Thursday, July 26, 2007

It's Getting Hot in Here!

So, today has been a very busy day. I'm pretty sure that by noon I should be able to leave and go home. To give you a little insider stuff, as well as co-running our winery I have taken on the position of the President of the Board for the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance in the future to be called simply the WWVWA. Today our grower representative, great guy, decided to hold a grower meeting. Well, most of you know we winery people typically get up a little later and then we socialize into the wee hours of every morning (o.k. not entirely true but let's keep the myth going...) so, the meeting was held at 7am! Ouch!!! actually after a cup of coffee and some really good dialogue it was well worthwhile. But, considering the hour I'm thinking I've almost put in a full day! The grower meeting was very insightful and again brought home what a fantastic area Walla Walla is to live in and source fruit from. Some really knowledgeable people who are willing to share ideas and things going on in the vineyards.

So, back to my day job. We (the Royal we) have been working on our final blend for the 2006 Calico Red. We are so excited about it! Steffan comes up with different options and then Amber, Julie and I blind taste through them. He's not necessarily putting us in the driver's seat but is looking for outside thoughts on the wines, their balance, and finish. We love the task because we are part of the effort and it's totally cool when we're all on the same page. This year we have decided that a little more Syrah (from our very coveted 2006 still in barrels, varietal program) will be used to add the fruit forwardness we are looking for and in addition completing the overall balance. When Steffan came up with his final blend that we all loved I recall saying it was like he just put the ribbon on it and it's a complete package. Yummy! We'll finish our bottling the end of August so Amber in the meantime has been ordering all of the supplies.

Amber and I are off to Seattle this weekend for a tasting at Esquin from 1 - 4 pm on Saturday. We are totally looking forward to that and then we may catch a Storm game on Sunday. We have not been to a game for years so sounds like fun.

Next Friday at 8am (why do people get up so early? ;-) I have been asked to participate on a radio show called, On the Grapevine, a local station KTEL 1490 AM. It's co-hosted by Mike Paul and Andrew Holt. Their spot is the first Friday of each month. They are great guys and I'm hoping not to embarrass myself too much. You never know what can come out of my mouth at 8am. If any of you are awake having coffee tune in so you can poke fun of me at a later date...seems to be a theme around here!

O.k. that's all for now. Have a great weekend and if you're over here on the east side, stay cool!

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

New to This!

O.k....sitting at my desk trying to figure out this blogging thing! Hopefully I'll get better at this as I go. Amber and I thought the first thing to get out there in public is that although we seem hip, cool and totally with it, (HA! - now you know we're kidding) our technological skills are lacking somewhat. The good news is that we have enough friends who will first, berate us for this blog attempt then offer to help us because they are embarrassed for us. So, just rest assured that we'll get the hang of it! I wish this was somewhat more like texting because then my typos wouldn't seem so obvious...who cares if you misspell a word when you're texting from your new iphone or in my case an old clunky pink cellphone I'm stuck with because Sprint won't let me out of my contract! So, as you read this if you see areas for improvement by all means (as long as they are constructive - or humorous) send them our way! P.S. had to spell humorous...took a second then discovered the spell check button at the top of the blog.

So, Steffan is out and about in Seattle this week. It's his first time doing a market visit and he has done a wonderful job! He's making new friends and proving that yes we do have an amazing winemaker on board. I have to say it's always a little more peaceful at the winery when he's out because we're not signing huge checks for the next great winemaking tool! But in all seriousness he does a fantastic job and we love working with Steffan. O.k. so back to his trip, he has done two winemaker dinners, one at Brix 25 in Gig Harbor and one at Sip in Issaquah. He's driving around the city now with a coffee in hand going from account to account showing them our wines and telling them about ours and his winemaking style. So many people find it hard to feel sorry for us when we're on the road because we truly are meeting fabulous folks, eating tons of great food and of course enjoying a glass of wine (or two) all in the name of business!

Amber and I have had to start working out just to keep up with the food intake. We've been all over the country since February including Texas, New Jersey, Arizona, Idaho, Oregon, Washington D.C., Baltimore, and Virginia to name a few (oops multiple trips across Washington) and have not traveled to a place yet we did not like. We have a blast eating seasonally across the country and learning about the various chef's interpretations of pairings for our wines. Our distributor teams are a blast, talk about a tough job....that's for another blog. So, with glass in hand and a smile on my face...cheers to you the brave reader and cheers to us for our first blog!