A Blooming Hill Vineyard

To tell you the truth, I didn’t exactlyknow who Rachel Ray is or just how big a deal this is when I got the call from the writer doing a Willamette Valley Thanksgiving destination piece.  I remember it was a very hot day and I was sitting in the car in the Fred Meyer parking lot having the conversation.  I was really excited to get the call, though, loving it that the writer found us!  She told me she knew from our website that we would be fun…

The piece is out and it is enticing.  If I lived somewhere else, I would think about celebrating Thanksgiving out here.  Our little mention is in Number 3 and highlights our Christmast Trees, which we sell at beyond reasonable prices when you buy wine (and extremely reasonable prices even if you don’t).  Here is the link to the article:

We have this beautiful teahouse off the corner of the patio where you can stand and look to the right, to the left and straight ahead and feel as if you are in the most peaceful place in the world.  Gentle breezes the carry the faint scent of the ocean waft across the space.  People have stood there and committed to each other’s happiness for the rest of their lives together…

The dogs often sit together on the corner surveying their kingdom.  Also, something probably lives underneath.  Whatever it is (might be), last night it lured poor Trouble, our 67 muscular pound mostly Pit Bull, partly boxer to go in and find it.  We have a neighbor dog named Diesel who comes by to see if Gemini and Trouble can come out an play and he showed up just as we started cooking dinner.  The three dogs took off and, a little later, we heard a repetitve bark from Trouble.  It is unmistakable as it resonates through his very large head. (His snoring is also unmistakable; Gemini has been seen to pick himself up, look disdainfully in Trouble’s direction and leave the room.)

It wasn’t a normal bark and, besides, the dogs hardly every bark at anything except at night when they warn the deer to stay away from the tender morsels of grapes and roses.  And it came from the same place.  Jim figured Trouble had something cornered….or, something had Trouble cornered.  

Turned out he had wedged himself under the teahouse into a space where he could move from side to side but couldn’t squiggle out.  Poor thing.  It was pitiful.  We couldn’t even see him, at first.  Then I spied his green eyes.  He tried so hard and could almost get that head under the beam but he couldn’t wedge out his shoulders.  The fix was to flatten the pile of dirt in front of him so he had some space to crawl but…how do you communicate to a dog that you are going to help and what you are going to do.

Jim, Trouble and I were soon all wedged under there.  Jim and I trying to asses and Trouble whimpering.  I brought completely ineffective tools – a tourquoise trowel and an old broom handle but it was all I could grab fast.  Jim dispatched me to get the hoes.  Then he went to get a shovel.  Needless to say, since I think there are snakes under there, I was terrified to put my body under the teahouse but, like any good mom, it was my puppy child who was in trouble so I overlooked the clear and present danger of snakes. 

What a good dog.  He seemed to know we were helping, stayed calm and even started digging himself once he saw Jim removing dirt.  And, of course, he was de-wedged in reasonably short order.  What a grateful puppy he was bounding around us, covered with mud.  Gemini, who stood guard while we were digging, was smiling his beautiful, blond head off.

I didn’t think to get a picture … so here are two pictures that we love of our Wine Dogs.

What has this got to do with wine?  Nothing, really, except that they look cute and there are alot of them standing around at A Blooming Hill Vineyard today!  Here’s Gemini – sort of befuddled about them, I think:

This is a fundraiser and amusing … if a little odd!  Anyway, come and see them and smile.   AND, we are down to the last few cases of Mingle so we hope a lot of people come to see the flamingoes and buy the last of the ’08 Mingle!

Here’s a nice thing….we got an email today from people who tasted our wines at Newport and who also write a blog!  They really liked our Mingle and – better yet – they only noted a few wines.  Here’s the link:

 http://weeatwedrink.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/and-now-for-the-good-part-part-2-of-the-seafood-and-wine-festival/

There are three or four restaurants now carrying our wines on the Coast of Oregon.  Yay!  That Mingle has been very good to us.  It’s our most popular wine.  A few more taste trials and we will be ready to bottle the 2010….good thing because we are selling out of the 2008 fast and we didn’t make it in 2009!

We are taking our wines to the beach … we’re pouring at the Newport Seafood & Wine Festival this year – February 25th, 26th and 27th – and we’re really looking forward to it even though we are SCARED!  They get 20,000 over the three days!  Everyone I have talked to says it is a lot of fun and that we will be really tired.

There are a million details to make sure we comply with all the rules & regs – from spraying or soaking everything we bring so it won’t catch fire to making sure we have enough stuff to give out like brochures, cards and cups, let alone trying to guess how much actual wine to bring!  Right now Jim is figuring out how to get all the wine loaded on the truck for the trip down.  We’re assuming it will be a lot easier on the way back because we will have sold a lot of wine….

 The theme is Hollywood and Vine (cute, huh!) and we are having a great time with booth decoration ideas…

Watch here and Facebook for pictures!

We’re almost sheepish about this …. Jim’s ’08 Pinot Noir won a Silver in the 9th Annual Pinot Noir Shootout that takes place in California.  We know there were 350 wines entered and we’ll fill you in on details about how many medals as soon as we know them.  There is a link  to the host website and a Summit in San Francisco on February 26th…..here you go:  www.affairsofthevine.com. 

Also to tell you, the 2010 wines are coming along very nicely.  The whites are particulary special.  All of the wines seem to be a touch sweeter than last year, probably havimg to do with all those concentrated sugars as a result of dropping so much fruit to get any crop!  I think people are going to want to snap up the new wines pretty darn fast…They are silky and smooth with lovely, complex tastes and it’s still January!  Lucky me, I get to taste test all year long.

And while I am on the subject, it’s not too soon to tell you that we will be at the Newport Seafood and Wine Festival on February 25, 26, 27.  We are almost as excited about our booth decorations as about serving our wines because the Festival theme is Hollywood and Vine!  I can do a lot with the Holly part….

More soon.

Gemini and Trouble supervise as Jim puts the finishing touches on the arch of our new space.

By the end of today we will have furniture back in place, pictures on the way and be ready to serve people coming to a wine dinner tonight!   At least, that’s the plan!   We’re so pleased with how this has turned out!  Big thanks to Jim for all he did and for how very patient he was with the whole job!

We open the new Tasting Room space on Saturday, January 8th at noon so come and see us … I’ll have brownies to sweeten the pot!

Thank you to everyone for giving us such a wonderful first season in our Tasting Room!   Over the Thanksgiving weekend, we felt like we had three GIANT family parties.   There were so many people here, wonderful music from Robert Bandolini on his keyboard and mandolin, very tasty food (if I do say so myself) and a sense of conviviality that warmed our hearts.

December was a little quieter in the Tasting Room – but still fun and full of good cheer.  It gave me a chance to ponder what I am going to do with all the space once we expand right after the first of the year.  Come up and see the construction progess….oh, and if you know of any hand-hewn barn beams, tell us because we want them to frame the arch into the new space!

So, the 2010 grapes are happily becoming wines – lovely wines.  The Pinot noir is amazingly smooth already.  I tasted the wine from Barrel #7 yesterday monring and it has a delightful taste of strawberries!  And then there are the whites … Jim’s unoaked whites are sweet and saucy.  I love them.  Hope I have to do a lot more tasting before they get to the bottling stage. 

By the way, take a look at the tab on the left that says 100% Cork.  We believe in cork and saving the planet.  And don’t forget that we’ll give you a 10% discount on your next bottle of wine when you bring empty bottles back to us! 

Right at this moment it is beautiful and sunny here.  Quite different from the rest of the country, apparently.   I wish the lunar eclipse could have postponed a night because there was huge cloud cover and we couldn’t see a thing.   And now the days are growing longer!  I saw buds on the azalea outside of our front door this morning. 

Warmest wishes to everyone for the holidays.  Come and see us beginning again on January 8th.

Spring Will Be Here Before We Know It

  I

It was an amazing Thanksgiving!  We really had no idea what to expect and I spent a fair amount of my time pre-consoling myself that maybe nobody would show up.  Tons of people were here and we really felt like it was a three-day family party.  When we opened the tasting room in May, on Memorial Day weekend, we had 200 people over the three days.  Luckily, it was great weather so people could spread out on the patio….and we made immediate plans to break through into what we call the Blue Room (slightly differentlyh appointed than the one in the White House….) and expand the tasting room!  But that is the winter project and we knew we wouldn’t be able to do it for Thanksgiving so I was worried both that no one would show up and that someone would show up!

A few hundred someones did show up and we were so glad we had decided to pour in our big room with the fireplace.  We had a great time and met so many wonderful people including a man who spent most of his teenage years hanging out in this very house with the family that built it.  He told us where the big beams in our house came from – the old barn on this property – and what it was like growing up out here.  We met a few transplants from Jim’s hometown – Chicago – and from mine – New York, which always makes for great conversation.   Jim got to talk about the North Side, the South Side and the Cubs; and, I got to talk about bagels and the Brooklyn Dodgers.  One person who came in had a Boston RedSox baseball cap but I served him anyway….

Charlie and Alexis – son and daughter-in-law – were here for the weekend and it was so nice for them to see us so busy and for us to just plain see them!  They got here on Friday, shortly after we opened the tasting room for the day and told us later that they thought there might be a couple of people and that they would just slip past into the Red Room, where they were staying.  What they discovered is that we were already hosting dozens of people so they pitched right in fetching bottles as people bought their wines.

Lots of friends we’ve made through the tasting room dropped in over the weekend, people who already know our wines.  The treat for them – and everyone else – was to taste our newly released ’09 Pinot Noir, which Jim calls brassy!  In spite of its brassy youth, it has a good and sweet nose and its smooth for its years! We sold a bunch, which surprised and pleased us. 

Our musician find, Robert Bernedelli, turned out to be a big hit.  Robert plays keyboard, guitar and mandolin and he has an abundance of beautiful blond curls so he looks quite holiday angelic.  He made sure some of his friends and family and his own family came by to taste our wines and hear him play.  I loved talking to his mom, dad and auntie Linda and getting the scoop on how devoted a musician Robert is, as his brother.  One of the nicest moments was the very end of the weekend on Sunday.  We had Robert’s family and a group of six people we were very much enjoying visiting.   Someone in that group asked Robert to play a Christmas carol, which he did on his mandolin and the whole room stopped to listen.  By now everyone knew he is a student and that we were all so happy to give him this opportunity.  The music was beautiful and when Robert finished, it was to applause.  What a wonderful end to the weekend.

Now we are into the BIG HOLIDAY with decorating opportunities.  Jim leads the cheer for holiday spirit!  We decided, instead of one big tree, we would do two little ones … one upstairs for us, which is only 9 feet tall and the big, fluffy one outside on the patio.  That one has a girth of 7 feet.  Jim got right out there putting up lights and garlands, hanging icicle lights from the bottom of the deck, piling the horse carriage full of gift boxes, putting fresh cut greens everywhere. 

 It’s like a little wonderland and, today, it feels like it could definitely fill in with snow.  People are out buying their trees and tasting wine.  We just love it.  We see the same families from year to year and it is always lovely to see new babies and how big last year’s babies are now!    Topping off the decorations, at least for eight days, is my Shoe Menorah, happily lighted during Chanukah.  It’s great having the holiday start on the first of the month, by the way, because you can’t get confused about which of the eight days you are up to when lighting the candles!

 To accompany it, I found adorable cocktail napkins for the tasting room that say Love Shoes & Wine…. here’s a picture of the little package:

And there’s another one with a big dog … perfect for our wine dogs.

They definitely look better out of the package and in use….

So, we’re here all through the season, open through the 23rd.  Every day is the best day of the year.

We love this holiday!  We’ll be open Friday, Saturday and Sunday Noon to 5 PM with special plans we have spent a long time thinking up!  First, we’re introducing our 2009 Pinot Noir, which tastes so rich and chocolaty that I’m making chocolate flan and brownies to serve with it.  Plus, I found this wonderful cranberry goat cheese at Trader Joe’s so we’ll serve that with my homemade artisinal bread – the one that Jim loves! 

We’ll open up the big room with the fireplace – we have music by Robert Bandolini on Friday and Saturday from 3 – 5 PM and Sunday from 4 – 5 PM. He plays keyboard and mandolin and has heavenly blond curls to look up….

The wine dogs will be here, of course, and we’ve got our fabulous antique horse buggy set up for holiday photos AND, for those who buy wine, we’ll send you away with a Doug Fir Christmas tree for $10.

Does it get better than this?  $5 tasting fee covers all of the above – five wines, lovely treats, pictures, music, fire in the fireplace – us!

A BLOOMING HILL VINEYARD  5195 SW HERGERT ROAD  503-992-1196

bloominghillvineyards@yahoo.com