There's No Place Like Home!

I love my job. I really do. And I know just how lucky I am in it. I happen to have a job where I get to talk about wine all day. I recently returned from my second trip down to Sonoma Valley/Napa Valley in less than a year. This time around I was sent down with a co-worker so that we could attend the Direct to Consumer Symposium that was being held in Santa Rosa. It was a great symposium that covered the topics of social media and mobile marketing; issues that we, here at Woodward Canyon Winery, are trying to stay ahead of the curve. We have both a Facebook and Twitter account and we are obviously a member of the blogging community. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day that will help us take our social media presence to the next level.

The one draw back about being down in California this past week was the torrential downpour the entire three days! I should have been expecting a bit of rain since it is winter, but I wasn’t and certainly not the amount that we saw. I thought I was getting out of the cold, foggy, wet Pacific Northwest for some warmer weather and sunshine. I’m not sure the last time I was that mixed up about a situation. And if that wasn’t bad enough it was sunny, 60 degrees and gorgeous when the plane landed back in Seattle! Now how’s that for being in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Santa Rosa is a cute city that reminded me of Walla Walla. The area we were in had a couple of streets filled with restaurants, wine bars and shops that reminded me of Walla Walla's Main Street. It was easy to see where Walla Walla could potentially end up down the road. To me, one of the most interesting facts about Santa Rosa is that the population sits around 161,500 residents which is close to 4 times the size of Walla Walla's population! When I first read that I couldn't believe it. It definitely did not feel that big while we were down there.

The one thing I really appreciated about our little valley is the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance and the Walla Walla Valley maps they put out each year. Maybe I was just looking in the wrong places but in all the tasting rooms I visited in both Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley I never once saw a map of either AVA. It made me realize how lucky we are and how hard our Wine Alliance works for us.

For me, one of the nicest things about visiting California was a renewal of my passion for the tasting room and the customer relations part of my job. I had forgotten how much fun I have talking to people and trying to educated them a bit on Woodward Canyon, the Walla Walla Valley and wine in general. The past couple of days back behind the bar have been fun, refreshing and a nice change of pace. And really visiting other areas always reminds me just how much I love living in the Walla Walla Valley

And now I'm off to enjoy some of this nice winter fog! I'm crossing my fingers for some sunshine this weekend. Hope to see everyone soon!

Cheers!

Shari

Harvest Time!

Today we kicked off the 2009 harvest at Woodward Canyon. Rick and the guys brought in two loads of chardonnay grapes from our Estate Vineyard this morning and sent them through the whole cluster press. This is where the entire grape clusters are pressed very gently to extract the juice. Whole cluster pressing is often used in the production of high quality whites and minimizes the amount of malic acid and tannins that are naturally found in the skins and stems. From there we will move all the juice into stainless steel tanks overnight before it is moved again into new French oak barrels and neutral barrels where the yeast is added and fermentation is started.

And our first day of harvest coincides very well with the pre-harvest party put on by the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance for all the members in celebration of the upcoming harvest. So we’ll get together one last time before winemakers’ wives become harvest widows for another year.

Taste Washington

Hello again! I’m back in the office, rested and rejuvenated after a quick trip over to Seattle for Taste Washington. Mine was much shorter than everyone else from Woodward Canyon but I enjoyed myself immensely. It was really nice to get away from Walla Walla for however short it was. Rick and Darcey left Thursday so they could attend the Washington Wine Restaurant Awards & Tasting Friday night and Rick could attend and lead some of the seminars on Saturday. Thomas flew in Saturday morning after making stops in San Francisco and Chicago. And then first thing Monday morning he was off again, this time to New York. WOW! What a rough life he must lead. I’ve always wondered what life would be like, always on the road. I ended up catching a plane at the Walla Walla Airport at 6:50 in the morning. Let me tell you something, a 4:30 wake up call so you can make a 6:50 flight is not something I enjoy doing. Maybe I don’t envy Thomas’s job as much as I thought, after all.

Seattle was gorgeous! It was bright and sunny and unlike most of the rainy days I've spent there. It was almost difficult being indoors all afternoon. Almost, but not quite, I enjoyed myself at Taste way to much to think about it. There were more people than I could count but it was fun meeting everyone and talking about the wines. And with over 200 wineries and 60 restaurants, there was no way to get around to all of them. I made a point to taste a couple different cabs which were composed entirely of Champoux Vineyard fruit. I thought it would be interesting to see how they compared and were different from our “Old Vines” Cabernet. I love how each wine was similar in some ways but also very different in others. I guess that is what makes wine so fascinating.

Both of our labels, Nelms Road and Woodward Canyon, were included at Taste. We poured the ’07 Nelms Cabernet and ’07 Nelms Merlot and then the ’07 Washington State Chardonnay and the ’06 “Artist Series” Cabernet for Woodward Canyon. The wines were showing really well and people seemed to enjoy them. We, of course, poured out of the “Artist Series” and came close to pouring out of everything else. It was a great event with great response from the consumers.

The Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance hosted a special “Get a Taste” of Vintage Walla Walla during a 4 hour block once the Grand Tasting started. It was an appointment-only session on some of the older wines in the valley. Rick joined six other winemakers from Walla Walla, and poured our 1998 “Artist Series” Cabernet, to help showcase what Vintage Weekend is all about. I didn’t get to taste any of the wines there but we had opened a bottle of the ’98 a couple of weeks ago and the winery and it was still pouring beautifully. Lots of tobacco and earthy nuances with some black fruit on the palate, this wine still had some cellar life on it.

We poured through just about everything and headed off to Seastar in Seattle for dinner that night. If you haven’t been to this restaurant before you should definitely visit on your next trip. We had an amazing dinner. We started off the night with a couple bottles of champagne paired with fresh oysters shooters right out of the sea. Then we moved on to our white for the evening with fresh seared ahi, calamari poppers and crab cakes. Then it was a pinot noir from Burgundy which I paired with my halibut provencal and spring style asparagus. We finished off the evening with crème brulee, white chocolate coconut cream pie and passion fruit panna cotta with tropical fruit. All the desserts were amazing, though I’m gonna have to admit that the crème brulee was my favorite. Once again, I’m so glad that everyone at Woodward Canyon is as much of a foodie as I am. I am so lucky to be working at a place where us employee are treated so well and we are constantly surrounded by great food and amazing wines!

If you're in Walla Walla today come see Marlene at the Woodward Canyon table at Feast Walla Walla between one and four. We'll be pouring our '05 White Riesling, our '07 Estate Barbera and our '07 Walla Walla Valley Cabernet. If you can’t make it to Feast, swing by the tasting room and we’ll share some wines with you out here!

For those of you who will be in town the first weekend of May come visit us for Spring Release Weekend, May 1st through the 3rd. We will be pouring some of our favorites. And we might even have a trick or two up our sleeves. Hope to see you all through the tasting room at some point during the spring / summer!

Salut!

Shari / Woodward Canyon Winery