Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:45:22 -0700
Subject: [PV-Friends] June Newsletter (late)

	Perennial Vintners	In this issue:
		▪ Open Bastille Day weekend
		▪ Almost out of...
		▪ Big event - BI Wine Weekend
Newsletter -- June-2010 (late)		▪ In the vineyard
(Click here to view in HTML on website)		▪ Website updates
http://www.PerennialVintners.com/		▪ Newsletter schedule

(Click on any image below to go to website with more information/larger image/etc.)

▪ Open Bastille Day weekend
Our next open-at-the-winery event is Bastille Day weekend.  At PV we celebrate Bastille Day to honor the French heritage of our Melon de Bourgogne and Madeleine Angevine wines.

PV will be open Sat and Sun (17,18-Jul) from 10am-5pm.  This is a WABI weekend where all the Bainbridge wineries will be open.  We're running out of many of our wines, so this will almost certainly be your last chance to get them (see below).

Also please note that I'm working this event alone at this time -- if you'd like to see what it's like to be on the other side of the counter, please volunteer to come out and help me pour wine for folks at this event.  It'll be fun!  (Simply reply to this email with you're availability those days.)

▪ Almost out of...
We are down to our last few cases of Melon de Bourgogne and Madeleine Angevine, and are down to our last few bottles of Ichigo.  We're very happy to see that they've sold so well, but we're disappointed that we won't have them to offer people for possibly another 6 months!

We are holding back a tiny amount of these wines for our library -- we hope to offer special "vertical" packages and perhaps some special events at the winery featuring vertical tastings.  (If you're not familiar with this term, it's to have the same wine from several different vintages for a comparative tasting.)

Just so you don't get too worried, we do still have a good supply of Mueller Thurgau and of Frambelle.

▪ Big event - BI Wine Weekend
We're excited to announce that we'll be part of the Bainbridge Island Wine Weekend this Autumn.  It starts on Friday 01-Oct with a street party in the Marina district (Docs, Harbor Pub, etc.) with a free evening salsa dance, and PV Melon de Bourgogne with locally grown oysters (the PV wines and oysters are not free!).


Additionally, the folks at Island Wine Weekend have partnered with Outstanding In The Field to present a white-tablecloth dinner on the Bentryn/Suyematsu farm. It will feature local foods prepared by Brendon McGill of the new Hitchcock restaurant, paired with the wines of Bainbridge Island Vineyard and Winery, and Perennial Vintners.  We've met with Katy of OITF and are thrilled to be part of the event -- with their expertise, outstanding chef Brendon, and local produce, it's sure to be memorable.

There is an additional tasting including all the island wineries on Sunday 03-Oct.  If you're interested in attending any of these events, I'd encourage you to get your tickets soonest, as space will be limited.  Or if you're not sure, you may want to just join their mailing list so they can convince you!
    http://www.islandwineweekend.com/

▪ In the vineyard
In the vineyard we're just finishing up shoot thinning. Grapevines really want to put out lots of little shoots which would eventually all become permanent and actually hinder the plant.  We humans know better, and we strip off all those little shoots to keep the plant under control.  (See larger photos on our website on "Our Vineyards" page.

Photo before. [photo credit: Mike Lempriere, iPhone]

As the shoots grow longer, we encourage them to grow straight up to ensure full sun to the leaves and air around the grape clusters.  We tuck all shoots under the parallel catchwires, then some weeks later, the catchwires will need to be moved up as the shoots grow.  We've done some of this, and hope to finish it in the next few days.

Photo of same plant after shoot thinning and tucking.

If you're interested in learning about grape growing, these are important steps in the annual cycle of the plant.  We recommend that you join our helpers email list and come out to learn and help out several times a season.

▪ Website updates
I've spent a bunch of time in the last week tidying up the PV website.  No really big changes, but lots of little updates in many pages. 

▪ Newsletter schedule
And yes, this newsletter is supposed to be monthly, on roughly, th 15th.  Well, June was just too busy, so now it's July 1st, and finally, here's the June newsletter!  Sorry to keep you all in suspense all this time...