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Associate Vintners Program
Ever want to make your own wine, but do it in a painless way? We may have your answer. Deep inside the Jarvis cave is a very private but functional chamber, called the Associate Vintners' Chamber, see photo below. In this Chamber you can be your own winemaker and make your own customized wine. You can make a small barrel of 12½ cases of wine or a larger barrel equating to 25 cases.
Associate Vintners Pat and Sylvia Tylka watch the bottling of their barrel of Cabernet Sauvignon. They created this wine from the 2008 vintage of the Upper Hillside Vineyard, had it bottled with their own label and put in the Pantheon until it is over its six months of bottle shock. Then it will finally be ready for their family and friends to enjoy! From their one barrel they realized 24 cases of wine.
Don't be worried about how to use a barrel of wine, the wine lasts ten years and gets better every year so you can have ten years of meal time enjoyment, presents and happy friends. Your premium wine with your own label will be perfect for gifts and for your own family enjoyment. Your clients, employees and friends will appreciate receiving the gift of such a special wine at holiday time.
By using only grapes from the Jarvis Estate Vineyard you can be sure of world-class wine made to your own taste. Your full cost ranges from $18,000 for a 12½ case barrel and up so it is world-class wine at an affordable price. You will have the advantage of "wine futures" buying. You will have your wine in the future but pay today's pricing.
You start by selecting your picking zone of grapes from among five different Jarvis vineyards. The little vineyard cart shown below permits easy access to the vineyards and makes your decision a pleasant experience, guided by a member of the Jarvis team.
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Vineyard Cart - Great for checking the Vineyards
William Jarvis, Ted Henry - Winemaker,
Martin Becerra - Vineyard Manager and
Dimitri Tchelistcheff - Consultant
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Then you go to the Associate Vintners' Chamber and spend serious time with Jarvis winemaker Ted Henry doing barrel tasting and learning winemaking. Once you have completed barrel tastings and chosen your own barrel of wine, you become an "Associate Vintner". You start making your own winemaking decisions by personal visits and by email to the winemaker.
You will have all the prerogatives of visiting the Associate Vintners' Chamber and husbanding your barrel of wine through racking, blending, sulfuring and all the way to bottling and labeling.
The wine barrel with your own bronze name plaque is yours to keep, in memory of your winemaking days.
Call or email Ted Henry, 707-255-5280, ted@jarviswines.com, to become your own Vintner!
Best Wishes,
William and Leticia
NEWS – For Immediate Release
September 2009
JARVIS Winery Announces a New Winemaking Program
called ASSOCIATE VINTNERS
A Prestigious and Personalized Program where Customers
Create Their Own Barrels of Wine for Futures Bottling
(Napa, Calif.) – JARVIS, producers of cave fermented, luxury premium Napa Valley wines, has launched the first Associate Vintners Program, a rare chance for serious wine aficionados to be involved in the creation of their very own personalized-for-your-palate JARVIS wine.
"The JARVIS Associate Vintners Program is a unique, hands-on futures program that will be attractive for individuals and members of the trade who would like to be personally involved in the creation of a truly great individualized, customized wine," said William Jarvis, President of JARVIS who announced the program this week.
The customer who wishes to participate in this Associate Vintners Program will likely start with a visit to the Jarvis Vineyards to become familiar with the different zones and micro-climates. Then with this background knowledge, will do a tasting with the JARVIS Winemaker, Ted Henry, to select one or more barrels of wine in the Jarvis cave. These barrels will be labeled with the customer's, now Associate Vintner's name, and placed in the secure Associate Vintners Chamber deep in the Jarvis cave.
From then until bottling, the Associate Vintner shepherds his wine through a series of wine making procedures, including as options, if desired, wine blending and different size bottles with personalized labels. Full barrel pricing begins at $25,000.
William and Leticia Jarvis acquired their Napa Valley home in the mid 1980s. With the assistance of world-renown winemaker Dimitri Tchelistcheff, who continues as the JARVIS consulting winemaker today, they spent a decade carefully developing the estate vineyards and followed by building the cave winery which opened in 1995. Unlike other wineries, JARVIS is totally underground in a 45,000 square foot cave, an eco-friendly facility that houses fully operational wine production and cooperage as well as the winery offices and hospitality space.The focus on quality commenced in the vineyards when they cherry-picked just four zones totaling 37 acres from the total 1,320 acre JARVIS Estate. Limited-production, luxury wines that total fewer than 9,000 cases annually are the result of this commitment to quality.
"Leticia and I invite people interested in JARVIS Associate Vintners Program to do exclusive barrel tasting in the winery," added Jarvis. "Once they taste the wines and select their barrel, they will enjoy working with our winemaking team and then watch the development of their wine as the vintage matures."
For more information about the JARVIS Associate Vintners Program call 800-255-5280 ext. 120 or go to www.jarviswines.com.
How to become an Associate Vintner
Those who wish to participate in the Associate Vintners Program will start with a visit to the Jarvis Vineyards to become familiar with the different zones, vineyard sites and micro-climates.
With the background knowledge learned in the vineyard, the Associate Vintner will barrel taste wines from individual zones from several of the Jarvis Estate vineyards. Finished wines from previous years will be tasted as a reference to get an idea of how the barrels will taste after bottling. All this will be done in the private Associate Vintner's Chamber with the Jarvis Winemaker, Ted Henry. The Associate Vintner will then select one or more barrels of wine as their personal barrel.
When a selection has been made, these barrels will be labeled with the customer's, now Associate Vintner's name, and placed in the secure Associate Vintners' Chamber deep in the Jarvis cave. From then until bottling, the Associate Vintner shepherds his wine through a series of wine making procedures including, as options if desired, wine blending, large format bottles and personalized labels.
Benefits of being an Associate Vintner
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Access to the finest grapes the Napa Valley has to offer.
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Ability to choose your barrel from single vineyard wines before they are blended into Jarvis Estate wines.
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Opportunity to make 100% varietal wines from five different grape variety choices, all coming from the Jarvis Estate Vineyards.
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Access to the Jarvis Winemaker, Ted Henry, and the Jarvis winemaking team.
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Exclusive barrel housing in the Associate Vintners' Chamber with a bronze nameplate engraved with your name. Up to six names can be engraved on the nameplate.
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Regular inspection and servicing of your barrel to include topping to limit oxygen exposure, racking and analyzing laboratory test results which will be mailed to each Associate Vintner explaining basic chemical results.
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Associate Vintners, along with their friends, will be encouraged to regularly visit the winery during the aging process to inspect and taste their barrel.
Option to blend other varietals to experience the art of wine blending. Associate Vintners can choose to make a proprietary red blend rather than a varietal wine.
Personalized labels can be made using a template provided by Jarvis or a design done entirely by the Associate Vintner can be accommodated.
Costs
Each varietal has a different cost based on that varietal's current winery retail price. Once an Associate Vintner buys their barrel, this price is protected against price increases that may occur during the aging of the wine. Like futures, price increases can sometimes be due to exceptional vintage quality and or availability. A full barrel is equivalent to 25 twelve bottle cases. All wines are available in half barrels with Petit Verdot and Tempranillo exclusive to this format.
Cabernet Sauvignon – Lake Leticia Vineyard - Full barrel: $33,000 / Half barrel: $18,810
Cabernet Sauvignon - Lake William Vineyard - Full barrel: $33,000 / Half barrel: $18,810
Merlot – Lake William Vineyard - Full barrel: $28,500 / Half barrel: $16,245
Cabernet Franc – Lake William Vineyard - Full barrel: $24,000 / Half barrel: $13,680
Petit Verdot (very limited) – Tailins Vineyard - Half barrel only: $13,680
Chardonnay - Finch Hollow Vineyard - Full Barrel: $34,500 / Half barrel: $19,665
Additional Options
Blending – All varietal wines from Jarvis showcase the varietal to its optimal potential. With any of our varietals you can have a great wine with no blending required. However, for those who want to experience the art of blending, we offer a blending option for an additional $3,000. There is no limit to the number of varietals that can be blended; but, the blend cannot be less than 75% of one varietal to be classified as a varietal wine. Jarvis' winemaker Ted Henry will walk you through the entire winemaking and blending process. The deadline for blending is August 1st of the bottling year.
Bottle Sizes – Barrel purchases are based on furnishing standard size bottles (750ml). Changing a portion of the bottles to other sizes is possible but does require special re-calibration of the bottling line as well as special labels. There is a one-time charge of $1,500 for each additional bottle size. Any number of bottles can be changed to your desired bottle sizes. Magnums (1.5 liter), double magnums (3.0 liter) and imperial (6.0 liter) bottles are available. The deadline for ordering additional bottle sizes is June 1st of the bottling year.
Delivery - After your wine is bottled it can be stored for you for up to six months at no charge in the Jarvis Pantheon.
For more information about this program, or if you would like to participate, please call our Winemaker, Ted Henry at 800-255-5280 x120.
We hope to see you in Napa Valley very soon.
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