We bottled the first ever Selene Rosé! Thanks again to John over at WestEggWeb, who designed an awesome looking label! Mia was able to find a stock capsule that was exactly what we were looking for, and was the last missing piece we needed. Only 90 cases produced, and it all went in the bottle [...]

Bottling day! The day you stand and stare at bottles going by you, one after another, in what seems like a never ending march, or as Mia calls it, ‘the last chance the winemaker has to ruin the wine’. Inside this tractor is the entire bottling line! We are bottling the 2008 Sauvignon Blanc first, [...]

One of the most important components needed for bottling are your Labels. Without them, your bottled wine is referred to as a ‘shiner’, which is a bottle of wine with no label applied. Besides there being a different set of laws associated with ‘shiners’, it’s no fun having to run your bottles through a labeler [...]

Mia and I wanted to see if we could do a new label for the 2008 Selene Rosé in time for the bottling. The obvious problem is that neither one of us has any design experience, and I wanted something better than my best stick figure drawing. Sure we know what we like, and we [...]

Ahhh, it’s that time again. The fresh smell of diluted vodka, the toasty smell of branded corks! Once you see the one glass called ‘control’, you know the next thing you will see is the sea of glasses waiting for no one else but you. Cork Sensory! Mia has written about her beliefs and preferences [...]

If you have been following along, you know this is the first time Mia has made a Rosé. I was pretty excited about the idea of drinking a Rosé with the Selene label on it. Then we got to thinking, do we want to put the Selene label on it or do a different label? [...]

Mia and I love to cook. Well, the truth is we love to eat! So, I thought it would be cool to share some of our favorite recipes with you, especially the recipes that have wine as an ingredient. I know it’s hard to believe, but wine is not only for drinking! As I said [...]

A winemaker’s worst fear is someone getting a bad bottle of their wine and not knowing it’s bad. It doesn’t matter if it’s the cork, heat damage in transit, or storage problems, the bottom line is the wine will be judged by the taster. For this reason we do a LOT of quality control at [...]

All the red wine lots are finished with primary fermentation, and Mia has put them all to rest for a while. There will be some toppings, but mostly they are resting nicely. We had a chance to taste them all in a line up. You’ll notice the pink one on the left. That’s the Dead [...]

The Wine Spectator’s California Wine Experience was a lot of fun this year. Mia and I poured the 2004 Chesler Red Wine for the two nights of the Grand Tastings. We also had a chance to taste many of the exceptional wines being poured. We saw a bunch of winemaker’s there who, like us, still [...]