Welcome to First Off,…(Notes from Production), our KNA Wine Blog, a collection of insights from the vineyard, cellar, & lab, general interest and research articles, & links to archived technical papers and talks by Napa & Sonoma Valley-based winemaker Kristof Nils Anderson.

The terms “First Off” & “Last Off” refer to case goods pulled from the bottling line at the beginning or end of each product run, lest wine be mixed with trace amounts of water or the previous wine bottled. These cases are always set aside & never sold. Some bottles eventually make their way home and are enjoyed by the winemaker (& his wife), in much the same way that “chef’s vegetables,” the carrots, onion & celery used to flavor stock for a sauce, never make it to a diner’s plate but may be eaten by kitchen staff — the good, secret stuff that comes along with the hard work of creating.

Our goal is to communicate about the passion for winemaking from the unique & substantive perspective of those usually too busy working hard to talk about it: those in production. This is the winemaker’s world unfiltered, the world of spreadsheets, mathematical formulas, shared tacos, grape contracts, teeth & hands stained purple. We think a unique beauty resides, not only in the picturesque vineyard rows & exquisite winery dinners alfresco, those sales & marketing department cliches, but also in the common tools of the trade: forklifts, pylons, bins, trailers, pizza boxes, propane cylinders, bungs, corks & capsules. We hope you will, too!

—Cheers! Kristof & Jennifer

An example of a “first off” case, pulled from the bottling line.

Notes from Production…

the winemaker’s perspective.