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<item>
<title><![CDATA[Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog : Autumn Vineyard Photo Essay, Part 6: Winter's Approach]]></title>
<category>Autumn 2008 Photo Essay</category>
<category>Pretty Pictures</category>
<description><![CDATA[

Without particularly intending to, I realized that I'd taken several vineyard photos that showed the approach of the winter season through a chilly quality of the light and a selection of wind-blown leaves and (comparatively) bare vines.  It seems a fitting conclusion to this autumn vineyard photo essay  to show the photos which look forward to winter.  First, a view of Mourvedre vines (which are always the first vines to look like they're shutting down for winter, even in October when they're still laden with fruit) with just a few lonely second-crop clusters against a chilly light-blue sky: It seems to be combination of pale sunlight and near-white skies that give the photos their wintery feel. This next view, looking south up through two Grenache Blanc rows, has that same watery light, and the dead leaves on the ground only reinforce the appearance of impending winter: And finally, one shot (not dissimilar from the shot of the newly-seeded cover crop  from part 4 of this photo essay) of the tilled earth in the Vermentino section of the vineyard.  The main difference in the feel of the shots is that this one faces north-east, and the younger Vermentino vines appear more fragile than the older Roussanne vines in the previous photo. I hope that you have enjoyed this photo series.  This is a particularly beautiful time of year to visit Paso Robles, and the moderate temperatures (70s during the day, 30s and 40s at night) are additional incentives.  I was struck on my drive out to the vineyard this morning by just how beautiful is this part of the world in which we have the privilege of living and working. 

]]></description>
<link>http://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/2008/11/autumn-vineyard-photo-essay-part-6-winters-approach.html</link>
<pubDate>21 Nov 2008 11:01:15</pubDate>
<guid>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-58850048</guid>
<author>Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog</author>
<source url="http://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/atom.xml">Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog</source>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Winery Web Site Report ...: What's Your Value Proposition?]]></title>
<category>Winery Web Sites</category>
<description><![CDATA[

To determine if your winery Web site has a good value proposition, Rich Page suggests  taking a look at your site from a visitor's perspective  (yes!) and asking these three questions: Where am I? 
What can  I do here?    
What should I do here? 
More details in his post.  As I've written before, you've got to think like a visitor . Rich also publishes a free Web site improvement e-book  that's worth a look. 

]]></description>
<link>http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/2008/11/whats-your-value-proposition.html</link>
<pubDate>21 Nov 2008 08:28:48</pubDate>
<guid>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-58835416</guid>
<author>The Winery Web Site Report</author>
<source url="http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/atom.xml">The Winery Web Site Report</source>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog : Autumn Vineyard Photo Essay, Part 4: Grenache]]></title>
<category>Autumn 2008 Photo Essay</category>
<category>Pretty Pictures</category>
<description><![CDATA[

Our Grenache section is always one of the most beautiful in the vineyard.  Grenache vines are vigorous, and provide satisfyingly thick trunks from even fairly young vines.  The leaves are a vibrant yellow-green during the spring and summer, noticeably brighter than other varietals.  They stay green later in the season, and explode into color when other varieties are fading to brown.  First, a closeup of brilliant orange foliage from a Grenache Noir mother vine in a pot on our patio: A good example of the chunky Grenache trunks and other varietals can be seen below, from the old block that we planted in 1992.  I also love the greeny-reds of the grenache foliage contrasted with the brown of the Counoise block below and with the grey-green of the olive trees: Finally, this last shot looks west from the top of Mount Mourvedre (the Mourvedre section is behind and to the left of where I was standing when I took the shot) across two blocks of Grenache and toward the golden hills of the ranch to our west.  At the western edge of the property, the brown leaves are from a block of Syrah, while in front of there the bare vines are Mourvedre: 

]]></description>
<link>http://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/2008/11/autumn-vineyard-photo-essay-part-4-grenache.html</link>
<pubDate>20 Nov 2008 11:10:49</pubDate>
<guid>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-58790718</guid>
<author>Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog</author>
<source url="http://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/atom.xml">Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog</source>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog : Autumn Vineyard Photo Essay, Part 4: Seeding the Cover Crop ]]></title>
<category>Autumn 2008 Photo Essay</category>
<category>Pretty Pictures</category>
<description><![CDATA[

There's not much to do in the vineyard at this time of year.  You need to wait for everything to go fully dormant before you prune, and once harvest is complete, the only typical action you take is to make sure that the vines get some irrigation as they're going dormant (the better to store up energy for a good start the next spring). One thing that we do in November, weather permitting, is to prepare the ground for a cover crop.  The cover crop plays multiple roles, providing erosion control, weed control, fertilization, and a habitat for beneficial insects.  The cover crop that we use is a custom-mixed blend of sweet peas, oats, vetch and clover.  The first stage is to disc the ground to break up the roots of anything that remains from the previous winter and allow for better penetration of both seeds and moisture.  You can see, in this photo up between two rows of Roussanne, the newly tilled ground in the middle: As you can see from the above photo, we've already got some green grass growing in the rows after our inch and a half of rain from the very beginning of the month.  There's more rain scheduled to come early next week, and we wanted to get everything seeded while the ground was still firm enough for tractors.  Another nice shot of the new grass growing growing among the limestone rocks at the top of the vineyard, looking down over the vineyard's oldest section of Grenache: And finally, one shot of the newly-tilled earth, with a piece of limestone glowing in the autumn sun, clearly showing its signature sedimentary layers:   

]]></description>
<link>http://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/2008/11/autumn-vineyard-photo-essay-part-4-seeding-the-cover-crop-.html</link>
<pubDate>19 Nov 2008 12:27:11</pubDate>
<guid>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-58748680</guid>
<author>Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog</author>
<source url="http://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/atom.xml">Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog</source>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog : Autumn Vineyard Photo Essay, Part 3: Relics of a Challenging Vintage]]></title>
<category>Autumn 2008 Photo Essay</category>
<category>Pretty Pictures</category>
<description><![CDATA[

2008 was a challenging vintage.  As I described in my 2008 vintage assessment , we saw issues with late frosts in the spring, early frosts in the fall, low yields, shatter and uneven ripening.  These all left marks on the vineyard which you can see even now.  This first photo shows clearly the area of frost damage (on what we call "Nipple Flat").  You can see the brown, leafless vines in the valley, with areas of green vines just a few feet higher: This frost damage didn't end up being devastating, as it was fairly limited in impact, affecting jsut a few acres, and it allowed us to do some whole-cluster fermentations  on the frosted Mourvedre vines. The next photo shows one of the many clusters of second crop, this one from a Mourvedre vine at the top of the hill pictured in the photo above.  Vines set these smaller, later-ripening clusters every year, but it's most prevalent in years where there is a spring frost.  These clusters are a vine's reproductive defense system against inclement conditions during flowering.  Should the primary clusters be frosted or otherwise damaged, these secondary clusters can ripen and allow the vine to reproduce.  Of course, for our purposes they're largely a nuisance.  They delay the ripening of the primary fruit and can confuse the picking crew.  The cluster below was left on the vine after the Mourvedre was harvested in October.  Even now, the berries are sitting somewhere south of 20° Brix: And finally, a photo of a phenomenon we saw this year more than any other year since we began.  Vines, despite the lack of water, kept producing new green shoots all the way through harvest.  This is extremely unusual, and we have not found a satisfactory explanation as to why we've seen it this year.  There were two varieties most affected: Roussanne, and Grenache.  The vine below is a Grenache vine from the top of the hill behind the winery.  You'd expect most of the leaves to be brown in mid-November, but you can clearly see the bright yellow-green leaf growth at the top of the canopy: We don't know what to make of this late leaf growth.  It will stop when we get a hard freeze throughout the vineyard, but we'd rather the vines be storing their energy for next year rather than expending it in growing pointless canopy after harvest. Any winemakers out there have any experience with things like this? 

]]></description>
<link>http://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/2008/11/autumn-vineyard-photo-essay-part-3-relics-of-a-challenging-vintage.html</link>
<pubDate>18 Nov 2008 08:57:15</pubDate>
<guid>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-58674502</guid>
<author>Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog</author>
<source url="http://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/atom.xml">Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog</source>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog : Autumn Vineyard Photo Essay, Part 2: Near and Far]]></title>
<category>Autumn 2008 Photo Essay</category>
<category>Pretty Pictures</category>
<description><![CDATA[

One of the things that I always love to try to capture in my photographs are the perception of distance.  It's a challenging thing to try to translate the wide open spaces of the vineyard (and that feel of having something interesting all around you) into the fixed frames of a finished photograph.  I was pleased with how these three photos captured both the vibrancy of the foreground and the receding layers of distance.  First, a photo from the top of Mount Mourvedre, looking west over the top rows of Grenache into the Santa Lucia mountain range: Then, a view that is a little harder to see, looking north-east from the top of Mount Mourvedre down over the Viognier section, across Adelaida Road and to the multicolored vineyards of Halter Ranch : And finally, one shot of what's usually my favorite view of Tablas Creek because of how it showcases the patchwork of different vineyard sections: looking north from our "new hill" down through a section of Grenache Blanc, across head-pruned Tannat and back up the south-facing slopes planted with Grenache Noir and Mourvedre: 

]]></description>
<link>http://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/2008/11/autumn-vineyard-photo-essay-part-2-near-and-far.html</link>
<pubDate>17 Nov 2008 11:33:38</pubDate>
<guid>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-58621338</guid>
<author>Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog</author>
<source url="http://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/atom.xml">Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog</source>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog : Autumn Foliage in the Vineyard]]></title>
<category>Pretty Pictures</category>
<category>Vineyard</category>
<description><![CDATA[

One consequence of the end of daylight savings has been that I'm at the vineyard at the end of the day a lot more often.  At this time of year particularly, the combination of the late-day slanting yellow sun and the foliage turning colors makes for some spectacular scenes in the afternoon.  I have a whole series of photos I'm planning to post as a part of a photo album on Monday, but there were a couple of shots I wanted to share now.  First, a look down from the top of the vineyard through the Grenache (left, green) and Mourvedre (red) sections: Next, a photo of the Vermentino vineyard with one lone remaining cluster (evidently missed during harvest) that shows the deep blue skies: And finally, a shot of Grenache Noir vines showing the brilliant greens and reds that make November such a beautiful time of year: 

]]></description>
<link>http://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/2008/11/autumn-foliage-in-the-vineyard.html</link>
<pubDate>14 Nov 2008 16:01:15</pubDate>
<guid>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-58528656</guid>
<author>Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog</author>
<source url="http://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/atom.xml">Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog</source>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Winery Web Site Report ...: A Holiday Gift For Your Fans]]></title>
<category>Wine Marketing</category>
<description><![CDATA[

How about a nice calendar with either photos or label images from your wines (and, of course, a picture of the winery dog)?  Easy to make , not terribly expensive, and (done right) a chance to subtly remind your fans about your winery every single month of the year.  
It's also an idea that a winegrowing association  could take up on behalf of member wineries to promote their region.  Of course, it might help to have fewer than 12 wineries, otherwise it could get ugly. (idea  from Paperback Writer) 

]]></description>
<link>http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/2008/11/my-entry.html</link>
<pubDate>14 Nov 2008 11:26:10</pubDate>
<guid>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-58518674</guid>
<author>The Winery Web Site Report</author>
<source url="http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/atom.xml">The Winery Web Site Report</source>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Winery Web Site Report ...: This Could Have Been Your Winery...]]></title>
<category>Wine Marketing</category>
<description><![CDATA[

Hats off to the smart marketers at Kendall-Jackson .  They just got a bundle of free publicity for their wines (just Google kendall-jackson obama wine ), all from a simple press release . Keep your eyes open for opportunities to promote your wine in conjunction with the news! 

]]></description>
<link>http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/2008/11/this-could-have-been-your-winery.html</link>
<pubDate>13 Nov 2008 06:00:00</pubDate>
<guid>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-58421886</guid>
<author>The Winery Web Site Report</author>
<source url="http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/atom.xml">The Winery Web Site Report</source>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Winery Web Site Report ...: Why Selling Wine is Hard]]></title>
<category>Wine Marketing</category>
<description><![CDATA[

Seth Godin posts   Don't Sell to Bar Owners , something that, despite its odd title, has relevance to winery owners and sellingwine: The universal lesson is this: every business has customers. In order to grow, you either need to sell more to those customers or find new customers....The biggest problem marketers make is misjudging their audience. The see the size of the market, but not its true nature: Their accessibility and eagerness. Their worldview and motivation. You've really got to find the 1,000 True Fans  of your winery, the market that is eager for what you have to sell. 

]]></description>
<link>http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/2008/11/why-selling-wine-is-hard.html</link>
<pubDate>12 Nov 2008 06:00:00</pubDate>
<guid>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-58420828</guid>
<author>The Winery Web Site Report</author>
<source url="http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/atom.xml">The Winery Web Site Report</source>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Winery Web Site Report ...: Volute, In The Teeny Aluminum Bottle]]></title>
<category>Miscellaneous</category>
<description><![CDATA[

In an effort to stay on the cutting edge of wine packaging technology , I've ordered the sampler of three 185 ml aluminum  bottles of Volute Wine , one each of their Red, White, and Rose wines. Their Unique Selling Proposition (USP) seems to be the "greeness" (greenitude?) of their aluminum bottle, along with the convenience of single servings.  A case of Volute (equivalent to three 750 ml bottles) costs $49.  The wines themselves are sourced from Bordeaux. Trivia point:  Volute  is the Latin word for "scroll." (Volute also has a brand-new blog , which has been added to The List ) 

]]></description>
<link>http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/2008/11/volute-in-the-teeny-aluminum-bottle.html</link>
<pubDate>11 Nov 2008 06:00:00</pubDate>
<guid>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-58326340</guid>
<author>The Winery Web Site Report</author>
<source url="http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/atom.xml">The Winery Web Site Report</source>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Winery Web Site Report ...: Six Good Tips For Winery Bloggers]]></title>
<category>Winery Blogs</category>
<description><![CDATA[

If you sometimes find yourself stuck for things to blog about on your winery blog, here's a handy list of ideas from ProBlogger's Darren Rowse: How to Improve Your Blog When You Don't Have Computer Access . (Ignore that "when you don't have computer access" part -- the tips apply equally well in either case.) 

]]></description>
<link>http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/2008/11/six-good-tips-for-winery-bloggers.html</link>
<pubDate>07 Nov 2008 06:00:00</pubDate>
<guid>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-58170544</guid>
<author>The Winery Web Site Report</author>
<source url="http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/atom.xml">The Winery Web Site Report</source>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog : Challenges in assessing a vintage like 2008]]></title>
<category>Harvest 2008</category>
<category>Paso Robles</category>
<category>Weather &amp; Climate</category>
<description><![CDATA[

I had a meeting with the Paso Robles Rhone Rangers  yesterday, and while we were waiting for everyone to arrive we spent some time kicking around impressions of the recently concluded harvest.  The general consensus was that all we were missing from our list of calamities was a plague of locusts.  We'd had late spring frosts , major issues with shatter due to wind during flowering, a heat spike in August, a very unusual early October freeze , and rain at the end of the October.  Still, most of the producers there were encouraged about how the wines in their cellar were looking and tasting, and felt surprisingly positive about the vintage's prospects. And, everyone was happy that we hadn't had to deal with some of the additional issues that producers in Napa and Sonoma had faced, most notably a big rainstorm in early October that just sent some clouds as far south as Paso Robles. Some things were clear.  Yields were low (although not as much on Rhone varieties as on Bordeaux varieties or Zinfandel).  Reds were impacted by these low yields more than whites -- in fact, most of the producers there, like us, saw increased yields on whites.  Grapes came in very soft, but with relatively moderate sugars.  Wineries who were not estate and had to meet a substantial number of cases struggled to find adequate sources of fruit.  It struck me that this is the sort of vintage where there will be a great temptation for writers looking to tell a simple story to dismiss the vintage as a bad one.  Cabernet, Merlot and Zinfandel all struggled throughout California with erratic yields, shatter, and uneven, early ripening.  Later-ripening varietals in the North Coast saw significant rain.  Any producer who had to source fruit to match or grow their annual production was forced to get fruit from places that they would normally have rejected out of hand.  These challenges were particularly severe producers based in the North Coast. Yet, for we Rhone producers in the Central Coast, the vintage has the potential to be a great one.  Yields on most Rhone varietals were lower (concentrating character) but largely avoided the problems with shatter that affected Bordeaux varietals and Zinfandel.  We dodged the early October rain that afflicted regions to our north.  The late, cold spring probably saved us from the August heat wave, as the grapes were still sufficiently unripe that there was time to moderate the sugar accumulation and acids stayed high.  The warm, sunny (perfect) weather for the last half of October allowed the vines time to recover from the cold snap earlier in the month and ripen without going flabby.  Finally, the relatively light yields meant that we were all done before it rained last weekend.  Some years, we have a significant amount of Mourvedre still out at the end of October. I feel like one of those movie characters who after a gun fight looks around to see everything around him riddled with holes, but somehow emerges unscathed.  And I hope that writers, when it comes time to assess the 2008 vintage, will take the time to look at the unscathed combatant rather than at the carnage all around. 

]]></description>
<link>http://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/2008/11/challenges-in-assessing-a-vintage-like-2008.html</link>
<pubDate>06 Nov 2008 07:56:11</pubDate>
<guid>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-58120350</guid>
<author>Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog</author>
<source url="http://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/atom.xml">Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog</source>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Winery Web Site Report ...: Get Your Landing Page Makeover (Cheap!)]]></title>
<category>Wine Marketing</category>
<category>Winery Web Sites</category>
<description><![CDATA[

What's a Landing Page, you ask? A landing page is any page on a website where traffic is sent specifically to prompt a certain action or result.  Think of a golf course… a landing page is the putting green that you drive the ball (prospect) to. Once on the green, the goal is to get the ball into the hole. Likewise, the goal of the copy and design of a landing page is to get the prospect to take your desired action. Wouldn't you like that page to work harder for you?  Well, for the price of a bottle of wine (donated to Heifer International), Roberta Rosenberg  will do a Landing Page Makeover with you. Let me know if you take her up on her offer . (And really, unless your wine retails for $100 a bottle or more, you should probably kick in a little extra to the good folks at Heifer International.   A good critique of your site is worth at least that much, more if you actually do something with it!) PS - she's making the same Makeover offer for marketing plans .  You've got one of those, right? (via Copyblogger ) 

]]></description>
<link>http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/2008/11/get-your-landing-page-makeover-cheap.html</link>
<pubDate>06 Nov 2008 06:00:00</pubDate>
<guid>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-58138376</guid>
<author>The Winery Web Site Report</author>
<source url="http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/atom.xml">The Winery Web Site Report</source>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Winery Web Site Report ...: Lazy Sunday:  Any, er, Starboard In A Storm]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[

Stacy Buchanan of AmericanWinery.com comments on Peltier Station Winery's solution to the problem of being a domestic producer of port wine .  Some more background on the design is here . I like USB port almost as much as Quady Winery's "Starboard" . Anyone know of other clever work-arounds?  Both these wines seem tailor-made for wine.woot.com . 

]]></description>
<link>http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/2008/11/lazy-sunday-any-er-starboard-in-a-storm.html</link>
<pubDate>02 Nov 2008 06:00:00</pubDate>
<guid>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-57798331</guid>
<author>The Winery Web Site Report</author>
<source url="http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/atom.xml">The Winery Web Site Report</source>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Winery Web Site Report ...: Wine Bloggers or Wine Evangelists?]]></title>
<category>Wine Marketing</category>
<description><![CDATA[

This post  (about Pepsi reaching out to marketing bloggers) raises a good question about wineries reaching out to wine bloggers: If you're a company watching all this unfold or looking back at similar campaigns from companies like Nikon and Stormhoek , keep in mind...you'll probably get more bang for your buck (and have an easier time getting coverage) if you focus on reaching out to the people who either already love your brand or who are representative of your target audience. Certainly wine bloggers can make people aware of your wine, but you also need to target "wine evangelists": people who love your wine and want everyone to know about it. How do you create/identify your wine evangelists?   More about that next week... 

]]></description>
<link>http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/2008/10/wine-bloggers-or-wine-evangelists.html</link>
<pubDate>31 Oct 2008 06:00:00</pubDate>
<guid>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-57795347</guid>
<author>The Winery Web Site Report</author>
<source url="http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/atom.xml">The Winery Web Site Report</source>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog : End of Harvest 2008: two weeks of Mourvedre, Roussanne, and Counoise, and a better picture on yields than we'd been expecting]]></title>
<category>Harvest 2008</category>
<category>Pretty Pictures</category>
<category>Vineyard</category>
<category>Weather &amp; Climate</category>
<category>Winery &amp; Winemaking</category>
<description><![CDATA[

We're concluding the 2008 harvest today.  Yesterday, we brought in 6 tons of Mourvedre, and today added another 2.5 from from a last pass through late-ripening areas where we left odd bits here and there.  Yesterday's bins of Mourvedre are below: We were pleased (and surprised) to see how the fruit continued ripening after our freeze nights  earlier in October.  The handful of rows in the swales that were frozen stopped ripening (and provided the fruit for our whole-cluster fermentation  experiment) but the rest of the vineyard, which we expected to also be impacted, recovered quickly.  The weather over the last three weeks has been gorgeous... warm days in the upper 80s and nights in the lower 40s.  You couldn't ask for better weather.  This has allowed fruit to continue to gain intensity and sugars but not lose acids too fast.  The fruit looks gorgeous: soft and ripe, with nice color and great flavors.  A Mourvedre cluster below is a good example of how the grapes start to deflate when they're fully ripe: Over the past two weeks, we've harvested about 69 tons of fruit, including Mourvedre (38 tons), Roussanne (19 tons), Counoise (10 tons), and our last ton of Grenache.  This puts our final yields at 251 tons, or 10 tons more than last year.  Broken up by varietal: Grape 
2008 Yields (tons) 
2007 Yields (tons) 
% Change 
Viognier 
19.4 
9.2 

+110.9% 
Marsanne 
9.8 
6.2 
+58.1% 
Grenache Blanc 

23.5 
19.6 
+19.9% 
Picpoul Blanc 
6.6 
4.9 
+34.7% 
Vermentino 
2.8 
3.9 
-28.2% 
Roussanne 
53.4 
39.9 
+33.8% 
Total Whites 
115.5 

83.7 
+38.0% 
Grenache 
46.9 

54.8 
-14.4% 
Syrah 30.1 41.6 -27.6% 
Mourvedre 
44.7 
45.8 
-2.4% 
Tannat 
5.4 
5.5 
-1.9% 

Counoise 
14.2 
13.8 
+2.9% 
Total Reds 
135.9 

157.4 
-13.7% 
Total 
251.4 

241.1 
+4.3% 
This is a prettier picture than what we were projecting two weeks ago .  It will hurt to be down in reds, though not for a couple of years.  It will be great to have more whites than we did in the 2007 vintage.  Of course, we're still below our high water mark for yields (121 tons of whites and 177 tons of reds) we saw in 2006. The weather is turning, with a forecast over the weekend for three separate storms and perhaps an inch of rain or more.  That would be great.  We really really really (really really really) need the rain to come this winter.  But whether it comes this weekend or not, it's a lot better to know that what we have in the cellar is really good, and fairly substantial in quantity. 

]]></description>
<link>http://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/2008/10/end-of-harvest-2008-two-weeks-of-mourvedre-roussanne-and-counoise-and-a-better-picture-on-yields-than-wed-been-expecting.html</link>
<pubDate>30 Oct 2008 12:14:59</pubDate>
<guid>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-57789391</guid>
<author>Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog</author>
<source url="http://tablascreek.typepad.com/tablas/atom.xml">Tablas Creek Vineyard Blog</source>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Winery Web Site Report ...: Good Reads]]></title>
<category>Winery Web Sites</category>
<description><![CDATA[

For your consideration, a nice post from Ben Chinn at Inertia Beverages, Building a Better Virtual Tasting Room , including a link to a great interview with some experts on maximizing tasting room effectiveness . Next time you're thinking about the content of your web site, or if you're building a new one, a lot of what you already know about your tasting room will help you with your online presence. Ben's point is that your Web site is  your virtual tasting room. His post echoes my recent statement that visiting your winery's Web site should feel like visiting your winery . But, please , don't take that too literally.  What I mean is that,  in both cases, a visitor should feel like they got what they came for (and then some).  

]]></description>
<link>http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/2008/10/good-reads.html</link>
<pubDate>30 Oct 2008 06:00:00</pubDate>
<guid>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-57790343</guid>
<author>The Winery Web Site Report</author>
<source url="http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/atom.xml">The Winery Web Site Report</source>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Winery Web Site Report ...: Writing For Your Winery Web Site: Two Tips]]></title>
<category>Winery Web Sites</category>
<description><![CDATA[

For those of you who want the CliffsNotes ™  version, here are the two tips: Write as though you were speaking face-to-face 
Provide substance  
The longer, worth-your-time-to-read-it version is here: Two Tips for Website Writing   Think about how you interact with real-life visitors to your winery.  You probably ask them why they came, and attempt to satisfy them.  If they seem confused or unsure, you may try to guide them to a tasting or a tour or something else.  If they've visited before, or purchased your wines, you'll treat them differently than someone who is a first-time visitor. To a visitor, your winery Web site should feel like that experience ("I had a great time visiting!") 

]]></description>
<link>http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/2008/10/writing-for-your-winery-web-site-two-tips.html</link>
<pubDate>28 Oct 2008 06:00:00</pubDate>
<guid>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-57687725</guid>
<author>The Winery Web Site Report</author>
<source url="http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/atom.xml">The Winery Web Site Report</source>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[The Winery Web Site Report ...: Marketing Thought For The Day]]></title>
<category>Wine Marketing</category>
<description><![CDATA[

From the [non]billable hour : 
The single best marketing strategy in the world is to find your best clients and ask them, "How do I get more clients like you?" Involve your best customers in helping you find new customers ("We'll send someone you recommend a bottle of our wine").  Let your best customers know that you  know who they are, and are glad to have them, and respect their opinions. I'll never forget the free coffee mug that Amazon sent me one year (back when they were young and struggling), just because I ordered a lot of books that year. 

]]></description>
<link>http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/2008/10/marketing-thought-for-the-day.html</link>
<pubDate>27 Oct 2008 06:00:00</pubDate>
<guid>tag:typepad.com,2003:post-57619165</guid>
<author>The Winery Web Site Report</author>
<source url="http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/atom.xml">The Winery Web Site Report</source>
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