Dear friends,
Thanks so much to you all for your support during our Fall Release so far!
Before the release closes, we wanted to send along some extra credit reading that we didn't have space for in the original release letter. One of the great joys and challenges of our business is explaining what it is that makes our vineyards so beautiful and singular. It’s why our front labels feature an illustration of each vineyard, and why we spend so much time in each release letter talking about place, and the people that makes those places so distinct. Great wine is just somewhereness, after all. Both of the pieces below help to illustrate why we think the Cachagua Valley (a smaller piece of the larger Carmel Valley AVA, and the home of Massa Vineyard) is so remarkable.
New York Times - "Mountain Grown Wineries"
Published on September 27, 1981, this digitized version of a print article from a bygone era offers a snapshot of the pioneering viticultural spirit of Bill Durney, who first planted Durney Vineyard (now known as Massa Vineyard) in 1967.
It is a ruggedly beautiful part of Monterey County in California, where mountain lions still roam and coyotes and other predators remain undisturbed by man…
One of the more unusual aspects of the Durney vineyards is that they are irrigated naturally by underground springs that flow down the hill beneath the vines, apparently carrying nutrients and minerals from the mountainside above. The soil is dry to a depth of three and a half feet, but then it becomes damp from the seepage from the springs.
''We use no herbicides, no spraying of any kind, no fertilizer - we're entirely organic, one of the few,'' says Durney.
The Atlantic - "Earth Station: The Afterlife of Technology at the End of the World"
This Atlantic piece tells the story of the Jamesburg Earth Station in Cachagua Valley, a now defunct but massive satellite dish just across the road from Massa Vineyard.
The Cachagua Valley is wild and beautiful, lichen hanging off trees and wild turkeys running around doing whatever they do. Even radio signals have a hard time penetrating the valley, which is one reason that, less than a quarter mile from Jensen Camp, the Communications Satellite Corporation and AT&T built the Jamesburg Earth Station…
It was thanks to Jamesburg that people saw the Apollo 11 moon landing and Richard Nixon's trip to China, Vietnam War reporting and the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, not to mention tens of thousands of more ordinary events.
– ALEXIS C. MADRIGAL, FEBRUARY 6, 2012
Hope you all have a wonderful Friday!
Cody & Emily