Chardonnay, Mendocino County, "Francine's Selection"

Merlot, Russian River Valley Reserve, "Richard McDowell Vineyard"

Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley, "Goldie's Vines"

Dry Rose of Pinot Noir, Sonoma County, "Eye of the Toad"

Zinfandel, Paso Robles, "Cacophony"

Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley Reserve, "Rod's Pride"

Cabernet Sauvignon, California, "Concinnity"

Sauvignon Blanc, Paso Robles, "Askew"

Erik's the Red, Proprietary Red Wine

Amplexus Sparkling Wine

Risque Sparkling Wine

Le Faux Frog

2006 Toad Hollow Chardonnay,
Francine's Selection, Mendocino County

The vineyards used are 90% Mendocino County and 10% Sonoma County.

The residual sugar is less than 0.2% (DRY).

Alcohol is 13.76%….but due to the balance of Fruit VS. Acid, you don’t taste the “heat”

42,000 cases produced in the same fashion as the ‘93 vintage (our first) of which we produced 3000 cases. And we feel that the wine is every bit as good as our best vintage to date (‘94).

We are now drinking our 2003 vintage Chardonnay. The wines are long lived, especially at the price point.

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2005 Merlot Reserve, Richard McDowell Vineyard, Russian River Valley

In 1995 we pulled out 16 acres of Golden Delicious apples and planted the soil to Merlot. Although the Russian River Valley that we call home is known for its ability to grow stellar Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, we decided that we would plant the grape that gave the mighty Petrús its center—this grape is Merlot!

We knew that Merlot, unlike Cabernet Sauvignon, was supposed to be a supple, sexy and elegant red wine and not a big, tannic bomb. Thanks to Richard McDowell, our vineyard manager, and for whom the vineyard is named, we have nurtured this vineyard and the grapes that it produces into the consummate
benchmark of the Merlot style.

This Merlot Reserve was planted, grown and bottled by Toad Hollow Vineyards. This is the fifth vintage of our first reserve wine. As we have explained in the past, Merlot does best in sandy, claylike soils as proven in the Province of Pomerol in France where the mighty Petrús is produced—the pinnacle of all Merlots! We had the soil, we had the cuttings, and we had the perfect medium temperature range preferred by the Merlot grape to do its best!

This is a gentle but sinuous noble red wine that welcomes most company with a warm generosity of taste as well as the versatility of filling many sensory needs on many levels.

This is a wine that will cellar and age beautifully for ten to fifteen years, but also sports the spontaneity of a young thoroughbred raring to run now or to carry easily into the next decade.

We hope that you enjoy drinking this beautiful wine as much as we did making it!

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2005 Pinot Noir, Goldie's Vines, Russian River Valley, Sonoma County

Here we go again! This is the seventh vintage from our beautiful Goldie’s Vines Vineyard here at the Ranch! It seems that every year the grapes are a little more intense and have a bit more flavor profile than the previous vintage.

This year is no exception – it is our best to date.

My favorite descriptor of this vineyard is from my partner Rod.

“Pinot Noir, the diva of the reds loves to sleep late and awaken slowly as the sun gently warms her flesh. In the beautiful Russian River Valley, the cool evening fog rolls in like a soft blanket to embrace and protect her until late morning.”

This is the story of the wonderful Goldie’s Vines Vineyard. There are (6) different clones – (3) different root stocks – and a perfect SE facing slope above the Russian River that is the “bed” for these lovely grapes. Fog, river bottom gravel, and the longest and slowest ripening season in America solve this mystery that is so delicious.

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2007 Eye of the Toad Rose'

Pretty in Pink and Proud of it!

At a time when most American Rosé wines have either an overabundance of residual sugar or are “flabby” and lacking in acidity, we here at Toad Hollow continue to produce true French-Style, bone dry, and elegant Rosé wine produced from the noble Pinot Noir grape.

This is our NINTH vintage of Pinot Noir Rosé and, by far, our best to date. The wine has incredible body and weight for a Rosé of Pinot Noir. The color is a beautiful pink with a hint of “Beaujolais blue”. This wine has a nose of rose petals and violets. Whether in sun or shade, this is a truly dry, uncomplicated statement of Pinot Noir at its lightest and most delicate which we proudly call our ROSÉ.

It is very important to keep all sources of sugar out of Rosé and allow the classic grapes to speak for themselves. This wine is uncluttered by any real or imagined saccharin-like improvements to the breed. There are many people out there that are bold enough to taste our Rosé and are converted to its single honest statement of “here come the grapes…grab some as they come by”.

Spice and pepper bring out the wonderful wild strawberry flavors. A wine that is great with sushi and wasabi or spicy Thai food.

We know that you’ll love it. (But don’t be surprised if it gets fresh with you!)

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Ca•coph´o•ny: raucous, tempestuous, discordant. Sounds more like the good Dr. Toad. Reverse the words to describe the wine: elegant, smooth, harmonious. Toad Hollow still dances to a different tune, as this rich Paso Robles Zin will attest. Zinfandel … The Enigmatic Masterpiece

In the late 1850's or thereabouts, this marvelous grape landed on our shores and put down its roots. It has served us well for 150 years with kindness and forgiveness. It has forgiven our many transgressions into other recipes of frivolity and silliness.

Zinfandel has stuffed into many different packages along the way. Some white, some pink, but mostly red, the original and best-suited color for this excellent vinifera.

The Zinfandel grape is difficult to grow. It does not ripen evenly, sometimes
finishing the growing season with many red interspersed berries that offer problems with both mature sugar and ripening. Our fifth release of the Toad Hollow Cacophony Zinfandel is a Paso Robles appellation where the long hot days and chilly nights are just what zinfandel vines thrive upon. The new offering is 92% zinfandel with a smattering of other fun Paso Robles area varietals folded in for additional character, and dare I say, excitement! Our ZEN ZIN. Fragrant with juicy raspberries and pomegranates, it wants to dance, but not alone. So join the party and let it RIP. Let it DRIP. After all, it’s a juicy, jammy wine that you should allow in your pleasure zone with great rewards. Faster music, stronger wine! Finish what the sun has started. After all, it’s red, it’s lip smackin’ delicious and most of all, it’s from Toad Hollow where the party’s just begun!

Encore! Encore!

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Our friend and partner Rod was an icon in the wine industry. He pioneered many innovations in this business and was an entrepreneur and risk taker par excellence. Through it all, he was a Pinot Noir and Burgundy lover and was very excited when he planted Goldie’s Vines – a vineyard named for his mother. He began to realize his dream of making world class Pinot Noir from this very special patch of Russian River Valley earth. He planted six different clones on four different root stocks in the most beautiful southeast facing sloped vineyard in the valley. It was the perfect starting point to forge this wonderful wine.

Life isn’t fair and in the middle of the project, Rod was stricken and was unable to physically continue at the helm of his dream. The rest of us at Toad Hollow have chosen to carry on that dream in his stead. Rod’s Pride is the end result of the amazing fruit from this exceptional vineyard coupled with the finest French cooperage, a world class winemaking facility and the expertise of our award-winning consulting winemaker, Ray Coursen of Elyse Winery. An absolutely stellar combination!

The label pays tribute to Rod’s youthful days as a dancer in Paris and on Broadway. The back label shows him in “full leap” and the front label is the “Toad Reflection”. Rod believed that wine was the perfect blend of the earth and the arts, and we hope that you find this wine a worthy reflection of that belief.

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Concinnity: A perfect blend—a beautiful marriage.

A true Concinnity...

We here at Toad Hollow have balked at making a Cabernet Sauvignon for years since we don’t personally grow the varietal and we could not find the quality of fruit that we would demand to make a premium wine at a reasonable price. We have finally overcome that obstacle and are proud to introduce a greatCabernet Sauvignon at a more than reasonable price.

Although this is a limited production wine, we hope you will enjoy drinking it asmuch as we enjoy putting the blend (the marriage, if you will) together.

The Toad Marches Onward and Upward!

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Named for the famous Norseman-sailor-conqueror and, obviously, a man with a great palate-Erik the Red.

This is a wonderful blend of EIGHTEEN – yes, count em’-different varietals of grapes from the beautiful Paso Robles area of the Central Coast of California. Toad Hollow – like Erik – is not afraid to hop into the fray and make a wine that is not only big and chewy, but still has a modicum of understated elegance. WOW! What a wine. This is our third bottling of a red wine under the Erik’s the Red label and, as you will see, with each bottling the wine becomes more interesting and complex. The majority of the blend is Cabernet Franc, Petit Sirah and Zinfandel, with a modicum of Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, Mourvedre, Refosco, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Primitivo, and Rubired only to be polished at the end with Barbera, Petit Verdot, Syrah, Counoise, Chardonnay, and Sangiovese. If you have a particular grape that grabs your fancy, you’re sure to find it here – find it, we dare you.

Similar to the temperament of the commanding Scandinavian explorer, this wine is not for the “faint of heart” as it is big, robust and powerful. But when you come across a mighty meal that is up to the challenge, such as prime rib or a rack of lamb, Erik’s the Red is sure to slay any other wine in its path!

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Amplexus Crémant Brut Sparkling Wine

In the year 1531, the Limoux region in the south of France began producing a delicious sparkling wine that was much admired and acclaimed. Even before the discovery of Champagne, the Blanquette de Limoux was well known and sought after as France’s first sparkling wine. That tradition continues today.

The wines are grown in a region that enjoys three very different climatic influences. They converge to produce the ideal climates for the production of the grapes that are needed to produce these unique wines.

To the south, the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains provide a cool, slow ripening process that allows the grapes to develop crispness and ample acidity. The fruit from there is allowed to stay on the vine longer, nurturing on the parent for added complexity. To the west, the fruit is under the influence of the Atlantic Ocean, with its natural rains and temperate humidity. Third in the trilogy of climatic influences is the Mediterranean Sea. With its warm dry winds, it assures good ripening each season with full maturity and ample degrees of sugar for a major wine. After harvest and a slow cool fermentation, the blends are made and the bottles are laid down on their sides for their secondary and final aging. The wines are left for over two years on the yeast, giving the marvelous Crémant style for which the area is justifiably famous.

The wine is robust, with tiny bubbles and a long elegant finish. It is virtually dry, with a very small dosage, but rich in texture providing a very sensual mouth feel. The blend of grapes for this unusual wine is Chardonnay, Mauzac, and Chenin Blanc in proportion to the yields of the harvest each year and the individual propensities of the wine. We only choose the very best of the wines each year for our Amplexus. It is our Tête de Cuvée! Go ahead, let it go to your head. You will be amused.

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Vibrant! Frivolous! And ... Oo-Lah-Lah ...

When Can-Can was introduced in Paris in the 1830's, it was quickly dubbed, "Le Ballet Risqué" for its rousing energy marked by high kicks and daring naughtiness. Soon it became a symbol for the Parisians' famous devil-may-care attitude.

"Risqué" recaptures that spirit. This "vin vivant" (lively wine) is a crisp and fruity sparkling wine with low alcohol (6%) and the taste of fresh green apples and pears. Softly effervescent with just enough sweetness to seduce your palate as an aperitif or tempt you when you want something perfectly naughty to finish ... or, perhaps ... to start again!

Methode Ancestrale

Oxford Companion to Wine - This method is rarely used and results in a lightly sparkling, medium sweet wine. It involves bottling young wines before all the residual sugar has been fermented into alcohol. Fermentation continues in the bottle and gives off carbon dioxide. The wine is designed to be sweeter and less fizzy than a champagne method sparkling wine and no dosage is allowed.

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Le Faux Frog Wines
Presented by Toad Hollow Vineyards

When you search for diamonds, you don’t find them easily, or under every rock. The same is true of fine wines. In our search for fine wines at reasonable cost, we traveled the south of France from Toulouse to Carcasanne, from Montpelier to Narbonne, and ultimately to the village of Limoux. Limoux is set among rolling hills with many grapes grown on their slopes. It enjoys the cool maritime intrusion of the Atlantic air. This is ideal for the growing of Chardonnay and the early ripening Merlot. It was there we found wines that were truly exemplary in quality and stood well above the many wines we tasted across the broad band of vineyards of the Midi and in Southern France.

We here at Toad Hollow Vineyards have produced the Le Faux Frog Wines since 1996…and after 11 years we think that these new releases are the best to date! The wines are produced in a state of the art facility and the grapes are from the best low yielding, hillside vineyards in the Limoux district. Now our new updated labels are as elegant and fun as the wines.

The Chardonnay is not mauled by a crusher but only whole-bunch pressed (as in Champagne). All movement of grapes, must, and juice is done by gravity feed without damage from the pump’s impellers. All are kept in low temperature controlled-refrigerated tanks to maintain the fruit values. The final result is a superior wine!

The Merlot is one of the finest in the district– and in the Toad Hollow tradition, is not “massaged” and is 100% Merlot and has the distinct and elegant/silky flavor of the merlot grape – not convoluted or masked in any way. Aged in older French cooperage so as not to influence the flavor and let the wine soften in the barrel.

Our last offering is the Syrah– the most noble of the black varieties. Syrah plantings in France have increased ten fold over the last twenty years and the most spectacular of the new plantings have been in the Languedoc. This is a rich, dark, and intense wine that offers incredible quality for a reasonable price.

In a world that knows no boundaries, Toad Hollow is pleased to present these three unusual wines to our customers. They represent the same care and high standards that we have always insisted go into all of our wines.

The superior taste of the Le Faux Frog wines is quite enough to distinguish them from others, but we thought that you deserved to know why. Now we believe you do!

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