Field Reports

Here’s something to keep an eye out for at your neighborhood market or wine shop: the new Jarhead Red display card, hot off the presses this week.

Known in the trade as a “case card,” it is designed to slot upright into wine case boxes for in-store display. We kept the main message simple: “A robust red wine made by Marines.” No need to get fancy about it, right?

The card also lets people know that every bottle supports a worthy cause, with net proceeds of all sales going to USMC-based charities, primarily the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation.

We wanted the design of the case card to be bold yet elegant, just like the wine. We hope you agree that it hits the mark.

 
Our thanks go out to Hayley Thomas of the Santa Maria Sun for her magnificent feature story on Jarhead Wine Company.

The story delves into the origins of Jarhead Red, as well as the charitable mission and family ties that continue to drive us today.

Writes Thomas, “Adam (Firestone), a former Marine Corps captain, believes wine can change the world. As owner of Jarhead Wine Company, he’s already touched the lives of dozens of veterans across the Central Coast and beyond…Jarhead Wine Company’s mission is beautifully simple: to craft robust, approachable red wines in support of the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, which provides educational assistance to the children of U.S. Marines. All net proceeds go toward this cause, with particular attention given to children of fallen and injured servicemen and women—more than half a million dollars in direct cash since Adam’s first unveiling of the wine at the annual Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation’s Birthday Ball in 1999.”

You can read the full story here.

We are excited to share that the 2011 Jarhead Reserve is now available.

The 2011 Jarhead Reserve is a limited-edition wine that is crafted as our finest expression of the vintage. Think of it as the “dress blues” companion to the more “camo” style of Jarhead Red.

The 2011 Jarhead Reserve is composed primarily of Cabernet Franc from the Firestone family’s Curtis Estate vineyard in the heart of Santa Barbara County’s Santa Ynez Valley. The wine was aged for 18 months in premium French oak barrels, of which 20 percent featured new oak. The inclusion of Petit Verdot in the final blend brought added color, complexity and dimension to the wine.

The 2011 Jarhead Reserve is round and velvety, presenting deep black fruit flavors with notes of cherry, mint and cinnamon spice. Chewy tannins linger on a long, focused finish. This is a wine that will reward careful cellaring, but don’t be afraid to uncork it now as a centerpiece for a holiday meal.

Nick returns home

Following is an excerpt from a post by wine writer Gabe Saglie about a special homecoming in the Jarhead Wine Company family:

The Firestone family is celebrating a homecoming: 1st Lt. Nick Firestone has just returned from a year-long deployment in Afghanistan. The 26-year-old Marine arrived home in the Santa Ynez Valley on November 8th. This was the second deployment for the young member of the well-known Santa Barbara County family, who ended his first tour, in the South Pacific, early last year.

“For me, it’s half excitement and anticipation, and the other side is parental nerves,” his dad, Adam Firestone, told me last year, right before his (and wife Kate’s) son left for the Middle East. “But I understand the tradition.”

And he should. Adam Firestone is, himself, a former Marine, having joined in 1984. He was promoted to Captain in 1988, ahead of his deployment to the Persian Gulf, and ended his service in 1991. Mr. Firestone, 52, son of Kate and former 35th District State Assemblyman Brooks Firestone, has since gone on to spearhead the family’s business ventures in wine grape growing and craft beer making.

The Firestones’ connection to the U.S. Marines has, in fact, inspired one of their ongoing winemaking ventures: the Jarhead label.

Our thanks go out to Gabe for his support of Jarhead Wine Company. Click here to read the rest of his story on Jarhead. 

Well, the next vintage of Jarhead Red is here, specifically the new release 2011 Jarhead Red!

While the appellation on the bottle is “California,” this wine comes from local vineyards right here on the Central Coast, specifically Merlot from Paso Robles and Petit Verdot from the Santa Ynez Valley–both premier regions for Bordeaux varietals.

In Paso Robles, a daily interplay of warm days and cool evenings allows the Merlot fruit to achieve balanced ripeness. A similar coastal growing dynamic occurs at the Firestone family’s Curtis Estate in the Santa Ynez Valley, where the Petit Verdot grape develops intense flavors with full tannins.

From day one, Jarhead Red was made to be a robust yet approachable wine for everyday enjoyment—and the 2011 vintage lives up to its billing

This wine offers generous aromas of plum, cherry and spice with a hint of smokiness. A rich, mouthfilling texture unfolds with flavors of black cherry, blackberry and cassis. Notes of vanilla emerge on a broad, juicy finish.

The boldly flavored 2011 Jarhead Red is a perfect match for classic American fare, such as grilled steak, barbecued chicken and hamburgers. You can purchase it here, or ask for it at your local wine shop.

The crush is on here in the Santa Ynez Valley…

Indeed, our 2014 Jarhead Chard is happily fermenting away, the first of our wines to be made from the 2014 vintage.

Once again, the Jarhead Chard comes from the Firestone family’s estate vineyards right here in Santa Barbara County, which is recognized as one of the world’s premier Chardonnay regions.

The grapes were harvested at night. Why harvest at night? Because this ensures that the fruit is cool when it arrives at the winery, allowing for the preservation of fresh flavors and pure aromatics. If the grapes get too warm after you pick them, you can lose some of that freshness and purity. Of course, it’s more work to harvest at night—for starters, you have to bring floodlights into the vineyard—but it’s a worthy investment in quality.

At the winery, the grapes were gently whole-cluster pressed. This means that they didn’t undergo crushing or destemming. Again, whole cluster pressing is more work, but it ensures that the more bitter “phenolics” of the seeds and stems stay out of the wine.

Now the Chardonnay is cold fermenting in stainless steel tanks, which means that yeasts are converting the natural grape sugars into alcohol and CO2 gas. The gas blows off, and the result is wine. So we’re on our way for the 2014 vintage!

We are rushing headlong toward an early harvest here in the Santa Ynez Valley in the Santa Barbara wine country. In fact, early ripening varietals like Pinot Noir started coming off the vine a few weeks ago in some local vineyards, and by the end of the month we should be harvesting estate Chardonnay for our 2014 Jarhead Chard.

We are not alone—the harvest is early across California this year, due to the prolonged drought, in tandem with a warm spring and moderate summer.

Simply put, there was nothing holding the vines back from getting the show on the road this year. In some years, wet winter weather or a cold spring or a cool summer will slow things down. This year, none of those phenomena occurred, so here we are in mid August with the harvest coming sooner rather than later.

Yields are healthy despite the dry conditions, and the grapes are having no trouble reaching maturity. This should all lead to ripe, concentrated flavors. In other words, you can expect some tasty wines from 2014.

Of course, we still need rain this winter to make sure that the vines and aquifers remain healthy. A little stress on the vine can produce nice concentrated wines, but at some point they need some relief.

So in addition to expecting great wines from 2014, we are praying for rain in 2015!