Girish and Fiona from the Informatica company recently wed in the Napa Valley.  As a part of their wedding celebration, they brought family and friends to Reid Family Vineyards for a Bottle You Own Barrel event. The group enjoyed the day bottling wine, eating, swimming, and bouncing in the "jumpy house". These photos capture some of the fun!

                 

                

               

                 

      

We just finished up a BYOB for the Informatica Cloud Team.  Informatica is the world's largest maker of data integration software.  Part of the fun of hosting these events is meeting new people and learning about what they do.   After Lorena contacted us about scheduling a BYOB, I immediately Googled "data integration software" to learn exactly what that meant.  It's an exciting time to be alive!

56 people arrived on a big bus.  While the grown-ups bottled wine, the 20 kids were entertained by the Magical Moonshine Theater puppeteers.
All in all, a good time was had by all!

           

           

            

           

            

We just finished up a very fun BYOB event with the executive team of Pillsbury.  They were out from Minnesota on a wine country retreat and spent some of their time in our cellar bottling their own barrel.  As usual, a good time was had by all!





         

 

Hi Everyone!

 

Fall is slipping away, the crush is over, and the wine has been barreled down for the season.  Now for a little blog update.

 

The growing season was one of the best we’ve ever had.  Although the yield was low, the weather cooperated and the grape quality was extraordinary.   The flavors were fully developed and the chemistries were spot on.  The merlot in the barrels tastes great!

 

This year marks our first effort at making some cabernet.  We made about 15 barrels from fruit we received from a Calistoga vineyard.  The vineyard is at 1300 feet elevation and is at the base of Diamond Mountain.  Since we also have some cab franc we made from vines that were budded over in our own vineyard, it’s going to be fun this year playing with various blends.

 

The wine this season was made using our new destemmer-crusher and our new wine press.  The new equipment made the process more enjoyable and we were able to crush lots of grapes smoothly and more efficiently.  Additionally, I set up an in-house lab and have enjoyed learning how to do the various necessary tests.   Having the ability to do our own lab testing will allow me to keep an even closer eye on things and, hopefully, make an even better wine.

 

The biggest news of the year had nothing to do with wine.  As of June, we are full members of the grandparents club.  Our daughter, Kyla, gave birth to baby Hannah.  Kyla and her husband, Erik, are great parents and we are in grandparent heaven.  Life is good!