It is May and it is still raining and cold. I am so happy to get home to a warm house (even at) this time of year. Again, everything is late in the vineyard because of the cold…..the buds are just pushing out now (in vineyards on Vashon Island) and likely will cause the harvest to be late like it was last year. This is so freakish and unusual. If, and when we get a more typical growing season, island-grown grapes are going to take off.
As promised, I am tasting the 2006 Vashon Winery Pinot Noir, Puget Sound AVA, made from grapes grown at Monument Farm Vineyard. I am committed to tasting this wine every May and reporting my impressions right here on the journal. I have gone beyond tasting it, and I am now enjoying a glass of the wine as I write.
Here are my notes:
Light red, but red, with almost no pink except some at the wine’s edge. The aromas have great raspberry/cherry notes with a hint of baked rhubarb. Very forward on the palate; mouthfilling, but more like a white wine fruitiness and feel. Flavors of raspberry (with a hint of rhubarb) with a long finish that is delicate. Almost no tannin. I am struck by its yin/yang nature: it is light, distinctly fruity yet full-flavored. I think will be even better next year.
This is an interesting wine, made from very young grapevines (three years old, planted in 2004 and harvested in 2006). In 2007 the vineyard got hit by powdery mildew and all the grapes were lost. In 2008, the cool, wet spring pushed harvest way back to late October and we were lucky (and blessed by a fabulous October) and able to get enough grapes to produce a half-barrel, half as much as in 2006. The 2008 is just weird but I am hopeful. It tastes more like carrot-juice than Pinot Noir but I think it has a lot of flavor and is just now shedding its cloudiness. Like I said, I am hopeful.
The winery is getting ready to go into the busy summer business with busy Saturdays where I do the Vashon Market in the morning until about 1:30pm, then run to the winery to be open from 2 to 5pm.
I have decided to do fewer concerts this summer and instead concentrate on one big one, the 2nd Annual Vashon Winery Folk Festival held at the winery. This year’s festival will be on Saturday, August 22nd, and again will be organized by Wally Bell, a notable musician himself and one of the entertainers.
I have decided to take my concerts island-wide and involve more of the community. This is very exciting. The first ever poetry festival will happen on Memorial Day Weekend with all kinds of activities. We are calling it the Vashon Poetry Fest and you can view our website at vashonpoetryfest.com. If you have questions, email me at info@vashonpoetryfest.com. There are events starting on Thursday, May 21, beginning with an open mic at Cafe Luna called “Young Poet’s Talk Back” led by Devon Atkins. Friday night mythologist Michael Meade will explore the beginnings of poetry, reading Hafiz and Rumi, with ecstatic music by Qadim Ensemble of San Francisco playing sacred Middle Eastern music. With luck our featured poets will arrive in time for Meade to introduce them.
On Saturday and Sunday poets Samuel Green (WA state’s poet laureate) and Tony Curtis (an award-winning Irish poet) will teach poetry workshops during the day. At night they will present Irish music and lyrics on Saturday night at the Red Bicycle (Raising the Word in Song and Drink) and Sunday night will sit down to dinner (A Poets Feast) with guests and enjoy a poet’s dinner prepared by the restaurant and read their poetry and talk about it. And finally, on Monday at 12:30 people will gather at the Veterans’ Memorial in Ober Park to mark Memorial Day with a Reverie for the Living and the Dead led by Michael Meade. It may or may not proceed up to the Village Green to the Poetry Pole. Oh, and on Saturday afternoon at 3:30, Lonny Koneko and Ann Spiers will lead a Community Reading at the Land Trust Building. Ann Spiers and Kevin Miller will also be leading workshops on Saturday and Sunday.
Worth mentioning: I have labeled some of our Tramp Harbor Red as Poet-Tree Red with a back label that reads vertically, Keep Vashon Poetic. It is this month’s Wine of the Month up at Vashon Thriftway. By the way, this is a new batch of Tramp Harbor Red, a blend of one barrel of the last batch, and one barrel each of the Accidental Red, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. This batch has a bit more Malbec in it.
Also, my fabulous bottling crew has just bottled the new 2005 Merlot to be released in about two weeks. It is very good with good middle richness and a long finish, possibly one of our best Merlots yet. I will be happy to get this out to my accounts, especially grocery stores where my blends tend to suffer as wine managers are reluctant to put more blends on their shelves.
Hope to see you this summer. I would like to do a couple of dinners at the winery and I will announce them through our email-mailing list.
Meanwhile, I am working on a music fest for the island and I will give you more details as they develop.
