Crushing and pressing has come to an end and I couldn't be more excited. The winery is back to normal and the cellar looks huge to me without all of those fermenting grapes in there. Yesterday I pressed the last of our 2007 vintage with the help of Clark, an aspiring winemaker who's showing absolutely no potential. You can't imagine how good it feels to have the 2007 vintage put to bed.
I still have a few things left in 2007 to look forward to. The first thing is our annual library tasting this weekend. If you know of any other wineries who are opening 100 different bottles of wine for tasting, please let me know. Ours will be free to barrel members, club members and you blog readers who obviously have nothing better to do. People have been asking me "Joel, how do you manage to open all of those bottles dating back to 1995 and not charge people for tasting?" Well, that's simple. We cut out the tasting room person and make you all pour your own. This event is another one of the ways we show our appreciation for our good customers so please don't show up if you suck. (That goes for you, Santa Cruz couple!) Lap Dance Jon will be here and if he doesn't like you he has my permission to tease you until you cry. Please contact us to let us know you're coming.
Thanksgiving is another thing I have to look forward to. It's always a fun and busy weekend and this year we'll have a lot more activity going on in the cellar, perhaps even some live music.
If you haven't yet made arrangements for our annual Wind River Cellars holiday in Mexico, chances are you're not going. That's okay. I hope you enjoy sitting around your parent's house eating crappy fruitcake while we're all basking in the sun enjoying delicious wines and other beverages. For all of you who were at the harvest party last month please remember to congratulate John and Regina who won the all expenses paid trip to join us. Hopefully, this will inspire the rest of you to pick a little harder next year.
This week I will be tidying up loose ends in the cellar and getting ready for the Library tasting. I've got lots of barrels to taste if you feel like coming up.
You've got a lot of different bottles to taste next Sunday, Husum!
Joel
