Happy Hour Wine Tasting Featuring Gravel Pit Winery with Special Guest winemaker Rob Sweeney

My name is August West
and I love my Pearly Baker best
more than my wine
...more than My wine
more than my maker
though he’s no friend of mine

Half of my life
I spent doin’ time for
some other fucker’s crime
Other half found me stumbling around
drunk on burgundy wine

“Wharf Rat”
Words by Robert Hunter, music by Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead)*

This event just popped on our calendar and I never miss a chance to host an event with our good friend Rob Sweeney formerly with his family’s winery Vine Cliff and now we’re proud to announce that Wine Watch will be the first retail account to host an even with his new label Gravel Pit Wines.  It is great to have our friends from wine country in California back out on the road to host events in person. 

We have hosted over a dozen events with Vine Cliff Winery over the years and his wines are very well known with our Wine Drinking People but this is a new chapter for Rob and we are happy to be introduce these Gravel Pit wines and to welcome Rob back to South Florida for a happy Hour style wine tasting at the Wine Bar.  Chef Toni will be making a few small bites to accompany the tasting wines and the fee for this event is $55 per person plus tax.  For reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com.

Happy Hour Wine Tasting Featuring Gravel Pit Winery
with Special Guest winemaker Rob Sweeney
Thursday, May 20, 2021
6:00 PM

2018 Gravel Pit Chardonnay Sonoma Coast
Price : $46.50     Sale $40.92

This Sonoma Coast Chardonnay hails from 2 vineyards. we made 6 barrels from Lazy w vineyard Russian River, and 4 barrels from Frostwatch Vineyard, Bennett Valley/Sonoma Coast. Both vineyard sections were Old Wente clone.
Aromas of honeysuckle and white peach with juicy and bright tropical fruit, and lemon oil, and lime zest on the finish.RS
Notes
Aromas of honeysuckle and peach are followed by bright tropical fruit and lemon oil flavors.

Vineyard Sources:
Lazy W,RRV and Frostwatch,Bennet Valley

2017 Gravel Pit Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast
Price : $64.50     Sale $56.76

Our Pinot Noir comes from one of the most sought after and prized vineyards in Sonoma County. This very special site is influenced by the Pacific Ocean to the west and the San Francisco bay to the south.  The well drained soil is derived from volcanic parent material and is very gravelly and rocky. We received two clones of pinot noir from this very well farmed site. Clone 115 known to be one of the only pinot noir clones to make stand alone quality wine, and the Swan clone, which is very aromatic.

The grapes were hand harvested at night to ensure cold fruit for a three day pre-fermentation maceration.  We hand sorted 80% of the clusters to the berry level after adding 20% whole clusters to the small stainless steel fermentation vessels. After fermentation we aged the wine for 11 months in 30% new, 35% 1 yr and 35% neutral, experienced French oak barrels. We elected to bottle the wine unfined and unfiltered.

​We enjoyed a long cool vintage following a winter of abundant rainfall after some very dry years. This lead to an early exuberant canopy followed by some heat in June that helped to settle down the growth. We had an unprecedented heat wave at the beginning of September just as the grapes were almost in the perfect flavor window. Giving the vines a chance to recover and rehydrate the fruit is critical for the best possible wine. We picked on September 10th, a full week and a half after the big heat, and just before the next temperature spike.

2018 Gravel Pit Pinot Noir Russian River Valley
Price: $75.00      Sale $66.00

90% Anderson Ross vineyard, Forestville. goldridge soil, clone 115.
10% Wohler vineyard, Russian River. clone 667

Floral with red rose petal, caramel, and spicy red fruit aromatics, leading to juicy cherry cola fruit that is supported by structured yet smooth rich Tannins.

Vineyard Sources:
90% Anderson Ross 10% Wohler

2018 Gravel Pit Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
Price : $96.00     Sale $84.48

This Cabernet Sauvignon was grown in a single vineyard ,in Napa Valley, on the eastern foothills of Calistoga. it has very rocky, gravelly soils, and some of the smallest berries i have ever seen. the wine is very smooth, richly aromatic, with a persistent long finish. RS

This is a happy hour style wine tasting and we have space for 18 guests at this event.  We will be serving Hors d'Oeuvres along with the tasting wines.  The fee for this tasting is $55 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463 or e-mail andy@winewatch.com.

“Not everyone has the chance in life to work at what they love and are truly passionate about.

My desire is to make wines that bring you as much joy to drink as they did for me to make.”

Rob Sweeney-

Rob Sweeney arrived in the Napa Valley in 1986 when his family bought a piece of raw land in Oakville. A ghost winery of the former Vine Cliff estate which was defunct since the early 1900’s when phylloxera killed every vine. The property presented quite a project, one that Rob coveted.  Excited to be involved, so began his journey to learn the business by working at other properties around the valley.

Rob was first hired at Buena Vista Winery by winemaker Jill Davis as a harvest cellar intern where he started building his vast experience. Interested in every facet of a winery he moved on to the tasting room at Franciscan Winery, it provided the backdrop for where Rob learned the art of selling wine. His interest in the vineyards then took him to A&P Structures where he learned how to build trellis systems from true pioneers in the field.

Concurrently Rob attended Napa Valley College and earned his degree in Viticulture under the tutelage of the inspirational Dr. Steve Krebs. Several years later and with a strong foundation of knowledge and well rounded education under his belt, Rob returned to Vine Cliff.

“Back then if I needed to know the answer to something, I couldn’t look it up on the internet or watch a how-to YouTube video, I rode my ATV across the field or jumped in my truck and asked a neighbor.  That might have been Gustav Dalle Valle who showed me how to calibrate the sprayer, or Alex Vyborny, famed vineyard manager responsible for Far Niente and Joseph Phelps, whose ranch was across the street. Or after we bought a vineyard on Pickett Road, Al Frediani who would always dispense his advice with a twinkle in his eye. Occasionally we would source grapes from other vineyards, and I think I bought more grapes from Laurie Wood and visited his vineyard more times just in the hope that Laurie would beckon me to his porch for a visit.  Their collective knowledge was invaluable.”  These salt of the earth farmers had a wealth of experience and they were happily willing to pass on their knowledge and even loan their equipment.  Their seeds of wisdom fell on fertile ground and as Rob’s knowledge grew, so did his passion.

Ultimately, the Vine Cliff family vineyard grew into a winery operation and over the years Rob was inspired by having winemakers such as John Gibson, Paul Hobbs and Celia Welch who introduced him to cutting edge techniques and mentored him through blind tastings and blending trials.  Each harvest Rob acquired more experience and honed his skills-different vintage, different outcomes, different vineyards telling different stories.  More knowledge, more comparisons to draw from year to year. Crucial picking decisions became second nature and difficult blending trials made sense. The family business grew and made a place for itself among other wineries producing award winning wines with a reputation for excellence.

​Over time, Rob identified and personally developed vineyards on properties which the winery purchased in Calistoga and on Howell Mountain.  With Rob’s viticultural acumen and diligence these projects ultimately became the storied Pickett Road vineyard now known as the 100-point generating Few and Far Between vineyard purchased by Hundred Acre vineyard and the estate vineyards now owned by Cade Winery, Howell Mountain. At the time they each sold, both were the highest per-acre price ever paid for vineyards in the country.

As one chapter ends, so another begins-

A culmination of 30 years of experience, 30 years of literal blood, sweat and tears led Rob to realize an unfulfilled dream, one that remained dormant surfaced and was the itch he needed to scratch. It was time to branch out on his own and add winemaker to his portfolio.