PV Newsletter May-2022

	Perennial Vintners	In this issue:
		▪ Hours/events: Wine on the Rock (this wknd) & Summer hrs
		▪Recorded interview-NW Wine Radio
		▪ Tasting area changes coming
Newsletter -- May-2022		▪ Awards
Click here to view in HTML on website)		▪ Vineyard: Frost damage, new posts & wires, bud thinning
http://www.PerennialVintners.com/		▪ New outlets/new wine

▪ Hours/events: Wine on the rock (this wknd) & Summer hrs

Wine on the Rock is coming, this weekend (Fri 20th- Sun)! You may recall WotR from pre-Covid times with it being wonderfully fun, but very busy! With Covid distancing requirements, we've re-invented the event, it's now by reservations. You buy your ticket online, and schedule your visits at the same time through the website. This allows us to to spend time with each group to talk about the wine and food pairings. Did I mention the food? All wineries will be pairing with cheeses, local when possible. Make your reservations at CellarPass.

Our Winter hours have been wknds only, but starting Memorial Day weekend 27-May, we'll be open for Summer hours:

Fri, Sat, Sun 11am-6pm

Mon 11am-5pm

Tue-Thu by reservation only, call/txt 206-200-5902.

With dry weather, we'll be tasting outdoors, however on rainy days, we'll be tasting in the winery. Please bear in mind that we only have room for a single group at a time in the winery, so you may have to wait.

Of course you can always shop online if making it here to the winery is not convenient.

▪ Recorded interview - NW Wine Radio

Yesterday, Serena and Mike sat down at the microphones for an interview by NW Wine Radio. It was fun having a casual, though of course wine-related interview with host Brian Calvert. We talked about how Serena and I met, our current wine lineup, trying to keep up on Social Media, and other topics. We don't know exactly when the interview will be published, but you could be the first to know if you subscribe to their podcast at your favorite podcast outlet, or at NorthwestWineNight.com.

▪ Tasting area changes coming

If you've visited our winery/tasting area before, you know we're pretty tight for space. Since Covid era. we've moved tasting outdoors, with granite slabs across barrels - it's very casual, and it overlooks the vineyard, but on one side it bumps up against our old beat up farm shed. We're looking forward to a busy Summer, so have been working towards expanding the tasting area. We've completed the new shed to the north of the house, and have been slowly moving the contents of the existing shed there. We anticipate tearing down the old shed within a month, and expanding into that area.

▪ Awards

This year we've entered several wine competitions, although not all have been run and returned scores yet.

Savor Northwest: We're very proud that every wine we entered got an award!

Rubrus 2019 - Gold

Sparkling Rose 202 - Silver

Sparkling Sieg NV - Bronze

Seattle Wine Awards:

Rubrus - Silver

Sparkling Rose - Silver

▪ Vineyard: Frost damage, new posts & wires, bud thinning

This year we have some bud damage from the late frost we had on 20-Apr. When you have a year like this, where Winter and Spring start out warm, the grape buds will start pushing out early. Then, along comes a late frost, and kills the delicate little upcoming buds. We're seeing a notable loss of buds, possibly 50%. Each grape bud internally has 3 buds, so it is possible that the secondaries may come up, but they are not as fruitful as primaries. Although we'll have a smaller than usual harvest, this is likely to lead to a better, more ripe harvest as the plant will not be trying to ripen as many clusters.

The main work this time of year is mowing and line trimming - managing the over-wintering cover crop. In addition to that, this year we are finishing building out the new block of Zweigelt behind the house. You'll recall from the last newsletter that we put the plants in the ground a year ago, now we'll be getting the posts in, setting up trellising wires, and hanging the irrigation lines. We also will be starting bud thinning soon, where we break off excess buds. This should be easier than usual due to the frost damage discussed above.

▪ New outlets/new wine

We have a new wine, and it is only available at the Bainbridge Brewing AleHouse in downtown Winslow. It's called Plant-A-Tree red - it's a call for action to help promote a healthy environment by planting trees. It's a medium-bodied red wine with prominent cherry and dark cocoa notes. The grapes are sourced from Eastern WA, an area like ours in the Puget Sound basin, where wildfires are destroying more tree habitat every year. One of the most effective ways to encourage a healthy environment, is to plant more trees. For each keg sold, we are donating a portion of the proceeds to tree replanting non-profits.