Welcome to the Bridge
Bridging all aspects of our Winery from the Vineyard, to
the Cellar, Winery Grounds, Tasting Room and beyond. Our ongoing newsletter is an ideal way to stay up to date with all aspects of the Winery
and our newest wine releases!
CURRENT WINERY STATUS:
No changes to Winery and Vineyard Status. We are currently focusing on curb-side pickup and online sales/delivery. In this newsletter, learn how we are handling the pandemic at the winery, and what's going on in the Cellar during this time. We can finally welcome Tess back and see her beautiful new baby! Also, learn about two Reserve wines the 2017 Premier and the 2018 Chenin Blanc in this month's Wine Spotlight. Get some information on the previous and next wine club shipments and there's still time to enter our virtual wine contests and win tickets to this year's Harvest Dinner!
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Vineyard News
How are we Doing? We're Hanging in there!
by Operations Manager, Joe Salman
I have been asked lately by you our wonderful customers, how is the winery doing?
(In this pandemic time). I thought this would be a good place to answer the best I can.
There is no doubt as a winery business has slowed. Our overall wine sales have slowed, but not to zero due to increased online sales and good people like you coming in and buying your quarantine wine! As a growing business tied to the strength of our wine club the part that hurts the most is since the quarantine started we have only signed up 1 new member. So as this new shipment comes out in May most likely the size of the club will have retracted a bit, but I want to thank you all that have stuck with us during these times and I hope we find a way for you to get that wine and enjoy it.
On the vineyard side of business, we are doing the best we can. Even prior to the Coronavirus the wine grape market was very soft with an oversupply of grapes and slow wine sales. This faces us with a possibility of selling fruit for very little money or even worse not selling some at all. There is some immediate good news on this however. Grocery store wines are flying off the shelves right now. Nobody really know how long this will last or if it is enough to make up for the lack of sales that would be sold at restaurants and bars.
We are constantly looking for ways to mechanize jobs out in the field and through a retrofit job on an existing piece of equipment we are now running a mechanical sucker machine. The mechanical suckering machine eliminates people needing to bend down and remove the unwanted shoots. By doing this job and it keeps the workers fresh for the very important job of shoot thinning in the upper fruiting zone of the vine.
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Cellar News
What's Going On in the Cellar?
By Winemaker Ed Seikel
David and I hope everyone is staying healthy and safe. While cellar work is considered an essential job, we are doing our best to keep our work here to a minimum, doing only what is necessary to keep the wines healthy and on track to be bottled, and with just the two of us in the cellar it has been easy enough to practice social distancing and be productive.
On that note, we have moved the date of our summer bottling back a couple months in order to give ourselves a little more time in case any unforeseen issues arise. The good news is the delay will have minimal impact on our wine releases throughout the next year, and even better news is we will be bottling three brand new wines that everyone can look forward to!
We will be discussing these wines in more detail here and in David's wine spotlight in the future, but for now we're excited to announce our new Orange Wine we are calling our Old World Method Chardonnay, a Tawny Port style dessert wine named Lionne, and a Salman Family Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.
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Tasting Room
What's Going On in the Cellar?
By Tasting Room Manager Tess Jonson
I'M BAAACCCKKK....
And it's so quiet around here.
I miss my people but I do hope that you are all staying healthy, safe, and sane. If not, I know what will help, WINE! Works every time!
GIV will continue to run wine specials during "shelter in place" so get those orders placed and we'll get them out to you ASAP!
I was really looking forward to my first Mother's Day and bringing my little biscuit in for her debut but since that can't happen, even better (for me), get to spend it at home with her. GIV will be closing doors for pick up on May 10th but leaving the grounds and bathrooms open for social distance picnicking. Make sure to place your Mother's Day curbside orders on May 8th and May 9th. We will be discounting Bubbles and Vin Gris! I wish all you mamas a very special and happy Mother's Day.
Make sure to check out our events!! We have new dates for barrel tasting and the winemakers dinner.
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Wine Spotlight
Wine Spotlight on the Virtual Release Pack
By Winemaker David Shattuck
As Grand Island Vineyards moves into its anniversary month, Ed and I are sad that we haven't and will likely not interact with any of our great customers for a while. So with that in mind we are pleased to bring back some of our reserve library wines for the month. Each of the wines we make in the Salman Family Reserve are deemed to remarkable in quality, but we also believe they have longevity. These wines are meant to continue to get better as the age in the bottle.
Our upcoming reserve release features the 2017 Premier and the 2018 Chenin Blanc. The 2017 Premier is coming into beautiful balance after nearly 18 months of bottle aging. The oak has begun to soften into hints of baking spice, frankincense, and charred oak that naturally complement the pure dark cherry and currant. The mouthfeel is softening but remains focused.
 The 2018 Salman Family Reserve Chenin Blanc follows in the same oxidative winemaking method as our previous reserve Chenin Blanc. We wild fermented the Chenin Blanc and allowed it to mature for a long period in barrels on it yeast sediment. The wine was allowed to naturally oxidize bringing a mouthfeel and aroma found only in this style of wine. It opens with strong aromas of braeburn apple, vanilla, and star anise. The wine opens into inviting wisps of brioche and melon.
The mouthfeel is dense with modest acidity and prolonged finish invoking hints of nectarine and oyster shell.
Also keep an eye out for some of the upcoming specials on our other reserve wines. We love these wines and highly suggest grabbing a number of each wine so you can see how they get better with cellaring.
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Wine Club(s)
Two Wine Clubs to Choose From - Wine Family and Reserve
By Wine Club Ambassador Melanie Jonson
Hey, everyone. Thanks for sticking with us. Things are tough right now but we're in this together and we appreciate those of you that have, and are, supporting us. We're all making hard decisions so we want to take this time to return that support to you in what ways we can. As the next quarter of wine club shipments approaches in May, we are making special exceptions to this shipment to ensure you're getting what you need. Here are the wines in this coming quarter's pick up:
GIV WINE FAMILY
When this newsletter comes out, you can pop by the winery on the weekend for the Family Club to pick up your wine for May! Our anniversary month. If you didn't make any customization to your shipment, then you will be getting these three wines:
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2019 GIV Vin Gris Cabernet Sauvignon
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2019 GIV Chardonnay
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2018 GIV Cabernet Sauvignon
RESERVE WINE CLUB
Reserve Club has wine to pick up for May, too. So, if you're part of both clubs you'll have plenty of great wine to take home, where we're still stuck for a bit longer. In the Reserve shipment you'll find:
1. 2017 Salman Family Reserve Premier
2. 2018 Salman Family Reserve Chenin Blanc (New Vintage & Release)
Information and tasting notes on these wines can be found on our website:
http://www.grandislandvineyards.com, in the wine section. When clicking any of the wines you're curious about, there's a description about them in the "about" section.
We can still ship to you, if that's what you would prefer, so just call us at the winery 916.775.2111 or email us at
[email protected]
. We're open our regular days which is Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday 10:00AM to 5:00PM.
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1. SCHEDULED ONSITE EVENTS:
All events through Mid-May are currently on hold by order of CA Authorities.
We will update our status weekly via email updates.
2. ONGOING PICKUP/ONLINE PROMOTIONS & DISCOUNTS
- Dates: through May 9th, 2020
- Location: In the comfort of your own home
- Number of Contests/Events: Four (One Weekly)
- Price: Members - $106.25, Non-Members - $125 (Includes 6 Bottles)
We will extend all entries even the past ones until May 9th!
Enter contests from past weeks and still win tickets for the Harvest Dinner!
4. SIP AND DRAW EVENT WITH STACEY:
Saturday, May 9, 2020
Grand Island Vineyards has teamed up with Draw With Stacey to bring you an evening of physically distant but very social adult fun... it's date night, so let's Sip and Draw!
 On Saturday, May 9th at 8:30pm PDT, be sure to start the event with a full glass (or two)! There will be a fun drawing, some delicious GIV wine, a game, and plenty of drinking words...
GIV is offering a 15% discount on orders when you use the coupon code 'SIPNDRAW'.
Porch pick-up is available to West Sacramento viewers, please mention location when ordering.
and choose the "Sip & Draw 2 Pack!"
Pick up and and local delivery are free. Just mention that you would like no contact door delivery, or have the bottles shipped to you directly. You'll need a bit more time for that option so order early.
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