By Michael Busselen
March 2, 2025
1,599 days ago . . .
We bought Woodhawk Vineyards almost four and a half years ago, with the dream of owning a vineyard and eventually creating our own small, luxury winery. Friday we completed one of the largest, most daunting steps in that journey – we bottled our first wine that will be available commercially in late 2026 or early 2027. 150 cases – 1,800 bottles – of 2023 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. A sumptuous ambrosia of red and black fruit, beautifully balanced with refined acidity and subtle French oak notes. Cue celebratory fireworks!
If you had told us on October 14, 2020 when we closed on the property that we wouldn’t have our first wine in the bottle until four and a half years later we would have disagreed and laughed aloud. We had grapes growing on the vines – how hard could it be to pick them, ferment them and stick the juice in some bottles?!?
We learn new things nearly every day in this journey, and one thing we have definitely learned along the way is time is a matter of perspective. In the wine industry where it takes years to develop properties, years to plant and nurse vines to maturity, and years in the barrel and bottle to create great Cabernet – well, time is measured in years. Not weeks or months like our old lives in Silicon Valley.
It isn’t just the amount of time it takes to make great wine. It is also the complexity of all the pieces. The hundreds of decisions that need to be made each year to grow the best quality grapes you can. Pruning, training, replanting, drainage, watering, soil amendments (not the congressional kind), and of course selecting the perfect moment to harvest.
And wine making. All the decisions that go into the fermentation, the barrels, adjustments like fining during barrel aging, and the bottling itself. Which bottles, which corks, which closures, getting the labels created, approved (yes, the government has to approve wine labels!) and ultimately affixed to the bottle.
As consumers, we open the bottle (or sometimes someone even does that for us), fill our glass and reflect on what we smell, taste and think for a moment about the source of the grapes and the process of wine making. And if it is a good wine, we get sucked into the aromas, the initial taste, the magical experience that happens in our mouth, and the long, beautiful finish. You can’t wait to share it with friends. And all the time and all the hard work are worth it.
Be ready for its release late 2026 or early 2027. As our winemaker likes to say, “No wine before its time” (which may not be original . . .)
And obviously we have a very limited amount of wine (especially in this first vintage). If you are interested in getting some, make sure and sign up for our interest list at: http://www.woodhawkvineyards.com/contact-us/
A few shots from Friday:
The bottles being loaded onto the line
The bottles travelling through the bottling line
The corks being inserted
The bottles being labelled
Picture of me in front of the first pallet of 2023 Cabernet
If you are interested in future releases, be sure to sign up for our interest list: https://www.woodhawkvineyards.com/contact-us/
Join the more than 1000 people who follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/woodhawk.vineyards/
