Gold for Our 2015 Zinfandel!

The San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition has awarded our 2015 Mikami Vineyards Zinfandel a Gold Medal. A testament to our continued focus for quality and consistency, this our 4th consecutive Gold Medal or better award from the Chronicle.

As many of you know, the SF Chronicle Competition is the largest and most prestigious wine competition in the United States, with nearly 7,000 entries from around the country.

Here is our San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition results for our vintages since 2009:

2015 – Gold
2014 – Double Gold
2013 – Double Gold
2012 – Gold
2011 – Silver
2010 – Best of Class
2009 – Gold

Safe from the Fire

First off, thank you to everyone who inquired about us during these horrible fires. With the vineyard in Lodi, the vines are fine. However, as many of you know, we do our winemaking in Napa, at Fontanella Family Winery’s facilities. We are indebted to the tireless efforts of the Fontanella team and the firefighters of Napa who saved the facility from these flames that were literally just thousands of feet away.

Secondly, we encourage those who can to make a donation to http://www.napavalleycf.org/supporting-napa-county-fire-relief-efforts/. Our thoughts are with those directly impacted by the fires.  Photo by Jeff Fontanella.

Harvest 2017 Update

We started before dawn on September 8, and this year we harvested both the Zinfandel and Petite Sirah on the same day. We are excited about the quality of the fruit with the heavy rains last winter promoting healthy vine growth. The heatwave we encountered at the end of August was certainly a challenge, but careful canopy management in the vineyard minimized its impact. Kian is busy in the winery and fermentation has already finished. Not much longer before we’ll have the first wine, our Rosé, available. Stay tuned!

As a quick note: The 2014 Zin is nearly sold out. To purchase some wine, please email us ASAP.

Exciting New Partnerships

In addition to all of the vineyard activities, we’ve been busy building great relationships to have our wines more available to the general public.

First, we are thrilled to have Mikami Vineyards Zinfandel now being served at San Francisco Chronicle Top 100 restaurant, Iyasare, in Berkeley. Iyasare has been consistently recognized as one of the finest modern Japanese restaurants in the Bay Area. Secondly, for our loyal customers in Japan, we are being served at the popular restaurant, Wine Terrace Yu-Me, located in the Fuchu area of Tokyo. Additionally, last month, we had a great time pouring our wines at the famous Olympic Club of San Francisco. Through all of these relationships, we hope to introduce our wines to folks who are as fanatical about handcrafted, limited production wines as you are.

As always, thank you for all of your support! We appreciate it greatly!

Jason, Mitzi, and Kate

Summer Newsletter

Happy Summer! We have many updates from the vineyard and winery to share with you.  As always, thank you for your support of our family winery!
Vineyard Update
It’s been an “interesting” Spring and early start to Summer.  The Spring season saw relatively cool temperatures, with vigorous vine growth due to the extensive ground moisture from the drought ending rains of Winter.  Then, on June 11, a rare hailstorm was observed in parts of Lodi.  By contrast, just one week later on June 18, extreme temperatures over 105 degrees were recorded, beginning a heatwave that continues as I write this.  As a result, we have taken careful steps to manage the vine canopy to ensure better coverage for the west side of the vines but still opening up the vine for enhanced airflow. Veraison is now just around the corner when we will see the first color of this year’s fruit.

2016 Rosé – SOLD OUT
Thanks to overwhelming interest by all of you, we are completely sold out of our 2016 Rosé. For those interested in receiving an allocation next year, please remember that priority is given to those that buy a case or more of our flagship Zinfandel. While we are looking to increase production of the Rosé for 2017, it will still be in the “tens” of cases, so please make sure you stay alert when we open up pre-orders early next year.

2016 Petite Sirah
Last month, Kian and I barrel tasted our inaugural Petite Sirah vintage, and we can’t adequately describe how excited we are!  Harvested in September 2016, the wine demonstrates the deep color, rich tannins, and the fruity, blueberry notes you would expect from a PS. Like the Rosé, we expect this to sell out immediately.  Priority purchasing is given to those folks who purchase a case or more of the Zinfandel.  We will provide more details as we approach bottling in 2018.

2014 Zinfandel Awarded Double Gold by San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competiton

We are proud to announce that the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition has awarded our 2014 Mikami Vineyards Zinfandel a Double Gold Medal.  The largest and most prestigious wine competition in the United States, the SF Chronicle Competition tasted more than 7,000 entries from around the country.

This brings us now our 5th Gold Medal or better award over the past 6 years, and our 3rd Double Gold or Best of Class among those years.  Please let us know ASAP if you would like an order of the 2014.

Our recent San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition results for our vintages:

• 2014 – Double Gold
• 2013 – Double Gold
• 2012 – Gold
• 2010 – Best of Class
• 2009 – Gold

Wine Enthusiast Awards 2013 Zinfandel 90 Points

We are excited to announce that our 2013 Zinfandel has been rated 90 points by Wine Enthusiast. Together with our Double Gold Medal from the San Francisco Chronicle Competition, our Zinfandel continues its tradition of being well loved by both our customers and by the “experts.”

As you know, our aim with our startup is to produce wine that honors our family.  We are lucky to have the support from all of you that pushes us to make the very best wine possible each year.  Thank you!

The full tasting report for the wine can be read here.