV to tour the vineyard, one of Gary’s favorite chores is to gather wood from our stockpile and build a roaring fire. During these cold winter months, we like to enjoy a big glass of Prima Rosso in front of the grand ol’ stone fireplace. 

We hope that you are also enjoying some downtime and finding inspiration in life’s simple pleasures. Until next time, stay warm, be safe, and surround yourselves with those who make you laugh.