Meet the rollergirls each representing their featured wines:

2007 Killer Bee-otch Merlot

2008 Scarlet Leather Merlot

2008 Sheeza Brickhouse Cabernet Franc

2008 Cosmic Rains Cabernet Sauvignon

2008 Sara Problem Malbec

2008 Deadly Aim Red Wine Blend

2009 Foxy Throwdown Gewurztraminer

2009 Selma Soul Chardonnay

Read more on Wine World’s weblog.

Oh and if you so please and you have a pair of skates. Bring em. There’s plenty of room!

-Killer Bee-otch 36 sides to a honeycomb

Retired (to make wine) Grave Danger of Seattle’s Rat City Rollegirls

One of the newest places to find our wines is in Renton, WA at the Red House. They feature fine food and a large selection of beers and wines from local makers and from around the world. They say the atmosphere is “sophisticated and casual” and I would agree. I recently poured our Firás and Kamaris at their weekly Wednesday wine tasting event. Trucking over from Manson was a journey, but worth the trip. The Red House is a cozy place. People were very friendly and in good spirits throughout the night sharing stories and laughs with old and new friends. The wines were well received and the food provided for the event seemed to compliment nicely. The 2010 Firá Cabernet Sauvignon and 2010 Kamari Black Label Reserve Red Wine Blend were the hits of the evening.

The Red House now carries WineGirl Wines’ 2009 Firá Gewurztraminer, 2008 Firá Cab Sav, and 2008 My Derby Wife Merlot. If you need more reason to check them out, look at their full menu online. After the event wound down, I had a chance to enjoy their Red House Paella and it was a delicious and hearty meal. I’d order it again next time and pair it with our Firá Cabernet Sauvignon for a savory sensory experience.

A growing list of where to find our wines is here.

J.H.

Today, it’s grey and rainy here in Manson, reminds me of Seattle. And it also begs the question: Why is the weather so influential and indicative of our musical selections? I certainly cannot begin pondering the answer, but will suggest that Radiohead’s Paranoid Android on the OK Computer album is exactly the inspiration I need to get motivated for pressing red wine today. In fact, the entire album is needed, since it’s hard to separate each song from the brilliant overall orchestration emanating from Thom Yorke’s genius.

Bear with me: This is the kind of album that you listen to with headphones on while walking around completing your daily activites. The album quite simply synthesizes the activities of one’s motion into a sort of soundtrack of life. I am not doing justice to describing this sensation, but I highly recommend donning your iPod and walking around your daily world. Everyone and everything begins to move with the rhythm. Birds take flight on cue, pedestrians enter crosswalks on cue, and your own personal being becomes fluid.

This will likely be on repeat while we press our Red Mountain Merlot today at The Blending Room.

Cheers,

WineGirl

Certainly, my Friday night pleaser.

After spending all day yesterday and early today dropping fruit in the vineyards (boy, is life hard?), I returned back to the winery for evening cap maintenance. This song popped on and took the lead as today’s wine & music inspiration. Its rhythm was perfect for traipsing around the one inch edges of the fermenting bins. I’m always calling on my past gymnastic experience and my current yoga practices for these balancing times. But I was feeling extra lively tonight dancing to the rhythms of Tell Me Something Good by Rufus & Chaka Khan.

Turn it up LOUD and let it warm up your soul for a Friday night out on the town.

Cheers,

WineGirl

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 immersion within the bin of fermenting grapes, The Knife’s Heartbeat sums up exactly the relationship I have with each of my wine babies. As an artist, it’s like the deal you make with your art. You can leave it to “divine sense” and “lean on fate”, unless that isn’t be good enough for you, which it sure isn’t for me. It’s knowing the medium, for me my grapes and believing what they are telling me as I carry them through the wine process. The song lends lyrics to the story of what I imagine is the melding together of an artist’s passion and craft, sharing separate heartbeats.

Whoo, that was way cheesy and heavy for such a silly Swedish song.

By the way, I really just like the song because Karin Dreijer Andersson’s voice is so magnetic and the video rocks. She has also dropped lyrics with the likes of Röyksopp on “What Else is There.” Although she was the voice in that video, she was not the model singing. She’s also featured on Röyksopp’s “This Must Be It” and “Tricky Tricky.”

Skål,

WineGirl

Then you can take it to another phenomenal Röyksopp song: It’s the single remix, but this youtube video is better than the original.

Grape Bootie

You won’t believe it, but the stain came out of those pants. Afterwords, I called them my magic pants, but they’ve been retired this year. They’d seen too much wine and too many good times.

Be sure to stop by The Blending Room during harvest to see how a nano-winery does it.

Cheers,
WineGirl

The Original

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.

The night was a raging success, besides (as BomBarb pointed out) that George Carlin might advise us to never attend a “First Annual” anything.

We had a ceremony uniting best friends or as rollergirls call ‘em: Derby Wives. Go here to learn about the Derby Wife tradition. The ceremony was officiated by Megatron and our girl-of-flying-petals was The Mexican Fury.

I want to wish all the best and a long and happy life to the following Derby Wife unions:

• In a rare move, a retired skater married a referee! The Stiletto-Beg Union! (Jo Jo Stiletto and Mae Kim Beg).
• The Kafkanovelopolites are no longer living in sin, the Danger-Wench union is official. (Raven Mad, Shovey Chase and Sara Problem).
  
• And a union freshmeat, The Plated-Shorty-Sheedy Union!
• Finally, announcing the Killer Bee-otch union to Scarlet Leather and attended by Sheeza Brickhouse!

Congratulations to all and I look forward to next years’ Derby Wife Day!

A very special thanks to Tash-ya Round’s fabulous chocolate-covered strawberries from her Elegant Gourmet Catering biz. YUM!

Are you planning a Derby Wife celebration? It wouldn’t be complete without the 2007 Wahluke Slope My Derby Wife Merlot inspired by the Rat City Rollergirls. Pick some up here and now!

-WineGirl aka Killer

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As WineGirl, it has always been my dream to lead my passion in way a that gives back to my community. As owner of WineGirl Wines, I can now proudly say that I have been able to realize this dream. In January of 2009, WineGirl Wines donated a case of 2007 Red Mountain Firá Merlot to the C4C Auction, which was followed by our August of 2009 Release Party sponsorship of The Treehouse for foster children. Then a donation to the Wine for Haiti Fundraiser followed by this year’s donation to Challenge for Charity of 2007 Wahluke Slope My Derby Wife Merlot made it our third and fourth official donations to build community.

This is small in comparison to the amazing ways others have given back to our community, but it is a committed start to a lifelong dream. It would be such a blessing if I could continue to help, so that the children of these charities may lead their passions and realize their dreams. Thanks to all of you for helping make this dream come true for me and helping to grow this small act of charity with WineGirl Wines!

Ciao,

WineGirl

However, just the other day my good friend Garren’s bulb flashed and has burned brightly for over a week as he hit the pavement running on a wild hair. He set out on a mission to help those less fortunate in Haiti, by directing an ad-hoc silent auction of beautiful Pacific Northwest wines and among other delectable pleasures worthy of bidding for such a fantastic cause.

My advice with a grain of salt: Get out there and do something yourself or support Garren’s charismatic efforts!

This Saturday at the Vineyard Table in Seattle. Suggested donation $25, first 50 get a free bottle of wine. Browse the silent auction collection, of which we donated 6 bottles of wine, two My Derby Wife bottles of Merlot signed by yours truly Killer Bee-otch #36 of the Rat City Rollergirls included.

Facebook Event Wine For Haiti Fundraiser

Twitter Hash Tag #wineforhaiti

Wine for Haiti Beneficiaries:

• 45% Wyclef Jean’s (a native Haitian) YELE foundation: http://yele.org/
• 45% Doctors Without Borders: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org
• 10% Local Seattleite Charyn Pfeuffer’s Global Citizen Project

All the Best,
WineGirl