The Press

Wine Cocktails

Bring a little French apéro culture to your next gathering. Inspired by time spent in Bordeaux, Grace Hafner explores the art of unwinding with friends, good wine, and plenty of snacks, plus a coll...

Tips on Receiving Wine via UPS

UPS has made some changes to how they deliver wine, and we want to help make sure your Hafner wine gets to you without a hitch. In many cases, UPS will make just one delivery attempt. If no one 21 ...

How to Host a Blind Tasting

Wine tasting should be about enjoyment, not intimidation. Whether we are conducting professional sessions at the winery or sharing a bottle at home, we believe that every opinion is matters and tha...

Wine Tips

During the holidays, patrons often open special bottles, sometimes even discovering forgotten vintages tucked away in the cellar, so we’ve gathered a few helpful tips to make the most of them. From...

Cabernet Sauvignon vs Malbec

Winemaker Parke Hafner shares the key differences between Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec, two red wines known for their rich flavors and character both of which we grow at our vineyard here in Sonom...

Barrel Fermented Chardonnay

Barrel fermented Chardonnay is one of the techniques we use at Hafner Vineyard, typical of Burgundian white wines. Unlike tank-fermented Chardonnay (traditional of California), which highlights bri...

Glass Color

At Hafner Vineyard, sustainability is at the heart of everything we do from our solar array and electric tractor to the packaging choices we make. Recently, you may have noticed that our Chardonnay...

Rosé Color

For us, the hardest part of producing Rosé is the color. It seems like every year the color is slightly different than the last. That is because the color comes from the skins. When we began making...

Wine Storage, Aging & Serving Tips

Curious about wine storage, aging, or serving tips? Sarah Hafner answers the top 5 wine questions she hears on our vineyard tours at Hafner Vineyard in Alexander Valley. From how long wine lasts on...

Chipping Vines

We are always looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprint, so this year, we tried something new: we chipped the vines when removing a block of vineyard instead of burning them. The idea is simp...

Chardonnay Ageability

We recently had our annual Vertical Tasting of main and Reserve Chardonnays where we tasted eight vintages of each to see how they are aging. We were pleased with both flights. In this video, I sha...

Favorite Cookbooks

My grandmother, Mary Hafner, was the chef in the family. She and her sister taught French cooking classes from their kitchens in Berkeley (which is even how some of our patrons first learned about ...

Sediment in Wine

We are often asked, “What is the sediment in my glass and why is it there?” As Master of Wine and Master Sommelier Gerard Basset explained, “They are harmless by-products of wine, and some equate t...

Smoke Taint in Wine

We have lived through several wildfires, but none was more impactful or harrowing than the Kincade Fire that reached our ranch in October 2019. We were aware of the impact of smoke taint, but this ...

How to Open Wine Bottles

With over two decades of experience, working table side in top Healdsburg area restaurants, HV team member Matt, illustrates different techniques of opening various bottles of wine. He shows how t...

How to Store Open Wine

One question I always seem to get when giving a tour is: how do you store an open bottle of wine? For Parke and me, the answer is quite simple. We put the cork back in the bottle and leave it on th...

Making Rosé

For me, nothing says Summer like a glass of chilled Rosé…it reminds us of a trip to Provence where we discovered Rosé back in 1985. After a long day at the winery, we enjoy sipping Rosé on our terr...

Eliminating Plastic Ties

Our most recent effort in the vineyard to reduce our carbon footprint was to eliminate the use of plastic ties. We tie vines to establish the exposure of the fruit to the elements. In the past, we ...

Bud Burst

We are constantly reminded that farming has us at the will of Mother Nature and this year is no different. We thought it would be interesting to take you out into the vineyard and share with you wh...

Fall Releases Virtual Tasting

 When we released our 2019 Chardonnay and 2017 Next Red, we invited patrons to join us for a virtual tasting of these two wines as well as a few Library vintages. We tasted the wines and looked at ...