While nature has been a little hard on this year's grape crop (frost, rain), our cattle herd and harvest continue to grow, so we have a little surplus of 2011 beef. That means there is no wait list right now to join the Beef Club and we can ship immediately. We think 2011's abundant rainfall and forage delivered our sweetest, best quality beef yet.  Our Adelaida Springs Ranch Beef club gives you a 20% discount on two 25 lb. boxes of assorted cuts per year. Our list price for each beef pack is $200, but it's just $160 for Club members. As a member, you can buy more anytime (depending on availability) at the club discount and we can ship overnight, anywhere in California. Our 25 lb. beef packages make great gifts. Each box includes approximately:

• 6 lbs. steaks
• 6 lbs. roasts
• 8 lbs. ground beef
• 5 lbs. of stew meat, short ribs, ka bobs, etc.
  

We are excited to have our 2009 wines resting safely in bottle since August 30th.  We have made some changes to the packaging.  First of all we are using a color photograph of our ranch taken by the talented photographer Peer Johnson.  This photo was actually taken in November of 2009 after the torrential down pour of 12 inches rain on October 13th.  It is rare to see green grass and vines that still have their leaves.  Fortunately we had picked all of our fruit that year before the unseasonal rain.  The second change that we made, after some debate, was to discontinue using foil capsules on our bottles. Capsules are composed of predominately tin, manufactured overseas, and are merely decorative.  Many recycling plants are unable to recycle the foil capsules (check out this LA Times article).  Our nude bottle neck allows you to see the addition of our AS logo (Adelaida Springs Ranch) burnt onto the cork ends, which we think looks pretty nifty.

We have also introduced a new blend to our lineup named "The Watershed."  Our vineyard is planted on the watershed between the Jack Creek and Tablas Creek drainages, but we have also been using "watershed" to describe the remarkable 2009 vintage.  After we fermented and pressed the grapes, these wines immediately promised a new level of quality--even though we love our 2007 & 2008 wines. This "best vintage yet" reflects the cumulative effects of more mature vines (planted in 2002), more experienced farmers (us), winemaker involvement from field to bottle (this was my first vintage with full control) and a dry year (only 18" of rainfall)  that concentrated the fruit flavors. So if you enjoyed our 2008 wines we think you will be very pleased with the 2009 vintage. The Watershed is a blend of 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, and 24% Cabernet Franc. Although still quite closed on the nose, it's showing intense cherry flavors, some spicey herbal notes and our trademark great acidity and super fine, vivid tannins. The Watershed 2009 will be released at the upcoming Harvest Wine Weekend and included in the next Rangeland Wine Club shipment.

Two-plus inches of rain in the early middle of harvest this week put a nasty bookend on a season that started with over 2 inches of rain on June 4-5. We are holding our breath for better harvest weather to get the bulk of our crop in. Thankfully we got our usual "Back to School" heat wave in mid-September (100 degrees), which helped our fruit ripen towards harvest.  We have experienced a weather roller coaster this year, starting with the April frost and then those June rains, which occurred right in the middle of bloom, or flowering.