ELCOME TO TURTLE CREEK WINERY. TURTLE CREEK NEWS
              19 February 2008

The past year has been has seen a lot of challenges. We increased our production to almost a thousand cases, not without concommitant problems. I am happy to say, however, that those have been dealt with and we are now in a better position to offer more wine than we ever have and the qulaity continues to improve each year. For almost five months last year we were sold out of all wines and when that happens loyal buyers find other products; memories are short.

In November of last year we released our first Syrah (2006), our 2006 Chardonnay and our idiosyncratic 2006 Bastard Child. These were announced through our email list to all those who asked to be notified. The Syrah was far more popular than we anticipated and it sold out in one week. We have twenty cases of the Chardonnay left. The Bastard Child is a wine whose development was difficult. From premium Sauvignon Blanc grapes from Napa, we had one problem after another with this wine. One batch, using an experimental yeast proved so sulfidy that no attempt to recover was successful and we dumped the entire batch. The other half stuck near the end of fermentation and, while we tried every trick we could think of, none was successful in restarting the fermentation. However, when we offered this wine to friends as an experiment, to-a-person, they felt strongly it should not be discarded, that it made a refreshing, slighlty off-dry aperitif. Hence the 2006 Bastard Child.

In December we bottled our 2006 Pinot Noir and 2006 Cabernet Franc. Each of thes varieties have been very successful in the past and we think the 2006 vintage will be as well.

We occasionally conduct private tours and tastings at the winery though the winery is not open to the public. If you are interested in this or announcements of future releases, please contact us and we will place you on our email list.

Mirabile dictu!
In vino narratio

(In wine is the story, marvelous in the telling)

Kip Kumler, Owner and Winemaker