The Buzz/Gallery
2020 – The Lost Year
Growing and making wine encourages one to take the long view as each wine released represents years of planning and work. After a droughty winter and in full on COVID mode, we went into a hot summer growing season already on edge. COVID, DROUGHT, and then FIRE On...
2019 Vintage in the Napa Valley: The Season Begins
We can say “so far so good” regarding the 2019 vintage. We have plenty of moisture in the ground thanks to late season rains. A big storm during the last week brought Diamond Mountain Creek to overflowing its banks briefly one evening, without causing any damage. Here...
Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon: Vineyards and Wine Styles
When we planted Dyer Vineyard over 25 years ago we were already familiar with the characters and qualities of Diamond Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon within the broader realm of Napa Valley Cabernets. Diamond Mountain Cabs are known for their intensity, concentration, and...
How can winemakers address climate change? Here’s what we do at Dyer Vineyard
Eric Asimov wrote recently in the New York Times about how vineyards and wineries, including Diamond Mountain wineries, can embrace practices that lower their carbon footprint. We decided it would be interesting to take his challenge and put our "green-ness" to the...
Drive Through Napa- a new guide to visiting Napa Valley wine country
Dyer Vineyard was recently asked to contribute content on Diamond Mountain to a new guidebook to Napa Valley... nothing NEW about that. But wait! Drive Though Napa is a refreshing, clear, information packed gem. From its clean, logical graphic layout to its focus on...
Robb Report discusses Napa Valley Cab Styles… including Dyer Vineyard
In the most recent issue of the Robb Report Sara Schneider discusses the handful of vineyards and vintners in Napa Valley's mountain AVAs that deliver wines of elegance, power, and balance. She contrasts these with the broader more hedonistic style that some complain...
Harvest 2018 is beginning in Napa Valley- follow it in the St Helena Star
The 2018 harvest is still more than a month away here at Dyer Vineyard on Diamond Mountain. Even as we finish the green drop and color thinning the St Helena Star and the Napa Valley Register have begun to publish their weekly reports from all 13 AVAs and I'm the...
The Virtues (and challenges) of Older Vines
When we planted Dyer Vineyard 25 years ago, the hot topics were row direction, vine spacing, varieties, clones, and rootstock. Since then we’ve overseen the vineyard transition from head trained to cordon. We’ve reduced the varieties from all 5 Bordeaux varieties to...
From harvest moon to devastating fires…we get by with a little help from our friends
Timing is everything! We harvested our vineyard on Friday October 6th. Picking started at 4:00am using headlamps, with a full moon overhead. Having the assistance of the Harvest Moon was certainly appropriate. Grapes were at the winery by 10am and through the...
Growing, Growing… 2017 Is Underway with Cabernet Franc & More!
We're closing in on Harvest 2017 and so far it's been a bit of a roller coaster- wet winter, normal budbreak, cool spring and a very hot summer. As I write, it's 105 degrees in the vineyard and the rest of the week is shaping up to be a series of hot and hotter days....
Dyer’s Cabernet Sauvignon – Taste the Best Cabernet Sauvignon Wine
In Napa Valley the 2014 vintage was exceptional. Bud break was early as a result of the warm winter and the growing season was quite long. Rain in March and April came just in time to provide the water needed for a smooth growing season. The vintage was relatively...
Soil 101: Dyer Wines’ Napa Valley Vineyard Switch to No-Till Farming
Most mornings this time of year find me in my Napa Valley vineyard - nursing young replanted vines, working on the trellis, and digging out wild blackberries and thistles that are the scourge of the vineyard - there’s lots to do and it's got to be done now! As I’ve...
Vintage 2014 release
Vines are pushing right on schedule—the first week of April. This not only signals the start of another growing season, but also signals us to release the 2014 vintage before we get busy with vineyard tasks. Watch for the release notice later this week! Shipping...
Winter Update- It’s been wet here!
The storm arriving tomorrow (February 19) will likely put us up over 60 inches of rain for the season here in Napa Valley. After 4 years of draught, we were giddy, at first, at the idea of a rainy season but now the fact that it looks like Ireland in the vineyard is...
Books for the Holidays
In the Dyer household, there is no better Holiday gift than a good book. In the last couple years, several friends have published books related to wine. They range from memoirs to collections of interviews, to deep reference (highly readable) about soils and history...
2016 Vintage
With the 2016 vintage safely in the barrel and now undergoing malolactic fermentation, we have time to step back and reflect on the season. It's too early to prognosticate about "vintages of the century" but it was certainly a good one. Before we get caught up in...
More about Cabernet Franc
AS WE APPROACH THE RELEASE OF THE 2014 DYER VINEYARD CABERNET FRANC, WE THOUGHT IT would BE A GOOD IDEA TO POST THE CABERNET FRANC STORY Cabernet Franc has long been our favorite blending variety here at Dyer Vineyard and is best known worldwide in that capacity- used...
Almost Ripe
Here are the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes in our vineyard on Diamond Mountain just waiting to be picked. We both sampled them today; Bill’s sample was 24.7 brix and Dawnine’s was 24.6 brix so we dodged having to talk about each other’s sampling technique and went on to...
Matt Kramer
Matt Kramer’s New California Wine, a revision of his 1992 classic Making Sense of California Wine has just been published. We like his revisionism! Here’s what he says about us: “Dyer Vineyard—This is the tiny, personal vineyard (and home) of two former...
2016 Star Harvest Reports- Diamond Mountain District
Diamond Mountain District 8/22/16 - It’s mostly quiet on Diamond Mountain where there’s near unanimous agreement that it will be mid September before we see any real action. Budbreak was early but a cooler May delayed bloom and put us pretty much back to “normal” by...