Dear Blog Leader...whoever you are!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

Select Wines by Design

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

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

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!

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

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

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


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

The Accidental Work Out

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Big Catch

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

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

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

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

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

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

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