Let the Merlot begin...

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

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!

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!