Harvest is here!

Oooooh, don't you wish you could smell the amazing aroma of vinifera grapes fermenting? I inhale as deeply as I can each morning when I walk into the winery.

It's September 25th and we have so far brought in Merlot and Syrah. Today we will receive our first Viognier fruit.

Today I tank tested the Merlot with Steffan and it is already showing amazing fruit flavors and an elegance with structure and intensity. We have one lot of Merlot almost dry and the remaining Merlot still has some time to go through primary fermentation.


I drove last Friday to pick up Merlot from the Wahluke Slope and the first picture shows just about all you see on the way there. The 2nd photo is from Stone Tree Vineyards. The last photo is me driving our bad boy dodge with about 6 tons of fruit. The games have begun!

The Accidental Work Out

Last week I spent a little time in the fun city of Denver, Colorado. Talk about beautiful weather including sunny skies and temperatures in the mid to upper 70's. I did not have a car so was kind of forced to walk everywhere. In Walla Walla that doesn't always work as well because we are a little more suburban and things are not typically within "walking distance". In all reality, some things are within walking distance but our minds are programmed to hop in the car and take a drive. With fuel prices soaring we are trying to do our part to reduce our carbon foot print so with that being said I walked all over downtown Denver. I even accidentally walked 6 blocks to go work out. I was staying at the Curtis Hotel, a fun, new hotel that did not have their work out area up and running. The hotel supposedly has an in house cardio area, but I walked all over trying to find it and in my mind almost completed my workout. Then I walked to the front desk to ask where this cardio room was and they handed me a pass to the Colorado Athletic Club. So, pass in hand, no money, no credit cards or change of clothes I headed out onto the sidewalk and walked almost 7 blocks south to the club. I walked in (kind of winded) and headed towards the gym. I then walked all over the club trying to find towels thus obtaining yet another workout. After 30 minutes on the elliptical and then another 30 minutes with the weights I was ready to go. Not having a change of clothes I walked into the women's locker room and blow dried my shirt. Yep, a few folks wondered what I was doing but I was determined not to walk back to the hotel looking like a wreck.

Back to biz...I met some great folks while I was in Denver and was lucky enough to get to hang out with "D-Frol" of L'Ecole. We had fun checking out the restaurants and then I had fun picking her super intelligent, and super experienced brain on the ways of the wine world. I shared information as much as possible but when some one's being doing this longer than you've been around it's a little tough. Our schedules were completely the same and what we found out is that we have a lot in common. I'd like to list one big thing we share in common called "anal retentiveness". D-Frol, you know it's true so don't get mad! :-) It's super cool and fun to know that other folks have a need for organization as well. I didn't even need to look inside her much nicer looking folder than my worn Manila folder, I could tell you exactly what was in her file. She had all the same print-outs and trip preparedness going on that I did.

So here are a few differences from our trip. She had an amazingly successful Taste Washington Denver trade show. Perfect spot in the room and had tons of traffic to her table. I, on the other hand, was shoved in the furthest back corner of the room, blocked by another distributor directing traffic to their client wineries and then to add insult to injury our name was left out of the tasting booklet. I was amazed, shocked and embarrassed. So, I touted Bergevin Lane as the "best kept secret". I'm kind of wondering if it's still a secret that we were even there. The folks who did come to my table really enjoyed the wines and I was very proud because they were showing fantastic. I poured our 2005 Calico Red, 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon and our 2005Syrah. It was a red head day!

The next day was very fun because I did a ride-along with Elizabeth from our sales team in Denver. This is called a market visit. We were in the car from 9am until 6pm. There goes the carbon footprint but as far as we went we would've been walking for a week. We met a great group of folks and they were very receptive to Washington Wine. Here's how this stuff happens. Our distributor makes the appointments and then are kind enough to drive us around and work with us for however many days we're in the market. They devote about 98% of their day to working on our product. We drive to restaurant or retail accounts and meet the wine buyers. I would say that 95% of wine buyers are super fun, interesting people who have a passion for food, wine and the fun things in life. We sit down with the wine buyers and pull out our products. We then, wine by wine, taste through the wines. I sit excited and nervous and wait in anticipation for their response. These folks know how to taste wine so I don't tell them what they are tasting, I will share vineyards, blends and barrel treatments. Our sales rep in the meantime is hoping that because we've come all this way from the winery that we can add some additional excitement to the product. They are typically on some sort of commission so I feel obliged to help make things happen. We had a relatively good day but I learned that we still have a ways to go to get our name recognized. Not sure if it's just us or if there are so many brands out in the market that it's hard to keep track of all the wineries. The wines showed very well and we got some pretty good commitments. I would say it was a successful day. Now back to D-Frol, she went out in the market and got glass pours. For restaurant account placements that is when you do a happy dance.

Amber or I will keep traveling back to Colorado and rest assured there will be a day when Amber or I will be doing that same glass pour happy dance! You go D-Frol!!!

P.S. After D-Frol's market success she had a great dinner that evening and ordered an in-room movie (which cost almost as much as the room). I on the other hand walked, yet again, to pick up take-out food and watched cable T.V.'s "The Biggest Loser" oh, and ate a suger daddy. In house movies are a special treat for "closers!"

The Big Catch

I haven't written any updates to the blog lately because we've been in kind of an in between time period. We just went to Seattle for a wonderful trade tasting, we've been at home getting ready for harvest and sitting staring and waiting for all of our tomatoes to ripen. Very Very busy! :-)

Yesterday I had a wonderful opportunity to "go fishin" with one of our Swirlies and it was fantastic! My legs are aching today from walking up the stream and making my way through rapids and over slimy slippery rocks. It was a beautiful afternoon outside of Walla Walla and I couldn't have asked for a better evening.

So, do you want the fish tale or the real story!? I had MANY fish on my line but was only able to land this bad boy shown. He was a fighter and my rod almost snapped! (HA) but after HOURS of struggle I landed him. Truth, I had a good tug, got lucky and within about 20 seconds had the little dude in my hand.

Now fisherman Bruce...a whole basement dedicated to the art of fly fishing complete with an equipment storage area, outfitting area, a library of fly fishing books and a wall of fly materials. Who said guys can't sew? He was working on each fly and had the most detailed, involved knots, including fur, fuzzy string, clipping, really no cussing to speak of and in the end this beautiful little fly was created on a hook with no barbs that made my life fabulous and frustrated in one fell swoop.

So, back to the river, we hiked, fished, looked for the next great pool and continued on all afternoon. We fished until we couldn't see our fly and decided to call it a wrap. I hadn't thought about wine for 4 1/2 hours, I hadn't thought about food or anything...just my cast, keeping my right index finger on the line, watching the drift and waiting for "THE BITE!"

We walked back to the car and it took at least 30 minutes. I realized just how lost I got in fly fishing. Then my legs realized how lost I got in fly fishing too. Thank heavens for an almost full moon. We literally walked down the river by the light of the silvery moon (pun intended). So, to each of you out there looking for an adventure...my suggestion fly fishing. It's sustainable, it's great exercise for the mind and body and it's definitely good for the soul!

(The 2nd picture shows a profile of a fly fisher woman, notice the belt around the waders to accentuate the waist...the cute little footies that slip into borrowed boots that have felt on the bottom. What I felt was a glaring omission on my part was that I was missing my fly vest and hat!...well, maybe next time.)