Fun in Walla Walla

O.k....last weekend was a whirlwind. Started off Friday afternoon with a celebration of our great aunt's life. Margaret Bergevin passed away October 7th at the age of 93. Her funeral was mixed with sadness but an undercurrent of strength. She left quite a legacy. Her immediate family are made up of many farmers and cowboys. The younger folks and out of town folks felt a little out of place without their Wranglers. I saw a few new pairs of boots (current purchases) in the tasting room over the weekend! We saw relatives we have not seen in some time and met many new ones as well. So, our thoughts and prayers are with Great Aunt Margaret. Your presence made the world a happier place!

We had our first chance to meet our cousin Jake Bergevin, his wife Christina and their two boys. He is a fabulous Jazz musician as well as a really nice guy. He and his band ended up doing a little improv down at the Backstage Bistro on Friday night. You can check out Jake's website at www.jakebergevinmusic.com We have both of his CD's in the tasting room.

While that was going on I was attending the 5th annual Entwine auction. It was a really nice evening, great auction packages, really fun people and The Marc did a great job. I had to give a speech (which could be a whole story in itself) and it was in front of the whole group, approximately 405 folks including Governor Gregoire. Can you say nervous??? I'd tell you how it went but I can't remember...think I blocked it out. ;-)

Saturday the tasting room was busy and full of really cool people. We caught up on news about our good friend Bear (one of the owners of West Seattle Cellars) and he is doing much better so hugs and kisses Bear! We miss you.

Saturday evening was spent with friends. Without mentioning names I think I'm still laughing at our conversation. I'll be watching the mail to see if we get an evaluation on the evening. I hope we passed! I'd love at least 1 - 2 exceeds expectations. These folks just made it possible for 100 children in Laos to receive new uniforms compliments of Dennis Uniform and FedEx. You can check out the story (go to May 7th) at www.wegougo.blogspot.com We had dinner at Saffron, Island and the whole crew were amazing! We then went over to Backstage Bistro and listened to Gail Pettis. Her vocals are amazing and she sang the best rendition of Happy Birthday I think I've ever heard to our friend Julie. We shared a bottle of Jaden's Reserve 2003, had some 1994 Andrew Will Cabernet Sauvignon, a glass of champagne, decaf coffee and we were full. I mean stuffed...no more room!

Sunday I cooked most of the day and made the Cook's Illustrated, Nov/Dec 2007 Pot Roast using a bottle of our 2004 Merlot. The evening was spent with family, our dear friend "E", and an amazing 2002 Leonetti Reserve, thank you dad!

All in all...what a nice weekend. The sun was shining...Life is good.

Harvest A-B-C's

Harvest is about half to three quarters of the way complete. Here's the scoop on getting the fruit to the winery.

A) Go to each vineyard site often and randomly sample the clusters. Be sure to take your 4 and 3/4 year old daughter so that she can laugh because it's so much fun, then complain because her legs hurt from so much walking, then giggle because she gets a special treat for helping out in the vineyard, then cry because she got a sticker in her boot, then wonder where in the heck she can go to the bathroom almost before it's too late. Then jump back in the truck and drive fast, because it is a long way to the port-a-potty only to hear her yell, "I can't believe I'm going to the bathroom in the port-a-potty", and then hear her yell, "new rule, NO MORE port-a-potty's". Then get back in the truck haul yourself back to the last block you were sampling in and start again. Start randomly selecting your clusters until you have the correct amount needed for your lab analyst. If you are the owner of the winery be sure to calculate just how much wine could have been produced from all of the clusters you had to sample to see if the fruit is ready. Try to get the thoughts about shorting the amount of fruit you are picking for the lab person out of your mind so that you have a good sample.

B) Walk into the winery with your sample bags feeling quite accomplished because you've just walked about 15 miles, carried about 20 lbs in each arm and your daughter made it out on her own two legs. Hand the loot over to the winemaker, make sure to let him know how much you went through and hard hard you worked to get those samples!

C) Sample the vineyard over and over until you're sure there is no more fruit left in the vineyard to even sample! :-) Then wait for the call that the fruit if ready, now your excitement level starts to build. Call your dad who is now mad at you because he's driving truck (pretty much for free) and let him know the fruit is ready for pickup. Know he hasn't complained too much (in all seriousness he is the best and doesn't complain) but you randomly hear comments that his golf game is just awful. Inside realize, it's probably due to the fact he's been driving truck about every day. Hang out until you get the call...."I'm 15 minutes away with the fruit!" Get your crew ready and yell, "Game On!" ...more harvest notes to follow.

A quickie! Project Foodie!

O.k. we've been meaning to get this link on our blog site so here goes...as some of you know my passion is food and I've been addicted to cooking shows ever since I started watching the galloping gourmet waaaaaay back when. I think I was about 5 years old. I graduated to PBS Saturday when they started their cooking programs and now am a fan of Bravo and FoodTV network cooking shows. I'm always playing with recipes but am not a trained chef so for as many success stories that I have in the kitchen there are also many train wrecks! Thanks to my family for sticking with me!

We were approached by a woman named Pam and she said via email, "Project Foodie (http://www.projectfoodie.com) does spotlights on wineries in which we present a recipe and wine pairing to tantalize our readers with amazing wines."

Talk about perfect timing, I had just made a dish using our Calico White and had taken a picture...don't ask me why I take pictures of my food. I guess you could call me obsessed, or ask if I don't have anything better to do OR you could guess that I was thinking about making a personal cookbook for my family members. My recipes are totally raw stuff...meaning not professional, not specific ingredient amounts because I use a little of this, a little of that and I always have a glass of wine in hand when I'm cooking. So, back to the story...click on the link and you will see what I'm talking about. A huge thanks to Pam with projectfoodie.com. She was fantastic to work with! Check out their site.