THE CRANES FLY TO A NEW POND

Well, 2000 was the second harvest in our new winery. For the 1999 harvest we moved out of Gardner's garage and into our new winery in the foothills of Windsor, California. Our 2000 harvest went so smoothly that it was almost over before we knew it. The different grape varieties matured in such an organized fashion that all three of our red wines were a breeze to make. They are now maturing in the barrel room and progressing well towards bottling in the fall.

A FRESH LOOK FOR CRANE CANYON

Along with our new winery, we have a whole new look to our bottles. Our 1999 reds and whites were bottled using our second-generation label. We liked the new concept but polished it up a bit for our 2000 Mourvèdre Rosé. Let us know what you think.

BRING IN THE USUAL SUSPECTS

So, what's in Crane Canyon's wine line-up?

• In September 2000 we bottled our 1999 Zinfandel (Russian River), 1850 cases, our 1999 Pinot Noir (Russian River), 1150 cases and our 1999 Mourvèdre (Knights Valley) 325 cases. Those wines are now released and ready for shipment. Check out our tasting notes for more information.
• We have our 1999 Viognier and 1999 White Crane available. These are wonderful, summer white wines at very good prices. Check out our tasting notes for more information.
• We just bottled our 2000 Mourvèdre Rosé. This will be ready for release around mid-June, 2001. We only made 125 cases this year. If you are a rosé aficionado (which we believe everyone should be) you will find this dry, southern French-style rosé the closest to a classic Domaine Tempier that we have ever produced. Drop us an email and reserve a case.

SO WADDABOUT THE 2000 VINTAGE?

We believe 2000 will prove to be a wonderful vintage. Right now our Zinfandel, Pinot Noir and Mourvèdre are maturing beautifully. 2000 is very exciting for us because we produced our first estate Zinfandel. It will be released under the Elsbree Vineyard designation. The grapes are from Chuck's new vineyard, planted on a steep hillside in Windsor, CA. All indications are that it will turn out to be a fantastic wine. In general the weather for 2000 was a nail-biter. The cool, comfortable summer meant a later than usual harvest for all of our grapes. The great thing was that the different varieties matured in a very orderly fashion. This meant that the Pinot Noir was finished up before the Zinfandel that was finished up before the Mourvèdre. It was almost as if we had planned it.

This is our second harvest with Jack Elsbree helping. And our friend Raphael Kruger came all the way from Santa Fe to help us with harvest. He spent a long 6 weeks with us working day-and-night and did a great job. We barely had time to finish our late-night backgammon tournament (which he won handsomely) before he packed up and headed back to Santa Fe. We hope he has us penciled in for 2001. Once again I have to thank my father, Sam Imbimbo for all his help. He's the good-looking gentleman in the picture. At 79, he was up at the winery with his rubber boots on, ready to work whenever we needed him. He has helped us crush, press, clean up and bottle. He works until the rest of us are exhausted and always has a great attitude. What a guy!

THE CRANE CANYON WINE CLUB

Psst! Come here...no...closer...Okay so here's the deal. You join the Crane Canyon Wine Club, which don't cost nothin', see, and whenever we release a new wine we sends you as much as you like, from one bottle to multiple cases, and the thing is you gets 20% off retail, ya see, and then, if you order wine after that you gets 20% off. No matter how you look at it, it's a great deal that our highly paid, Wall Street type, marketing guru says nobody in their right mind wouldn't do. So, check out "Join the Crane Canyon Wine Club" page for all the particulars. What the heck, you get great wine and save lots a dough! Whatta deal!