The Buzz/Gallery

2020 – The Lost Year

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...

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2019 Vintage in the Napa Valley: The Season Begins

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...

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Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon: Vineyards and Wine Styles

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...

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The Virtues (and challenges) of Older Vines

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...

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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...

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Winter Update- It’s been wet here!

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...

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Books for the Holidays

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...

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2016 Vintage

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...

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More about Cabernet Franc

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...

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Almost Ripe

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...

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Matt Kramer

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...

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2016 Star Harvest Reports- Diamond Mountain District

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...

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