LotM for May

Yikes, where did I lose May?

After a recent trip to the QFC – Issaquah that carries what remains of our 2007 Kamari Black Label Cabernet Franc, I found a label that inspired me enough to add it to the Label of the Month blog series.

However, instead of using that label for May and further begging forgiveness that it is no longer May and that my post is delinquent for May, I am going to do a piece on what has also been lost.

Somewhere over the Snoqualmie Pass and in between wrapping up my MBA and opening The Blending Room in Lake Chelan, I lost time to write the May LotM post. Fear not, I have found what many others have lost.

We’ll begin with a lost canyon. My favorite thing about items being lost is that they are inevitably found, or else you’d have a tree falling in a forest. Does it make a sound? Thus, I am assuming that the lost canyon for which Lost Canyon wines were inspired must have been found by the inspire-ee. Wait, I’ve become lost in my contemplation.

Anyway, Lost Canyon has a simple label that they have used since 2001, below left. I think we used the same Papyrus font for the University of Washington Biology Club sweatshirt designs. Yes I was a nerd. But that was in 2003, so I guess we lost the font race. I also found a Lost Canyon label from 1978, that I thought was quite pleasing, perhaps they should bring the antique paper look back.

Moving on to our new find, we have a lost valley. I’m beginning to find a theme here. How is it that we have lost all of these geographic regions, or is it being lost within them that is appealing? Lost Valley Winery can be found down-under in Australia. The label is simple black and white water color, almost translucent imagery conveying a succinct feeling of lost.

The Lost Valley Winery website describes for us the ethereal nature of the region down-under and explains perhaps how it became lost:

Nestled on the high slopes of Victoria’s Great Dividing Range in the stunningly beautiful ’Victorian High Country’ 1 hour North of Melbourne, Lost Valley Winery is set amongst majestic boulders of pink granite at a lofty 450 metres altitude with sweeping views of Mount Buller, first growth forests of Australian Ghost Gums and bordered by the trout filled King Parrot Creek below.

Almost forgotten by modern development, this land was called the “Valley of the Thousand Hills” by its indigenous aboriginal inhabitants; whilst the name for the Tallarook Forest that adjoins Lost Valley Winery, comes from the language of the Natramboolok Tribe meaning “Call of the Wattlebird.”

Hmm, like Dorothy I too would like to become lost in the Land of Auss… among the wattlebirds.

For each lost canyon you will find a river and for each lost valley one finds a lake. Luckily enough we have found the Lost River Winery and the Lost Lake Winery. I like the Lost River label with the vintage sketch and clearly designed label, but I am especially attracted to the circular ammonite imagery on the Lost Lake labels. The label makes me wonder if I can find lost ammonite fossils on the lake floor, and I begin to wonder about the lost land before time of these extinct marine creatures.

We’ve begun in California and traversed to Australia and now we’re back in the Northern hemisphere with these two winery’s hailing from my home state, Lost River in Winthrop, Washington and Lost Lake in Pemberton, Washington. And, to wrap up our trip of lost and found, we remember another winery out on the peninsula in Sequim: Lost Mountain Winery.

Lost Mountain has since closed its doors as the owners have retired from a long family tradition of winemaking. Jon and I actually had a chance to visit the Lost Mountain Winery back on 2004. Its grounds were stunning and luscious, characteristic of the Puget Sound. I still have a bottle of their wine and I think they mastered the lost imagery with their label. It is a sad loss for Washington state.

And last but not lost, and even more appropriately for the month May 2010 is a tribute to the LOST. Dharma Initiative island beverages, and who can forget the beer?

Find me in June,

WineGirl