PV newsletter July 2014

	Perennial Vintners	In this issue:
		▪ Schedule: WABI weekend/artists & Fremont
		▪ Bottling remaining 2013 wines soon
		▪ New release-Melon de Bourgone 2012
Newsletter -- Jul-2014		▪ New outlets
(Click here to view in HTML on website)		▪ Vineyard - still leaf pulling, weeding
http://www.PerennialVintners.com/		▪ Recipes for Rose' & Lem 2013

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

▪ Schedule: WABI weekend/artists & Fremont
The WABI member wineries (all BI wineries) are all open this weekend, Sat-Sun (19,20-Jul). PV is open 11am-5pm, the others open at noon. All the wineries will have a guest artist, and be selling their works.

PV will have Bainbridge glass artist Kuy Hepburn. Kuy is renowned for his brilliant colored glass creations. For several years at the Bainbridge Farmers Market, PV has shared our table with Kuy and sold his lovely icicle shaped Christmas tree ornaments. He'll be emphasizing his drinking glasses and yard art pieces this weekend.

The vineyard is lovely this time of year with the grapevine canopy filled in all the way to the top wire. The weather is expected to still be nice, so plan on coming out and having yourself a BYOL (bring your own lunch) picnic lunch in the closest vineyard to downtown Seattle at our picnic table.

Mike will be there in person pouring our wines at our Fremont Wine tasting room on Wed 23-Jul from 6pm. Every Wed. is Beecher's Mac Cheese night - I think this is going to pair wonderfully with our Rose'! We'll also be pouring Frambelle with chocolate...

Some of you may have met Kath, our Kingston Farmers Market person. Last week Kath was unable to make it, and her daughter Bailey volunteered to take it over. She had so much fun, she's offered to do it again! We may be doing it more often than the up-til-now 2nd and 4th weekends, so drop in on the market often!

Also please remember that PV is open to the public most every weekend. Each month there is a special event where all the wineries are open, including PV - this weekend is one of those. Most any other day Mike can open the winery for you on just a few minutes notice by phone/txt 206-200-5902.

▪ Bottling remaining 2013 wines soon

Currently several of our tanks are still filled with wine from 2013. We need to get these emptied in time for this years harvest soon! If you're interested in joining us for fun events like bottling wine in the future (really, I'm not kidding, they are fun!), you might want to join our helpers email list. Hoping to bottle on first weekend of Aug. Lunch will be catered by our Executive Chef Andrew MacMillen, and will be tailored for the wines will be bottling that day.

▪ New release-Melon de Bourgogne 2012

As you're undoubtedly aware, our signature wine is Melon de Bourgogne - we're the only producer of this wine in WA State. If you've visited the winery and had Mike's vineyard tour, you know that we have been sold out of this wine for (it seems like) forever. The reason we've been sold out is that it has been included for the last 2 years by The HerbFarm in their annual August One Hundred Mile dinner, where everything served comes from within 100 miles.

Well the good news is that we finally have this wine to sell again, yay! This is the 2012 release. Of course there's also bad news. The 2012 harvest was good, but tiny - we produced only 16 cases total. For this reason we will be limiting sales to 3 bottles per customer, with no discounts. We will not be pouring it in the tasting room, there simply isn't enough of the wine to spare. It will be available in the tasting room starting this weekend.

▪ New outlets

Last month we brought in a new outlet in Seattle called Downtown Spirits and Wine. It's a block from the old Doghouse Restaurant, near that weird Denny/Dexter intersection with 7th. The upstairs area is spirits, the downstairs area is a wide selection of wines and beers. I had no idea this shop existed, 'though it's been there over a year. I'm quite impressed with their selection, especially WA State and European.

▪ Vineyard - still leaf pulling, weeding

In our cool growing climate we must pull most of the leaves from in front of the grapes - in warmer climates it's not as critical. We do this to ensure that sunlight can get in to the fruit so as to dry off any overnight dew or any rainfall as quickly as possible, as this moisture is what allows Powdery Mildew to form. This also helps our protectant sprays to get into the fruit zone thus stopping the PM. (You may recall my saying this in the previous month's newsletter -- well, it's still not finished, it's slow going!)

Of course there's also always more weeding to be done. At this point it's mostly a matter of going up and down the rows with a weed whacker and just keeping the weeds from getting tall enough to invade the grape canopy. This doesn't actually fix the problem as the weeds are mostly established perennials which will return unless the roots are ripped out, but there's never enough time to actually pull them out, sigh...

▪ Recipes for Rose' & Lem 2013

If you've been following this newsletter, you'll know our tradition is to provide a catered lunch for our volunteer bottling parties. Our Executive Chef, Andrew MacMillen designs a lunch specifically around the wines we'll be bottling that day. Our last bottling party was the 2013 Cabernet Franc Rose', and 2013 Lemberger. Andrew's recipes are now on the website, and it was a wonderful lunch, featuring, Spanish Grilled Chicken, Catalan Ratatouille and Green Potato Salad. Click here for bottling lunch recipes 06/15/2014.