Happy New Year!

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.