Join us!  We'll be in San Francisco on Saturday, February 18 at Fort Mason to showcase our winning wines at the SF Chronicle Wine Competition's annual Public Tasting.  From 2-5 p.m., taste three of our six winning wines from the Chronicle's recent competition:  gold winning 2008 Tempranillo, silver winning 2008 Cuvee, and bronze winning 2010 Sauvignon Blanc.  

Over 5,000 people will converge at Festival Pavilion to enjoy breath taking views of the Golden Gate Bride as they peruse samples from over 800 wineries. And while you're there, raise a glass in honor of the Golden Gate Bridge's 75th anniversary!

The SF Chronicle Wine Competition is the largest wine competition of American wines in the world.

For ticket information, go to winejudging.com/event_tickets.htm.

This holiday season, Six Sigma Ranch & Winery is partnering with World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization that has helped children in poverty for more than 60 years. Before Thanksgiving, we launched our holiday campaign  – "Buy a case of wine – we'll give a goat..." and "Buy half a case of wine – we'll give two chickens..." The response has been overwhelming, and a great number of goats and chickens are headed to their new families.

According to World Vision's web site:

Back in June, the professional judges in the Lake County Wine Awards competition deemed our Michael's Vineyard 2009 Sauvignon Blanc "Best in Class", and several of our wines were selected to be part of Lake County's 3rd Annual People's Choice Wine Awards. The People's Choice competition took place on November 5, and we were thrilled to learn that two of our red wines were voted the best in their respective varietal categories: our 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon and our 2010 Pinot Noir.

We invite our Wine Club members to be part of a fun photo contest.

The prize is our last Imperial bottle of 2006 Six Sigma Cabernet Sauvignon. (6 liters of wine in one spectalular bottle. Value: $700)

(click on the title to read more...)

RULES

We are halfway though harvest and 2011 is turning out to be a real cliffhanger!  All of our Sauvignon Blanc has been picked and is bubbling away at the winery, but most of the Cabernet is still on the vine.  November 3rd is the latest we’ve ever picked and we might beat that this year.  The video caught the last of the Tempranillo coming in just after the first rains (our super crew does such an amazing job sorting the fruit).  You also get a run down on the making of the Lake County Sauvignon Blanc and an insiders view on the swirl, sniff, taste and spit credo...

It was Saturday morning, and the lawn at the old stage coach site was hustling and bustling with activity. A hundred people mingled as they enthused about the Six Sigma wine and food pairings. Across the road, a couple of energetic Border Collies moved small groups of sheep back and forth under the mulberry trees. History buffs and designated drivers gathered around the display that was set up to depict the pioneers who settled the land of Six Sigma Ranch.

I’ve got Tahoe on my mind! Recently I set-off for North Lake Tahoe to pour Six Sigma Ranch wines at Avec Wine + Food, a charming wine bar in Truckee. Making my way through the Sierra Nevada was gorgeous;there's still plenty of snow at elevations above 8,000 feet.

What a day!  It rained, it poured, but it didn’t deter loyal friends of Six Sigma Ranch from braving the elements to join our third annual release party on Saturday, June 4.  Mother Nature may have forced the party indoors but it's hard to complain while enjoying good food and wine in the embrace of a cozy wine cave! 

Our small herd of Black Angus cows have produced this year's crop of calves - a total of nine, including one set of male/female twins. The female twin was rejected by her mom and needed help. Jim and Bill Davis, our friends and cow experts, helped us get her jump-started on colostrum and a proteine-rich first meal. (Thank you to Bill's chickens for providing the eggs). Her name is Chiquita, by the way. She is now proficient in drinking formula out of a bottle, and she happily downs a gallon a day.

One advantage of planting a vineyard out in the sticks (and on a mountain) is that nature helps manage it.  The trees provide habitat for beneficial birds and bugs, including this red-shouldered hawk who generously posed for a picture in Michael's Vineyard yesterday afternoon.