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This month’s label was inspired by a conversation with a customer about Nefarious Cellars. Now, I get really excited about great wine, great wine making and great wine stories, and this label delivers on all of the above.

2002 Nonni and Zing Willamette Valley Pinot Noir according to their website:

…we started a label called Nonni and Zing. It was a small project of about 250 cases annually and was made entirely from fruit sourced from the Dundee Hills AVA. That was a good time.

The label features a jester with bright red pompoms on his top. The Nefarious jester can still be found in the background of the Nefarious wine labels today. My favorite part is the red and white polka dot foil. I also love how each wine is individually numbered by hand. Mine is 659 of 1680. Since I’ll never open it as a part of my collection, here are some tasting notes from someone else’s experience.

This is an historical piece, no longer available or produced. I feel so lucky to have come across this bottle when Nefarious first opened in 2005. Back then they were just a chick, a guy, and a dog. Things have gone very well for the Neff’s and I am excited to have them in my own backyard.

WineGirl

July’s Label of the Month is a choice from our new home of Lake Chelan. It’s a tribute to the wineries and grape growers of the area that have worked to establish the Lake Chelan region as a unique wine destination. One of the most unique wineries in the valley is Hard Row to Hoe. As they say on their website, the “name celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit of a man who ran a row boat taxi service on Lake Chelan in the 1930’s ferrying miners by rowboat to a brothel located at Point Lovely.” That theme extends from their name to their tasting room, their label designs and the wine names. A few of their wine names are Shameless Hussy, Laid Back Cab, Iron Bed Red, and the soon to be released Double Dip. Their labels show the trek of the miners across Lake Chelan to Point Lovely.

Fun labels for sure.

J.H.

A man named Ron came into The Blending Room last week. I thought I recognized him from somewhere. An older gentleman, bald on top, but a very well manicured white beard on the bottom. He looked as if perhaps he had forgotten his top hat home. He was very kind, but direct almost a little gruff. I knew I was in good hands when he began delving into his wine background. Turns out he retired only to find himself Chief Taster at Columbia Winery for over eight years.

Columbia Winery was the first winery I ever visited. I was 16, maybe I just turned 16. My boyfriend and I were celebrating my birthday on the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train. It was the mystery edition tour, a real Who Done It? where everyone’s a suspect and we all have to untangle the planted actors from the guests to solve the murder. Turns out the stuffed Husky dog I received as a surprise birthday gift was the culprit. Go figure.

Anyway, we arrived at Columbia Winery in Woodinville after what seemed like hours traveling time from Renton. Guess the commute’s still the same, even in a car. I’m not sure if I actually tasted wine that night, seeing as I was a paranoid goody two shoes and didn’t want to get caught drinking under-age. Maybe I sipped off my boyfriend’s glass, as he was after all of age. We purchased two bottles of wine. One was drunk at some point, and the other I have carried with me throughout nearly half my life. It’s a 1994 Columbia Valley Merlot. Not sure if the late Master of Wine David Lake made it or not. When I find the bottle I’ll add it to this post.

Well, throughout the next decade and a half I have found several reasons to visit Columbia Winery. One, I purchased a wine barrel from them in 2003 for my Sonoma County ΦΗΡΑ Cabernet Merlot. And, I went tasting with some friends where I purchased a 2000 Pinot Gris, that I still have too. It’s the label of the month for June along with the 1997 Yakima Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from the Otis Vineyard. If you look closely you can see the scratch marks from years of storage on my fancy Ikea wine rack. I’ll probably never open either. They’re part of my story. Probably better that way, seeing as white wines do not age well, and well reds, well… I believe on either of those occasions I may have run into Ron behind the Columbia Winery bar. It felt great to be on the other side of the bar from Ron. It allowed me to see how far I’ve come in the WineGirl Wines endeavor.

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

You know, what better way to go down in history than with your own wine label.

As I was researching my Wine in China? post, I came across a Karl Marx label on a Chinese sparkling wine. So, naturally I decided it would have to be the next label of the month.

Karl Marx Sparkling

Karl Marx Sparkling

Further researched confirmed another label on a German red wine:

This search also turned up an intriguing set of wine labels with equally controversial images (depending on which side you take) upon them. How about the Hitler label or the Carter label or the Che label?

Controversial Collection

Hitler Wine

Carter, Che, Churchill Collection

So, I’m no history buff. It was my least favorite class growing up. Maybe it was because I learned my history in a Texas classroom and had to unlearn it from A People’s History of the United States. I really lack in understanding of Communism, Marxism, Sentimentalism and all other -isms that would allow me to make a properly witty post on the meaning of a sparkling wine celebrating Karl Marx or a series of Der Führer with ex-President Carter involved. So instead of starting with my instincts Wikipedia: Karl Marx, I decided I’d find other labels of parallel ironic-ism.

My first attempt: Bob Marley

Found it!

Next: President Obama

First search return:

Then I come across an Obama wine, but is it real or is it Photoshop? Who knows these days.

How ’bout Tiger Woods? Not yet, but there’s:

Who’s next?

Cheers,
WineGirl