Hook & Ladder Vineyard & Winery Russian River Mixed Case

No worries, also sorry about the typing, I’m trying to answer ever thing the best I can…and still get some work done:)

Can you comment on when these wines are best consumed? Are any suitable for aging or should they be enjoyed in the short term?

The 2008 Zinfandel is so far the best we have made yet at Hook and Ladder…The Zinfandel here is a combination of 100+ year hold vines and also some mature vines 30+ years…all farmed by Cecil DeLoach for again 30+ years…being in the heart of the RRV the Zin is very hard to get ripe, alot of time we end up dropping a lot of fruit just to get it there…also its most of the time the very last item pick for us in the RRV…so for 2008 it was a great year for us, the fruit got nice and ripe…again not too ripe, but just enough to get great intense fruit flavor with nice acid…most of the time lower PH and just the right amt. of sugar…some of the wine is fermented in a combintation of closed/open top stye fermentors…again we try to pick the fruit at just the rigt time so very little to no adjusting of the must…2-2.5 weeks fermenting, working the cap at least 3 times per day through the peak of fermentation and pressing at dry…all of our reds go through malo in barrell by the way…we age our Zin in 100% Amarican wood for a minimum of 14 months and again we consider the 1st,2nd and 3rd year woods some what new…our goal is to make a very rich Zin bursting with intense cherry vannilla spice, brambly like fruits, dark color, big multi layered mid pallet, long lasting fruit finish…hope I didn’t miss any thing on that one…

For the Tillerman Red all of this fruit comes from out vinyards that are on the border line of the RRV and Chalk Hill reagon…which is aprox 10 to 15 degrees warmer then it is in the RRV…but there is still coatal fog influence so we still get nice bright and intense fruit, with some earth and spice charactor…the Tillerman Red is a blend of Cab Sauv, Cab Franc, Sangio and Merlot…the goal is to make a wine that is fun and easy to drink, yet has great intense multi layred fruit, nice be and long multi layred mid pallet…really you can almost pick out all of the diffrent aspects of the variatles in this blend…thats what makes it fun…also is has a great lasting finish…This wine was really developed by Cecil DeLoach, again it is a great blend that we wanted to make easy for most people but also complex…great valued wine. This wine is aged aprox 14+ months and is a combination of American, French and Hungarian oak…

As far a influences in my wine making carrer there have been many…but for sure the orignal wine maker of DeLoach was Dan Cederquist which has a label called star fish…I’ve been working with him since I was 18…this year will be my 15th year in the wine industy and my 6th harvest at Hook and Ladder as Wine maker…also Terry Strain of Cappay Valley, Dan Goldfeild of Dutton Goldfeild wines and Jeff Mangahas of Hartford Family wines…have all helped me though out the years…I worked at a custom crush plant for almost 4 years as cellar master before coming to Hook and Ladder…any how again a bit long winded… Jason

Sorry i didn’t read far enough this has been answered.

one thing is right now all of these wines can be consumed now if you want, or you can hold on to them…for the Tillerman and Zinfandel I would say you could hold onto them for aprox 8+ years and for the Pinot and Chard at least 4 years…but really this is just my guess…these wines do have great integrity and the QC is top of the line, so I would dare to say this wines could last a very long time. But really they are great now too…the Pinot and the Chard is fresh and full of great fruit charactor and have a great nose…the Zinfandel is a HUGE wine that is very intense, but not rough and gritty…there is a great balance of acid tannin and oak…so either now or 8 years from now, its up too you…the Tillerman is one of those wines that you can have any time…it is made to be enjoyed when ever you want…but again if you really wanted to I’m sure this wine could hold on for a good amount of time…really these wines have the best of all worlds… Jason

There’s not really any substitutions allowed with the woot offers. If you want a full case of the Cab, and only the Cab, you’ll have to buy it directly from the winery. The winery may grant some kind of a woot discount for people who purchase this offer (it happens, occasionally), but in general, on wine.woot, what you see is what you get.

These offers are specially crafted to be given at these prices. This is, however, a great way to branch out with the winery if all you’ve had from them has been the Cab - get a sample of more of what they make. Who knows, maybe you’ll find a new favorite from them!

thank you! Wonderful !

Formatting note: You accidentally posted in between my two paragraphs, so looking like your words were quoting me, but thats ok… weve all done it! I’ve altered it here, so the response can be seen (you can edit your own post if you want :0

Mmmmm, special woot offer on others of your wines for a limited time. It has been done, and a good idea! :slight_smile:

time to make account no.2…

You know, I really hate it when I look at an offer, decide I don’t need a case of wine from a vineyard I don’t know anything about and which is probably too young to drink anyway, and then the winemaker comes along and makes it sound too good to pass up. I really, really, hate that.

There I was, SIWBM happily intact, no (more) risk of irritating SWMBO, content to read the comments and let the offer go. And now Jason’s telling me I could drink it today and just enjoy the (expletive) out of it, so I have to work to keep my mouse off of the big button.

Hate that.

I’m still torn. I need wines I can drink now and if the suggestion is you CAN age them, then I suspect I’ll be disappointed if I don’t.

The last 2 woot cellar offerings went this way for me. They just need to mature to be really good.

Decisions…

for $12, you can drink them now, being much better than what you buy in the grocery store, AND see how they age, if you keep a few :slight_smile:

Ever the helpful one, you are :wink:

To the winery; the question on shipping to Virginia hasn’t been answered. I guess no response is still a no.

Sorry about that but thanks for the edit:)

I know what you are saying, my point is that the wines can age…they are made in a way that you can consume them as purchased, and I’m not just saying that either…sorry about the other wines that you have had…I promise you will love the wines:) all I can do is give you my word Jason

LOL sorry about that:)

Hi Guys -

Sorry for the delay. We do not have a direct shipping license, in VA, so we aren’t able to ship. I’m sorry about that! I’ve mentioned it to “the powers that be” that it looks like we’ve got some fans, and they should look into taking the steps to become compliant.

We are able to ship into DC…if you’ve got a friend there, that’s about the best we can do, unfortunately :frowning:

Cheers,
Kate

Keep the questions coming for Jason! I’m having fun watching him go through all of his tasting notes/harvest notes etc, to get your questions answered fully…this guy writes EVERYTHING down :slight_smile:

Kate

more than half of my cellar is aging which bites big time.

However, I’ll take a shot at this as I’m in the mood to spend a few $$$!

Welcome to woot, where no detail of the season, harvest, treatment, fermentation, or bottling is too minor to interest someone in the crowd.

Although, come to think of it, exhaustive descriptions about the merits of your tasting room won’t be especially useful in selling mail-order wine, a concept some vintners have had trouble understanding.