PV Newsletter Jul-2017

	Perennial Vintners	In this issue:
		▪ Hours/events: Wine On The Rock
		▪ Winery: New releases, special sales
		▪ Winery: Awards, bottling party
Newsletter -- Jul-2017		▪ Library wines available at Alchemy (PT)
(Click here to view in HTML on website)		▪ Herbfarm 100 Mile Dinner
http://www.PerennialVintners.com/		▪ Vineyard: Flowering, shoot/leaf thinning

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

▪ Hours/events: Wine On The Rock

Our next Wine on the Rock event is Sat and Sun 22,23-Jul - all the wineries on Bainbridge will be open, and we'll all be featuring food and live music! PV will have Grilled Chicken/Apple Sausage with Yogurt Herb Sauce (paired with Siegerrebe) and Daube Meatballs Proven=C3=A7al (paired with Syrah). Music will be 1-4pm both days, on Sat we'll have the "New Jazz Trio" return (they played last years event), and the "No Jive Five" on Sun. Both are straight-ahead jazz in a small combo. There may be a few tickets available at the door at each winery, but we strongly recommend you buy at the website on Eventbrite.com in advance as there is a cap on how many we can sell. Click here for an article on the Feb-2017 WotR event from Everyday Runaway.

PV is open 6 days a week, 11am-5pm -- every day except Wednesday, year round. Check the sign on the barrel at the bottom of the driveway for the closing time, and look up the hill to the house - when open, you can see our flashing blue and red "open" sign from Lovgreen Rd.

Additionally, Mike lives on the property and the winery is open whenever he's there, so you can consider PV to be ALWAYS OPEN if you call/txt 206-200-5902 ahead (most any reasonable hour) -- if I'm available, you'll be welcomed!

▪ Winery: New Releases, special sales

It's been a while since I've sent a newsletter, so I've gotten a little behind on release info... We're now selling the 2015 vintage of Lemberger, and 2015 vintage of Syrah. We've run out of the 2014 Mueller Thurgau. The good news though, is that we're now selling the 2015 Siegerrebe - if you've tasted Siegerrebe before, you know how wonderful this is! Come on in and try this release from the very warm year 2015.

We're also running low on the 2015 Magelica - as it's refermenting in the bottle, it's now got a shelf-life, so we've dropped the price to $14/btl. This is a superb sherry-like wine for warm afternoons with simple foods like strong cheeses, perhaps a nice Brie... Just plan on drinking it soon, one of these warm summer afternoons would be ideal!

We're trying to make room in storage for the new 2016 releases (soon to be bottled, see below), so we've made a special sale on the 2014 Melon de Bourgogne: price is now $21 per bottle, with a 30% discount if you buy 6 bottles!

▪ Winery: Awards, bottling party

A month or so ago we got some nice recognition from Seattle Wine Awards with Bronze for 2014 Syrah. Wish we'd had more wines available to submit as we may have gotten more, you never know...

Our next work party in the winery should be bottling. I'm expecting this to be about 3rd weekend in Aug. Our executive Chef Andrew MacMillen will be catering the lunches and they'll be specifically designed for pairing with the wines we'll be bottling that day. There will be two weekends, the 2nd work party will be on 1st weekend in Sep -- probably a Sat on one of them and a Sun on the other, not sure which. This is just a heads-up, we won't have firm dates for about a month.

▪ Library wines available at Alchemy (PT)

Mike stopped in at Alchemy in Port Townsend a few weeks ago. I love this place - the food is fantastic, the service is the best, the wine list is very interesting. They actually have a few of our older bottles left, including the wonderful Isletage from 2011. This should still be a lovely and mature white wine. If you can find an excuse to go to PT, I'd highly recommend going there - and ordering an older PV wine with your meal. (Their Oyster Ginger Stew would be an outstanding pairing!)

▪ Herbfarm 100 Mile Dinner

If you've visited the winery before, and have heard Mike tell his whole flotilla of stories (or at least a handful), you've undoubtedly heard our Herbfarm story. Every year this incredible restaurant with an unbelievable Locavore focus does a meal for the entire month of August where everything you're served comes from within 100 miles of Woodinville - it is truly amazing. In the past we've had our Melon de Bourgogne used with oysters from Puget Sound as a main course, and they've used our Frambelle raspberry dessert wine with a dessert. In past years and this year, they're using our Verjus in cooking - buying our entire remaining production of this unique product. Herbfarm website 100 Mile Dinner page click here.

▪ Vineyard: Flowering, Shoot/leaf thinning

We're almost done with flowering. This is a wonderful couple of weeks in the vineyard - it's where the plants set fruit for this years harvest. But the best part is the wonderful smell! Come out to a real live vineyard and stick your face into a grapevine and smell the incomparable winegrape flower. It's somewhat rose-like, but that description just falls short, you must come and experience it yourself! Better hurry, we'll be done in a few days, so this weekend is probably your last chance.

We've just finished up "shoot thinning". Grape plants like to put up lots of new shoots once the weather turns warm. This is a whole new slew of shoots, and there will be a dense thicket of them around the main trunk of the plant. This is a problem for several reasons, including poor air circulation through the canopy which prevents drying thus promoting powdery mildew growth, and preventing sprays from penetrating into the fruit zone. The answer is a slow and painstaking by-hand removal of extra shoots. I've been at this for weeks (including a couple of volunteers - thank you!) and am really thrilled to be done with this for the year!

The next job will start in a week or two, and it's "leaf pulling". Again, a manual by-hand removal of leaves in front of any grape clusters. Same as above, this allows light and air to get in around the actual fruit which helps enhance ripening and reduce powdery mildew.

If you're interested in helping out with these jobs, reply to this email, and consider joining our pv-helpers email list where I regularly announce these fun projects!