News, Articles & Blog

Harvest Update and BioChar!

Sep 11, 2024 at 5:00 AM Permalink

Note from Steve & Kim McIntyre

Greetings from Kim and Steve McIntyre!

Our family would like to personally thank you for being a wine club member. Collectively, we are committed to producing exceptional wines and earning your loyalty! Over the course of the last few months, we have frequently been asked two important questions by our wine club members.

The first question is whether we will continue to make Boekenoogen wines after we run through the current inventory. The answer is YES!! We will continue to purchase grapes from the Boekenoogen vineyard, in particular Pinot Noir and Viognier, for years to come. Starting with the 2024 vintage the label will be a “homage” to the Boekenoogen family to honor their legacy and the incredible site in the Santa Lucia Highlands.

The Boekenoogen Vineyard has several clones of Pinot Noir that we do not currently have in our own vineyard, clone 113 and Pommard. These clones are the backbone of their 3 clone Pinot Noir, which we intend to produce along with the Dryland vineyard offering. There were no Boekenoogen wines produced in 2023 but we are close to harvesting Boekenoogen grapes any day now and work will begin on the 2024 vintage with our head winemakers Byron Kosuge and Don Van Staaveren.

Over the course of the next year, we will be introducing more of our McIntyre lineup, including our Methode Champenoise sparkling wine, Le homme Qui Ris, which should be ready next June (It is currently in Tirage For another 10 months).

Another question frequently asked is why our wines are older vintages than the Boekenoogen releases. This is strictly a philosophical decision, as we feel our wines have more aromatics and expression after a few years of bottle age. As we start to introduce more McIntyre wines into the lineup you’ll have the option of exploring younger vintages, new varieties (Albarino this fall) In conjunction with our events and exclusive wine club offerings.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us at any time with questions and we look forward to meeting / seeing you, especially in September as we host various musicians on Sunday afternoons.

Thank you for your support and patronage!

Steve, Kim, Kristen and staff.

Sep 8, 2024 at 5:00 AM Permalink

Exciting new for McIntyre and Boekenoogen Family Wines!

From the McIntyre Family:

As with any new season come new beginnings. We are thrilled to announce our new location for McIntyre Family Wines in the Carmel Valley Village! This dynamic location has housed the Boekenoogen family legacy for almost 20 years, as Garrett and Holly have crafted a unique, artisan wine experience to share with others. As the Boekenoogen family has chosen the McIntyre Family as their business successor, we will move our operations to Carmel Valley where both families wine legacy’s continue!

This combined wine offering has been meticulously crafted to entertain our extended family: our customers. For our valued club members and community, you will continue to experience top rated artisan wines from both McIntyre and Boekenoogen families with our friendly and familiar tasting associates. Within a world where smaller businesses are fading, we are blessed to have cultivated a deep-rooted passion for life to share through our wine. We sincerely hope you will join us, the McIntyre family and the Boekenoogen family, in celebrating our shared passions and new beginnings.

Our former Carmel Crossroads location will eventually close. Thank you for continuing to be our patrons and we look forward to serving you at our new location in Carmel Valley Village!

From Garrett and Holly Boekenoogen: 

Dear Boekenoogen Wine Club Members, friends, customers and patrons near and far,

      We would like to express our heartfelt thanks for the many, many years of support and love of our wines, it means the world to us. The time has come for us to pass the baton, to make way for a new chapter in the Boekenoogen Wines story. We are excited to announce that McIntyre Family Wines will be the new owners at Boekenoogen Wines Tasting Room location in the Carmel Valley Village! We were very particular in our selection of a small family Winery to carry on our legacy and take great care with our Boekenoogen wines fans. We are sure everyone will quickly become huge fans of McIntyre Wines too! We couldn’t be more excited to have found McIntyre Vineyards!

Steve, Kim, and Kristen McIntyre, exude our beliefs and principles when it comes to producing limited production, high end wines! We couldn’t approve of them more and we feel it is the perfect match for our wines, customers and wine club members! We know that every member and every customer will really enjoy the McIntyre family, just as we do! We can’t say enough good things about this hard-working small family winery from the Santa Lucia Highlands!

For all of the Boekenoogen Wine Club Members and customers alike; nothing will change with your membership or benefits or location to enjoy our wines, you will just have the fantastic addition of McIntyre wines at the Tasting Room and on the patios! Our staff have been integrated into the McIntyre family seamlessly and will continue to be a friendly face serving both of our family’s wines. We feel that the McIntyre family will elevate the Wine Club Member experience! They have so much to offer and are looking so forward to meeting and creating relationships to last, with each and everyone one of you. We are excited for everyone involved, as this marriage between Boekenoogen and McIntyre Wines, will be a great one!

Thank you isn’t enough, cheers to new beginnings and the continued success of Boekenoogen and McIntyre wines.

The Boekenoogen Family

May 6, 2024 at 4:00 AM Permalink

Steve McIntyre; Merlot Speaks, We Listen. Exploring the Wine Glass

It’s Monday, Let’s raise a glass to the beginning of another week. It’s time to unscrew, uncork or saber a bottle and let’s begin Exploring the Wine Glass! Today I am continuing the celebration of #MerlotMe month with Steve McIntyre of McIntyre Vineyards in  Monterey County. We talk about the impact the Santa Lucia Mtns have on the vineyards and the impact climate has on the final Merlot product. We taste through a vertical, comparing the 2016 and 2017 vintage. And they truly show how Mother Nature plays a role. So grab a glass of Merlot, get cozy and give a listen!

If you enjoy Exploring the Wine Glass, I’d appreciate you giving me some love by taking two minutes out of your day and swipe to rate and review on whatever app you listen on. It is the best way to support the show. Also, if you would like to keep up on everything Exploring the Wine Glass, head over to exploringthewineglass.com and sign up for the newsletter.

Explore this Podcast in several options

Nov 8, 2022 at 10:00 AM Permalink

à votre santé!

Review by JVB Uncorked << Article Here >>

McIntyre Vineyards 2015 Merlot, Kimberly Vineyards, Arroyo Seco AVA; Santa Rosa, CA.
14%ABV, SRP $25/bottle on release. 

Color is deep garnet center with ruby edging. The nose offers brooding black fruit, tobacco leaf, forest floor, and star anise. On the palate is a pleasing mixture of blackberry, plum, and black currants, with tertiary notes of mocha, cedar box, pencil shavings, and spiced vanilla.

The complexity of this wine might surprise you. It reminded me first, of how hauntingly beautiful and decadent merlot can be,  and secondly, and that my cellar is lacking in high-quality, single vineyard merlot!

Many winemakers spend their time on Merlot’s sibling- the OTHER child grape of Cabernet Franc: the often highly-priced Cabernet Sauvignon, which are the bodybuilders of the wine world. Too many winemakers ignore Merlot, who, like Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman, will delight and amaze with their subtle performances time and time again, with chameleon-like skill to adapt to roles so that the publiccould not imagine another actor in that role. That is the beauty of Merlot, and that is what you can expect from this bottle: maturity, depth, complexity, and elegance.  

I paired this impressive bottle over the course of a week with various dishes: potted steak and root vegetables; a second night with pasta with broccoli and garlic sauce; a third evening with baked salmon, greens and sweet potato.  The wine maintained the complex nose, dark flavor palette, structure, tannins, and acidity beautifully over the duration.

Do not let the price fool you, this is a beautiful wine that demonstrates the immense care and skill taken with vineyard and viticulture, as well as a controlled, specifically minimalistic winemaking process to allow the grape to show brilliance and its finest characteristics. This wine could easily sell at twice the price.

Winemaker Steve McIntyre continues to demonstrate how passionate winemakers can offer mature, top level, lip-smacking wines at a tremendous value to the general public with wines of such a high level of care and craftsmanship, while maintaining sustainability to the soul of the Santa Lucia Highlands and Salinas Valley. Bravo!  

What’s In YOUR glass?

#mcintyrewines #arroyoseco #merlot #review #wine

Jan 5, 2021 at 3:00 PM Permalink

#MerlotMe Month - You had me at Merlot

McIntyre Per Ardua Kimberly Vineyards Red Blend 2016

Full Article Here , Syrah Queen (October 10, 2020)

Per Ardua is the ancient Gallic motto for clan McIntyre. It means “Thru Difficulty,” a sentiment that is as significant today in the Santa Lucia Highlands as it was two centuries ago for our ancestors in the Scottish Highlands. This is a wine with a lot of personalities.  There arearomatic notes of cherry, tobacco and oak. McIntyre Per Ardua is a precisely structured wine with finesse and balance.  This wine is a real treat and deserves an equally special dish like Beef Wellington.

What's So Special About Merlot?

Full Article Here   Jill Barth (October 10, 2020)

Merlot has got some major vineyard acres under its belt. It is planted so widely that there’s only one wine grape with more roots in the ground, and that’s Cabernet Sauvignon.

According to Wine Business Monthly: “Merlot is grown all across the globe, including countries as diverse as Italy, Romania, Australia, Argentina, Bulgaria, Chile, Greece, Hungary, Mexico and South Africa. It is the second most-planted grape in Israel and can be found in Turkey, Croatia and Slovenia. In the United States, California and Washington have had the most success with the variety, but even Long Island, New York is having a successful go with it.”

It’s popular for good reason. It has the chops to adapt to a variety of climates and still retain an approachable, supple texture. It’s a key element in Bordeaux, a cornerstone to the iconic blends there, with some estimates reporting that two-thirds of Merlot in the world is at home in France.

Merlot has sides. Climate expression, from cool to warm, brings out profile differences. The New World and Old World also treat this variety differently.                             

Oct 20, 2020 at 6:00 PM Permalink

NEW Praises from Wine Enthusiast

EDITORS' CHOICE

CELLAR SELECTION

Click the image or the wine's name to purchase these wines today!

Jul 14, 2020 at 3:03 PM Permalink

McIntyre Wins Healthy Soils Grant!

The Healthy Soils Program (HSP) stems from the California Healthy Soils Initiative, a collaboration of state agencies and departments to promote the development of healthy soils on California's farmlands and ranchlands. The HSP Incentives Program provides financial assistance for implementation of conservation management that improve soil health, sequester carbon and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The HSP Demonstration Projects showcase California farmers and rancher's implementation of HSP practices. 

After CDFA’s careful study and analysis of our application, Monterey Pacific, Inc was awarded a grant that helped us fund two exciting projects: one at McIntyre Vineyard and the other at Brayden Vineyard. In partnership with the Xerces Society, we created a customized plant list consisting of species that were appropriate with each site and worked well with our climate. We were able to plant a hedgerow with native drought resistant plants like Milkweed, Salvia, Elderberry, and Manzanita, to name a few. We also planted a cover crop with a mix of flowering annuals and perennials to attract beneficial insects and to provide nectar year-round for pollinators. 

These efforts, planting hedgerow and cover crops, will enhance our biodiversity within the vineyard and provide habitat for endangered pollinators and food sources for beneficial insect population. Increasing our biodiversity allows us to reduce our need for pesticides because we will rely on biological controls for the pests and weeds. 

Now that we’ve been able to plant the hedgerow and cover crops, we will follow the growth and transformation of the agro-ecosystem in the years to come. As we follow its growth, we can compare the cover cropped rows with the unplanted rows in our other vineyards and witness the effect of natural predators on the pest populations. We will also be tracking the GHG reduction in the soil. 

We hope to see immediate benefits within these first few years. A burst in the insect population, will increase the bird population, which feeds on these insects. Since we have a year round cover crop, which we mow instead of till, this keeps carbon sequestered in the soil and enhances microbial activity. And as time progresses, the rest of the ecosystem will restore itself as long as we maintain the hedgerow and cover crops. 

We are excited to see this beautiful transformation of our agro-ecosystem for years to come!

May 4, 2020 at 3:30 PM Permalink

Have your parents had "the Talk" with you about Merlot? (Fred Swan)

McIntyre Merlot Kimberly Vineyard Arroyo Seco 2015

By fredswan@norcalwine.com. Published on December 15, 2019. {FULL ENTRY HERE}

McIntyre is best-known for their vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands AVA. The Pinot Noir vineyard, originally planted in 1972, arguably includes the first vitis vinifera planted in the region. But this article isn’t about the Santa Lucia Highlands or Pinot Noir or old vines. It’s about McIntyre Merlot you should buy by the case(s).

Have your Parents had “the Talk” with you about Merlot?

Before I get into this particular wine, let’s get some things out of the way about Merlot in general. If you’re old enough, you liked California Merlot in the 1980s. You hated Merlot in the late 1990s. You saw Sideways in 2004. And then you swore off Merlot in favor of Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, and obscure but yummy wines from places in Europe nobody can find on a map. OMG, me too!

If you’re young, you never liked Merlot. You never hated Merlot. You never saw the movie. And you skipped straight to Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, and obscure but yummy wines from places in Europe nobody can find on a map. I love your efficiency!

Fast forward… These days, Merlot isn’t an “It” grape. So, people who grow it are serious about it. People who order it expect quality—at prices lower than Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon. And that brings me back to the 2015 McIntyre Merlot, which we’ve agreed you’re buying by the case(s).

2015 McIntyre Merlot Kimberly Vineyard Arroyo Seco AVA 92+ 14.4% 750ml $…

This Merlot is from the Arroyo Seco AVA, which is just south of—and warmer than—the Santa Lucia Highlands. It’s still a moderately cool region and primarily associated with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. It has a long, dry, temperate growing season. That means growers can let their Merlot hang for as long as they like and the fruit will get ripe without losing much acidity or tannic structure.

Or tannic structure. Or tannic structure. The 2015 McIntyre Merlot, from their Kimberly Vineyard in Arroyo Seco, has beautiful black cherry fruit. And it has tannic structure for days.

How many days? That depends on your approach. In my case, for review purposes, it was three days. But it could be 1,825 days, or 3,650.

Upon initial opening and pouring, the opaque, ruby-purple Merlot offered friendly aromas of sweet spices, bing cherry jam, and cocoa. The first sip delivered full body with flavors that matched the nose. Then, the fine-grained, powdery and chalky tannins kicked in.

Tannins are attracted to protein. If you’re not eating protein-rich food with your wine, tannins collect the proteins in your saliva. Unfortunately, your taste buds rely on those same proteins. So, substantial tannins + no meat = short finish. The remedies are food, thorough decanting, or aging (aging the wine, not you, though they do seem to go hand-in-hand).

Meanwhile, back at the wine… After a few more grippy sips, I let it breathe in my glass for three hours. Re-tasting then showed no appreciable difference. That isn’t a bad thing. It can be a good thing. But it’s a thing you should know.

I put the cork back in the bottle and stored it in the fridge for three days. Then I poured myself a glass and let it come up to temperature for a couple of hours. I tasted the wine. It was the same as it had been three days before, except there was now a gorgeous cassis note on the nose too. Cassis notwithstanding, it was time for Plan D. 

I poured the wine into a decanter in a way that maximized air exposure. Then I poured it slowly back into the bottle, using a funnel, in a way that maximized air exposure. Then I poured it back into the decanter in a way that maximized air exposure. Then I let it sit there for an hour. 

Presto, change-o. The tannins were, and still are as I write this more than an hour later, thick and textural, but also luxurious and on the way to velvety. And they don’t get in the way of the finish, which is now long and delicious. Drinking it with some beef, the tannins are positively velvety.

So, How Much does the McIntyre Merlot Cost, Anyway?

The 2015 McIntyre Merlot comes in a heavy, thick-glassed bottle with a deep punt. Heavy bottles are expensive and associated with high-quality wines. Deep punts accommodate a lot of sediment (which precipitates over years in a cellar) and are associated with wines intended to age. Both suggest an expensive wine. The McIntyre Merlot is just $28.

Hence my mention of cases. If you like red wine that is full in the mouth, with rich, ripe—not overripe—fruit and plush tannins, you’re going to like this wine a lot. And, because of the structure, moderate acidity, and an abundance of fruit, it should age quite well. The tannins will slowly diminish and complexity will build. 

So, I’d consider buying a case. Open a bottle every two years. When the wine’s in a spot you love, go hog-wild on the rest. If you can afford two cases now, you can go hog-wilder later. I suspect the sweet spot will start in about five years, but it depends on how you like your wines and how cold your cellar is.

Sustainability

McIntyre Vineyards is SIP Certified.

[Sustainability is important and I think consumers should know which wineries are making an effort. From now on, I’ll be including notes on sustainability status for wines and wineries in articles when possible.]

Copyright Fred Swan 2019. Images courtesy of McIntyre Vineyards. All rights reserved.

About the author: Fred Swan is an Oakland-based writer, educator, and event sommelier. He’s written for GuildSomm.com, Daily.SevenFifty.com, The Tasting Panel, SOMM Journal, PlanetGrape.com, and more. Fred teaches a wide range of classes at the San Francisco Wine School. He’s founder/producer of Wine Writers’ Educational Tours, an annual, educational conference for professional wine writers. He also leads seminars, private wine tours, and conducts tastings, dinners, and events for wineries, companies, and private parties. Fred’s certifications include WSET Diploma, Certified Sommelier, California Wine Appellation Specialist, Certified Specialist of Wine, French Wine Scholar, Italian Wine Professional, Napa Valley Wine Educator, Northwest Wine Appellation Specialist, and Level 3 WSET Educator. He’s twice been awarded a fellowship by the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers.

Dec 16, 2019 at 3:00 PM Permalink

Exploring Meatless Merlot Pairings

Proprietor Steve McIntyre is one of the most knowledgeable viticulturists in California.  As owner/operator of Monterey Pacific, he and his team farm 12,000 acres in Monterey County and have planted or farmed nearly one quarter of the vineyards in the renowned Santa Lucia Highlands AVA. 

The McIntyre Estate Vineyard lies in the “sweet spot” of Monterey County’s Santa Lucia Highlands AVA, a 12-mile stretch of benchland renowned for production wines of character and complexity. Originally planted in 1973, the 80-acre site (60 acres planted) boasts some of the Highlands’ oldest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines. The winery’s other estate property is the 81-acre Kimberly Vineyard in Arroyo Seco.  The Arroyo Seco AVA produces deep, powerful, well-structured Merlot. The McIntyre Estate Vineyard was among the first properties in the Santa Lucia Highlands to be SIP (Sustainability in Practice) Certified. 

Fruit for the 2015 McIntyre Vineyards Merlot Kimberly Vineyard was sourced from 20 year old vines.  It pours a nearly opaque garnet with dark and red fruit, violets, tobacco, licorice, and a hint of cola aromas. On the palate it’s full bodied and elegant with vibrant acidity and velvety well integrated tannins. It shows ripe blackberry, black cherry, black currant, a hint of boysenberry vanilla, graphite, licorice and savory spice flavors with a hint of cacao and a very satisfying finish. 14% abv|SRP-$25. Wonderful QPR with this alluring wine.  (Martin Redmond, Enoflyz Blog)

Nov 6, 2019 at 1:00 PM Permalink