Dear Wine Friends,
     Leticia and I were cleaning out the old Pilot Winery when we came across this little experimental wine barrel that our son Will and Winemaker Dimitri Tchelistcheff are holding below. Will used this barrel for his famous eighth grade science project. Finding this little barrel was timely since it was the one used in Will's science experiment that led to the new Jarvis wine which is being released this September!

  
     Will Jarvis now 26, did his science project 14 years ago at Harker Boarding School in San Jose. He chose and picked his grapes; and, since it was an experiment, he made just enough wine for a small barrel, the one shown above. The barrel was small enough that he cradled it on the foot of his bed! After only a few months of barrel aging he bottled the wine and put it away.
     When his wine had bottle aged about ten years (and he was legally able to taste it!) he noted that after all those years the wine had a unique fruity taste. Our Winemaker Dimitri Tchelistcheff thought it was exceptional and suggested that Will repeat his science experiment in the controlled Jarvis winery cave, once again using a smaller than usual barrel. The small barrel means that the wine ages faster and can be bottled earlier while it still has its original fruit aroma. Will’s new lot of wine made in the controlled cave environment resulted with the same excellence and fruity flavor as the original and so astounded Dimitri and all the rest of us that a new product was born, called “Will Jarvis’ Science Project”!

The 2007 Will Jarvis’ Science Project has great finesse with soft but present tannins. It aged 9 months in small barrels and is ready to be enjoyed now. It will continue to develop beautifully with proper cellar conditions until 2012.      This Will Jarvis’ Science Project just received a gold medal and a rating of 93 pts. from the BTI. The Beverage Testing Institute in Chicago is a prestigious institute independent of the wine industry that does completely blind tastings. Only 391 cases made!      750ml - $105

Bottles with hand dipped wax are now easier to open thanks to a new method! Ted Henry, our winemaker, and his team are now indenting the wax closure making it very easy to open as a result of decreased tension. Some even say the wax bottles are easier to open than the foil closures! Let us know what you think.