Wine and Roses at Burrell School

May brings much-anticipated blooms to Anne’s glorious heritage roses, and guests are invited to spend some quiet time in the gazebo garden all month long.  Stroll  amongst the roses, enjoy the flowers and foliage of the garden and watch the vines growing by leaps and bounds.  They’ll be blossoming this month starting with Pinot Noir and followed by Chardonnay.   Then it’s Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.

Bring your Mom to the winery for Mother’s Day to enjoy the flowers and pick up some special wines – how about the newly released 2008 Viognier? And some special strawberry-marshmallow filled chocolates, made by local chocolatier, Chocolate Visions.

May Events

May 12^th—Saratoga Springtime Wine Stroll.  Stroll, sip and shop in beautiful Saratoga Village from 2:30 to 6pm.  www.saratogachamber.com Look for Burrell School at Deja & Company.

May 13^th—Join us for a Mother’s Day celebration here at the winery.  Sweet treats for Moms. Bring a picnic and watch the vines stretching their tendrils in the warm sunshine!

May 14^th—Amgen Tour of California comes to the Santa Cruz Mountains.  The riders will race down Summit Road in mid-afternoon.  Winery is closed for a private event, but you can watch the race along Summit Road (road closures apply).

May 19^th—Los Gatos Wine Walk from 1:30 to 5:30pm.  Stroll Downtown and Old Town and taste wines from Burrell School and over 30 local wineries.  www.lgchambercc.ejoinme.org

May 20^th—Wine Express, 1 to 5pm, Roaring Camp, Felton.  Join the winemakers of the Santa Cruz Mountains for wine tasting, food, music and a train ride through the redwoods.  The Summit to Sea wineries will be holding a special promotion, so make sure to visit all of them! www.scmwa.com

May 26^th, 27^th and 28^th— Annual Memorial Day Weekend Cellar Alumni Sale here at the winery.  Taste, evaluate and purchase a selection of older wines from the Burrell School cellar. Always a great time! Take a step back and appreciate how the wines have matured over the years.

Wine Specials

2008 Petite Sirah, $24, 20% discount (regular price $30)

2009 Chardonnay, $20, 30% discount (regular price $30)

2007 Pinot Noir, $30.80, 30% discount (regular price $44)

Spring is in Full Swing at The Schoolhouse

It’s April – no foolin’! It’s spring and we’re ready for a “Spring Fling!”  The vines are already flinging their buds open to welcome the Spring sunshine, and the leaves are unfurling, happy to have a little drink of rain. You should see how vibrantly silvery-green the buds are on the Chardonnay! Such pretty bright green leaves unfold from the buds that are silvery white with a bit of pink. The Pinot is starting to push as well. It will be a while before the Merlot wakes up from its winter nap, and the Petite Verdot is still deep in a reverie.

Hope you didn’t miss out on Futures!!  In the cellar, we’ll be bottling the 2010 vintage of Pinot Noir, Petite Sirah, Syrah, Cabernet Franc, Class Reunion and “Sweethearts,” Zin/Syrah.  Everyone was wild over the Sweethearts!

April is Hopping With Events

Hop to these fun April events! we’re looking forward to seeing you this Friday and Saturday, as WE ARE CLOSED FOR EASTER.

Friday, April 6^th and Saturday, April 7^th at the winery we’ll be celebrating Easter with  special wine and Jelly Belly pairings.  How does toasted marshmallow pair with Chardonnay?  Or perhaps you’d prefer wild blackberry with Zinfandel. Stock up early for your Easter wines!

Sunday, April 8^th—Easter Sunday.  The tasting room is closed

Saturday, April 21^st—Spring Passport Day here at the winery and other participating Santa Cruz Mountain wineries.  Purchase a passport (they don’t expire) for $45 and explore the diversity of the Santa Cruz Mountains wines.  We will have some special chocolate surprises here at the tasting room.  www.scmwa.com

Sunday, April 22^nd, Earth Day.  Love your Mother!

Sunday April 29^th—Rivers of Chocolate at The Mountain Winery.  Don’t miss the best chocolate and wine tasting event in No. California! It’s a benefit for EHC LifeBuilders.  www.riversofchocolate.ocom

Bring a picnic and watch the vineyard blossom while you sip a glass of one of our new releases!

Brand New Wines! The Bunnies Are Dancing!

Introducing 2 new wines in the tasting room

2009 Estate Chardonnay

2008 Viognier

Come taste these spring lovelies—perfect for a Spring Fling picnic!!

Wine Specials For Your Easter Basket!

2008 Petite Sirah, $24, 20% discount (regular price $30)

2009 Chardonnay, $20, 30% discount (regular price $30)

2007 Pinot Noir, $30.80, 30% discount (regular price $44)

March Madness Rules At Burrell School!

Join the faculty and staff at Burrell School in celebrating hoops and pairing popcorn with Burrell School wines in the tasting room starting March 11^th.

And because it’s March, it’s barrel tasting time!! All month long, Sippers club members are invited to barrel taste in the cellar with winemaker Dave.  It’s the vintage of 2010—Pinot Noir, Syrah, Petite Sirah and High School Sweethearts Zinfandel-Syrah.  One of the special perks of being a club member is being invited to taste, evaluate and purchase these wines at 50% off retail pricing.

March Events

Every Friday, Fireside Friday at Hotel Los Gatos.  Taste a flight of 4 wines from Burrell School, Silver Mountain, The Mountain Winery and Villa del Monte Winery at the elegant lobby of Hotel Los Gatos from 5-7pm.  Wine and chocolate pairing, $15.

March 17^th, Saint Patrick’s Day—celebrate Saint Patty’s Day in the tasting room with some green treats.

March 22^nd, Cabrillo Music Festival Dinner at Bittersweet Bistro, Aptos.  www.facebook.com/CabrilloFestival

March 24^th and 25^th, Central Coast Home, Garden, Culinary and Wine Expo at Cocoanut Grove, Santa Cruz Beach and Boardwalk.  Taste fine wines from Burrell School and the Summit to Sea Wineries.  www.cocoanutgrovesantacruz.com

March 31^st, Pathway to Paradise at Burrell School and other participating wineries.  Experience a self-guided tour of the Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir producing wineries.  Tickets are $25 and may be pre-purchased from Katrina at the winery.

April 1^st, Pinot Paradise at Villa Ragusa, historic downtown Campbell, 2 to 5pm.  This exclusively Santa Cruz Mountain Pinot Noir tasting always sells out.  Pre-purchase your tickets from Katarina at the winery or go to scmwa.com

March Madness Wine Specials!

“Final Four” Pack, $89—Chardonnay, Ryan Oaks Zinfandel, Pinot Noir and Syrah- hurrah for Syrah! It tastes great in the month of March!

February Brings Lots of Sweet Things to  Love at Burrell School Winery

The New Year brings some new vintages to the tasting room.

Welcome 2008 Chardonnay, 2007 Pinot Noir and 2009 Old School Cabernet.  Taste, evaluate and take home your favorites.  Special pricing—don’t miss out:

• 09 Old School Cabernet is $24 (20% discount)
• 08 Chardonnay is $20 (30% discount)
• 07 Pinot Noir is $30.80 (30% discount)

February Four Pack: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah and Zinfandel for $89
For our loyal wine club members, we’re offering up the 2008 Petite Sirah, the 2007 “High School Sweethearts” Zinfandel/Syrah blend and the 2009 Class Reunion. Get a bottle of Sweethearts for your special Valentine!

Limited quantities + special pricing = buy favorites now!

Lovers of Wine & Chocolate! Come taste some special goodies from Truffle Gateau on Feb 11 & 12.

Maye we proscribe a bit of probation? We’ll be featuring our “Probation” Late Harvest Zinfandel, a perfect gift with chocolate for your sweetheart.

It’s a Presidential Mardi Gras Weekend, Feb 18 – 20!

We’re open Monday for the Holiday!

February 18th, 19th and 20th, is Presidents Day weekend and we are open on Monday the 20th.  Since Tuesday the 21st is Mardi Gras, we’ll be celebrating the holiday weekend New Orleans style.  Expect some beads and trinkets thrown your way along with samples of Kings Cake.

We’re super excited at Burrell School now that the 49ers have marched past the Saints and will be marching on to confront the Giants this coming Sunday! In honor, Anne will make popcorn to munch while you sample through the wine selection. All the tasting room staff will be wearing red and gold in support of the home team, so show your colors!

On Saturday, since it’s Passport, you’ll be able to take home a Passport Pack of four wines for $89 – great value! Also, stock up on January wine specials, as these vintages are running low!

January Wine Specials: Get ‘Em While They Last!! Going, going, gone!!

2008 Old School Cabernet, $24 (20% discount)
2007 Chardonnay, $20 (30% discount)
2006 Pinot Noir, $30.80 (30% discount)

If you’re feeling crabby on Sunday and not in a football mood,maybe you want to visit the four restaurant locations in Santa Cruz that are participating in the SCMA Crab and Wine Tasteoff, from 1pm til 4pm. For $49, you can visit two locations taste a crab dish and sip some wine. Make sure you visit Paradise Beach Grill in Capitola, where Burrell School will be pouring alongside Bargetto, Fernwood Cellars and Savannah-Chanelle.

Don’t feel all that crabby? Want to hang out on the Summit instead of Santa Cruz? Come have some popcorn, then go visit our sister wineries, MJA, Poetic Cellars and Loma Prieta, who will all be offering crab dishes for purchase, $5 each, on Sunday.

Some other parts of the country may be dealing with snow and blow, but that’s not so at Burrell School Vineyards!

The sun is brightly shining and the warm breezes are blowing, so grab a picnic or a sandwich at The Summit Store and come spend a lazy afternoon enjoying some fine wine, good company and incomparable views of the vineyard, where fall color is still brilliantly glowing.

Hurry! There are only two days left in 2011 to stock up on Burrell School wines for the upcoming holiday parties. Don’t forget those New Year’s Day dinners: wouldn’t a bottle each of Burrell School Chardonnay and Pinot Noir be the perfect accompaniment to any gathering, from the casual cookout on the deck to the multi-course gourmet feast.

Come, salute another journey around the sun and raise a glass to the Santa Cruz Mountains, one of the most beautiful places on earth! Lucky us!

We’ll see you in the New Year, and thanks, as always, for your loyal support.

December is the month to follow the Christmas Tree Wine Trail up to Burrell School Vineyards.  Cut a live tree for your holiday celebration and then visit Burrell School to stock up on wines to keep the good times flowing.  We’ll have special holiday pricing on some of our most popular wines.

And don’t forget about those less fortunate—we’re accepting cash donations for Second Harvest Food Bank and will reward your generosity with a special pour.

December Events

It’s a busy month!

Santana Row Holiday Wine and Dine on Tuesdays, December 6^th, 13^th and 20^th.  Shop, enjoy and give to the Second Harvest Food Bank.   www.santanarow.com

Fireside Fridays at Hotel Los Gatos,  December 2^nd, 9^th, 16^th and 23^rd.  $15 for a flight of wines from the Summit to Sea wineries with cheese and nibbles.  Take a break and relax in the beautifully decorated lobby at Hotel Los Gatos on Fridays from 5 to 6:30 pm.

Celebrate A Mountain Holiday on December 10^th and 11^th with THE Summit Wineries.  Here at Burrell School, we will be featuring the wine-friendly chocolates of Truffle Gateau, live music and special pricing on holiday wines.  www.thesummitwineries.com

Tasting Room Extended Opening

Burrell School will be open every day from December 20^th through December 30^th from 11 to 5pm (except Christmas Day).

Wine Specials

2006 Deportment Zinfandel-Port is $24 per bottle (20% discount)

2007 Chardonnay “Teacher’s Pet” is $20 per bottle (30% discount)

2006 Pinot Noir is $30.80 per bottle (30% discount)

Holiday  Four Pack, just $89: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel & Syrah – this is the best gift pack deal in town! put one under the tree for your favorite Santa!

Don’t forget Burrell School cork ornaments for stocking stuffers.

Visit Burrell School daily, Dec 20th thru Dec 31st!

Happy Holidays from all the elves at Burrell School!

The harvest of 2011 could well be classified as an interminable wait, punctuated by frenetic bouts of picking activity, followed by yet more interminable waiting, nail biting, some pleas to heaven for abatement of rain, and abundance of sun, followed by thankful, hurried blitzkriegs of picking in advance of yet more grey, gloomy, ill-portending storm clouds.

Many regions suffered dramatic crop shortages and loss due to rot and botrytis: most areas of the state were down in terms of overall production. Nature has a way of evening things out: after big boom crops in the middle of the previous decade, things are approaching some level of balance. Growers are getting a bit more per ton: they just have a lot less of it to capitalize on.

Here at Burrell School, Thanksgiving was a heartfelt occasion of true gratitude: most of all, for the bounty of family, with which the Moulton’s have been well-blessed, and for the wider bounty of the Wine Club family to which many of you belong. Thanks go out to you, as always, for your support. We are always trying to earn it.

Many thanks were also given for the relatively fruitful and tasty harvest, both from the estate vineyards and from those vineyards where Burrell School sources fruit, mostly in the Santa Clara Valley and in the hills of Saratoga. Old Vine Carignane was a delight, from the Blake Vineyard, and will be part of Class Reunion.

Here’s a summary of harvest activity here at the Schoolhouse:

Picking began on September 9th with Estate Pinot Noir, clones 667 and 777, followed by a hiatus, then came the Chardonnay, along with more Pinot. Then Merlot, Syrah, Cab Franc and Cab Sauv from the Estate Pichon Vineyard. Finally, the estate Merlot came in, and the last was the Petit Verdot, as per usual.

In the always worth waiting for category, the last grapes picked were Cabernet Sauvignon on 11-3 from the

Luchessi Vineyard in Saratoga. This gem of a vineyard is located in one of the sweet spots in the hills that were categorized by Paul Masson and Martin Ray as the “Chaine d’Or,” or chain of gold: this referred to sunny places where warmth made possible the ripening of Cabernet Sauvignon, a grape that likes more heat than most of the Santa Cruz Mountains can muster.
Overall, the total tonnage was 42.75 tons, about 72% of what was expected. The yields were somewhat low, but the flavors rank high on the scale, and everyone shares the sweet anticipation of a truly delicious crop of new wines for the 2011 vintage.
Winemaker Dave says “Super flavors!’ But he does have a few barrels left over, as do most winemakers here in the mountains.
The final day of harvest activity on the crush pad occurred right before Thanksgiving, when the  Luchessi Cabernet Sauvignon was pressed off , followed by a load of Crignane, and finishing with a press load of old vine Mataro.

Now begins the long winter of waiting, as the barrels rest in the cellar, and the process of malolactic fermentation begins: when the malic acid is converted to the softer, rounder lactic acid, giving the resulting wines a creamier, smoother mouthfeel.

Here’s to another year in the life of the grapevine: they will slowly shed their gorgeous gold and chestnut livery and will stand, bare and stark in the low winter’s light, awaiting the lifegiving rains that will help them put forth in green glory anew come the Spring of 2012.

May your holidays be filled with warmth, friendship and the bonds that are formed over a bottle of wine: truly one of the most symbolic emblems of the cycle of life here on earth. We are all truly blessed to be part of this amazing web of life, labor, love and devotion.

At Burrell School Vineyards, there’s the sound of corks popping in celebration of the end of harvest. There’s also the quiet sighs of relief after what has been a nail-biting season, with overall reduced yields. Anne and Dave are very grateful to their Santa Clara vineyard partners for supplying them with Cabernet a-plenty for the Old School wine. Not to mention the old vine Mataro and Carignane that will go into Class Reunion, a perennial fave.  Here’s Dave’s homework assignment: testing the brix on the Blake Vineyard Carignane.

Friday, Nov 4, was a marathon day of picking at both Luchessi, in the Saratoga Hills, and the Blake Vineyard, in Morgan Hill. With rain imminent, it was do or die! Those grapes were not going to weather another spell of wet and cold. It was time to pick!

Anne’s yeast prep chores are done for the season, while much work still remains to be done in the cellar, with punchdowns, then pressing and putting the last of the wine into barrels.

Here’s what Burrell School brought in from Halloween thru November 4:
Mataro from Machado Creek, .7 ton
DellaMaggiore Cabernet Sauvignon, 2.3 tons
DellaMaggiore Petite Sirah, 1.1 tons
Luchessi Cabernet Sauvignon, 2.2 tons
Blake Carignane (old vine), 4.5 tons

Huge congratulations to Mark and crew for providing us with high quality fruit here at the school house and at the Pichon Vineyard in a very challenging year.  And more thanks for collaborating with our outside growers after the October rains in order to bring in clean, quality fruit.
Dave is especially happy with the Brix and chemistry #s for the Luchessi Cab. Hooray! Great stuff.
Overall, the total tonnage is down 30% of expectations.  Lots of new barrels unfilled and a whole lot of yeast to store until next year.
All the fermenting bins are in the cellar rather than out on the crush pad.  All wine gone through fermentation at this point has finished dry.
But, as Anne always notes at this time of year, just because all the grapes have been picked doesn’t mean harvest is over.  “We’re done when every last drop of new wine is stored in barrels,” she says. And that’s a ways off yet.

Here’s to the finale of a very trying, down-to-the-wire harvest, but a good one, nonetheless.

The early and persistent rains have slowed harvest down, but not after a feverish push to bring in all the grapes that were ready for the crusher. Chardonnay is safely in barrel! The Merlot on the estate is still hanging out and the Petit Verdot will be a while in coming around to ripeness, but there’s great weather on the horizon, so patience will hopefully be well rewarded! Meanwhile, there’s plenty going on at Burrell School, both at the winery and out in the field!

October 12^th, 2011  Santana Stroll, 6:30pm til 8:30pm.  Burrell School will be pouring at Anubee Children’s Boutique at trendy Santana Row from 6:30 to 8:30 pm.  Wine tasting and savory nibbles to benefit the Silicon Valley Education Fund.   www.santanarow.com/event

October 22^nd, Roaming the Rhônes with the Summit To Sea Wineries. Taste our mountain-grown Rhône varietals paired with small plates of specially chosen charcuterie. Delicious and decadent fun!  www.summit2seawinetrail.com

October 23^rd, Pinot on the River in Healdsburg. Join Burrell School and 9 other Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir producers for this Pinot only grand tasting.  We will present a Santa Cruz Mountains only Pinot tasting and seminar that morning before the Grand Tasting.  Over 80 wineries plus artisan cheesemakers.  www.pinotfestival.com

Are you passionate about Pinot?  For a 10% discount offer, use promotion code pinotenvy2011

October 29^th and 30^th.  Trick or Treat!! Come celebrate Halloween at Burrell School.  Our staff will be decked out in their ghoulish best and guests in costume will receive a special treat.