winegirlblogs

Our WineGirl of the Week for June 30th arrived in summer style from the wet side. Saira came with five of her friends to experience the Lake Chelan-dependence weekend! And like every year it will be a weekend to remember.

Saira’s Saturday activities included the Manson Farmer’s Market at the Manson Grange as well as the Manson Public Library book sale before she came to hang out at The Blending Room to sip a succulent glass of our Firá Chardonnay. Saira’s heading to a BBQ tonight and of course watching the Chelan fireworks before she’s off to bed to catch some beauty rest for Sunday.

Why does she need to rest up for Sunday, you ask? Well, Sunday is jam-packed with Kiwanis BBQ Chicken and the annual classic car show Rods and Wheels. My oh my! But then, what better way to end a July 4th weekend than with a second showing of booms and bangs sure to delight. The little village on the bay will host the Fourth of July fireworks for all to see. I sure can’t wait!

Good luck Saira! We hope you can fit it all in and get some serious sun time before heading back to Seattle. It was a pleasure to host you and your friends!

Busy Bee Saira

Cheers,
WineGirl

And now for some actual winemaking on this blog. It’s been a while. Our time has been occupied and our blog has been clogged with moving the winery, construction on the new facility and settling into our new location. We’re getting prepared to bottle our 2008 reds and 2009 whites soon. That means some filtering is in order for the ’09 Chardonnay and Gewurztraminer (that’s French for Gewürztraminer).

WineGirl and her helper, Delice, rolled out the small but mighty plate filter for some action. It had been in the closet for a while, but performed its duties very well. Delice took to the sometimes hectic process with quick feet and cool attitude.

As always, there is lots of cleaning and sanitizing in winemaking, which makes for lots of water everywhere, especially down my boots. Our new helper came out relatively dry though. There were lots of hoses on the ground too. No one tripped and no one fell. The wine got filtered, and it was good.

Success.

J.H.

As you may know, last spring the Lake Chelan wine region received its very own federal AVA designation. Since then, there’s been growing enthusiasm about the area as a great wine producing region. We’re on that train for certain.

Now Seattle Magazine has named Lake Chelan the state’s ‘Best Emerging Wine Region’ in a recent article, 2010 Best Washington Wines.

Here’s a quote from the piece:

Though it currently has only 260 planted acres, the area is developing a reputation for excellent fresh, crisp Riesling and Chardonnay, as well as Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc. “This area has potential to produce world-class whites,” Bob Jankelson says.

WineGirl Wines agrees. We’ve been sampling wines around the area as long as they’ve been making wines and have been excited by the potential for growing great wine grapes around this beautiful lake. That’s why we moved here. And the wine community here is a good one. We’ve hosted wine release parties here for years, always with a good response from great people. The area is getting some deserved recognition and we’re glad to be a part of its future.

J.H.

We are very excited to have our wines in our local grocery, Marketime. We have lived in Fremont, Seattle within blocks of this great market for 7 or 8 years now and enjoy having a good selection of supplies, food and treats so close. They definitely have a great beer and wine selection which I’ve been taking advantage of as long as I’ve been a customer. And now the special bottles of WineGirl Wines are part of that great wine selection. It’s a big wall of wine, but have a close look and you’ll spot 2007 Kamari Cabernet Franc. The 2008 Firá Chardonnay is around the corner in the white wine cooler. If you don’t already know about Marketime, take a little roadtrip for a visit. After you’ve grabbed a bottle, take a look around for their house-made sausage and delicious chocolate cake. It could be quite a night.

Marketime is in Fremont at 4416 Fremont Ave N, Seattle, WA, 98103.

See where else you can buy bottles of WineGirl Wines here.

J.H.

UPDATE:

The 2007 Cab. Franc is sold out, but Marketime is now carrying WineGirl Wines’ 2007 ‘My Derby Wife’ Merlot in addition to the 2008 Firá Chardonnay.

For those following along at home, the rules to the game have changed. In an effort to get our followers out and into the shops that are carrying WineGirl’s bottles on their shelves, we’re taking Where’s Wino? to the real world (in part). Here’s how it works:
1. We will post on this weblog, the name of a particular new retail shop that are carrying our wines.
2. You will go to the shop and take a photo of yourself next to our bottles on the shelf (everybody’s got a camera-phone, right).
3. You will submit the photo to us by email.
4. We will display the first photo of the correct location on the blog.
5. We will award the winning wino a fabulous prize.

And so, for the next installment of Where’s Wino? we’re sending you to Malt & Vine in Redmond, WA. It’s a lovely little shop that sells beer and wine to go and pours glasses to enjoy there and then. They have many interesting and seldom seen beers of the world available in bottle and on tap. Their wine selection is full of obscure labels from the Northwest and around the world. It’s a very intriguing collection of fine wines. If you’re into more than the usual bottles in the beer and wine aisle, Malt & Vine is worth checking out.

This is what our wines look like on the shelves without you there posing in the shot. They are carrying WineGirl Wines’ 2007 Kamari Cabernet Franc and our 2008 Firá Chardonnay. You don’t have to buy anything from the shop, but it may be hard to leave without something, and it certainly wouldn’t hurt the cause. Have fun.

J.H.