Month: April 2016

‘Tis The Season For Political Correctness – ‘Tis Always The Season For Hospitality Correctness

To offer a chilled glass of HELLER ESTATE golden, mountain grown CHENIN BLANC is certainly a gesture that all guests and visitors appreciate and take delight in, and we too, are also most happy in the quality of this varietal we grow at our mountain vineyards, overlooking the Pacific coast in California. The cool mountain breezes, loamy soil, and dry-farmed production create this magnificent wine. What a wonderful way to start off a relationship or enhance a meeting!

The vines, which were brought to America from France by settlers in the 19th Century, have produced some phenomenal wines under the special conditions we grow them.  All of these grapes are naturally grown,   without the use of herbicides or pesticides, and the quality is enhanced by the fact that we stress the vines to seek the water levels provided by springs running some thirty feet under our vineyards’ surface. Consequently, they are USDA-CERTIFIED ORGANICALLY GROWN.  All of the grapes used in the production of these wines originate in our vineyards only and, therefore, the wines are all Estate bottled. We do not source fruit from other vineyards.

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Spring 2016

Spring is here!  A lot has been going on up here at the winery and vineyard.  In 2015 an initiative was taken to construct a pond due to the drought that had continued throughout California over the past four years. In early NPicture1ovember, the construction was finally completed.  This was perfect timing for the start of California’s rainy season.  The pond spans the length of a football field, holding five million gallons of water.  Our natural spring feeds right into the new pond and with solid rainfall over the winter the pond is now ready to be put into operation.  This will allow us the ability to frost-protect our vineyards as well as in really hot summer conditions, give us a way to dose out little amounts of water to the vines thus protecting the canopy and the fruit.  The pond is also a great addition because it is a natural ecosystem full of turtles, frogs, ducks and geese.

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