A Blooming Hill Vineyard

Mmmmm mmmmm good. Jim’s white wines from the 2009 harvest are fabulous and the Riesling, in particular, is something very special. What a life I’ve fallen into — my handsome husband bringing me canary diamond colored wiines to sip at every stage of their artful evolution. In the beginning they taste and feel like nectar. Now, only a scant month or two later, they are wine and I am amazed each time at the lovely changes taking place.

Let me wax ecstatic about that Riesling because it is already sweet, creamy and transportative. Right now I am looking out of my office window onto a landscape of lingering snow being washed away by a cold, winter rain. Mist hangs at the bottom of the new Pinot block we call Arlington. It is beautiful and mystical in its own right having received the surprise of a snowstorm two days ago. One sip of that Riesling and I still see the storied Northwest winter but feel the promise of summer and those sultry breezes that drift down our valley.

It is New Year’s Eve and a time of looking forward for us. Tonight Jim will sing Happy Birthday to all of the horses – they all turn one year older on New Year’s, just like the Queen of England celebrates her birthday on a designated day that is not the actual date of her birth – and we will marvel at all we have and all we have ahead of us. By now, we can be reasonably sure about the quality of the wines and look forward to offering more of Jim’s magical way of coaxing these aromas and flavors out of the earth. We can also look forward to the surprises each year brings. Better not to speculate. Who knows what will happen. About the only thing I do know is that the things I can’t know are the ones that will be of the most significance.

Tonight, we’ll toast the ends, the beginnings and the surprises.