September 16th, 2009

JARVIS Winery Announces a New Winemaking Program called ASSOCIATE VINTNERS

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. 109 or go to www.jarviswines.com.

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Journalists: To schedule an interview, or a visit to JARVIS, contact List Adams Walter at 707-255-0300 or [email protected].


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 or the Director of Sales and Marketing, John Schulz. 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

  • Access to the finest grapes the Napa Valley has to offer.

  • Ability to choose your barrel from single vineyard wines before they are blended into Jarvis Estate wines.

  • Opportunity to make 100% varietal wines from five different grape variety choices, all coming from the Jarvis Estate Vineyards.

  • Access to the Jarvis Winemaker, Ted Henry, and the Jarvis winemaking team.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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 – Full barrel - $28,500.00 / Half barrel - $16,250.00
Merlot – Full barrel - $27,000.00 / Half barrel - $15,500.00
Cabernet Franc – Full barrel - $24,000.00 / Half barrel - $14,000
Petit Verdot (very limited) – Half barrel only - $18,500.00
Tempranillo (very limited) - Half barrel only - $12,500.00

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 Director of Sales and Marketing, John Schulz at 800-255-5280 x109.

We hope to see you in Napa Valley very soon.