CIMA COLLINA NEWs, reviews & EVENTS
Upcoming events you won't want to miss...
Red White & Brews Festival - Saturday, July 12 from 11:00 to 5:00
Carmel Valley Community Park. Tickets - call 831/915-7740 or
visit English Ales Brewery in Marina
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Join us for t he 16th Annual Winemakers’ Celebration - Saturday, August 9, 2008 from 12-4pm at the Custom House Plaza in downtown Monterey. Over 45 Monterey County wineries pouring special wines, food, music, educational wine displays and unique seminars will be offered, plus an extraordinary silent auction. Call 831.375.9400 or visit www.montereywines.org for details.
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We'll be participating in the Family Winemakers of California Trade and Consumer Tasting - San Francisco August 24-25, at Fort Mason Center. For more information and tickets, call 916/489-7500
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Annette's blog - Cellar Rap - was chosen as a finalist in the category of BEST WINERY BLOG in the 2008 American Wine Blog Awards at "Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog".
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We have teamed with Classical KBOQ radio at 103.9 FM to present the K-Bach Wine Minute. Heard 3 times a day on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at approximately 1:25, 3:25 and 5:25 p.m., with the Wine Guy, Tom Simoneau. To learn more, click here.
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We are pleased to announce the release of the inaugural 2006 Howlin' Good Red blend.
This wine is available exclusively at our Tasting Room, benefiting the SPCA for Monterey County, but we'll let our cellar dog (and label model) Sweetie tell you more - to hear and see her, click here...
 
Thanks to all who attended the Howlin' Good release party at our Tasting Room on March 1 - you made it a fun and successful day!
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Wine lovers ask: Has pinot lost its sense of place?
By Laurie Daniel for the San Jose Mercury News: 03/19/2008
It's a question that provoked a lot of discussion at the two-day World of Pinot Noir, held recently in the San Luis Obispo area.
WOPN (participants say "whoppin") attracts pinotphiles from around the country, who can't seem to get enough of their favorite grape.I tasted dozens of pinots from all over during the course of the event. Some, especially wines from Burgundy, were older vintages; others, particularly wines from California, have not been released yet. But here were some highlights among the currently available wines.
A couple of Monterey County wines were standouts . . . the 2005 Cima Collina Hilltop Ranch Pinot Noir ($60) is pretty yet structured, with ripe raspberry fruit and a long finish. . .
to read the entire article, click here
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An art gallery tour of Carmel
Charyn Pfeuffer Sunday, December 9, 2007
Cima Collina Tasting Room
& Art Gallery
... Finish up your rounds across the street at Cima Collina Art Gallery and Wine Tasting Bar. Tucked in a courtyard away from the hustle and bustle of San Carlos Street, this unsuspecting art forum features a trove of portrait, landscape and abstract pieces by longtime Carmel resident Carol Chapman; mixed-media works by Fred Slautterback; and art by a rotating cast that most recently included Norton Wright, a former television producer. Chapman's work has appeared at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and Christie's in London, New York and Tokyo.
As you wind down the day, soak it all in over a glass of Cima Collina's Monterey County Pinot Noir. With wine, there should always be a sense of place, or gout de terroir. After checking out some of the most promising talent coming from the Monterey Peninsula, one can see that the same philosophy is putting Carmel galleries back on the map.
Cima Collina Art Gallery and Wine Tasting Bar, San Carlos Street between Ocean and Seventh avenues. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursday through Monday. (831) 620-0645, cimacollina.com. to read the whole article, click here
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TASTING ROOM ON TRACK
By MARIE VASARI Monterey Herald Staff Writer
06/30/2007
Richard Lumpkin, owner of Cima Collina winery, and winemaker Annette Hoff at the Carmel tasting room (VERN FISHER/The Herald)
For most businesses, word of mouth is a good thing. And Cima Collina, a young Monterey County winery with a preference for pinot noir, has generated some buzz, said winemaker Annette Hoff.
Customers praise its wines to friends, it's on the wine lists of nearly three dozen Monterey County restaurants and in stock at a dozen local wine shops. Customers can buy it online and through wine club memberships. The one thing customers haven't readily been able to do is taste before they buy, and you can't quite taste wine in words. That's why today, the three-year-old winery opens a tasting room in Carmel. The winery, which produces 3,500 cases a year from Monterey County grapes, has offered tasting at its Marina facility by appointment and during special events, but the move to Carmel puts its tasting room doors in the path of thousands of tourists and would-be tasters. To read the entire article click here
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~ ~ ~ WINE REVIEWS ~ ~~
Pinot noir: Smaller is better by Charles E. Olken July 25, 2007 syndicated Ang Newspapers
The California wines recommended below were grown in some of the finest pinot noir vineyards in the world. They are not easy to find and they are expensive, but if you are one of the grape's committed fans, they represent the Holy Grail.
2005 Cima Collina, Tondre Grapefield, Santa Lucia Highlands, $40
Like A.P. Vin, Cima Collina is a new, small winery and it, too has chosen to draw its grapes from the Santa Lucia Highlands. Tondre Grapefield is a recently producing vineyard in the heart of this viticultural area and its grapes already have been cited on the labels of several wineries. This one is precise, balanced, rich and wonderfully drinkable wine in a medium-full-bodied style with an admirably velvety feel and a long-lasting varietal flavor.
to read the entire article click here
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JUNE 2007
 91 CIMA COLLINA Pinot Noir Tondre Grapefield Santa Lucia Highlands 2005
It was admittedly an unusually cool year for the Santa Lucia Highlands, and the results have not always been pretty, but here is a wine that manages to charm despite not having the out-and-out boldness that has been the hallmark of the area's best Pinots. This one is precise, balanced, rich and wonderfully drinkable in a medium-full-bodied style from first to finish. Its admirably velvety feel stays the course, and so does its long-lasting varietal flavor.
 87 CIMA COLLINA Pinot Noir Chula Viña Vineyard Monterey County 2005 
If not quite measuring up to its mate above, this well-made wine is nonetheless cut from the same cloth in its mannerly approach to the grape. It carries a touch of juniper in its dark cherry, richly oaked aromas and is medium-full in body with a noticeable edge of latter palate acidity tightening its finish without cutting off its mid-volume flavors. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Feb 01, 2007y Mark C. Anderson
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