	Perennial Vintners	In this issue:
		▪ Sched: Mem. Day wknd - barrel tasting, BI Uncorked
		▪ Our new business model - includes non-BI wines
		▪ Releases - Magelica and Rose'
Newsletter -- May-2012		▪ Farmers Markets - Seattle too!
(Click here to view in HTML on website)		▪ Vineyard - Trousseau Gris and weeding
http://www.PerennialVintners.com/		▪ Mission Small Business - $250k grant - pls help!

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

▪ Sched: Mem. Day wknd - barrel tasting, BI Uncorked
Our next official open day is Memorial Day weekend (including Monday) 26,27,28-May. This is a Winery Alliance of Bainbridge Island event with all wineries open both days that weekend. We'll be open 11am 'til 5pm, the other wineries open at noon. Special notes for the weekend:
- We'll be barrel tasting (well, actually tank tasting) our new red wine (see "New business model" below).
- We'll be pouring our new rose' wine (see "Releases" below).
- We'll also have fudge from Bon Bon Candies on Bainbridge to taste with the Frambelle -- it's yummy!
- The vineyard is beautiful with new shoots popping up everywhere. The forecast is calling for sunshine at least part of the weekend, so this should be a good chance to sit at the picnic table in the vineyard for your first wine picnic of the summer! (We'll have wine for sale by the glass.)

Also be sure to mark your calendar for Bainbridge Uncorked 22,23,24-Jun. All the Bainbridge wineries will be open that weekend plus several special events, most importantly a tasting with all the wineries in downtown Winslow on Saturday evening. Tickets are available now - in Facebook, search for "Bainbridge Uncorked", or go to Winery Alliance of Bainbridge Island website and click "Events".

▪ Our new business model - includes non-BI wines
For those of you living nearby (in the Puget Sound basin), you're aware that last year (2011) was "the year they forgot to have summer". Put bluntly, it was a horrible growing year. A few Puget Sound AVA wineries did do well, however Perennial Vintners, was not one of them -- we had a complete loss of crop, due to powdery mildew and just plain not enough heat. Obviously we cannot survive as a business without wine to sell, so we've had to adapt and change the way we do business.

Until now, all our wines have been grown locally on Bainbridge Island. We will now also be selling wines that came from grapes grown outside of Bainbridge Island. I cannot emphasize enough how difficult it was to make this decision, to break from telling purely the Locavore story, but quite simply there was no choice. It was either close the doors as a business, or sell some non-local wines until we again have local wines available (cross your fingers for a good growing season this year).

The good part of this though, is that we will now have available wine types that we have not had in the past. Our first non-local release will be a lovely rose' from Pinot Noir grapes. We also have our first red wine coming soon, from Lemberger grapes. We plan to remain true to our style with more uncommon varieties in unusual styles.

We really want to re-emphasize that Perennial Vintners will continue with local Bainbridge Island wines in the future. The core belief of our business is all about local products; we are aggressively working in our vineyards this year to ensure we keep ahead of the powdery mildew that clobbered us last year. We will also soon have a Madeleine Angevine from the Puget Sound AVA, though it was not grown on Bainbridge. If you have concerns about this change, we would love to discuss them with you -- please drop in and we'll talk.

▪ Releases - Magelica and Rose'
As discussed in previous article, we'll soon be selling our first Rose'-style wine. Made from Yakima Valley AVA Pinot Noir, it's a lovely sipping wine. We have the highest hopes that it will be available for the Memorial Day weekend, but as usual we don't have labels yet, so I can't make any promises - we will definitely be pouring this for tasting.

We did finally get the Magelica labels approved, and got the labels -- we are now selling the 2010 Magelica. In keeping with PV's style, this is truly amongst the most unique wine you'll ever encounter. Botrytised Madeleine Angevine from 2010 finished slightly sweet, in a port-style, unlike anything you'll find anywhere else.

BTW: we're officially out of the Mueller Thurgau 2009, and are now selling the 2010. We also have library editions -- if you like our Mueller, here's a chance to get a vertical -- we have 2005-2010 now available. And BTW: we're also getting low on 2010 Frambelle.

▪ Farmers Markets - Seattle too!
This year we'll be at lots of local farmer's markets. We'll be at Bainbridge the third Saturday of each month (started last weekend!), at Poulsbo every Saturday starting 02-Jun, and at the Phinney market Fridays starting 15-Jun.

We'll also be at the Magnolia market, pouring wine, one weekend per month, the first being Saturday 16-Jun. We're really excited about participating in the WSLCB pilot program that allows tasting at farmers markets -- you may recall we talked about this in Mar-2011 newsletter -- thanks again to those of you who contacted their Senator in favor, we made it happen!

▪ Vineyard - Trousseau Gris and weeding
Our Executive Chef Andrew MacMillen has been working with PV to pioneer an interesting grape varietal in this area. He has a fondness for an otherwise unknown variety called Trousseau Gris. Last year we ordered plants from the U.C. Davis mother block, and have planted them this year. I'm afraid this is not real exciting yet, though you're welcome to wander in the vineyard to see them. However in 4 years when we make the first wine from them, that will be exciting!

Other than that, it's weeding and mowing, some irrigating, more weeding, more mowing, more weeding. I'm so far behind on weeding, it's just not funny... Anyone interested in helping out weeding? Yeah, I know, nope. But just in case, there are other more interesting tasks -- please consider joining our helpers email list.

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▪ Mission Small Business - $250k grant - pls help!
We need your help. The Living Social organization, working with Chase Bank, is offering a $250,000 grant to 12 small businesses. To be eligible, we need 250 votes. I've submitted my essay and done my part, now I have to ask you to help out.

You can go there directly MissionSmallbusiness.com, or in Facebook, search for Mission Small Business and click. This will take you to their wesbite. You can either create an account and log in, or simply log in with your Facebook profile. Next, simply vote for PV... In the "Business Name" field enter "Perennial Vintners" and hit Search button. It'll show you a link to vote for me, and click -- it's that easy. Thank you!