Squashing a rumor...

No, we are not moving our tasting room. I know there was some confusion with Melanie moving her retail wine store off of Brooks Street, but we are staying put.

What we are doing right now is looking for some commercial space for our winery production facility. We’ve looked at spots in SoMi , the Mill Quarter, along 2nd Street, on the west side behind Safeway… all over town, in fact. This facility will be for our Magna Wines, Magmita Sangria, and ultimately for Volcano Vodka as well. The rents downtown (and zoning, for that matter) are structured for retail and dining, not production facilities.

Yesterday was just another day, after all.

At the 11th hour yesterday my brother’s transplant was called off. Some blood results from the donor came back in the “no go” range, so… now they start from scratch.

And in other news, we made an attempt to eat at the newly opened Ciao Mamba yesterday. Unfortunately, our three year old was acting like a three year old and we had to leave. This is why Scott and I rarely are seen in public!

Tuesday is a big day

Thanks to those of you who have asked about my brother. For those of you who don’t already know, my older brother, Tom, has been fighting Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) for years. PSC causes the bile ducts of the liver to become clogged. There is no known cause and the only possible cure is a liver transplant. You may have heard of it, as it was what killed Walter Payton, and it was the disease Olympian Chris Klug had, prior to his successful liver transplant in 2000.
And tomorrow, June 17, my brother will undergo a liver transplant at Georgetown Hospital in Washington DC.

Tom has been chronicling his ordeal through his Caring Bridge site. It is fascinating reading. After tomorrow, his wife, Kathy, will update the site on his condition until he is well again to write.http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/thomasbutler

And to find out more on PSC, check out http://www.pscpartners.org/

Tasting Room Advice from The Wall Street Journal

I have had a few people mention to me piece written by John Brecher and Dottie Gaiter that ran in the WSJ a few weeks ago. It was titled “Tips for Tasting Rooms,” a very thoughtful list of suggestions. I am happy to say that most of them, we heed already: we’re kid-friendly, our wine club pressure is so low we usually forget to mention we have one, we have a simple tasting fee that we refund with purchases. Many of their bits of advice are the exact opposite of the “you shoulds” we daily hear from people in our tasting room.

The most frequent “you should” we get, next to “You should serve food” (and considering how tenny weeny our space is and the fact that there are too many restaurants in Bend already, food ain’t gonna happen), is that as part of the tastings, we should give folks a glass with our logo. John and Dottie say “No glass!” and we totally agree. After we moved our collection of winery commemorative glasses for he fifth time, Scott took them all to Goodwill. Two from this place, one from this other place, different sizes, different quality – just a big pain the rump. We opted to use Riedel crystal glasses in our tasting room. And while yes, they can be etched with our logo, the added expense doesn’t make sense.

The one bit of advice we are guilty of not following was “Ease up on the numbers” – meaning don’t spout off the Wine Spectator/Enthusiast etc scores. While we have yet to submit our wines to any of the “number” publications (and that’s a whole nuther blog in itself), our basic info on the wine includes our awards and our Wine Press Northwest or Northwest Palate reviews. This is information we feel is vital to building our brand – as a relative newcomer to the wine industry, people are skeptical, and having that “third party validation” of our wines absolutely adds to our “legitimacy.” Yes, your palates are not fooling you – our wine is indeed yummy!