Our October 17th email...

Wow. The sun is rising in a thin sliver of light. I am looking out my office window westward toward the PIedmont ridgeline. The clouds are wispy and high and because the sun is just clearing the hills behind me, it fills that gap between the earth and the cloud cover. The light is falling intensely on the Oak Hill estate and on the trees surrounding the old house and it is lovely.

There are so many warm colors in the woods. The words that we use to capture these colors such as orange and red and yellow do not do justice to this beauty. Of course there is still the green in many of the trees and that makes the other tones so much more striking. This is the beautiful time of year.

It is peak in the Piedmont. It begins here and now and will last maybe a week...two if we're lucky. Soon the leaves will be mostly brown. In place of the warm and strong shades wrapped in their remaining crisp greens, the forests will be turning away toward winter. Soon thereafter they'll shed their leaves and the smoke of our fireplaces will drape their bare branches like a shawl around grandmother's shoulders.

These are the great weekends to visit Barrel Oak Winery. We are deep into the harvest. Later today I will drive again to central Virginia to our friends at Keswick Vineyards and pick up our Norton. Sharon and Rick are still hard at work crushing the grapes and crafting the wine. We are very happy with what is being created in the winery downstairs. Our customers continue to enjoy our wines and tasting room and patio views and our staff continues to work their hardest to make everyone's experience memorable. Combined with the show outside our windows, this is the time of year that puts the WOW! in BOW WOW!

Join us won't you?

Our september 18th email...

WOW! It is shaping up to be the most beautiful late summer weekend yet! It was 49 degrees this morning and oh so refreshing outside. More is on the way! The air feels so good and clean! I tell ya, this is the perfect weekend to get out to wine country and to join us for the Fall Equinox!

The harvest is such an exciting time in the Piedmont foothills! The new equipment on our new crushpad is working splendidly and our many friends have been coming through and helping out with all of the work! Rick has moved into his tent by the winery to be closer to the tasks at hand and Sharon is getting home at 2am every nite. The fruit flies and the bees are swarming and Brian is driving all over the state collecting 50 tons of delicious grapes...

But you are more than love,the fiery kiss,the heat of fire,more than the wine of life;you arethe community of man,translucency,chorus of discipline,abundance of flowers.I like on the table,when we're speaking,the light of a bottleof intelligent wine.Drink it,and remember in everydrop of gold,in every topaz glass,in every purple ladle,that autumn laboredto fill the vessel with wine;and in the ritual of his office,let the simple man rememberto think of the soil and of his duty,to propagate the canticle of the wine.-pablo neruda

Our September Crush...

We are so very grateful and humbled. Sharon and I have been thinking much about all of the help and love and support that our friends, family, staff, and customers have given to us and we are incredibly grateful to you!

Maybe it's because of the harvest and the crush we began at BOW this week. It is an incredibly busy time and an emotional time. All of our efforts these past two years have led to us now creating our wine for the first time in our own winery. Many new and old friends have been in to help with the enormous amount of work. Many of you have shown your support by buying barrels from us and becoming closely linked to our future. So many of you have come out time and again and told your friends and brought your families.

Maybe it's because we lost Sharon's uncle last month, a good man with a loving and fine family, as well as another good man and friend Joe Gumino who loved to spend Fridays with his friends on BOW's patio. Joe had just started writing an editorial in the Fauquier Times Democrat about green leadership for the county and he had his own dreams about making people happy and bringing people together around a great cause. He is missed and we are grateful that we had gotten to know Joe. Our hearts go out to Doris and his friends and family.

We're grateful because this week when our press broke on the first day of use our friends, family, colleagues and customers came together to help us find and fund a replacement. The timing could not have been better. Can't make grapes into wine without a press and time was so short to effect a solution. Thank you Billy! Thank you Peter and Amy! Thank you Mom! Thank you again Mike and Terri! Thank you Pandit and Sudha and...Mr...Dolphin! Thank you Marcus and Paul!

We're grateful because all of the help we have received from our builders and contractors and suppliers and consultants who made BOW real. Many have worked while receiving partial payments as we juggled funds and found ways to get the essentials installed in time first for opening and now for the crush. Thank you Ron and David! Thank you Verne and Tim and Mike and Herb! Thank you Luther and Rick and Jeb! Thank you Ted and thanks to your great crew including Joe and Jimmy! Thank you Jose and thank you Juan. Thank you Sandra and Tommy and Bob! Thanks Rick for the quick propane install! Thanks to all the guys at Erectors Plus and Haifley Interiors and Star Concrete. Thank you John at Quail Run and Greg at Nitterhouse and the gang at Valley Drilling! Thank you Sima and Anita and John! Heather, the cut glass in the entry door of Barley is awesome! Thanks for the cool lightning rods John, and the amazing wood Eric! Ben and Todd, people love the recycled flooring! Ken, the stainless steel bar top is beautiful and another check is in the mail next week! Thank you for the beautiful and remarkable doors Steve and the rollup doors crew Dan! Thanks for the barn doors Gary! Thank you Luke and Mike and Bill. Gerald, thanks for the wine racks, and thank you Justin and Kristofer for all of the help with the design. Thank you Brian for the steelwork and Joe for the beautiful ironwork and Dean for the welding! Thank you Les and Chuck for the surveying and engineering and Laughlin and Joe for the insurance coverages, and Joe and the guys at NV. Thank you Merle and Phillip, Jeff, Larry, Pat, Jim and Christopher for all of the legal guidance! Thank you Tammi and Roxanne and Sandi for all of the hours volunteering and Jeff and Bobbi and Mike and Terri for the same! Thank you to Laurent for the tanks and to Aki and Coby and Balint and Ed and big Al and big Joe L. for the great equipment! Thanks Tracy! (I'll call this week with a cc). Thank you to our great consultants Chris and Chris and Tom and Alex. Bernie, you rock! And Bruce Zoecklin IS the man! Thank you for the great help Steve and Rob and DJ and Dave and David and Matthew and John and Holli and Jim and Bill and Vicky and Javier! Thank you Sue! We love you Sue! Thank you George and the whole PC and LG crew! Thank you Ray and Susan and Vicky! Thank you for the so very cool logo Judy and thank you Bryan for the great tees. We miss your dad too!

-And for those of you we still owe some money to, the checks keep going out each and every Tuesday once the sales are in the account.

We're grateful that in all of this work and stress and reward and winging it we have a great staff that gives their all to us and to our customers. This would all be imporssible without their passion and commitment and willingness to put up with us. Thank you Kristin, Rick, Matt, Maria, Cathy, Zak, Emily, Tashie, and Benny and Jose who keep the place looking so great!

Thank you to each and every one of our great business partners whose faith in us and this amazing dream made real makes all of this possible!

Finally, our deepest thanks to you for your support of our dreams and our efforts!