Ladies Day at the Wind River Cellars 10 year library Reserve Tasting Event! They might bring husbands and significant others next event... but maybe not!
Vancouver Wine Society Group represented at the Wind River Cellars 10 year Library Reserve Tasting Event - Sunday, November 18th
Every year when we do our Library tasting, I always say I'm going to take notes and taste all of our past vintages slowly and methodically. Once again I found myself jumping right in the middle, going back and forth between varieties and forgetting where I set my glass. This means of course, that it was once again, a great time. We had a great turn out and I'm pretty sure everyone had fun. I especially enjoyed the group from the Vancouver Food and Wine Society that came out for a private tasting. It's a great organization that funds different educational programs for aspiring chefs and kids that wish to enter the hospitality industry. I'm not going to go off on you people that RSVPd and then didn't show up. That would be rude of me to cuss you out because other people who wanted to come couldn't. It wouldn't be very nice of me at all if I wish that bad things happen to you just because you were too inconsiderate to call and tell us you wouldn't be coming. I apologize to those of you who wanted to attend but couldn't because the event was full. In the future I may have to institute some sort of deposite for this free event.
If you were at the Library tasting I would love to hear which of the older wines were your favorites. I'll post some pictures of the event later today.
This is going to be a crazy week. Thanksgiving weekend is always one of our busiest and most fun events of the year. Come on out to the gorge and visit the many great wineries and taste the 30 or so different varieties. (Or you could just drive to the the traffic congested Willamette Valley and taste over-priced Pinot Noir.) Once again, I will be offering barrel samples of our '06 Tempranillo, '05 Merlot, '06 Pinot Noir and '06 Cabernet Franc.
You give us something to be thankful for, Husum!
Joel
Hey everyone,
Not to beat a dead, decomposing horse that's starting to smell like Lap Dance Jon's hands, (Not you, Seabiscuit) but if you are planning on attending our library tasting this Sunday, we ask that you PLEASE RSVP. The event is free but we do require reservations. If you make reservations and don't show up I will tell everyone that you couldn't make it because of your bladder problem.
I've always got a spot for you, Husum!
Joel
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
Okay, so life on the range wasn't the lifestyle I thought it would be. Sea Biscuit and I have parted ways. A true cowboy is nothing without his faithfull mount and my dream of taming the great west has come to an end. Turns out that there's a reason John Wayne wasn't a winemaker. It's difficult to crush Pinot Noir, Lemberger and Gewurztraminer when you're out branding calfs. I never actually branded a calf but I did crush the last of our 2007 harvest.
Sea Biscuit should be glad he wasn't around when I was crushing Gewurztraminer. Right when I destemmed the last cluster of the year and began cleaning the crusher/destemmer, (Large piece of equipment used for crushing and destemming grape clusters) the
!@#$#% thing broke! The good news is that I was able to process all of the fruit and I have about 10 months to fix it. The bad news is that I'm the kind of person who will wait 10 months to fix it.
I'm thrilled to have everything in and I'm not bummed about a single variety. I'm also thrilled that the annual Wind River Cellars library tasting is only a couple of weeks away. We will be opening every bottle of every wine we've ever produced! It will be like traveling back to 1995. The average gallon of gas in the U.S. was $1.09, a stamp was $.32, and Braveheart, Apollo 13, and Ace Ventura were tops at the box office. If you didn't like that year you can skip forward to other vintages.
The weather here has been amazing. It almost reminds me of the days when Sea Biscuit and I rode the open plains with reckless abandon. To Hell with Sea Biscuit! He won't get to be around for the Wind River Cellars Thanksgiving Open House. This year we're hosting it on Thanksgiving weekend, that way it will be easy to remember. I encourage you to come out for a visit. I promise a great time.
Visitors of the week included the couple from Wisconsin, the mother/daughter from Puyallup, the anniversary celebrating couple from Portland who were staying at Bonneville Hot Springs Resort and Lap Dance Jon who was climbing Mt. Adams for no good reason but to see if he could get cell phone service. (He did)
Holidays are coming folks. Call me to schedule a group barrel tasting and I'll tell you stories of life as a cowboy.
Happy trails, Husum.
Joel
