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!
