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This is our first release of our Estate Madeleine Angevine, vintage 2007! It is now available at the winery ($14.00). It will soon be available at local fine wine shops and at restaurants on Bainbridge and in Seattle (see Where to Find page for locations).

Our family hand maintains a two row block (about 160 plants) of vines originally planted in the early 1980's by our neighbors at Bainbridge Island Vineyard & Winery. From this block we've yielded 28 cases of wine.

The vineyard being in the Puget Sound American Viticultural Area (AVA) means we get all the benefits of the maritime-influenced cool climate growing area as well as the extended length days of our more northerly latitude. What all this leads to is the most fragrant and aromatic wines imaginable...

We brought in the 2007 harvest under a light drizzle of rain and were worried about having to pick earlier than we had wanted. Our worries were unfounded, the numbers were very good, and the wine came out wonderfully! It is a dry white wine, and being from a cool maritime-influenced climate, it has sufficient natural acidity to give structure to the wine, with a stunningly lovely floral nose. We refer to this as our feminine wine, which shines on its own as a sipping wine, as opposed to our more masculine Müller Thurgau which is more of a food wine. This wine was not intended to be aged -- please enjoy it young, while its fresh fruit aromatics are at their peak.

In more detail, the plants were cut down to the ground in 2005, with the expectation of field grafting a different variety on the trunks. Unfortunately, the grafting was never done, and the plants were pretty much abandoned. Perennial Vintners has spent much "TLC" (meaning a lot of Mikes time), restoring these plants to good health. As they were very strong and mature plants they've rebounded very well and have given us a wonderful (albeit small) crop from the first year. Those on the Perennial Vintners newsletter email list will remember that we released a Verjus from this block in 2007.

This wine label features a commissioned artwork. Please visit our page with more information about Dianne Gardner of Port Orchard and her work.