"Hot" Winemaker

Steffan has been blogged as a "hot" winemaker from the Wine Muse...thought we'd share. How "hot" is this....
Check it out!

The Blog

Amber just harrassed me for not blogging since September 17th. I quickly reminded her that I have not actually blogged since August 12th. She did the last blog entry. Things have been happening so fast it's hard to keep up! Steffan is in Chile right now preparing for baby #2. Harvest came and went before we knew it and we're getting ready for our annual Holiday Barrel Tasting. It's a great event because you can come and taste the wine from the barrel before it is in the bottle. Quite fun if I may say so myself. Tomorrow night Kevin will be pouring at the Winemaker's Fete at the Marcus Whitman. So, things are fast and furious as usual. We hope all of you enjoy the holiday season!
Cheers, Annette and the whole team!

Amber's Post!

Ok. So how does this blogging thing work? Am I supposed to just type out random thoughts about my career choice, the wines I drink, the foods I eat, etc… and expect to deliver a captivating message of humor, wisdom, and insight that all of you blog readers will not only enjoy but be enthralled with? Wow, is that the longest sentence ever? This is how I think people. It’s scary in here…. but I will keep on writing and pray that I will say something of interest to someone out there in the vast cyberspace of words.
I noticed that Annette has not written on the blog in over a month. What’s up with that? So, like the self-starter (wink wink) that I am, I’m writing the blog today cuz it’s loooooong overdue! AND I’m hoping that Annette will be disgusted and (therefore) motivated to write the blog from here on out cuz she’s a good conversationalist… or dialogist (I’m SURE that is not a “legal” word- it’s an Amber word). She loves to “chit-chat” and well… I’m more direct in my conversational style. So I guess it’s time to get down to it!
We brought in some killer Syrah this week from a great vineyard called Stone Tree Vineyards. This vineyard is in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the State… but it produces big, rich, and complex Syrah. Speaking of Syrah, I want to know why it’s not as popular as other varietals.?? It can be called by two names –Shiraz or Syrah. Then there’s Petite Sirah or Petite Syrah. Which is not be confused with “Syrah.” Got that? Pffft! Maybe I just answered my own question. I do want you blog readers to know that Washington State Syrah is definitely under-appreciated in the wine world. It’s like the underdog of varietals and usually when someone tries it- they like it! I have discovered that it can be complexly beautiful- earthy and terroir-driven or it can be meaty and gamey- with dark fruits and spice. Or just plain ol’ fruity. Depends on the winemaking practice, vineyard, and multiple other factors as well. I guess the bottom line is that I highly recommend that you Syrah-shy wine lovers go out and try a bottle… more specifically from Washington State- which produces some of the best Syrah in the world. It may just blow your mind. Word. Amber

What's more important?

Today is exciting because Steffan is working on our 2007 Barrel Select blend and our 2007 She-Devil Syrah. The barrels are all lined up and they are vying to make the cut for the Barrel Select Syrah. Some realize they have to be team players and are o.k. with becoming an integral part of our She-Devil Syrah.

Steffan is torn between blending and the soccer game, Chile versus Denmark! I asked him to tell me who he wants to win and he wants many goals and a tie! 4-4 would work for him. Who says big boys don't play dress up!?

Oh my goodness!

Has it really been almost a month and a half. Here's my excuse...now we are facebooking and twittering so it doesn't leave a lot of time for blogging. Didn't I say I was NOT going to twitter? Oh well, you have to make decisions either jump on board or get left behind. So we're now on multiple boards and trying to keep them all going in the same direction. I'll keep this post short and sweet. I know, unusual! It's August 11th and we're on the count down to harvest.

We shot some footage today in the vineyards however it's impossible to get loaded here so I'll be posting our vineyard videos to Facebook and see if goes faster. In a nutshell we visited two vineyards today here in the Walla Walla Valley, Lakeshore and Pepper Bridge. We're getting Cabernet Sauvignon from both vineyards and then some Merlot as well from Pepper Bridge. We're seeing veraison starting (grapes are turning purple) so we're on our way. We'll update more as we get closer to harvest!

Yum

Yesterday I was checking out the new July 31, 2009 Wine Spectator and NO we are not in it (this time unfortunately) however I found the most amazing recipes! I was looking to make something which includes fish and wa-lah..the front cover was talking to me! Chef Laurent Tourondel, who worked in France and now is in the states created these recipes. He says his heart belongs to Burgundy however I think we need him to come see us in Walla Walla!

The recipes I made were the "Grilled Striped Bass With Fennel Salad and Grapefruit Emulsion" and the "Barbecued Fingerling Potato and Bacon Salad". Both amazing and to die for. We enjoyed our meal with our 2007 Viognier. It was a wonderful match and paired perfectly with the dinner...there was nothing left in the bottle...or on our plates, if that tells you anything!

So, if you're feeling adventurous give this a try, From start to table it took about 1 hour and 45 minutes. There were even some jobs for Jaden, our daughter, who loves to act as my sous chef. We lit the candles set the table and it was pure joy!

Just Tied the Knot!

Our congratulations to friends and fellow Swirlies Lisa and George Jackson. They were here at the winery over Spring Release and they had asked me to send them a few wineries down in Sonoma to go visit. They were married on June 6th and they wanted to spend a day in wine country during their honeymoon. Yesterday I was plunking away at my keyboard and up pops a message from George and he was a happy camper! They were at Mazzocco winery and were picking up a little wine. He wanted to say hello, thanks for the recommendations and he had to give a shout out to his new bride, Lisa for sporting the Bergevin Lane Wine Diva gear! So, throughout the day I would get a fun quick note sometimes with a picture and was able to virtually wine explore with them!

George has such an infectious personality you can't help but get pumped up when he is excited about something. I was literally waiting for the little bing of my email to let me know his next note had arrived! They ended up visiting several folks and from the general direction of his comments I would say folks took really good care of them! They helped set up appointments and showed them a good time.

They also visited Unti, Mauriston, Passalacqua, and had lunch at Gustafson which is a newer winery, appointment only, recommended by our dear friend "E". She described this as a hidden gem.


George's last note was, "Whole Day was Lights Out!" How awesome is that!!! I hope someday we're described as a hidden gem. To our newlyweds the Jacksons...we LOVE you guys!!! Congratulations!

P.S. At the bottom of every email note George sends out is "Go Huskies!!!!" Well, I'm a Coug but it just goes to show that even Huskies can have fun wine tasting! (wink wink)

Why Blog?

Sometimes you just have to let someone else do the talking and about a year ago we sat down with Amy Rootvik in my office and did an interview. Amy has a great personality and makes a person feel at ease. Amber and I always second guess ourselves after an interview and ask the questions? Did we really say that? Or *$#% why didn't we say this? Or, I didn't know the answer to that question, good thing you did! Amy took the information and turned it into some fun reading. I was interested and it gave me some perspective. We're always looking forward, moving 900 mph and trying to figure out the next "move" and this gave me time to look back and reflect. It made me really appreciate Steffan and Julie, not that we don't already, but it was cool to read that Amy enjoys them too! So if you're interested take a look!

Amy's Introduction

Amy Rootvik's Interview



Cheers!!!

Spring Release

It was fun. We served great wine. We met fabulous people. Awesome!!!

Twittering

If I can't seem to keep our blog post updated my question is should I twitter? I tend to be long winded so that would keep it short. I just watched a cool 2 minute YouTube tutorial on it and it seems easy but do people want to know what people are doing all day long. I'm so busy I can barely keep track of my life how do I keep track of everyone's lives as well? Maybe it's worth a shot. Then when I forget to twitter that I'm running to the bathroom and don't update my blog site for several weeks and then am late in responding to some one's email and miss several phone calls I can REALLY feel bad! Maybe there is too much connection. Whatever happened to actually taking a moment for a coffee date with a friend and having a face-to-face conversation? I like a supermarket real time twitter...you run into your buddy in the aisle..."hey what's up?" the pertinent things come out and you're off to grab your next item on your list. Maybe I'm old fashioned.

New Vintage

We are going to bottle and the wines are tasting great! This morning I went out to try our 2008 Calico White, 2008 Viognier and our 2007 Calico Red. Yum.

All of the wines just went through filtration and are totally clean and clear. I was Kevin's assistant, Steffan was out of town, and I was escaping my computer and spreadsheets. The Viognier was fermented in barrel and aged on the lees. Thus there are many solids in the wine prior to filtration. We filter our white wine to help clear the wine and protect it from components that can restart malolactic fermentation in the bottle. As I was throwing the filtration pads away I was trying to figure out how to recycle the filtration pads because they smell so good. The texture on them made me think I could use them as stamps for textured cement, than I remembered that I do not have a cement company nor do I have any future plans to pour cement. I don't think reusing these pads will happen this time.

The first filtration pass cleaned up quite a bit of lees and had some paste that remained on the pads. I got some on my hand and was told to taste it...and I did. It was slightly acidic with Viognier floral components. Kind of interesting. Andrae Bopp, executive chef and assistant winemaker for DVV, was walking by and he was the one who said, "try it". THEN he said trying too much of this could give you the "scoots". I instantly thought that was a fine idea. Eat a little filtration paste, lose weight. This is an especially good idea considering how much darn food I've eaten lately. As always, I digress.

The pads are made from the pulp of cellulose fibers.

Definition of Cellulose: Cellulose is a long chain of linked sugar molecules that gives wood its remarkable strength. It is the main component of plant cell walls, and the basic building block for many textiles and for paper. Cotton is the purest natural form of cellulose. In the laboratory, ashless filter paper is a source of nearly pure cellulose.

O.k...I know you're thinking I'm brilliant...right? I did not write that last paragraph but I wanted to give you the definition because I instantly thought of fat and sugar. I needed to clear things up. See...filtration talk even filters the brain.

So, post filtration the wines will likely go through a little shock, the filtration can strip some of the aromatics and flavor but don't you go worrying your sweet little self about this, because they come back. Not to the "unfiltered - a.k.a. barrel sample stage" but to the wonderful aromatic and taste attributes that are present in these wines.

With that being said, I'm excited for our white wines and I can't wait to get them in the bottle.

The 2007 Calico Red is great. I know you're probably thinking I always say this but I truly mean it! I can't wait for you to try it! Fun blend, great vineyards....Meow. I'll fill you in more in the Calico as it gets closer to release!

Until the next post...

It's almost bottling time

Lucky me. I know I've been complaining about the weather but here are some amazing highlights!

Arizona - I was there 10 days in February. Met the most amazing people, saw lots of cactus, ate too much good food and drank really good wine. I have to say I was thrilled to be part of an amazing wine dinner at the Dove Mountain Grill with Master Sommelier, Laura Williamson, Executive Chef, Bruce Yim, and their amazing team. We had great friends attending including my dad and bonus mom and 22 of their friends plus new folks I had not yet met. What a great evening! The food and wine pairings were spectacular. I had the opportunity to stay with my dad and bonus mom for one night, who wants to stay in a hotel? They had heated their pool to 90 plus degrees. It felt like a hot tub. It was a good thing.

I mooched off of my bonus sister, her husband and daughter and got to stay in a wonderful home in Scottsdale. They are located next to everything so life was good. I'd come home and there would be food ready to go and the coffee would be brewing in the morning! Not too bad!

Next up Portland. Amber and I went to Portland for Taste Walla Walla and an auction wine dinner for the Classic Wine Auction. Can I say spoiled and more fun? We stayed with my Aunt and Uncle...I'm seeing a theme here...if you have wine to share folks want you to stay with them. Maybe it's my irresistible begging?! Hmmmm Again, a great Taste Event, wonderful people then my cousins made homemade pizza. Outrageous with fennel, olive oil, artichoke hearts, garlic (I'm missing something) but fantastic. Had that with a wonderful salad and a little vino. Yet, another good day. Next day lunch at Carafe! Talk about good food and great people. Had lunch with friends and family, met new folks and fell in love with Carafe all over again. That night was our auction dinner at Five Spice in Lake Oswego. I can't even begin to start. Our good friends showed up then four more friends surprised us and showed up and that was it...fun on! We met the owner and winemaker from Brook's Winery in Oregon, great folks with great wine, and 10 more couples who there there supporting the event. The chefs nailed the food pairings. You could taste the thoughtfulness that went into each course. FANTASTIC.

Couple of action items or thoughts that resulted from this dinner:

1) We need a guest Swirlie Post - so for you swirlies out there...send me your thoughts, notes or bottle shots and I'll happily include your note.
2) One of our friends truly dislikes cilantro and the question all evening was, "does this dish include cilantro?" I'm happy to report that there was no cilantro served. Our friend "M" renamed the restaurant "Four Spice" to exclude cilantro. That caused one of many roars of laughter from the West end of the table to occur that evening.
3) I need to update the blog more often.
4) We all need to see last weeks, "The Bachelor".
5) I believe that the best evening comes from great food, great wine and great people...the crazy people sitting on the West end of table believe if you have great food and great wine who cares about the people? (stinkers)
6) We had two people who are party people sitting at our table. (Party people in their minds if you ask me.) They supported this claim by saying they are party people however they are still catching up on their sleep from all the missed sleep in their 80's due to partying. They both went to Chico State. I'll let you sort this one out.
7) Blogs really aren't self serving
8) You can be happy doing anything if you are doing what you love
9) Has anyone read "2012 for dummies"? We all decided to hold off on Christmas shopping in 2012 and if this passes without the world coming to an end we were told by our friends on the east side of the table that Macy's has great last minute shopping.

With this I'll end and then get to the serious stuff...upcoming wine!

P.S. we have started working out.

Weather Obsessed!

O.k. before I get into my new blog rant...more weather updates...check out these pictures around the winery! The first photo was taken two days ago and it looked like J.R. Tolkien's, "The Lord of the Rings"...if I hadn't been paying closer attention I'd think the dark side had taken over and Frodo was about to destroy the ring.

Julie a.k.a. "office princess" posed for me during our hail storm yesterday. She said I owed her big time for making her stand in the hail! I can't believe this weather!



I am so ready for warmth. Last night I bundled up in lots of flannel, a bathrobe and slippers...now that's painting a sexy picture isn't it. You know what? Who cares? It was so cold it was all about the warmth baby! Sexy "ain't comin' back" until the sun starts to shine on a regular basis.

Christmas in the winery?

O.k. I hope the guys turned off the heaters!

(you can click on the picture to see the snowflakes)

Snow, snow, go away!

Christmas in February?

Snow Flurries outside. Yuck.

(You can click on the photo to see the snow flurry.)

We Heart Catie!

Maybe it's not cool to point out someone who wrote something cool about us but it was the shot in the arm we needed! Hey, we're only human and good news is always welcome around here. We always ponder what else should we do, what more can we do to get our name out there? Contrary to popular belief about folks in the wine world we work with a relatively moderate budget. So we have to be pretty creative with our marketing dollars. We wish we had a marketing crystal ball. We have an amazing winemaker on board, Steffan, and he has an amazing right hand man, Kevin who has an amazing left hand (???) hmmm maybe it's another right hand man, Sam! We have a great tasting room "princess", Julie and the only folks that really cause any hitches in our giddy-up are Amber and me! That's our job!!! :-) It's been cold, somewhat gloomy, we're working on budget numbers (yuck)and listening to the news and I was starting to feel a little gloomy yesterday. THEN this morning I noticed a nice little pop-up message that said there is a blog you should read.

Guess what comes next? I came to work, the sun is shining, let me repeat, the sun is actually shining! I almost lost my eyesight due to the brightness that I am not used to :-) which actually is a good thing. I sat down held my breath and I opened Catie's blog. With each word I sat a little straighter in my chair, felt my smile start to widen, and even felt a little extra spring in my step. Then I brought Steffan in and mentioned that "the guys", he and my dad Gary, got a well deserved shout out too!

Catie thanks for adding even more Walla Walla sunshine to our day! Catie's site "Through the Walla Walla Grapevine" made it to the top 100 wine blogs at #32. You go girl! "and keep doin' what you do" See Catie's Blog

Our Traveling Companion

Dear Blog Leader,
Guess who's baaaaaack. O.k., you have to have read my earlier post from this morning to understand what this is about but Amber reminded me that we really wanted to put a picture of yet another bottle of our wine that is better traveled than we are! Our 2003 Intuition spent Christmas Day in Botswana, Africa on the fingers of the Okavango Delta. After receiving this picture from Emilio, thank you Emilio, I needed to do a little geographical research to see just exactly where our (rather, Emilio's) Intuition spent its last day. Emilio did share that the folks there were impressed with the wine. He also was also lucky enough to visit the wine country in Stellenbosch, Paarl and Franschoek.

For those of you who are geographically savvy please bear with me. One quick disclaimer...this paragraph and the next one are kind of (pretty much) plagiarized...I really could not say it better. Botswana is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. It has land borders with Zimbabwe in the northeast, South Africa in the south and southeast and with Namibia to the west. In Northern Botswana, the Okavango River flows in from Namibia, and soaks into the sands to form the Okavango Delta, easily accessed via Maun.

The Okavango is a labyrinth of lagoons, lakes and hidden channels covering an area of over 17,000 square km and the largest inland delta in the world. Trapped in the parched Kalahari sands it is a magnet for the wildlife who depend on the permanent waters of this unique feature.


O.k. I'm back, Emilio also captured this beautiful photo of a Jaguar that I had to include. I really want to pet it and rub it and kiss it! Too beautiful. (yes I know he or she would likely mar me but still...so beautiful.)

All of us here appreciate the wonderful bottle shots and our friends who share our wine with folks all over the world. Wine truly has no borders and we would add it makes friends with anyone open to giving it a try! Cheers Emilio!

Dear Blog Leader...whoever you are!

My first order of business in the New Year is to say to all you bloggers out there (to borrow a phrase from Bobby Flay) keep doin' what you do best! My hat (if I wore one) would be off to you for your perseverance and enthusiasm for keeping your posts current. Here is my confession, Dear Blog Leader, my last post was November 2008...I will try my hardest to keep my blog current so that our friends will not have to keep reading the same old information!

O.k...down to business...
What's going on...Oh, oops one more thing, Dear Blog Leader...Amber and I did not wish Julie, our office Princess, Happy Birthday ON her birthday which was in December. In our defense she was on VACATION however that doesn't totally excuse us. We did make it up to her by pretending we forgot then giving her (unwrapped) because we were so proud of ourselves and because it was sent to the winery, a beautiful Pandora charm for the lovely charm bracelet her husband gave to her for Christmas. We believe we have been forgiven.

Oh...Dear Blog Leader...two more things...I ignored the world for about a week as I read through the 4 book Twilight series. Can you say "addicted!?" I also fell in love with "The Bucket List" movie. I've had many friends tell me I'm a little slow on the uptake because they saw this movie "way back when" (here's what I hear in my head, blah blah blah) and because Ellen DeGeneres, on her show, always talks about it...well, darn it! In my friend's eyes, and now possibly yours, I'm obviously not current on my movies so however belated I am I really LOVE this movie. It made me sit down and think, and then walk around and think and then think again as I'm typing right now. It really illustrates the amazing relationship two people can have going through the same intense life experience. I really felt for Morgan Freeman's wife in the movie and on the same note, understood he needed to go through this experience. That's all I'm going to say just in case any of you out there have yet to see the movie...Wow are you behind the time with your movies! :-)

O.k. now, really down to business...

At the winery - the boys are racking our white wines and they are, to borrow a phrase from Rachel Ray, "yumm-o!" Already nice balance, great acidity...keeps your mouth totally happy. To borrow yet another phrase, "that's a good thing." Steffan is in a fun state of mind, this is the part where he is intense, still fun, but truly focused on putting together the best blend or varietal he possibly can. What I admire about Steffan is that he is an artist yet he's not selfish about his wine making. So, some purists out there may say that is not being true to himself however, he is truly spending time learning and thinking about our wine consumer's palate. How can he best reflect the wines from our region, make a wine he is proud to call his own and that reflects the style we have with our wines at Bergevin Lane. We respect him for that and love his work.

Hmmmmm, I have happy fingers...dear Blog Leader, I guess I do miss this blogging thing, I can't keep up with my thoughts as I try to fill everyone in on what's going on at the winery...I'm wondering if a blog can be too long, or if I should save some for later...oh well, I'll keep on typing!

Events: Annette is off to Arizona for Taste Washington Phoenix the third week of February. In addition Annette (that's me - this third person thing is weird) will be doing a tasting at Flemming's on Feb. 15th, the TASTE on Feb. 17th and a wine dinner in Tucson at the new Ritz Carlton on the 18th. Somewhere in there Annette, HA starting to like this third person thing, will be trying to lay by a pool. My only fear is that the glare from her (my) skin may blind someone.

O.k...I'm so done with the third person thing...you are now stuck with "me" again.

Steffan, the same week, will be off to Texas for Taste Washington Austin. Yee Haw, Amber says he will totally enjoy working in that market. I think he enjoys checking out different states in the U.S. Kevin, Steffan's right hand man, is getting ready to have a new baby girl. He is very excited and we love the fact that it's scheduled...wouldn't want this to interfere with our Calico Bottling...O.k., o.k....I'm totally teasing, just in case you thought I was serious....well, we would miss Kevin for the bottling, however we all believe BABY FIRST!

We have a new wonderful guy named Sam. We have all decided that he is the best fit ever with our team. He can put up with all the girls in the office, and the boys in the production area, always has a smile on his face and rocks out with his iPod Touch. Did I mention he always has a smile on his face. Who else can claim that? Whatta guy.

The winery looks like a hurricane blew through it...that is because we have two different wineries with supplies for bottling in here. We are racking our initial Calico White blend and taking the wine off of the fermentation lees so that we can go clean to bottle. We'll leave our Viognier in barrels a little bit longer. We are also working on our wine club shipments for our beloved CLUB SWIRL! This is the time of year where Amber, bless her heart, works her tail off and we love her for it. She also frantically runs from her office to the tasting room and mumbles under her breath about how busy she is and how relaxed we look. I usually engage at this point, shame on me, and make her come look at my awful spreadsheets that I'm staring at. At the end of the day and after a nice glass of wine we forget how crazy the day is and remember how much we love the fruits of our labor!


I think that's it...actually I'm tired of typing (Dear Blog Leader...do bloggers admit this?) so will write more later...there are 10,000 other things I must be missing....oops must add that we are going to Portland the first week in March for Taste Walla Walla Portland! Amber and I will pour for this event at the Portland Art Museum and follow this up the next night with a wine dinner at the FiveSpice Bistro, on behalf of the Classic Wine Auction, benefiting the Metropolitan Family Service, New Avenues for Youth, Friends of Children - Portland, Trillium Family Services and the YWCA Clark County. We are excited to be paired with Brooks Winery of Oregon.

We have been talking a lot about the economy and the uncertainties facing us now and in the future. With this in mind, we would like to wish you all peace in your heart, perseverance to plow through the tough times, a big shoulder to lean on, the clarity to celebrate challenges conquered and at the end of a tough day, loved ones and a good glass of wine to make it all feel better!