Things Keep Rolling Along: Moving into 2012
Wowsa. That's pretty much all I can say about the past month. Sometimes running a small winery is unbelievably busy, complicated and exhilarating all at the same time. That's certainly been the case recently. I know that I often find myself bouncing around, doing everything from sales tax reports, to pruning, to janitorial, to marketing all in one day. ... I think I have whiplash, actually. :)
In December our family (brothers, father, mother, hubby and I -- the whole group) sat down to look back on 2011 and make some goals for 2012. I'm really proud of what we accomplished last year and have already starting tackling some of our 2012 to-dos. Then the holidays happened, and we ate entirely too much and had some great wines (an Australian friend brought a lovely Henschke, thanks Liz), plus some other treats. Now it's back to business.
In the past month we've tasted our wines at restaurants and wine bars in Lake Tahoe and Napa Valley. We set out to hire a broker for California (and particularly the Bay Area so our wines are more accessible to our customers there), and it looks like we've succeeded. (More on that to come.) We also have been selling out our small lots of wine and looking forward to some really yummy 2010's, although it looks like we're going to have to start making some more wine!
We pruned the vineyard last week, then dobbed it (separate post on this), so everything looks so neat and tidy. But it's back-breaking labor.
We close the tasting room in January to be able to do things like this, take a break, re-seal the concrete floors (just did it!), and take a vacation. It's amazing how dirty a tasting room can get when it has a resident dog. (Dog hair, yuck!) Our family is also headed off to warm locales soon. We'll reopen the tasting room in early February, for our normal hours: Fri-Mon, 10-4:30.
I certainly hope you come see us this year! We've rearranged the room, added some fun new merchandise and toys, and are mixing up the pouring order of the wines. We're even looking at starting some food & wine pairings, so it should be fun!
In December our family (brothers, father, mother, hubby and I -- the whole group) sat down to look back on 2011 and make some goals for 2012. I'm really proud of what we accomplished last year and have already starting tackling some of our 2012 to-dos. Then the holidays happened, and we ate entirely too much and had some great wines (an Australian friend brought a lovely Henschke, thanks Liz), plus some other treats. Now it's back to business.
In the past month we've tasted our wines at restaurants and wine bars in Lake Tahoe and Napa Valley. We set out to hire a broker for California (and particularly the Bay Area so our wines are more accessible to our customers there), and it looks like we've succeeded. (More on that to come.) We also have been selling out our small lots of wine and looking forward to some really yummy 2010's, although it looks like we're going to have to start making some more wine!
We pruned the vineyard last week, then dobbed it (separate post on this), so everything looks so neat and tidy. But it's back-breaking labor.
We close the tasting room in January to be able to do things like this, take a break, re-seal the concrete floors (just did it!), and take a vacation. It's amazing how dirty a tasting room can get when it has a resident dog. (Dog hair, yuck!) Our family is also headed off to warm locales soon. We'll reopen the tasting room in early February, for our normal hours: Fri-Mon, 10-4:30.
I certainly hope you come see us this year! We've rearranged the room, added some fun new merchandise and toys, and are mixing up the pouring order of the wines. We're even looking at starting some food & wine pairings, so it should be fun!
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