winegirlblogs

As the end of the month nears, we add the last WgotW post to July with a second visit from three couples converging on Manson, Washington from all over the globe and seeking shelter from our most recent torrential downpour and thunderstorm.

The night held sporadic conversation from stories of lightning strikes to old man smells and butterfly bushes. There may even have been an offer to sell a used crusher/destemmer from the Boeing Wine Clubs’ stock of equipment. But Jim held the stage waxing poetic with the quote of the evening: “We’d give up moonshine for this.”

Readers, I’ll have you know Jim and Susan came all the way from the Land of Moonshine to hang with Jonathan and Angela. It was a pleasure to witness their moonshine-to-wine conversion over a bottle of 2007 Kamari Black Label Reserve by WineGirl Wines.

Below (from left to right) you’ll find Wine Converts Jim & Susan from Tennessee, Dandelion Wine Makers Connie & Mick from London, and Mary & Bob all the way from Covington, WA enjoying their favorite new Kamari wine for the second night in a row.

Givin' up moonshine.

Thanks for stopping in guys! Look for our new Dandelion Wine next spring!**

Cheers,

WineGirl

**JUST KIDDING

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 among other things. We lost the machine itself as well as 6 months of wine artwork and photos. It’s a major bummer at an extremely busy time for us. But we’re pushing on, friends.

After deciding on our blends, we set up for the bottling line. As a true nano-winery, we bottle by hand which means washing, sanitizing, rinsing, sparging, filling, corking, foiling, and labeling the bottles pretty much one at a time. It is quite an operation to get up and running. On the first day, there are always a few snags and snaggles as we try to remember how the equipment works and what is the most efficient system of bottling. We usually call in a few dedicated winos to volunteer on the line.

After two sessions bottling, we have our 2008 Kamari Cabernet Franc and 2008 Kamari Malbec in bottles and resting in the cold room for a little while so they can deal with their bottle shock in cool, humid peace. These are long days, usually around 15 hours, after which we stumble home for a “nap” before the next day of flying water and flowing wine.

The Blending Room, our winery and tasting bar, on the North Shore of Lake Chelan, is open for business while we work. Come check us out for a taste or a case, ask questions, and watch out for the errant hose sprays from the bottling line.

J.H.

This last weekend in Manson, WA was the community happening that is the annual Apple Blossom Festival. Everyone in town came out to see the parade of school marching bands, candy tossers, prancing horsemen and festival queens of the past. The parade route came past directly in front of The Blending Room, our new winery space. We weren’t able to get the place open in time for the festivities. But it worked out for the best, because we got to watch the parade from our front row seats in our lawn. The sun came out just as the procession began and we had a great morning in the sun watching our first Apple Blossom parade.

J.H.

Our new wine space came with an interesting sign post out front. It has two spaces for possible signage. From the ground, 20 feet below, it looked like a wine barrel might fit perfectly in the upper spot. As it happened, Winegirl Angela was working on painting some old barrels. We knew that getting the 100 pound barrel up in the air might be a little tricky as would keeping it up there.

The crew gathered together chain, steel pipe, nuts and bolts and brackets. We checked the sketches, then crumpled them up. We checked the wind, then ignored the results and dragged the barrel up and onto the signpost with the Jeepster.

I’m scared of falling from signpoles, so Richard climbed around like a natural lemur to check the level and tighten the screws. It held steady.

In the end, all we needed was the WineGirl and her muscles. The main “The Blending Room” placard is in the works to be strapped up there next.

J.H.

Drain

The result of all that mud digging posted in First Things First was a new drain.

Which way?	This way.	Long way.
Pipe Web	Foreman	Fifthman
Pipe, Pipe, Pipe	This is it.	Ain't she a b'yute?

Cement Maker

I never thought I’d be so proud of a hole in the ground. We’ll even have a space for a sanitizing sink in the winery to clean all of our winemaking tools.

_________________________________________________________________

Carpet

While the boys were having their way with the pipes, I was working diligently on our décor. This meant tearing up the hideous blue indoor-outdoor carpet. You’d think this would be easy… you’d just need a putty knife. (Putty knife shown below.)

HAH! This carpet was completely GLUED down from corner to corner, and it seemed the more I tugged the more glue there was! This was the first time The Blending Room made my lateral muscles so sore I could hardly breathe the next day; but it hasn’t been the last.

Yucko!

Cheers,
WineGirl

Carpet Scraper