The Winery Notes - Greg Freeman and Paul Clifton

Wednesday, July 25, 2007 3:50 pm.

The Salinas Valley and Santa Lucia Highlands are so beautiful this time of year…the hillsides are golden, the fields near the Salinas River are green, full of lettuce, cabbage, strawberries, asparagus, broccoli. The hillsides are green with the canopies of grapes! I like to take a lunchtime walk through the vineyard rows, vine tips gently brushing my shoulders, the crunch of dried grass at my feet, the smells of hot afternoons reminding me of my youth, cicadas buzzing….OK, sorry, back to reality. I have a tour to give. Group of ten from Louisiana. They will get to see the bottling lines, both of them, the barrel warehouses, the tanks, the crush equipment, the breakroom, the offices, the parking lot, whatever! It’s a lot of fun and most people leave here amazed at how cool the whole operation is. There will be a reference to I Love Lucy and the infamous grape stomping episode…there will be the reference to Laverne and Shirley’s bottling line…and there will be some barrel sampling..yum!! We’ll try some of the 2006 cabernet sauvignon from our new San Gabrielle Vineyard in Paso Robles. What a wine! Massive fruit explosion! Varietally true and sublime.

Those creative folks at Wimbledon are always coming up with some of the most ingenious marketing ideas… I thought I’d seen it all when my bagpiping was somehow going to be used in a “work-related” capacity (wait ‘til my mom hears about that!)….now I hear that along with their new strategy of marketing in conjunction with extreme sports and extreme youth, we’ve seen Paul and Barry on surfboards, Paul on his mountain bike, now I am being called to do some rock climbing with Paul & Becca & Juanjo. Don’t get me wrong, I am looking forward to it. But since I last laid down my ropes and pitons, glad to have survived some harrowing rock face, I have, how shall we say, gotten married and gained a few pounds of…sustenance. I sure ate a lot less in the 90’s. A little more to pull up the cliff! Keep an eye out for this exciting event!

Part II 

I just opened my mail today and was happy to have received the Orange County Fair Wine Competition Awards booklet. I am happy to see that our Smith & Hook Cabernet Sauvignon won a Chairman’s Award. This is a nice award that recognizes wines that were just a little more special than other wines in that category.

Maybe someplaces these awards get glossed over in the slickness of packaging and hype, but here at the winery, we are very proud and excited by every award and bit of recognition that our diligent efforts produce. This is a magical place and this group of people, the WHOLE GROUP…in the vineyards, at the winery, at the bottling line, our owners, Wimbledon all around the country, etc…) is pursuing a course of quality and making truly great wines

Tuesday, July 24, 2007    8:03 a.m.
Part I
    Lots of strong coffee today. Bit of a late night last night, for a Monday at least. I put on a personal tasting at my house of some 2005 Hahn Meritage, which was delicious, but for some reason, I had to taste and retaste and retaste….also, my son flies to Japan early this foggy morning for a 2 week trip with his Monterey Jazz Festival High Scholl All Star Jazz Band. He plays trumpet. So I had to drive him to MPC being there at 6:00 am! If you know me…that’s early, and difficult.
    Back at the winery today where we are bottling some cabernet for a private client. Juanjo and Jill and I are doing some QC on the package. This involves running a slew of chemical analyses on the wine itself as well as tasting and smelling in the lab. Then we inspect the package itself, the capsules, the corks, the bottles, the box, the glue, the stickers, everything, trying to obsessively find minute flaws and correcting them. It’s all part of our mandate to over-deliver in all quality aspects of production.
    Juanjo and I will be studying the new Foss WineScan this week. This is our new infrared spectrophotometer for wine analysis. We are very excited to have this shiny piece of equipment at our use here in the lab. And, yes, there is a laser beam involved…
    Meanwhile, our top notch crew is working on the 2006 Hahn Chardonnay blend, as well as the 2006 Cycles Gladiator Pinot Noir blend. So, the cellar crew is very busy this week. Pumping out barrels, consolidating lees, racking chardonnay, cleaning barrels, organizing the warehouse, filtering pinot noir…all the special touches that make our wines so fantastic. I am very excited about this year’s chardonnay, it is tasting superbly.

Part II
    Paul has arrived now. We always know when he gets in because his dog, Parker, comes running up to the lab first and announces Paul’s arrival.  I think Paul went to Tahoe for the weekend. Or maybe surfing. Tonight is soccer night (Tuesdays and Thursdays) So, Juanjo and I will be playing with the Brits and Germans at the pitch in Carmel Valley at the middle school. Thursdays is a more low key mellow game, but Tuesdays is when guys come out that take the game…a little more seriously. I’ll wear the ol’ shin pads tonight in case that guy from Scheid comes out to play…
    Otherwise, this week looks like a logistics week for me.  Working on the UV fresh water system we are installing here at the winery, moving the waste water system upgrade along, updating the computer inventories, etc…Yesterday, we had a half an hour to play some soccer out on the pad with Adam LaZarre and his dog, Maxie, who is quite the excellent player, even though she tends to bite holes in the ball in lieu of kicking it…well, she is a dog after all…Adam was in tasting the current Meritage blend, in progress…still being worked on by Paul and Barry and Adam…fine tuning it to it’s ultimate perfection…

Be well.
Drink Hahn.
And keep in touch…

Greg
 

The Nicolaus Hahn Family – Commitment to Monterey

Hahn Estates is owned and operated by the Nicolaus Hahn Family. Nicolaus (“Nicky”) Hahn is a Swiss businessman, adventurer and philanthropist whose venturesome spirit brought him and his family to Monterey in the mid 1970's. While living in England , the Hahns had discovered a love for California wines. A two-year search guided them to Monterey County with its breathtaking beauty and ideal growing conditions. Nicky quickly realized that this region had as much potential to produce world-class wines as any other in the state. He and his wife Gaby purchased Smith & Hook Winery in 1980, laying the groundwork for their long-term commitment to bring out the full potential of Monterey .

Hahn Estates / Smith & Hook – Ranches to Vineyards

The Smith Ranch had been a horse ranch, while the neighboring Hook Ranch had raised cattle for generations. With their prime location in the Santa Lucia Highlands overlooking the Salinas Valley , these ranches-turned-vineyards presented ideal growing conditions for growing premium varietal fruit. Smith & Hook Winery released its first vintage of Cabernet Sauvignon to high acclaim in 1980.

In 1991, Nicky created the Hahn Estates brand to showcase supple, accessible, and attractively priced wines from the family's Monterey County vineyards. In German, “Hahn” means “Rooster” and for this reason a rooster embellishes the Hahn Estates label, honoring the Hahn family's European heritage. And while Smith & Hook remains the first wine produced by the Hahn family, Hahn Estates is the primary wine brand produced by the Hahns and the winery is now proudly known as “Hahn Estates / Smith & Hook Winery.”

Revitalization – New chapter in winemaking

New chapters began for Hahn Estates / Smith & Hook Winery in 2000 when Nicky brought on long-time associate Bill Leigon and embarked on a more than eight-million dollar renovation to the winery and vineyards. The revitalization began with a new management and winemaking team, which included Leigon's appointment as president in 2001, winemaker Adam LaZarre, and well-known Monterey winemaker Barry Gnekow as consulting oenologist. Many capital improvements were made in the winery and in the vineyards, creating a dramatic transformation to the quality and case production for the four wine brands: Hahn Estates, Smith & Hook, Red Flyer and a new brand to be launched in 2006, Cycles Gladiator. Hahn Estates was also responsible for the successful launch in 2002 of the popular HRM Rex Goliath wine brand, which was sold to Constellation Wines in the fall of 2005.

Wines of Monterey Distinction

The spectacular beauty of California 's central coast is probably the best-known region in all of California for its unique lifestyle. Monterey County 's dramatic ocean scenery, historic communities, artistic culture, verdant pine forests, and bountiful agriculture have beckoned adventure-seekers, seafarers, artists, writers and vacationers for over 100 years. And the 99 miles of breathtaking Pacific coastline is something no other California county can boast.

With an inspiration to raise Monterey wines to the highest level, the wines of Hahn Estates are created with a philosophy that all great wines are special – akin to the region they were grown in. The Hahn wines celebrate everything that is Monterey – unique in thought, style and setting. Wines of Monterey Distinction.