Winter Barrel Work
Just when we thought it was spring in Manson, we got two weeks of snowy weather here at The Blending Room. We have wine to rack soon, so the weather didn’t stop us from doing some barrel cleaning out in the snow. Racking helps clarify the wine by pulling the clean wine off the top while leaving the solid lees behind in the barrel. Longtime wino, Evan, came over from Chicago for a visit and we convinced him to help for a day in the cellar. Evan assisted us with barrel washing, rinsing, scrubbing, moving and sulfuring just like a pro cellar rat. It’s a great help to have an...
Read MoreHarvest is over.
Cool weather made for tardy grapes this year. It was a long harvest but the last of our wine is now in barrel. A success? We think so, but you’ll just have to wait to see. J.H.
Read MoreInto the bottle, Malbec.
Before we get too far into this new harvest, let us think back to Spring Season OhTen and the bottling story that never was told. After opening The Blending Room, we quickly began selling out of our whites and reds. As June came to an close, the 2008 reds were ready to be carefully blended. The first to be put down was the Kamari Malbec. The blending process started off so smoothly, but as this game often goes, the tables turned and wine spilled. Actually, in this case, wine sprayed. Fine red wine sprayed on me, on the virgin ceiling, on the whitewashed walls, and on the new stacked cases of...
Read MoreWine & Music Inspirations IV – The Knife
It’s a stunning day here on the North Shore of Lake Chelan in Manson! Things couldn’t be more exciting as the Northern hemisphere moves into Autumn. This music inspiration came on the heels of my Swedish kick from Koop, but in a radically different fashion. The Knife are a Swedish Indie electronic, brother and sister duo enlightening us with hard-core lyrics, and pitch-shifting rhythm infused electronica. The inspiration came from a recent picture of my glamorous duties in a smurf blue jumpsuit while punching down the cap on my Red Mountain Merlot. As I was considering full...
Read MoreThe Blending Room’s First Harvest
It’s grape time and since harvest is late this year, I thought I’d shoot off one quick post about how excited I am for grapes now. I say now because in six weeks when it’s the middle of harvest I’m sure I’ll never want to see another skin, seed, stem, barrel, rack, Wellie… There’s this saying in the industry, “it takes a lot of beer to make good wine.” Below is a fond memory of my first harvest as WineGirl Wines’ in 2007. That was the Merlot and a tricky bin-tipping button. You won’t believe it, but the stain came out of those...
Read MoreBlending and Bottling at The Blending Room
The bottling process has begun here at our new facility in Lake Chelan. We’re finishing the blending of our 2008 red wines including some Malbec, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc. It’s hard work coming up with the perfect blends; lots of sampling. There’ll be another Kamari Black Label Reserve this year and fan favorites, Cab Franc and Malbec varietals and some new blends to be announced later. Unfortunately there’ll be no photos today. While pouring wines at a most recent event in Seattle, our vehicle was burgled. Stolen was our laptop and digital camera...
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