Lion's Roar

OVERHEAD PROTECTION. The long canopy has not been hedged yet to keep the fragile grapes at this stage protected from sunburn. Once the veraison starts it will be ok to expose the grapes to the morning sun by hedging the eastern side of the rows and to keep shade on the afternoon sun that still can be damaging. We usually keep this "overhead" protection until the grapes are almost ready to be picked. To expose even more the grapes to light in early morning and late afternoon, our vineyard crew will strip the leaves at the grape level once veraison starts. It also allows more air to flow in the canopy, resulting in healthier grapes.

PRUNING. All of the different varieties are very healthy, showing a nice and even load of firm grapes, thanks to the knowledgeable pruning crew who did an excellent job; a good pruning is crucial to the entire production process.

 (I asked Bruno Corneaux, our winemaker, to tell us a little about what's going on right now in the Vineyard and Winery, and here's the first part of his response.)

We are about three weeks away from veraison, when the color starts to increase in the grape skins. The season has been perfect with more rain than usual this spring, providing good soil moisture for the new growth, an even budbreak with a very even development of the grapes.    Therefore we have seen milder temperatures during the first part of the growing season leading to slower growth with bloom about a week later than usual. The first part of the summer has been warm so far so the date of veraison will tell us if the growth caught up or if we are still behind.

Hope everybody had a safe and fun Fourth of July!  Tiffany and I poured at the Rattlesnake Hills Wine Trail's Red, White and Blues festival last night.  It was a great time, great band, great venue, wonderful people. 

If we didn't get the chance to see you last night, I hope you'll swing by Saturday or Sunday because we'll be continuing our 2002 Cabernet sauvignon for 86 a case, as well as adding out 2002 Merlot to the sale, and releasing our 2005 Merlot!

Gonna be a great weekend.  Hope to see you soon!

-John Claar Whitelatch

(Recent valley celebrity.  Even if his wife got front page and he got A-9.  Always knew she was smarter, now come to find out she's prettier too!)

We have recently partnered with Vinoshipper.com to allow our wines to be shipped to a number of states that were previously unavailable to us.  This exciting new opportunity can be taken full advantage off by going to www.vinoshipper.com and searching for Claar Cellars, or by following the direct link from our Buy Wine page!

Washington Customers can still use our full feature shopping cart that is built into www.claarcellars.com, however due to shipping specifics, all other states will need to purchase their wine from www.vinoshipper.com

In his spare time Bob was digging around in the warehouse and found some more 2006 Chardonnay.  If you loved the 06 Chard, this is probably your last chance to get some!