By: Fritz Hatton and Caren Hatton
The Arietta August Update
Happy height of summer! No doldrums for Arietta—this is a year of big changes. The most exciting change is the move of Arietta’s production to the new Hudson Ranch winery in Carneros. Lee and Cristina Hudson have grown the lion’s share of Arietta’s grapes since our first vintage in 1996. While Arietta breaks new ground as an Alternating Proprietor at Hudson Ranch, the moves seems a natural one. The southern end of Napa Valley—Carneros and Coombsville—will now be home to all of Arietta’s operations, except for our Sauvignon Blanc source on Sonoma Mountain. We await state licensing which will permit us to host limited Arietta tastings on the grounds of the fabulous Hudson facility, and look forward to welcoming subscribers at this new location.
Our move to Hudson coincides with the introduction of the 2018 vintage Arietta wines. Early tasters and critics have proclaimed the 2018 vintage in Napa an all-time great. The vintage yielded generous quantities of rich, ripe wines with staying power. Arietta Winemaker Andy Erickson commented, “Sometimes the most normal, drama-free vintages produce the most compelling wines. Such is the case with 2018, which from the beginning was a fairly textbook growing season.”
Bottling of the 2018 Arietta red wines, expertly overseen by Arietta’s Assistant 
Winemaker Patrick Nyeholt, took place on June 22 and 23. Stay tuned for our offer of the 2018 Arietta Hudson Vineyards wines—H Block, Merlot, and Variation One—in early September. The offer will arrive via Arietta’s completely redesigned website. Caren managed this project over the last year, corralling a trove of information detailing Arietta’s quarter-century history and the many wines we have made since our first vintage. We hope you find the new site a bit easier to navigate. Websites are always works in progress, and we welcome your comments!
The Arietta animal family has grown this year. We welcomed Maisie, a newborn Bernese Mountain dog, in March. Now six months old and weighing sixty pounds, she is already much too large to be a lap dog, but that does not keep her from trying! Two new chicks have taken up residence in the coop, and we offer naming rights to subscribers who email us their suggestions. Please remember they are ladies! There’s more! A very talkative sun conure (parrot) gave Caren the eye as she was buying dog food, and left the store with her. His name is Mango.
Thinking ahead! If you are interested in gifting Arietta wine to business clients (or extended family) in advance of the holidays, now would be a good time to start planning. We are happy to customize Arietta wine gift sets for you and include personalized messages.
We are fortunate to have so much forward momentum in such an unprecedented time. The support of you, our subscribers, spurs us on!