Holiday at the Vineyard

Dear Friends,

In the 23 years of growing winegrapes, I have never seen such warm, dry weather preceding and during harvest. We have been blessed with a string of high quality vintages!

National awareness of Oregon wine quality has generated demand for our wines such that we have been receiving orders in excess of our available inventories. We placed all our distributors (including the Tasting Room) on allocation to fairly apportion our available inventory. The crop yield this harvest exceeded averages, so we have an opportunity to meet much of this demand although it will be several years before we can build up the inventory levels to match the record 2005 calendar year sales. Our new plantings will mature beginning 2008-2009, allowing for substantial future growth.

Demand for our wines is fueled by key national write-ups. For example, our Vintage Pinot Noir was recommended by Jamie Pressly, co-star of “My Name Is Earl”, in the December issue of InStyle magazine. It was named a "Best Pick" by nationally acclaimed author Kevin Zraly in his book, “The American Wine Guide”. Our Pinot was also named among the top 25 on American restaurant wine lists by Wine & Spirits magazine. Author Leslie Sbrocco recommended our Whole Cluster Pinot Noir for Thanksgiving in her new book, “Simple and Savvy Wine Guide”. Our '05 Pinot Gris was named as one of the 100 Top Wine Values in the World by Wine Spectator magazine in their October issue.

Jon Mason, our Retail Manager, has many new releases and some rare Library wines from which you can choose for your holiday meals and gift giving. A couple of my favorites are the '98 Estate Pinot (aged to near perfection) and the newly released '03 Estate Dijon Clone Chardonnay - one of the best Chards we have ever made

Please try to make it to the winery this holiday season. We will have the winery all decorated and are offering some fun experiences for your family, visiting relatives and friends. Acclaimed Chef, Carrie Wong, will be here for our Thanksgiving Open House with her Extreme Chocolate truffles. Have you ever tried a smoked Maracaibo truffle with red Hawaiian sea salt alongside our Pinot Noir Port? Incredible!

Don't forget you will receive 10 cents for every wine bottle and $1 for wine shipper you return to the winery as our way of encouraging recycling.

Your support of our winery has given us the strength to represent you well in our community helping others. We had the best year so far and helped raise over $58,000 for the local food bank with our "Chefs’ Night Out" and continue our participation with SOLV and other important charitable organizations.

Many businesses are following our lead with the use of biofuel. Our free biofuel for employees to commute to work garnered national media coverage proving we can take individual and collective action to improve the environment and reduce dependence on foreign, non-renewal fuel sources.

I hope this note finds your families in good health and spirit. I am very grateful for your support and the hard work accomplished by our employees.

Happy Holidays,

Jim Bernau
Founder/President