During the Holiday Season, it is “all hands on deck”! We are grateful to our patrons who are so generous with their Hafner wine. Thank YOU! To have some fun, Kate made a short film of our various roles during the Holiday Season. You will see that many hands are involved in getting your gifts from our small family winery here in Alexander Valley to the dinner tables of your friends, family or colleagues across the United States. Happy Holidays from all of us at Hafner Vineyard!

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Walks through the vineyard with our yellow lab, Annie, have inspired many of my illustrations. Over the years, I have painted the flowers that grow here in the vineyard or on the hills. Some of them are native plants, like the blue Lupine, the California Poppies and the field Mustard. Others (like the Bachelor Buttons and Legion of Honor Poppies), we have sown in our “insectary rows” to provide habitat for beneficial insects. Here I share some techniques I used to create them. 

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A fun thing happened this Summer. In the course of two weeks, we heard from a dozen different patrons who all wrote with the same question: Did we know that John Lescroart, the celebrated mystery writer, had woven Hafner Chardonnay or Hafner Cabernet into his books? Yes! We did! We are honored that John and his wife are longtime patrons of Hafner Vineyard, as are their parents and their adult children. I took this opportunity to ask John a few questions about his career as a mystery writer and why Hafner made its way into certain scenes. Here's my interview with John.

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It may come as no surprise that we enjoy reading and referencing wine books. Viticulture and enology have a rich history with plenty to learn. Here are my top 5 wine books. They include a narrative about the Russian River and its influence in our region, a story of the famous Paris Tasting which put California on the "wine map", a history of Argentina's wine industry and its rise of Malbec, a grape varietal encyclopedia that you could spend days reading and the ever-trustworthy wine atlas. Happy reading!

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Wine tasting can be intimidating, but with a few hints, tasting wine can be lot of fun. And remember, there isn’t a right or wrong answer…it’s your preference. All you need is a little knowledge to back up your opinion and you’ll wow your friends with your tasting skills. I share 3 steps on how to taste wine along with flavor and aroma descriptors plus a downloadable wine descriptions chart. We hope you have fun learning how to taste wine and look forward to hearing your thoughts.

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