We will be working together with First Crush starting September 4th. Our wine Seminars will introduce you to different wines and how they are made. The seminars will take place here at our wine tasting lounge from 11a.m.-12 p.m. Every Saturday we will feature a different winery, the cost is $30 p.p  Hope to see you here! Cheers!

Vivant Fine Cheese will create dishes exclusively at Meritage for the month of September.  Plates will be served Thursday-Saturday beginning at 5 p.m.

Beginning Tuesday, August 17th, Meritage Wine Tasting Lounge will extend our days!  We are now open 7 days a week.

Experience Harvest during one long weekend of individual events at our wineries within Meritage Wine Tasting Lounge.  Throughout the weekend, the wineries will host activities, events, and dinners.  For more details, call Meritage Wine Tasting Lounge at (805) 238-9456.

HARVEST EVENTS AND WINE MAKER DINNERS

JK Wine Co

Join us for your very own seminar.  Learn or test how well you can identify aromas commonly found in the aromatic whites and lush reds we make.  We will keep track and reward the top three sniffers that identify the most aromas on Saturday and Sunday.  $15 pp including wine samples

Roxo Port Cellars and HammerSky- Wine Maker Dinner

Celebrate the harvest with HammerSky Vineyards and Roxo Port Cellars on October 16, 2010.  Chef Charles D. Paladin Wayne has created a fantastic menu to be served at HammerSky Inn.  Dine and mingle with Dr. Hauck and his wife Kim from HammerSky Vineyards as well as Jeff and Kim Steele from Roxo Port Cellars. Advanced ticket prices are $115pp or wine club members are $95pp.  For more information or to purchase tickets, contact kim@roxocellars.com or call Meritage Wine Tasting Lounge at (805) 238-9456.

Thursdays at Meritage
Thursday, August 5th 5-8pm
Come enjoy some wonderful wine at a great price. Every Thursday the wineries of Meritage will offer specials on bottles and glasses. Mingle with friends and enjoy wines from multiple Central Coast wineries under one roof.

Cahoots Catering Co. & Vivant Fine Cheese
Featured Caterer for August: Cahoots is “never ordinary but always extraordinary.” Using only the freshest ingredients to make almost everything from scratch, Cahoots pairs perfectly with our wine. Available Thursday-Saturday. Enjoy delicious cheeses from around the world anytime at Meritage from Vivant Fine Cheese.

Game Night! Every Monday
Think you have what it takes to win big? Bring your friends or co-workers and play over a glass of wine. Winner takes the tab? You make the rules! We set out a variety of board games and cards and let you have at it! Come down for a night of fun and wine.

This Week’s Musical Guest:
Denis Degher & Special Guest
Sat, Aug 14th 7-10pm
Otherwise known as Sleepy Guitar Johnson, Denis performs a blend of country and blues. He’s a producer and recording engineer who has worked with many American music legends including Kenny G, Santana, and Earth, Wind & Fire. Saturday he takes the night off from producing award-winning wines for his label Mojo Cellars to entertain the crowd at Meritage.

Labor Day Weekend, September 3-5

Three full days filled with car excitement that includes a car show, cruise night, and drive.  For more details, go to www.visitpaso.com.

Cruise Night- Friday, 6-8 pm

Car Show- Saturday, 9-4 pm

Since this was a last minute engagement, I didn’t get a chance to email and get the word out to our wine club members and fans of Michaud Vineyard.  Over the last 31 years of my wine career, I have had the privilege of visiting many fine and some not so fine restaurants locally and internationally.  I am a cook myself and like everyone, very disappointed when I am served food at a restaurant that is not as good as I can make myself at home.  Every so often I stumble across a place that produces truly haute cuisine.  The Mayfield Cafe and Bakery is one of those places. The pairing of the wine and food was exquisite and offered a wide variety of flavors and textures. Chefs Scott Soule, Mark Sullivan and John Madriaga collaborated to produce an amazing dinner.

We started out with citrus poached mussels floating in a warm zucchini soup, with sliced summer squash and cold grapefruit meringue garnished with paper thin slices of their bread that had been toasted in a wood fired Pizza oven.  The dinner was accompanied by home baked bread from the bakery as well. We chose our 2005 Michaud Vineyard Chardonnay to pair with this course and everything worked beautifully together.  The presentation was exquisite and at the end, one was tempted to lick the bowl!

The next course was savory roasted  Peking duck breast with  Mariquita farms vegetables The duck breast rested atop a small bed of polenta, tiny baby white and orange carrots, pink and gold beets, and greens.  This was placed on a sherry vinegar and blackberry gastrique accompanied by fresh succulent blackberries.  Again, the food was beautiful to look at, and paired exquisitely with the 2004 Michaud Vineyard Pinot Noir. I was told that the 2004 Michaud Vineyard Pinot Noir was the most popular wine by the glass at the restaurant. The variety of flavors and textures made the duck a fascinating course!

The dinner was concluded by Ewes blue cheese, roasted Hamada Farm figs and honey with Marcona almonds accompanied by unmistakably delicious Mayfield Bakery bread. This was paired with the 2004 Michaud Vineyard Syrah.

This is an on-going series of winemaker dinners and we are planning to do another one in August, which we will publicize far in advance so you can be sure to save the date and attend!

The staff was exceedingly friendly and courteous and service was excellent.  Bravo to the team for putting on such a terrific evening for our guests.  Palates were more than satisfied and everyone left with some bread and a smile!

Mayfield Cafe & Bakery Secrets:

Secret #1: Every day, if the bakery has leftover bread, restaurant customers are given

their choice of a loaf to take home.

Secret #2:  They serve an incredible brunch on Sundays.

Secret #3:  BBQ Mondays!

Check out their website at www.mayfieldbakery.com for menus, hours and events.

Mayfield Bakery & Cafe  855 El Camino Real #110  Palo Alto, CA (650) 853-9200

Mayfield Bakery & Cafe

Michael Michaud 6/2010

Last weekend the vines began flowering in earnest, normally the Chardonnay blooms ahead of the Pinot Noir, but this year it was reversed.  The three warm days this past week pushed everything into bloom and the vineyard is ready to set fruit.

Another benefit of the cool spring is a longer grower season, which produces nicely developed wines.  Wines from our Chalone appellation tend to be full flavored wines that are balanced and age well.

Following sustainable vineyard practices, we have mowed twice, suckered the vines, applied sulphur and copper to combat mildew, zinc and foliar nitrogen to boost the vines for the season ahead.  Our weed control is completely organic, planting a cover crop to help hold in the soil and add nutrients at the same time.  We work in the cover crop and the prunings to add organic matter to the soil and hand hoe to control weeds.

Other jobs in the vineyard include training the vines as they grow out to promote the best position for the clusters, raising the canopy for better light utilization to both protect the fruit and help it to ripen.

The oldest vines in the vineyard are the Pinot Blanc, (Melon de Bourgogne), which were from Chalone’s 1946 planting.  The wild pigs in the vineyard love the Pinot Blanc grapes and have succeeded in eating many vintages!  We did get a crop in 2009 and hope our semi-permanent fencing will keep those porcine connoisseurs out of the block for a great 2010 harvest!

In 1986 and 1988, Chardonnay from old Wente rootstock was planted in the Michaud Vineyard, which was again planted in the old Chalone Winery in 1946.   By 1990, our Chardonnay planting was up to 13.2 acres.  About an acre of Viognier followed along with Sangiovese which was planted in 1992 from Swanson Vineyards.

The Pinot Noir vines are from three selected plantings in the Chalone Vineyard; 1946, 1970 and 1972.  The clonal selection of Pinot Noir vines are Swan, 113, 114, 115, 667 and 777.  The Marsanne and Syrah were originated in a well-respected vineyard in Hermitage, which has been in existence for over 500 years.

We look forward to telling you more about Michaud Vineyard and more importantly pouring our outstanding wines for you in our Tasting Room located in the Meritage Wine Tasting Lounge in downtown Paso Robles.

Cheers from Michael Michaud