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The Toad Hollow Gazette
Since 1983
"All the News That's Hoppinin' in The Hollow"
Spring 2003, Issue 18
Hi there. I
just love this time of year. The days are getting longer – everything is so
green – and while we periodically suffer through bouts of heavy rain and/or
chilly weather, there are still plenty of sunny, mild days to remind us of how
lucky we are to live in Northern California while so many of our friends are
suffering through brutal winters in other regions of the country. The daffodils
and mustard are starting to appear, and before you know it, we’ll be in the
midst of summer with grapes growing all around.
The 2002 harvest was once again a good one –
knock on wood, can’t remember a bad one – but of course now we’re seeing the
problems associated with too much wine. Did you ever think that was a
possibility? Guess lots of folks thought we were having way too much fun and
wanted to hop on board and become part of the wine industry. Now that so many
vineyards planted in the last several years are coming to fruition, and the last
several harvests have been so abundant, we find ourselves with a glut of grapes.
We actually saw it coming, but even so it’s kind of startling to find the
country awash in fine wine. Luckily for us, our history of producing fine wines
at reasonable prices with fun labels – wines that may be cellared as well as
drunk today – good with food or on their own – has proven to be our saving
grace. That along with the fact that we have been traveling throughout the
country building the brand (hawking our wares) and forming so many special
friendships in the process. Lucky for us that Toad Hollow fans are very loyal.
We realize that your choices today are never ending, including many fine
imports, and we are very appreciative that you’ve made us your wine of choice.
Not much new happening at the Hollow. We
figure if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.
We’re pretty much sticking with the tried and true. The big difference these
days is that we’ve been able to produce more of each wine, so you shouldn’t have
any trouble finding your favorites. The 2001 Chardonnay (Francine’s Selection)
was released mid-summer and should be around several more months. Just found out
that it won a gold medal at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. Feels
good to get some recognition. Oftentimes this stainless steel offering is
overlooked by the judges since they are so used to big, oaky Chardonnays that
California has become known for. They taste our clean, steely girl and don’t
know quite what to think. I mean, they know it tastes great, but they’re not
sure where it fits in. But we figure the thousands of Toad Hollow fans who have
been consuming our style Chardonnay since 1994 have exquisite taste.
The 2002 Eye of the Toad Dry Pinot Noir Rosé
is back on the shelves. We know this will please many of you who have anxiously
been awaiting the new release. The
 2001
vintage sold out early last summer. The 2000 Reserve Pinot Noir and Merlot are
still available and are both tasting great. Be sure to look for them. Have you
seen the 2001 Cacophony Zinfandel in your market? We hadn’t released a Zin since
the 1998 vintage, and spending all that time zinless was not a good thing. But
we’re here to tell you we are now with zin and is it ever yummy!! We’ve sold
more than half our production in 5 months. You’ll notice that our zin is from
Paso Robles – and we’re proud of it! Our Le Faux Frog wines are doing well.
We’re still offering the 2000 vintage of Chardonnay, Merlot and Syrah. Amplexus,
our sparkling wine, has become a favorite for many of you.
And have you had a chance to check out
our dessert wine, Le Proprietaire? We still have some inventory to sell through
before this same wine will be reintroduced with a new label (a can can dancing
toad!) and a new name, Risqué.
 That’s
pretty much it on the wines. If you have any trouble finding a specific varietal
in your neighborhood, feel free to call us or e-mail us and we’ll help you track
it down. But the nicest thing you could do for us would be to request it from
your local wine shop. Let them know what they are missing!
Many of you have had a chance to meet our
National Sales Manager, Kate Thayer. She’s been doing a terrific job for us for
over three years now. In September Kate was diagnosed with breast cancer and has
since been going through all the difficult stages of battling this horrendous
disease. She’s an amazing person with such a great spirit and attitude – an
inspiration to us all. She’s doing great and we are hopeful that she’ll be able
to start traveling by summer. Stay tuned to the webbed site . We’ll be posting
her travels as soon as we know what’s happening.
The Cruise -In the last newsletter, I
mentioned we were thinking about putting together a steamboat cruise on the
Mississippi, a more herculean task than we thought. We’ve decided to put this on
the back-burner for now, but are still considering trying to get it going for
sometime in 2004. If you think you might be interested and you have not already
done so, please drop a line to cruise@toadhollow.com. When (and if) things start
to come together, I’ll e-mail any and all of you who have indicated an interest.
I’ll also post any info on our webbed site.
Special News - Congratulations are in
order!!!!!! Julie (no longer Simons) Maas was married to Kevin (who we love) on
New Year’s Eve. And guess where she met him? At a tasting at Toad Hollow. Two
very special people – and we’re happy to take credit for them getting together.
Check out our webbed site regularly for
new pictures of the gang and Hank the wonder wiener dog. Watch for details of
the travel schedule, which is constantly being updated.
Check out the soft goods
for sales. We're working on a new poster series sure to remind you to
"Tip Toad".
Toad on the Road
Click here for Todd's (& sometimes Frankie's) travel schedule.
TODD & FRANKIE
FEBRUARY - OK/AR
Feb. 14 - Oklahoma City, OK
Guest vintner at Literacy Centers’ Private Reserve ‘03
Feb. 15 - Oklahoma City, OK
Tasting at Woodward Wines & Elixirs, 1:00 pm; The Grape Escape,
Feb. 16 - Tulsa, OK. Vintner Dinner at
Bistro on Brookside
Feb. 17 - Fayetteville, AR. Vintner
Dinner at Chloe, 348 N. Campbell
Feb. 18 - Ft. Smith, AR.
Vintner Dinner at Folie A Deux, 2909 Old Greenwood Rd. #6,
Feb. 19 - Little Rock, AR. Vermillion
Restaurant (Taste Around)
MARCH - MO/KA/NE/IA/HI
Mar. 8 - St. Louis, MO Tasting at Luka’s
Liquors
Mar. 9 - St. Louis, MO Bommarito Trade
Show
Mar. 10 - Kansas City, MO Vintner
Dinner at the Classic Cup
Mar. 11 - Indian Hills Country Club, Kansas
Vintner Dinner
Mar. 12 - Omaha, NE
Tasting from 3 to 5pm at Mr. Toads in the Old Market; tasting event
at Taxi’s in the evening.
Mar. 13 - Des Moines, IA Tasting at The
Wine Experience
Mar. 23-25 - Oahu; 26 -27 - Maui; 28-Apr 2 - Big Island.
We will be working – not sure of particulars yet. But we will be celebrating our
25th wedding anniversary on the Big Island on March 29. Can you believe it?!
APRIL - NYC/NJ/CA
April 10 - Graton, CA Vintner Dinner,
Stella’s
April 20-23 - NYC
April 24-25 - NJ
MAY - CA/LA/AZ
May 6 - Healdsburg, CA Vintner Dinner,
Tastings
May 8-10 - Phoenix, AZ
May 21-24 - New Orleans, LA Wine & Food
Event
May 21 - New Orleans Vintner dinner at
Commander’s Palace
May 27 - Baton Rouge, LA
JUNE/JULY/AUGUST - NC/GA/SC/NY
June 22-28 - North Carolina
July 24-30 - Savannah, GA; Hilton Head, SC; Charleston, SC; Columbia, SC
August 17-23 - Upstate New York
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER/NOVEMBER - SC/KY/OH,
AL/FL/CA
Sept. 20 - Dayton, OHAnnual luncheon – Jay’s
Oct. 27-28 - Birmingham, AL
Oct. 29 - Mobile, AL
Oct. 30 - Seaside FL – Seeing Red Festival
Nov. 14 - Bodega Bay, CA Vintner Dinner
at Inn at the Tides
Please check our webbed site for changes and additions!
Address Correction Requested: Please let us know if we have any part of your
name or address incorrect, so that we can update our mailing list. Let us know
too, if you are getting more than one copy; or, for some reason that we can’t
possibly imagine, you’d like to be removed from our mailing list.
Check out our Toad Hollow 2003 Release
Schedule!
FEBRUARY
2002 Dry Pinot Noir Rosé
Eye of the Toad
JULY
2002 Chardonnay
SEPTEMBER
2001 Reserve Pinot Noir
2001 Reserve Merlot
2002 Cacophony Zinfandel
ONGOING
Le Faux Frog Merlot, Syrah
& Chardonnay
Amplexus Cremant Brut
Proprietaire
(soon to be Risqué)
In the interests of health and well-being,
we have decided to cut back on our travel. Todd and I will be traveling
approximately one week a month in 2003. Even though we will be traveling more
months than in the past, the actual number of days are fewer. While we love to
come see y’all, this whole travel thing has gotten out of control. It’s becoming
harder and harder to get from point A to point B these days, and trying to keep
a handle on Todd’s diet, heart and schedule while on the road is almost
impossible. So we will try to flip-flop our travel from year to year. If we
don’t see you this year, we’ll do our best to see you next year. We should also
be able to see more of you when you come out to California for a visit since we
will be spending more time at home.
Golden Toad Award
The Third Annual Golden Toad Award is going
to two separate distributors. We are honoring Molly Callahan of Handcrafted
Wines in Kansas, and Tony Bommarito of A. Bommarito Wines in Missouri. So while
it’s two separate distributors, it’s really one area of the country. Our
presence in this region continues to grow, and we have made some great friends.
Thanks for your support.
We’d love to hear from you. You can drop us a line through the webbed site,
or you can reach us individually by name
(frankie@toadhollow.com,
todd@toadhollow.com
etc.) We’re always interested in what you consider a particularly good
pairing of one of our wines with a special dish. Who knows, maybe some day I’ll
put out a Toad Hollow Cookbook!!!
Quote:
"The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and
dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in
the universe to do."
Galileo Galilei, 1564-1642
 Address Correction Requested: Please let us know if we have any part of your name or address incorrect, so that we can update our mailing list. Let us know too, if you are getting more than one copy; or, for some reason that we can't possibly imagine, you'd like to be removed from our mailing list.
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