Every Summer has a story. And for this Summer, the headline might be “Pivoting &Perseverance”/ “Creativity and Comfort”. In a normal Summer, airplane travel, dinner parties with friends, large family reunions, neighborhood parades and going to the movies would all figure large. Not so in 2020. We inquired of patrons, “How did you spend this Summer, adapting to the pandemic? What brought you joy?” And we were buoyed by the responses and photos. Thank you to all who wrote and sent pictures. We shared several in August and here are more...

Read More...

Decanting (pouring the wine from the bottle into another vessel, typically a decanter) is a simple, but careful process. It can be intimidating knowing when to decant a wine and when not to. Here I share three reasons for decanting a wine and hopefully they help shed some light on any confusion. Everyone's tastes and opinions are different, so my goal is to share with you what I know about decanting and aerating wines as well as the science behind it. Then it's up to you to have fun and do some experiments tasting the wine as it aerates in a decanter. 

Read More...

When we began selling wine in 1984, we decided to deliver case orders of wine ourselves to patrons in the Bay Area. Not only did this save us on shipping expenses but more importantly, we got to know our patrons well, and vice versa! In the beginning, I got to do deliveries, and now Spencer has taken the reins. When the pandemic first hit, we discussed our strategy for continuing to do deliveries. “What is best for our patrons? What do they need?” It was an easy two-word answer: “Wine”, “Safely!”

Read More...

As winemakers, tasting is our number 1 job and in these days of “shelter in place”, tastings are the perfect diversion. While technically we are “working” when we taste, we thought it would be fun to share a tasting game with you. We’ve named it the “Somm Game”. We don’t take it very seriously. It's a way to add a little lightheartedness to your evening and practice learning what you like in a wine. Essentially, it is a blind tasting where you try to guess the wine. Normally, we play the game with our adult children, but with the current situation of coronavirus, we are doing it virtually. 

Read More...

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!

Read More...