Wine & Music Inspirations IX – Regina Spektor
Just when I thought harvest was nearing an end after pressing the stubborn Red Mountain Cabernet Franc, I came into an AVA lot of Lake Chelan Syrah. So, when even those in the last-to-pick Willamette Valley were wrapping up their harvest duties; we here at The Blending Room were starting harvest over again, crushing enough grapes to nearly double our production for the year! The redundancy began to sink in as sticky grape juice became the Something About Mary of my hairstyle; the delicate skin of my hands cracked and dried out in Man Hands fashion; and the triple-rinse sanitation mantra...
Read MoreWine & Music Inspirations VIII – The Rogers Sisters
As the mad fury of crush comes to an end (tomorrow’s our last day crushing Red Mountain Malbec) there’s only one song that concisely sums up my desire to be doing anything other than the triple rinse (aka sanitizing and cleaning). I WANT TO RIDE MY BICYCLE! Queen’s emphatic, staccato lyrics and back-and-forth danceable rhythms are a perfect complement to cleaning up the winery after a long weekend of soap suds, sticky juice, and flying grape skins hitting the wall. But the real song running through my head is The Rogers Sisters’ Song For Freddie. This...
Read MoreWine & Music Inspirations III – Shivaree
Last night I was wide awake in the middle of the night contemplating the 2010 Firá Chardonnay fermentation while staring out at the waning gibbous moon. Falling on the heels of a fantastic harvest moon two days ago, I still could not get this song out of my head. Naturally it has become my next wine & music inspiration. I love the way the music carries itself through the song to tell its story to the next interchange up to the climax and finally the dénouement farewell to the moon. Her brooding voice lends solace to my sleeplessness. Goodnight Moon by Shivaree My goal with this...
Read MoreWine & Music Inspirations II – Koop
This morning was the first day of a harvest that is certain to continue well into November. The excitement, the hurry up and wait, the restless nights are finally assuaged with the reception of our first grapes at The Blending Room. But before their arrival at 12:20PM, yours truly was all a flutter and seeking solace in anything but facebook or twitter. Thus, I turned to my now incessant search for wine and music inspirations. This is not an easy thing to do, let me tell you, but was just the task I needed to ease my apprehensive mind. I searched through the abyss of a music collection held...
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...
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