Bergevin Lane

Posting....

2010-06-14T14:26:00.001-07:00

We love the option of posting on Facebook. We do have the uncanny ability to spout on and on about nothing in particular, however with Facebook you have to be concise. You can't elaborate you just have to say it how it is within a limited number of words. Here I can talk about really nothing and keep going and nothing limits me. I have this entire page to talk about stuff that really doesn't mean much to anyone in particular and no one including a computerized program a.k.a Facebook is prompting me to quit. The only thing prompting me to quit is this nagging little voice in my brain that says..."you should stop now". However, I don't have to, so I keep going...writing about how I have trouble with writing so much. I would recommend that you check back from time-to-time because we will have items of interest to write about that will exceed the given space allotted by Facebook. However if you read our blog you will find that based on our recent posting record (or not so recent postings) this is become somewhat extinct. Don't hold your breath but I will surprise some of you, maybe. Until our next post...

"Hot" Winemaker

2009-12-03T11:04:00.001-08:00

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

2009-12-02T12:21:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-09-17T15:37:00.001-07:00

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?

2009-08-12T11:30:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-08-11T14:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-23T14:31:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-11T11:16:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-06-02T09:53:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-07T09:39:00.000-07:00

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

Twittering

2009-05-07T09:30:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-10T13:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-10T11:44:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-03-10T11:34:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-02-26T15:31:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-02-26T14:54:00.000-08:00

Snow Flurries outside. Yuck.

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

We Heart Catie!

2009-01-29T08:38:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-22T11:51:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-22T09:22:00.000-08:00

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!

Select Wines by Design

2008-11-04T09:23:00.000-08:00

I was poking around the internet and saw a fun interview Amber did with Tim of Select Wines by Design. Since she doesn't write for our blog (yet), I thought I'd share her interview. I think I'll get Amber to write a blog note for our website...wish me luck.

Click on the link below to read her interview.

Amber's Interview

Memories

2008-10-29T12:20:00.000-07:00

We celebrated a late birthday for my dad last week and went over to his house for dinner. The dinner was wonderful. My brother Robert brought sauteed Pheasant for an appetizer plus we had some great cheese and bread. Next we moved to the main course which was the most perfectly roasted beef tenderloin I have had in quite some time with garlic-cheese-mashed potatoes and a salad with candied walnuts, fruit and amazing greens. I was responsible for dessert so, having worked all day I decided to take the easy road and went over to the Patisserie. They have wonderful dessert options and you really can never go wrong! So, did my family get my home made touch? nope...but they got a wonderful ending to a fabulous dinner.

The point of my story was not to talk about the dinner itself but some of the wine we drank with dinner. We had a 2005 Cayuse Camespelo, 1996 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon and a 1992 Dunn Vineyards Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon. When I ran over to the newly opened bottle of the Dunn, I poured myself a rather large glass then proceeded to sink my nose into the glass. I was immediately overcome with this totally nostalgic feeling and I laughed to myself. Here are my crazy thoughts...most people smell something and it reminds them of an event in their past...maybe a campfire outside, or perfume or a smell that reminds them of visiting their grandparents. Some people hear a song and remember an old friend or something they were doing in an earlier part of their life. I haven't really had a nostalgic feeling in a long time, or at least that I can remember, and all of a sudden I was overtaken with a feeling of my young adulthood. O.k., more specifically my early 20's. It came with the smell of the Dunn Howell Mountain Cabernet...the deep cherry, the earth and intensity that filled my nose shot me back to the late 80's when my dad would share a glass with me. I remember this being the first wine I loved. I have 10 billion great memories of the Dunn Cabernet because it is the wine my dad would take out when I would come home for special occasions. I think he did this because he knew I loved it...(I think he did too). So, dad...(and Randy Dunn) thanks for the memories!

Wine to Barrel

2008-10-03T13:41:00.000-07:00

Our first red wine of the year has been pressed to barrel. It's Merlot from Stone Tree. Beautiful color and concentration. We filled four barrels with free run juice (no squeezy, squeezy) just pure juice that gently drains into a highly sanitized holding tank that is then gently pumped into an empty barrel. Somewhere in all the gentleness a hose must have tried to jump ship because Steffan is about 75% purple. He has wine "legs" on his legs...actually little rivers of purple stains that flowed down his leg. His sweatshirt and shorts that were once gray have a nice hue of purple on them as well. I congratulated him then said, "good job, only 98.5% more wine to barrel down until you're done!"

Harvest is here!

2008-09-25T13:23:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-25T12:16:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-12T09:59:00.000-07:00

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.)

...several hours later

2008-08-06T13:45:00.000-07:00

...Hawkeye still on patrol, the winery is safe.

There's a new dog in the house!

2008-08-06T11:33:00.001-07:00

We have a new member of our family! We were adopted by Hawkeye, a thirteen month red bone hound. He was bred for hunting but made a personal choice that he is a pacifist and decided that guarding the winery is the life for him! Chase our vineyard boy, guards Hawkeye at night and herds him around the yard and Callie, our Calico Cat makes sure both the boys are well behaved!

Hawkeye woke up for about 10 minutes this morning to go oversee Steffan and Kevin working on some filtration out in the production area. He decided all was going well and went back to his guard position. He may wonder out to the tasting room if you come in to taste wines so please say hello. If Amber comes out he may not follow and you will hear her comment about it (with a disgusted tone - at which point you may hear me chuckle in the back office) however if I come out, most likely a little red guy with short hair and a furrowed brow will follow. He couldn't be much sweeter and we're lucky he found us!...I keep humming, "and they called it puppy love!"

Hawkeye has total confidence in our tasting room area as he spent this last weekend with both Amber and me as we entertained new and old friends. The wines are all tasting great. We're excited as some 2006 wine will soon be making its way to the tasting bar as well as some new 2005 vintages. The Rose' and Viognier are almost sold out as well as the Intuition and Princess Syrah.

P.S. We just bottled our 2006 Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Barrel Select Syrah and the Intuition. Just when we think we have our ducks in a row for bottling the bottling gods throw something else at us. We'll we learned yet a few more bottling lessons but the wine got to bottle, the sun came up the next day and all was well in our Bergevin Lane universe. We'll share the lessons learned in another bottling post!

Cool Pics!

2008-07-28T14:16:00.000-07:00

So our friends sent us a picture of their latest vacation and guess who got to go with?...give up? Nope, not Amber....take another guess...nope, not Annette...that's right we stayed home and our wine got to go. Why does it get to have all the fun?! The 2007 Calico White and our 2007 Rose' went to Northern Wisconsin. Looks like fun was had by all! Thanks Schurtz family!

XOXO, Annette & Amber

Look out Calico... Duke is in the House!

2008-07-17T09:32:00.000-07:00

Well a couple of fun pics from friends this past week. First and foremost we may have a new contender for our Calico label. Duke shows off his profile and believes his svelte figure will make him our new "label boy" for future bottlings! Then he turns around an well you can see for yourself...

On another note, some very good friends went camping and they took along one of our good friends, the 2002 Calico Red. They made the Calico it's own little hammock and everything. Check out the view! Well, the Calico lives better than we do. P.S. I made them swear it was not up there for target practice. They said they would NEVER waste a good bottle of wine on that!

Library Wines

2008-06-25T12:23:00.000-07:00

We have always "saved" wine for our library and not having owned a winery before were never sure how much to save or what we should save. So, we saved everything. Well, now six years later we are learning what we should keep and how much we should keep.

Last week we did our first official library tasting. I guess in my little dream world I was anticipating a very formal setting, who knows maybe candlelight, table cloths, pewter spit buckets, beautiful crystal, an aura of elegance and then "the taste". In my imaginary world I envisioned the first taste from our library wine...the slow motion of the glass filled with liquid magic swirling as it slowly moved towards the nose, the exaggerated inhale and then the much anticipated moment..."the taste, the swirl, the swishing sound of liquid and the spit". I envisioned silence and then the lips parting in a smug smile. This would be followed by loud cheering in the background and harp music playing from the heavens, confetti dropping from the ceiling and the unstoppable flashing of cameras as the paparazzi was capturing the moment. Wow, wish I was there...

Meanwhile back in reality world, Steffan and I set up the wines, with our Riedel glassware, our plastic spit buckets and I think I had on crop pants, a t-shirt and my tennis shoes. We sat at my 6 foot plastic table with our spiral bound notebook paper and started to taste. The room was comfortably lit, (to see the color of the wine) a comfortable temperature, and a comfortableness with the tasters. We looked at the wine and set off to work. We tasted, said wow a few times and honestly had one whoa! After the tasting we let the wine sit overnight to taste again the next day.

Here's what we discovered...If it's not nailed down and the wine tastes good don't tell Amber and Julie because they will sell it! If it's an older wine don't hold back so many cases (in our case - until we learn the age-ability of our various wines)... Our 2004 Viognier is a little past its prime - drink immediately, our 2005 Viognier is tasting fantastic right now! These Viogniers are from different vineyards, different years, and have different flavor profiles. The 2002 Vintage is at a drink now stage. Our 2003 has a drink now for our Calico Red and our Cabernet Sauvignon, the Syrah is tasting really good and in the next year or so we'd recommend drinking that. We believe the 2003 Intuition can hang in there 1 - 3 years.

It was a fun two days worth of work. The anxiety has subsided, the fanfare has died down and we're plugging right along!

Brrrrrrrr...is it really June?

2008-06-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

Here's the 4-1-1 at the winery

Steffan - purple teeth

Amber - purple fingers

Julie - purple princess

Annette - purple rain, purple rain...

Steffan - purple teeth: What does this all mean? Steffan has been analyzing, tasting, tasting, tasting, spitting, analyzing, tasting, and blending his little heart out working on our 2006 Reserve Bottlings. We have had a blast tasting through some amazing Washington State Syrah while we work on our 2006 Barrel Select Syrah. It's a tough task as you probably know but someone has to do it. While I get to sit in and reap all the benefits of his selection efforts he has literally agonized over each selection, each particular barrel and how much of each specific lot to put into the final blend. I smile, walk into his tasting area and sit down and sample. Then I knowingly add my feedback and he smiles, shakes his head agrees or tells me I'm off my rocker! ;-) The good news is that although he's the expert, what has happened is that all of the sampling, barrel sampling and knowledge of the vineyards has given me the capability of understanding what components we're looking for with our wine. So many thanks to Steffan for sharing the wealth of his knowledge and sharing with Amber and I so that we continue to evolve as wine lovers too!

Amber's purple fingers...she's working on our "Killer B" wine club package...it's a lot of effort but wow, how exciting to have the most amazing wine club members ever! We love our Swirlies!!! It has been fun to listen to Amber work with our friends, old and new, who wander into the tasting room. She has been up front working on the computer so has had a chance to get out of her office and work with folks behind the bar. Kind of brings an old western tune to mind..."she's back in the saddle again..."

Julie - purple princess...Julie is managing all of our back office stuff...keeping us organized, working on the Killer B wine club package and holding down the fort. In addition, she lovingly helps many of our tasting room customers!!! Julie is the best person to work with because she has the capacity to understand our insanity and bring us in off of the ledge when we get crazy. She's fun to share recipes with and has an amazing sense of humor. Oh yeah, she's even good at what she does at work! What a bonus.

Annette - Purple Rain... Due to the awful weather (I promise not to complain when it is 100 degrees, I promise not to complain when it's 100 degrees) I have been reduced to having my brainstorms in the rainstorms! I am having a blast doing a little bit of everything such as tasting events, blending, helping out everyone at the winery...maybe I'm not a purple rain maybe I'm just the purple helper because my responsibilities seem to cross with everyone. Yep, scratch purple rain because although I've had many brainstorms...I think I'm the purple helper. I feel like I'm doing a little bit of everything...not sure if I'm doing anything well but I love variety.

Speaking of helping, we've had such great people helping and supporting us along the way, including our vineyard managers, our fellow winery owners, our great distributors and fantastic customers that we're very excited to be doing what we're doing. Life is about doing what you enjoy and even though this business is super competitive, super costly (when you're doing things on a smaller scale) and very regulated...Amber and I can truly say we love what we do!

Here's wishing each of you the ability to follow your dreams and the ambition to fulfill your heart's desires!

Spring showers bring more spring showers....

2008-05-13T15:16:00.001-07:00

We can not believe how chilly this spring has been. The weather will tease us with a little sun and then it says, "NOT" and we're back to drizzle! However, despite the fact that we all feel we've been in hibernation forever all is looking good in the vineyards...our little buds are starting to flower on the vine so we're on our way into the 2008 harvest season. We've been keeping ourselves busy at the winery with racking, blending and just finished with our Spring Release. Talk about a fun weekend! We had the most amazing folks visit us over Spring Release. The weather was pretty well behaved and it appeared many folks had a wonderful time. We're pretty sure we had the coolest folks visit our winery. We tried to even adopt ourselves out to a few families! ;-)

We had two very special releases that came and went with Spring Release weekend, our 2005 Barrel Select Syrah - Columbia Valley and our 2006 Pinot Noir - Walla Walla Valley. Both were limited releases.

We're off to Seattle this weekend for a fun wine dinner at Wicked Cellars in Everett, WA (Friday evening) and then the Seattle Cheese festival on Saturday at Pike Place Market. Should be a fun weekend. Oh, here's a link I thought you might enjoy. Thank Amy for the kind words! Until next post... Amy's Blog.

Roadtrip - Bend

2008-04-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

Driving to Bend, Oregon gives a person much time for introspection...basically this photo shows (in my humble opinion) the main landmark between Walla Walla and Bend. The tennis shoe tree! I couldn't really check it out on the way because there are also no rest stops between the two points...well for most of the way.

I cataloged, in my opinion, the three points of interest between Walla and Bend...

1) A bald eagle
2) Sage Brush
3) A tree with gazillions of tennis shoes strung up in its branches

On my way I made a huge strategic mistake, I passed Biggs Junction without stopping at a bathroom. I basically had to go to the bathroom all the way from Biggs Junction to Madras which is about 1 and 1/2 hours. Doesn't sound far but after a huge bottle of water it felt like a three day trip. As I would pass through towns, all of which did not have a welcoming rest stop I was getting antsy...I grew up on a farm so am no stranger to the great outdoors, if you get my drift. I was starting to check out sagebrush...is it big enough to hide behind? Nope not a one, at least that was close to the highway...the song, "I can't drive 55" was blasting in my head as I was passing multiple semi-trucks trying to find a relief zone. FINALLY just before Madras is a rest stop. Good thing...guess what, just my luck, the bathroom cleaning guy was in the women's bathroom...I'm thinking great now what? I finally say, "look, can I have a few minutes? I promise I'll be quick!" He is very kind, probably sees my look of desperation and walks out. I make it to the bathroom and just as I'm thinking, yeah baby life is good, my mind says, "hey, what if this is one of those bathrooms that has a hidden camera in it?" Then I tell myself I'm a nutcase and walk out of the bathroom, of course I've washed my hands and attempted the wall air blow dryer which spits out the equivalent of a slight wisp of air, I give up and dry my hands on my pants...I walk out of the bathroom and look at the open door right behind the stalls...it's the workman's work closet, on closer inspection I see it's right behind the women's restroom so now my mind is back on the hidden camera...I then think great, if I'm on camera at least I could have been in bikini shape, not Antarctica winter wear shape. Now I'm feeling sorry for the guy if he did happen to catch anything on tape! Then I look around, I'm feeling totally relieved and realize the sun is shining and it's a beautiful day. Hey, if he did catch anything on camera it's his eyes that are going to burn out so, I forget my moment of insanity and realize I'm excited to get back on the road.

Not to brag to all of you however, during this road trip an amazing thing happened, I won my first ever karaoke contest held on a road trip between Walla Walla and Bend. After my acceptance speech in which I thanked all my fans, thanked my parents for their support, I thanked my family and friends, and finally finished by thanking the sage brush and vast amounts of nothingness...I continued on my journey.

So now, I'm totally relaxed, loving the road trip and starting to feel a little hungry. I make it to Madras and as I'm driving through town I am challenged by a sign that reads, "Best Burgers in the West - Original Burger Works" Not one to shy away from challenges I decide to stop. I pulled into an old fashioned drive in area and push the little metal button. A young woman's voice asks me what I would like...I order my cheeseburger and think to myself that if the order taker woman comes out on skates that's it, they win! She didn't come out on skates but she did deliver a good burger, fresh, great flavor, but as much as I would like to say it's the best in the west I'll have to give it a rating of "pretty darn good, not the best...but pretty darn good".

So, on to the point of this trip...to meet the wonderful folks of Bend and Redmond, Oregon and share our wine. All I can say is thank you Bend (& Redmond)! What a great place, especially if you're hanging out with the locals. I was totally taken care of by the folks at the Riverhouse Resort...talk about a room with a view!

We spent an evening at the Marz Bistro enjoying exceptional appetizers, great company and if I don't mind saying, some pretty yummy wine. We then wandered next door to meet Josh and Chris at the Astro Lounge, shared some wine and then tried a drink or two which contained "muddled items" I asked Josh if these items were confused? I kept wondering, why are his ingredients muddled? Well, he showed me his secret and then the wondrous new term "muddled" was clear as mud to me. I'm going to start muddling things too.

The next day we held a tasting at the Riverhouse Resort and it was the most beautiful day. I met many wonderful folks and after the tasting raced over to Redmond, Oregon to Avery's Wine Bar. An exceptional new spot in Redmond owned by a mother daughter team with an amazing chef in the kitchen named, Tim. He paired small bites with each of our wines. He managed this spectacular pairing by reading tasting notes, because he didn't have the wine prior to taste. The food was wonderfuuuuullllll. The place was packed and I don't think I've worked that hard in awhile. The people were lots of fun. I would have brought all them back to Walla Walla with me if I could have fit them in my car.

My best friend on this trip was Rick! Thank you Rick for taking good care of me, calling me to make sure I was safe and sound and for the great conversation. I would have stolen you too, and brought you back to Walla Walla but that means our awesome Bend, Sisters, Redmond sales person extraordinaire would not be working on selling our wines. So, darn it! I'll just have to come back and visit. Make sure when you talk to Amber you tell her we had an awful time, that there is nothing going on in Bend and it's totally boring...that way she'll let me come back! :-)

Road trips are fun.

Labels 101

2008-02-28T09:51:00.000-08:00

So, here's the label story. I "let" Amber do all the project management with our labels...it's intensive work from creation, approval to final print. She creates the front and back label (with help from our creative team CKA and Tapp) and then sends it to me to check for any potential typos, content issues etc. I then act as if I've been in charge the whole time and point out all the changes needed. If any of you have worked with us you'll know that goes over really well, NOT. It's almost comical and we've actually learned to laugh at ourselves, quite often. So, once she gives the final G-O, we go to print. The actual creation of labels has always been very vague to me. I am very visual so in my mind the labels miraculously appear and we put them on the bottle. Bob Seitz, of Tapp Technologies, has been extremely helpful in getting us from point A to point B and sent us a visual story of how our labels get printed. Fun stuff so thought we'd share. You can click on this link to see for yourself.

Our 2007 Calico White will be ready April!

Valentines...Chocolate, Wine...hmmmm.

2008-02-14T09:29:00.000-08:00

We were hanging out in New York and this message pops up on
Amber's blackberry about our 2004 Intuition. Seemed totally appropriate for Valentine's Day! Geneveyln, thank you for the smiles.

Happy Valentines! XOXO,

Here's the link to Vinolin or you can check out Genevelyn's blog site!

as posted by Genevyn..
04 Bergevin Lane Intuition Columbia Valley

"Hangin' round downtown by myself
And I had so much time
To sit and think about myself
And then there she was
Like double cherry pie
Yeah there she was
Like disco superfly
I smell sex and candy here" Marcy Playground

Technical Data: (from Bergevin Lane website)
Variety: 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Merlot, 15% Petit Verdot, 7% Cabernet Franc
Vineyards: Alder Ridge, Stone Tree Vineyards
Oak: Aged in 100% French Oak for 18 months
Alcohol: 14.2%
Cases produced: 175

This Washington State blend is simply sexy, with candy-like cherry, vanilla and coffee flavors,balanced by a more complicated long, spicy, silky solo in the middle of the glass. It's a one-hit wonder wine, not because Bergevin Lane only makes one good wine, but because it stays with one persistently, like a well-constructed song that is haunting sometimes, but at others, forgettable in the world of greats. I've thought of Bergevin Lane Intuition a lot lately while humming that Marcy Playground song.

Wine in New Hampshire!

2008-01-28T15:25:00.000-08:00

We are excited to be represented by Exclusive Wines in New Hampshire and they recently showed our wine at the Winter Wine Festiva at Wentworth by the Sea. They sent us a link so thought we'd share! Click here to view!

Happy New Year!

2008-01-10T20:38:00.000-08:00

Well it's 2008 and we're off and running. End of year reports are due, we're planning our trips for 2008 and in the cellar we're doing some serious racking. This is a great time to get a real feel for the 2007 vintage and the different fruit we crushed. Steffan comes in to our office with a very serious face - the wine-poker face and then we sit back and take a sip. There is always pressure because it's usually blind...we smell...sip...spit...sip...and then let the wine swish around our mouth. It is fun to try to get a feel for the varietal...sometimes the fruit will be stingy and hard to taste and smell because it's young, sometimes it just blasts out screaming, "I'm here!" Although the wine is so young you can get a real idea of what is to come. All the fruit is super great but we do have one challenging block of cabernet. Steffan is going to "manhandle" it as he says and we'll see how it changes the flavor profile. We'll have more information in a month or so.

You may be asking yourself why the picture of cleaning supplies? Well, it kind of symbolizes starting off the new year with a fresh, clean slate. We're embracing 2008,our new sales goals and some great upcoming opportunities. The inside story is that I had to snap this photo because we have a new cleaning person, totally sweet, and Amber is ensuring that all cleaning supplies are properly used in the correct places. I was quite impressed to find the little post it explaination notes for each product. I believe there was also a white glove test! I wouldn't want to be up against that!

We're off to New York for Taste Walla Walla New York in a few weeks. Very exciting and it will be our first trip this year to go sell some wine. We're looking forward to meeting our distributor in person and also meeting some new friends. We are thrilled that (I'll use initials) D.M. (new friend - thank you Duffy Waldorf) has already set up an appointment for us to do a tasting. Now that's having a super cool customer.

That's the scoop from the winery.

8 Days to Christmas

2007-12-17T10:52:00.000-08:00

Holiday Barrel Tasting is over. Our mid-annual Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance meeting is over and I can probably recite verbatim, every one's pitch for all of our wine marketing, wine lobbying, wine advocate, and wine grower's groups. The wine industry has so much visibility now that it's creating great opportunities but also puts our industry on the radar. So, a good thing and a bad thing. People seek us out to try the wines and special programs for the wines and vines are being created however regulators start trying to do more regulating as well.

I just realized that I am very scattered today. I was reading the Mid Columbian Magazine and cut out an article on Backyard Birding for my "bonus dad", then set up an appointment to taste the Danish Embassy on our 2004 Oui Deux Syrah in January, saw that I need to complete my Nevada direct to consumer shipping report, realized I need to send a thank you to Duffy Waldorf for giving our 2005 Calico Red a shout in the January issue of Golf Magazine, checked email to discover we still haven't selected our wines for Taste Walla Walla New York in February and then somehow got on a blog site that made me realize I haven't updated ours in a week or so. Does anyone remember Family Circus and the circles Jeffrey would go in just to go get the paper? Well, that's is my life, today at least.

I hope everyone is ready for the holidays, or if you celebrate Hanukkah you had a nice holiday. Every year we make Prime Rib (Barefoot Contessa's version) and this year we have a non red meat eater. So, we're going to make guinnea hens. Moment of truth, totally had to google that word to figure out how to spell "guinnea" hen. Next moment of truth, I meant Cornish Game Hens. I want to roast them whole with killer glazed veggies around them. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out. Brussel sprouts for the big kids and I'll figure out the veggies for the little kids.

We've seen Santa in many places recently and Jaden (our daughter) is wondering how he physically gets to so many places and how his beard can look so different? We talked about it and figured because he has so many engagements that he most likely uses magic up until Christmas Eve for traveling. Then on Christmas Eve he hops on the sled and hooks up the reindeer. As to why his beard looks different? Well, he has different looks based on the location he is at and he can appear different to every child who meets him. The Seattle Santa at the top of the Space Needle can look very different from the Santa at the County Club or the Home Depot. Five year olds pay attention to detail!

Speaking of attention to detail, Steffan is tasting through our 2006/2007 wine in barrels and we will be bottling our 2007 Rose' and Viognier plus our 2006 - Syrah co-ferment, Francisca's Syrah and a special wine we will rave about later. It's tricky when tasting through young wines because they have not had aging time. He tastes for balance and wine composition. We're not yet tasting for flavor descriptors. They will come with a little more time in barrel.

Here's our suggested to do list for the end of the year. Take a moment to reflect on all the wonderful accomplishments you have achieved this past year, take a moment to be thankful for wonderful friends and family. Take a moment to congratulate yourself on surviving another year in this tumultuous fast paced world we all live in. Then pour yourself a glass of wine, cozy up on the couch, grab someone cuddly or a good friend or even sit by yourself and just live in the moment. That is a good present to give yourself!

Have a joyous holiday season!

Club Swirl HBT Poem

2007-12-03T15:45:00.000-08:00

Dee,
Thanks for the thoughtfulness, your friendship and for sharing this poem with us. Icing on the cake after a very fun weekend!

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Club Swirl Soiree "2007"

A night of merriment and cheer
Friends together, old and new,
a night to remember and to hold dear.

Bergevin Lane
Family and Friends
All as one, we come to enjoy,
the fruits of their labor created with love and joy...

Syrahs were the stars tonight....
"05" Reserve and Francisca's Vineyard...
Subtle and sensuous...elegant and gallant all at one time...
The new stars of the show...
Magnificent ratings certain to bestow

Annette and Amber...
Hostesses of the evening, smiling and glowing
As they look upon the gala
Steffan...
Creator and designer...
Humbly pours the fruits of his labor
The glow in his eyes...that of a father as his child amazes the crowd
Julie and Jerry, smiles and laughter,
The love they share fills the air
Gary...the patriarch...
Beams as his family of many
share the joy and love of the season...

The Bergevin Lane Family...
a gathering of many...
From all walks of life...near and far, we come together for a night
Of enjoyment and cheer
We raise our glass to next year.

Holiday Barrel Tasting

2007-11-28T13:26:00.000-08:00

Holiday Barrel Tasting is here! A fun weekend of festive lights, festive folks, and festive wine! Well, in our opinion wine is always festive. We'll be barrel tasting our upcoming 2006 Francisca's Syrah. This is a Walla Walla vineyard designated Syrah which comes from a boutique vineyard just south of Walla Walla. Here are Steffan's notes from our tasting this morning. "Smooth, very rich and succulent it offers notes of citrus, violet and perfume intertwined with blackberries, black cherry, wood smoke, vanilla, oak and notes of tar. A little meat and earthy undertones add to the complexity and brings out additional layers as it opens up in the glass."

Tim and Cisca (Francisca's Vineyard owners) add their thoughts as well, "Since we only have 4.3 acres in Syrah, we truly are a boutique vineyard. We do most of the work ourselves, so you can find us in the vineyard most everyday from February to October. Our philosophy on work is, “Everyday in the Vineyard is a Holiday”. All the work - pruning, thinning, pulling shoots and leaves for sun exposure and harvest - is done manually. Each of the 4400 Syrah vines have hands-on treatment 7 to 8 times a year.

We installed a wind machine for frost protection in early spring and early fall. We control moisture by reading the moisture levels in the soil with sensors and water through drip irrigation when needed.

We are happy that Bergevin Lane Vineyards is the exclusive recipient of our Syrah because one of our goals was to be working with a winery that we could connect with and develop a relationship of mutual trust and friendship. Our goal is to be recognized as a quality grower and hopefully have a vineyard designated Syrah."

We hope to see one and all this weekend! Tis the season!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-21T10:10:00.000-08:00

We're thankful that it's time to spend a day with friends and family and eat our little hearts out! Not that we haven't done that all fall! The jeans are feeling a little snug. Here in Walla Walla we have to add an extra layer of fat to keep us warm because it gets pretty cold. Today is a perfect pre-Thanksgiving day. Overcast, with the temperatures in the mid 20's. Frost all around and a layer of fog that covers the valley. Perfect time to get that fire roaring, snuggle up with a loved one, a glass of wine and a good movie.

Steffan shared some Viognier with me yesterday and we tried two different samples. One from our Walla Walla Viognier site and one from our Sunnyside site. Both were very unique due to terrior differences. Last year our Walla Walla Viognier (still very young) gave off big honey notes in the mouth and this year we are tasting more varietal characteristics of tropical fruits, banana and pineapple. The Sunnyside Viognier grown in a cooler site gives off a very fresh flavor, with some citrus notes. The blend of the two should be fantastic. We all truly enjoyed the 2006 Viognier and look forward to our next release. Our 2007 Viognier will be hanging out with us in barrel until bottling some time in March with an anticipated release next May or June. It's always hard to wait because by nature we're not really patient people and this business requires LOTS of patience. So, guess I'll keep myself busy doing other things while the Viognier continues to spend quality time in the barrel room.

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. Gobble Gobble!

PDXposed

2007-11-20T11:43:00.000-08:00

PDXposed came to Walla Walla to highlight some of our wineries, the Marcus Whitman and Hamley's of Pendleton. Sit back, grab a glass of wine and enjoy. I'll post both links. This is the full link and runs about 28 minutes - PDXposed or the shorter version: PDXposed - Bergevin Lane

Cheers!

Home for the Holidays

2007-11-05T21:28:00.000-08:00

Amber and I spent last weekend at the Resort at Paws Up located outside of Missoula in Greenough, MT. What a great weekend! We saw friends from our last dinner in June and made many new friends. The Resort is fantastic and we can't recommend it enough for a fabulous retreat. We started Friday evening with a cocktail/wine reception and on Saturday enjoyed a wonderful five course meal paired with our wines. We decided to try a sport clay shooting course that was really fun. I'm pretty sure that had we been tasked with bringing home dinner, the food would have been scarce. The clay discs were safe and sound...other than the embarrassing thud as they shattered when they hit the ground, untouched and still in one piece. Now, the tiny pretend clay rabbit whizzing past us across the meadow, that was another story, BANG...the poor little thing would have been stew. (We're not hunters in real life so Amber and I pretended we were playing Wii.) Our thanks to all of the folks at the resort who made this event possible. In addition we were lucky to have my brother and sister-in-law join us for their sixth wedding anniversary. They made the weekend extra special. P.S. to all of you at the Resort who were celebrating events as well - Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary and Happy Honeymoon! You know who you are! To our Friday night posse, big shouts for making the evening so memorable! You all were so much fun!

And back to the winery....

Steffan has been crazy busy in the winery. We brought in our final fruit the last week in October. So now we finish primary fermentation on our remaining lots, press them into barrels and move into the holiday activities. We're getting ready for Winemakers’ Fête we're pouring as a reception winery that evening (Thursday, November 29th) then getting ready for a fun Holiday Barrel Tasting Weekend. Our Club Swirl event is Friday night and we'll have festive decor and as always our amazing fellow Swirlies in attendance. Saturday is great food and live music with Tom Simon and friends. Our preview barrel sample during HBT is guaranteed to give your eyes, nose and mouth happy feelings!

November 30th we'll be releasing our 2005 Intuition which is our Reserve Bordeaux Blend. We're very excited for this release and I want to give a few hints about what to expect from this wine. Your eyes will get lost in the deep dark color, moving towards your olfactory senses you'll experience hints of toast, spice and vanilla, as the wine flows into your mouth you will find a wonderful integration of fruit, tannins and oak, the finish lingers on and on with engulfing flavors of cassis and blackberry.
Intuition anyone?

Fun in Walla Walla

2007-10-15T20:29:00.001-07:00

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

2007-10-08T15:25:00.001-07:00

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!

2007-10-05T14:14:00.000-07:00

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.

Let the Merlot begin...

2007-09-09T15:29:00.000-07:00

Friday we brought in our first Merlot. It smells fantastic in the winery. Our first punch down was over the weekend. It was very quiet in the production area as Steffan and I walked out to the 1.5 Ton stainless fermentation bins. I watched as he tried to get the punch down tool, a long stainless steel post with a big flat end on it, through the grapes. In the beginning the new fruit is very hard and not yet broken down. I watched him push, stir, then look at me and smile. He said, "tomorrow will be easier". It was exciting because another harvest is here. Our first punch down was really serene...a good kickoff to the upcoming harvest.

Notice Julie's little cluster...wanted to save all the fruit for the wine!

Our 2007 Harvest is here!

2007-09-05T14:28:00.000-07:00

I'll be posting pictures soon but our 2007 harvest is officially here! We will be bringing in Merlot this week and are very excited. It's coming from Mattawa, known officially as the Wahluke Slope AVA.

It is extremely busy this time of year at the winery. Amber and I will both be doing some traveling to promote our wines, hitting Eastern Washington, Chicago, 3 cities in Ohio, Denver, New York and Missoula, MT in the next two months. Can you say frequent flyer/driver miles? You can check out our events section for tastings coming up in your area.

The tasting room has been really busy which is fun for us because we're located off the beaten winery path here in Walla Walla. Even though we're part of the downtown we're still not walking distance to other wineries. Many of the wineries are found in clusters (pun intended) and we're out here by our lonesome on Poplar Street. It's really exciting when folks make the drive to our facility.

We're extremely happy with the most recent reviews in Robert Parker's "The Wine Advocate". Jay Miller tasted through our wines and gave the following reviews: 04 HHH Cabernet Sauvigno - 90 pts, 2006 Calico White - 89 pts, 2004 Intuition - 92 pts, 2004 Syrah - 90 pts, and our 2004 Barrel Select Syrah - 92+ pts, in addition he gave a great mention about our 2006 wine in barrels plus a Petit Verdot we're considering doing a special bottling of he said it would be reviewed 95 - 98 pts if bottled separately. We may see a few cases bottled!

Hope your fall is off to a good start. Football is back, just let us say that our wines pair exceptionally well with Monday Night Football!

Bottling Day!

2007-08-21T08:57:00.000-07:00

So, day 2 and we're almost done. This is the best day because the wine is now safely in bottle. The build up is crazy because we're ordering supplies, finishing the wine in barrel and then agonizing over what to feed our bottling crew! :-) We use a bottling line called Signature Bottling and they do a great job! Drew pulls up, backs up to the facility and we pump the wine onto the truck and it comes out in a finished product. It's a little like Laverne and Shirley for those of you old enough to remember that show. I used that analogy in the break room yesterday and half of our bottling crew just stared at me blankly...I think I'm totally aging myself. I must have been in diapers when I watched that show. So, I'll attach a few key photos and then get back to the truck!

P.S. if any of you are ordering capsules make sure to give yourself at least a 3 day window. We gave plenty of notice and ended up having my dad drive to Pasco yesterday to pick up capsules at the trucking company. Supposedly our capsule company is based in France and they take the month of August off. I truly think that should be published someone in their ordering guidelines. Oh well, the stories we wineries can tell about bottling troubles. Someone needs to write a blues song entitled, "I've got the bottling line blues." ....or not. :-)

Food and Wine Recipe

2007-08-10T12:45:00.001-07:00

A club swirl member sent us a recipe and thought we may want to share. The only catch is that this person didn't want credit for the recipe. So, if you like it feel free to take it on as your own. Or, you could just send a note to the blog thanking this anonymous person. :-)

Here's the recipe!

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Halibut marinated with Bergevin Lane Calico White

Fresh Halibut
Calico white wine
fresh dill and thyme
little bit of butter
Mrs.Dash original blend
Fresh lemon

Marinate it for an hour or so and the then throw it on the grill to desired doneness. yummmm!!!!
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We're looking forward to trying this ourselves! Feel free to send in recipes that pair well with the wines. They are always a lot of fun to try.

Dee's Deep Thoughts!

2007-08-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

We have many friends in the wine world and one is our local poet, Club Swirl member and wine diva, Dee. She sent in a poem she wrote and we thought we'd share.

Wine...
W...worldly, wicked, wise, wayward,
I... intuitive, intriguing, intellectual,
N...naughty, nice, needing, necessary,
E...exciting, erotic, enticing, evolving, ecstasy
Wine, they say is the nectar of Kings and Gods
Wine, like blood runs though our veins,
so does the holy nectar flow through our soul.
Wine, a rich mans pleasure,
yet a poor mans sustenance.
Wine, fruit from the earth,
fluids from the heavens.
From the earth below our feet arises the fruit of our souls.

2006 Calico Red...still going!

2007-08-02T14:01:00.000-07:00

So...many trials later we're getting closer to finalizing our blend of our 2006 Calico Red wine. We've been agonizing over what juice to use and the final mouthfeel. Just this morning Steffan announced that we're 98% there! If any of you have EVER run across Steffan that last 2% can be HUGE! We tasted this morning 9am (spitting of course) and just retasted (afternoon) 2pm. The wine opens up beautifully, fills your mouth and gives you a sweet kiss before sliding gently down the hatch (that's the small ceremonial part we don't spit).

Steffan has been really focusing on getting the mouthfeel right. He wants the mouthfeel to be as full, smooth and round as possible...he adds that he's actually working on both the mid palate and the finish. We always have a great entry with our Calico Red, our 2006 base blend has a big entry and he's working to carry that through to the finish, so that it rolls over your tongue and continues down in as smooth of a manner possible which is what our Calico Red is all about.

I just made a new mix of music for the tasting room. It will put a little giddy-up in your step. I heard someone whistling to the music already!

P.S. the radio show I was scheduled to be on tomorrow has been rescheduled for next Wednesday, August the 8th. 8am. (did I mention that is early?!)

It's Getting Hot in Here!

2007-07-26T11:22:00.000-07:00

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!

New to This!

2007-07-18T11:47:00.000-07:00

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!