Blending Day and Bottling Day

On Saturday, January 15th we went to Kestrel's barrel room to blend our next vintage. John Gabriel had over 20 barrels down from the racks for us to sniff and taste. Thank you all for coming and bringing your yummy appetizers and husbands. The hubbies were so well behaved, we'll invite them back again!

The good news is, I think we will have an OUTSTANDING wine to start drinking in August. We tasted Cabs, Merlots, Cab Franc, Syrah, Malbec, Tempranillo and a new grape- Graciano.

As you know, we hadn't printed our labels yet until we decided what we were making. Well, we did an about-face and chose the Rioja Spanish blend (30% Tempranillo and 70% Graciano) instead of the Bordeaux blend. It was deeper in color, a little on the spicy side, a gorgeous mid-palate and a long, enticing finish. It’s a wine with impeccable balance that will drink well young and age beautifully.

What a fluke that we just had our Spanish wine tasting day and the winner was a Tempranillo!

So, now we get to bottle it! The new bottling date is Saturday, Feb. 12th at 1:30pm behind Kestrel again. Be prepared to work on the production line; moving boxes, bottles, gasing them, filling them, corking them, putting the capsules on, labeling them and then boxing them!

If you have a few more friends that want to join us and buy some of our wine, let Gayle know that you are interested. This may be our last time to do this.........

ps. the new name means "BEAUTIFUL RED"

Lisa Day Mosaic Class

Time to sign up for Lisa Day's Mosaic Class.

It is Feb 15 & 17 at 6 pm (you can get there at 5 if you want, too) in her home studio in W. Richland.

She has lowered the price just for us- it is now only $50. You can bring your own project to work on (tabletop, picture frame, bowling ball yard art, or?) I do have about 12 bowling balls I will donate to you to use if you don't have any other ideas.

Please RSVP to me by Feb 7th. The class is limited to 12

Spanish Wines and Tapas Day

What a great day! We had glass painting, great food, blind tasting of 14 or so wines, and the Aroma Class by Carol Sanford. That was very informative and fun! Thank you Carol!!

The winners were:

#1 2008 Tempranillo by Desert Wind $20 from the winery in Prosser

#2 Tie- 2005 Marques De Caceres $14 , Fred Meyer

and 2006 Finca La Estacada $14, Pasco Yokes

#3 2006 Rejadorada Tinto Roble $18, Pasco Yokes

A BIG thanks to Lisa Day for hosting in her beautiful home.

New Winery Open in Richland- Hamilton Cellars

If you like Malbec's, this is the place to go! They have Malbec flights (which I recommend), Bordeaux blend flights called Bona Vita. The Malbec flight includes a Rose' of Malbec. They also have a very nice floral white wine. My favorites were the '07 Merlot and the '07 Malbec. Prices run around the $26- 30. range. They have a $5. tasting fee and also a wine club. Wine club members have their own special room with a fireplace and bar. This summer there will be an outdoor patio.

If you'd like their hours, click on the heading above.

Charlie Hoppes is their winemaker and I think he did a very fine job sourcing the grapes and blending for them. Be sure and stop by and tell them you are a WWW!

2011 Events

January 10 from 11 to 3. Bring a Spanish Tapas, a bottle of Spanish Wine (white or red and wrapped in foil) and your own wine glass (or 2) to paint. We'll have a very loose, informal aroma class with our favorite Wine Woman, Carol. Bring a notepad to take notes.

Lisa Days house in W. Richland. 2 spaces left.

January 15. Kestrel Barrel Room ( behind the tasting room), Prosser. Blending party with John Gabriel at 1:30pm. This will be limited to those that have already pre-paid for their cases.

4 cases left.

FEB. 12~ Bottling @ 1:30 in the Kestrel Barrel room.

February 10 ~ Sandi Whistler is hosting this event in her home in W. Richland. Red wine and chocolate theme (or anything pertaining to Valentine's Day)

February 15 & 17 Mosaic Class at Lisa Day's. Must sign up ahead of time. More details to come.

March 8, Barnard Griffin Tasting, 11am, Richland. No charge, but please purchase some wine. They are letting us bring our appetizers and desserts into their winery. Barnard Griffin has been a regular winner in our WWW blind tastings. BRAVO!

"Down Under" tasting with Alice from Shingleback and Red Knot by Precept Wine Brands. TBA

Results from the Bordeaux tasting

25 WWW showed up at Miss Charlenes house for a day of food, wine, & Apres Vin products. That was YUMMY, fun and educational all at the same time. THANK YOU ERIC AND LORI!!!

After carefully tasting all 15 wines, the winners were:

#1 Mouton Cadet Rothschild

#2 Barnard Griffin Cab/Merlot Blend

#3 Smasne Cellars County Line

2009 Bordeaux Orders

We are ready to start taking orders for your WWW 2009 Bordeaux wine. We need to buy 25 cases for one barrel of wine. With 76 WWW members, we may run out! 1st come, 1st serve.....

As of January 5th, we have 4 cases left.

John says that the grapes have all come the Horse Heaven Hills. The price is $18 per bottle and $216. per case. Please send me your personal check made out to JOHN J. GABRIEL in the amount of $216. before January 8th to assure your case. We will give John your check, collect the tax balance and the $3. for your labels at the blending party on January 15. If you would like to split a case with a friend, that will be fine, but still send me one check and include both your names for our records. We are only selling cases of 12, not by the bottle.

Email Gayle if you need the address for mailing.

Bordeaux Tasting and Apres Vin

Tuesday, December 7th is our next event. We will be meeting at Miss Charlene's house in South Richland to taste test some Bordeaux blends for our next vintage. The folks from Apres Vin will be there to give us a taste of their wonderful grapeseed oils, too. As always, bring an appetizer to share. More info to come in your next email.

Click on the title above to see more about Apres Vin.

Blending Day

We have a definite date to blend our next wine. It's Saturday, January 15. More news to come...

Bubbly Day

Our bubbly tasting was a HUGE success! Over 24 WWW showed up at Miss Vicky's home armed with great food and a disguised bottle to try. Can you imagine the work it takes to try 24 bottles?!

Thanks to Jan for making our score sheets and tallying the winners. They are:

1st Place~ Cooks Spumante (are you kidding me?!! $3. ??)

2nd Place ~ Barefoot Bubbly Moscato Spumante (Green label)

3rd Place ~ Shingleback Black Bubbles Sparkling Shiraz

4th Place ~ Martini & Rossi Asti Spumante

5th Place ~ Segura Viudas Brut Reserva

6th Place ~ Adriano Adami Prosecco

And a BIG thank you goes to Miss Vicky for hosting in her home~ she did an awesome job!

Some great food

How very surprised we all were to find out what our WWW favorite champagne was :)