Humbly submitted scattered Images from last Saturday, "Peeps Day" at BOW.

The Peeps...the peeps Oh the march of the peeps! When the peeps came marching home. The horror...there was Peeps horror! Gooey horror. A peeps crash-up and the toy ambulances got sticky loading up the little peeps bodies strewn everywhere. And there was chocolate! An awfully chocolate fountain moltenly spewing over the little yellow and pink and purple and blue peeps. Drowning them in a miasmic ooze...a veritable La Breya tar pit of sweetness into which the little peeps were dropped mercilessly. Some never emerged and periodically we had to clean the fountain pumps of dead drowned peeps bodies. Pushed into the volcano as sacrifices to their makers...their gods. Oh the horror...the horror. Then as peeps emerged from the fountain of peeps death they were thrown in the merciless maws of their human tormentors. You could just hear the peeps screaming. This was the coliseum where lions ate the condemned. It was horrible! The chocolate glistened on lips and dripped off chins and stained white sweaters and the Sunday dresses of little girls who...just...didn't...know...when...to...stop!

Long before the peeps were finished a pack of flowered blonde urchins attacked the sugar packages used for coffee and tore them to ribbons, greedily swallowing the granules, eyes bulging, throats drying, arteries accelerating, youth fleeting. They squealed in delight as some of us backed away in fear and revulsion. Such pretty little girls. Such dangerous behavior! I looked onto the patio and there...my god, what was he doing?...there was a father spinning his little peeps-flushed daughter in circles. She squealed in delight; eyes bulging, throat drying, arteries screaming. We...had...seen...her...eat...30...peeps. What was this new madness?

Tragedy ensued before we could intervene.

A Kodachrome fountain emitted from the gasping, laughing, squealing pigtailed child, discoloring the moment with fluid yellow, pink, purple and blue, now all stuck together in reverse order. A ribbon of shame and excess sticking to all it touched like an alien blob attacking its prey. The peeps had turned on the humans! The consumption had turned bad and the true horror was just beginning.

Off to the left another dad began spinning his daughter. The children! They were secretly trying to kill their children! Who knew that wine and peeps could mix so dangerously? Remorseless parents, their inner needs for release from parenting realized in the freedom of Bacchus, given the awful tools by me...BY ME!...to finish it once and for all! A massive peeps overdose! A Jonestown of peeps.

Forget the Kool-aid, BOW's got PEEPS!

Bring on the ambulances...bwaaaahhhhhaaaaahhhhaaaa!!! You're too late! ICU room 7 stat! We're free...We're free! I could see the headlines: "Seven lost to peeps poisoning, dozens still being pumped, hospital a shambles!" Ruination! All for nothing! BOW bankrupt and Sharon and I on the street. All because of the peeps. Oh...the...peeps...

What a week! Bottling week! Panic week! A week of Expo! A week of wins!

Let's reverse order the review. BOW won gold for the '07 Cab Franc in the Governor's Cup. Here's how one of the judges described our efforts: "This great vintage really was the best ever for this classic Virginia red grape, and so it was a tough competition to name the best in the field (there were three gold medal cabernet francs, one of which was from ’06). This winery is another industry newcomer, making an impressive start with a juicy, rich, fruit-driven wine where the oak is in the background and the finish is fresh and clean."

http://www.richardleahy.com/blog/2009/02/16/va-governors-cup-medal-winners-tasting-notes-and-commentary/

Richard's happy, we're happy, and we know you'll be happy when you get a taste of this wine. Sharon and I want to personally thank Rob, Chris, and DJ at the Winery at LaGrange and Pearmund Cellars for their help and support making this and all of the lovely '07 vintages. The Governor's Cup also gave us two Silvers and a Bronze. You can taste these wines before their release on Sunday, March 29th from 4-6pm. Drop me a line and I'll send you the details! brian@barreloak.com.

So the Wine Expo was fun. Kristin, Rick, Sharon and I all travelled to Richmond Friday to meet and greet our peers during the industry event at the convention center. We saw many friends promoting their wines and wineries and we made several new acquaintances. The Expo is an interesting event by several measures. The logistics and expenses to be there are steep. We think it is at best a break even proposition for many and may be a money loser for most. So why were there 40-odd wineries there? In the dead of winter it affords many wineries a place to boost sales and raise their public profile. What strikes us is that we are already so busy at BOW. Sending a team down would undermine our service to our existing customers and probably not generate much in the way of substantial sales or traffic. For us the verdict on expos and festivals is still out. We are leaning towards smaller local venues in the spring and fall in order to share our wines with the members of local communities. Any of your thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. The highlight of the trip for me was sitting and catching up with our good friend Stephen Bernard of Keswick Vineyards as I sipped on a bottle of his Governor's Cup (best in show) winning '07 Cabernet Sauvignon. Good job buddy! What a lovely and balanced wine!

Sharon and Rick made some wine of their own this week. On Wednesday, after panic about our labels and capsules showing up at the very last minute, the bottling truck backed into the crush pad and the work began. I was so proud of Sharon. She had marshaled a team of friends, staff and volunteers to bottle nearly a thousand cases of wine on a 25 degree cold morning. There were refreshments throughout the day and enough help to share in the heavy lifting. Each case of wine was properly labeled and stacked upside down with dates and proper identification on each pallet. This was our first complete start-to-finish production run at BOW. It was a significant and memorable day! Working closely with Rick, Sharon took a huge step on Wednesday and we are all so grateful for their hard work and dedication to BOW and making great wines.

This is living the dream my friends. And it is a lot of work! It is also a huge amount of volunteer help from a very large group of wonderful people like Tammy and Rosemary, Terri and Jim and Steven and Roxanne and Tom. Our wonderful staff are also up to their hearts in this effort. It is...so...much...fun! It brings smiles and tears sometimes. This dream is everything that we hoped for and days like Wednesday remind us of how lucky and grateful we are!

Imagine-

A Winter's day playing with Spring's notes like our two dogs wrestling below in the yard. A still-crisp warmth flows through opened windows and rooms weary of their chill. The doors of the barrel room are opened and beckon. The big doors are open in the tank room gulping in the sun's rays; illuminating the furthest shaded corners. It's a drying trend also; the dampness has left the air. Its touch is cool yet warm, dry and crisp, and smells refreshingly of Spring.

At the winery's front entrance the crocus rise to the challenge. Are they too early? Or is it really warm enough to nurture their tender and verdant needs? I say it is the latter and they are right on time. I trust the rising green crocus more than the burrowing prickly groundhog.

My office window is open. It is almost 6pm on Thursday. Yesterday. The beautiful day. Warm as today, but not with rain so we could be out in it. Today we unloaded fourteen hundred cases of empty bottles -"the glass" which will be used next week to make capsuled, labeled, and finished bottles of wine. The first of the 2008 season! In about two weeks we'll be ready to release an extraordinary wine made from the Traminette grape. Clear, white, tender, and redolent with tea rose and jasmine. We love it. You're going to love it. Sharon & Rick's style of wine begins to truly emerge! Last week Rick had me try a beautifully constructed 2008 Cab Franc. Light and Burgundian; perfectly balanced and incredible to drink. Ironically, the 2007 Cab Franc, with its intensely lush berries and pepper had been my favorite wine until that sip. Two wines from the same grapes yet so completely different and extraordinarily crafted. Ah...terroir! We have fallen in love with terroir! And after all of the wonderful help we have received from this amazing winemaking community, Sharon and Rick are finding their own voice.

My window is still open and the sun has set behind Little Cobbler Mountain; first teasing footprint of the rolling Piedmont behind. How the seasons roll from the sweeping vistas of our patio. In the depths of winter -only two months ago(?) - the sun sets much further southward on the ridge: down behind Big Cobbler and much closer to Marshall from our perspective. In the height of summer the sun is due West and behind the highest point of the Piedmont, up where the Appalachia Trail crosses, where the radio and television towers rise. On this lovely evening the sun is almost half-way returned from the South and well on its journey Northward. The suitcase is well past packed and the travels are long underway. Our sun warms and makes its majestic journey northward, carrying the Spring on its back and joy in its path. My office Window is still open and it's 7pm on February 26th.

There is a story behind BOW's New Patio

If you've been to BOW in the past few weeks you've probably noticed a large ring of rock and boulders off the end of the outdoor patio. This area is our new patio. Once the ring of rock is in place we'll grade the inside and pour concrete. This will more than double the area we have for patio seating. Perhaps more importantly, we'll also put in a large outdoor tasting area where guests can taste and purchase our wine under cover of a large tent. Just off the edge of the patio will be the newest vineyard featuring Chardonnay and the noble Viognier grape. Around much of the perimeter of the patio will be an outward facing curved table where you can sit and drink in the beauty of our sweeping and historic vistas. We are really excited about this project because it will prevent crowding in the tasting room and provide our guests and friends with a lovely way to experience BOW wines in the outdoors.

But to us the new patio also represents many other things. Change, growth, opportunity, challenge, success, staffing, and logistics come to mind.

We have had an amazing first season. Where we had expected a significant winter drop off in business there really hasn't been one. In fact last Saturday was our second busiest day since opening. WOW! BOW WOW! That's great because it means our customers really appreciate what we are doing and it really helps to pay the bills. (You can see a video of all the fun at our BOW Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14661977550. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the video of all the folks, kids and dogs enjoying our wine, their picnics, and having fun dancing!) All this fun also means that we are not getting the break we expected allowing us to regroup and organize for the business headed our way this Spring. That said we are in fact spending a great deal of time planning for a very busy season! Every Monday we spend several hours meeting and training with staff and Thursdays the managers all sit down for several hours to plan for current and upcoming needs. It's really exciting to plan for the future! Let me share with you a few of our thoughts.

We foresee a significant increase in business. This is due to several developments: continued growth in business brought in by our regular customers (thank you!), word of mouth (thank you, thank you!), and lastly the traffic we will be getting once the new vineyard is planted around the winery and becomes visible from the interstate. To handle this increase we are more than doubling our serving and sales capacity with three permanent tasting areas rather than just the one and with the addition of three more sales locations. We don't want our customers waiting in lines and this plan addresses that goal. The result: when you come in on a busy Saturday you'll be greeted at the door and guided to the best possible place to be served by one of our friendly and well trained service staff. Sharon and Rick have also made quite a bit more wonderful wine for your tasting and enjoyment. The quality is excellent and the heart that has gone into each bottle shines for all to see. We will add over 100 additional seats for guests. While we will still do regular tours, we will soon have signs downstairs that tell you about the production process when you take a self-guided tour of the winery. More importantly, we will more than double our staff with added emphasis on service in front of the tasting bar as well as behind. We'll have additional managers to keep an eye on the quality of our service to our customers and to address potential issues before they ever pop up.

Our ultimate goal is to maintain the quality, comfort, professionalism, and intimacy of our tasting experience for our customers so that you continue to want to visit and to be a part of this amazing journey that Sharon and I, our partners and staff and regulars, and of course the dogs, have been on.

Even though these improvements will take the next few months, we are working on them now. By anticipating what is coming, we want to maximize the continued quality of your experience before it is impacted by our success. I have shared with staff that it is possible to be too successful. It is possible to have unlimited visitors but lose most of them to never return. That would be a shame and it has no place in our vision for BOW.

Making great wine and the satisfaction of your visit is our ultimate goal. Everything else that we do serves this one aspiration. When next you are in, please share with us any suggestions that you have for BOW as we continue to grow and enhance the quality of your every visit.

Cheers!

It's Kinda Like That....

Each Monday at BOW we have our gathering of ideas, gripes, queries, excited observations, and occasional bewilderment. We call it our staff meeting. We've held these since before we opened our doors and I occasionally wonder whether we should be spending precious funds in the slower winter months asking people to come in for a few hours of generalized jawboning. (Sometimes the jawbone is cordially persuasive, occasionally it's used as a club, more often than not it is used by staff to inform and educate management.) At the end of the day we all agree that these meetings are the best way to prepare for the challenging enjoyment of working with the public. It's fair to say that we are all at BOW because we really enjoy serving and assisting and sharing our enthusiasm and educating and telling our stories. But imagine doing that with fifty strangers over seven hours and you can see that it might be a challenge for us all.

The results of all of this effort are gratifying. Sharon and I get to hear wonderful thanks and congratulations from our customers about how great our staff is. They are great! And like anything that is done well, they work hard to excel. They study about wine. They try it at other wineries. They ask us questions and want to learn more. Each week we focus on some aspect of the business and it often regards the production process. This week we did a tasting trial on our Seyval Blanc , Traminette, and Rose.

These wines are still in tank and won't be bottled until the spring. But they are getting close to final maturation and we still have the chance to work with them to get them right. Monday we were considering the effect that enzymes have on the wine's flavor and aromas. "After crushing, negatively charged pectin molecules form a protective layer around positively charged grape solid particles. This keeps the grape solid particles in suspension. The main enzymes used during winemaking are pectinases. Pectinases occur naturally in all fruit - including grapes - and are partly responsible for the ripening process. Pectinase enzymes break the pectin molecules into smaller components thereby exposing some of the positively charged grape solid particles underneath this protective layer. These positive charges bind to the negative charges of the pectin-protected grape solids and bigger particles form. When particles become too big, they settle out." This information is from the online resource Wineboer and makes for dry (pun intended) but fascinating reading.

http://www.wynboer.co.za/recentarticles/0411enzymes.php3

What this chemistry really boils down to is that by understanding the naturally occurring processes of wine creation, we can maximize the role of the enzymes in post-fermentation to further bring out the favorable aspects of the grape in the wine. This is because enzymes clean up the wine by separating the desirable from the undesirable. I find this amazing! By knowing the chemistry of winemaking, we can actively engage in the winemaking process and make certain that the magic of great winemaking occurs when and as it should, rather than risking that it fails to happen at all. -When you think about it, It's kinda like romance in a way...it takes a little work to make certain that it actually happens.

Now as our winemakers, my lovely wife or certainly her gifted colleague Rick might be appalled at my over-simplification of this complex and somewhat secretive process. Of course I don't really care because I want everyone to know that I nearly flunked chemistry and this is chemistry! And I'm starting to get it now! As someone new to this business, I am amazed at what we have been learning! It is exciting to think that when Chemistry 101 is applied to "living the dream", it actually starts to make lots of sense! It is so much fun learning these things. It is fun to realize that because of science, we can be a part of the natural role of ions, molecules, and particles in wine making. As a result, we can make better wine! In the old days, enzymes were an unknown part of the winemaking process. They were part of the magic that made one wine great and the other awful. It is fun to know that our wine can be better because we know about these processes and can actively participate in them to create the very best possible 100% natural, quality wine. To me it's like that 1960s movie "Fantastic Voyage" where they shrank the scientists and injected them into some guy's bloodstream to actually see and fix what wasn't working on the inside. Those guys were the enzymes. Cool!

So there we were testing and tasting several different versions of the same wine on Monday. Ten of us were gathered around the table. The sun shone from above and between us, and the glasses were beautifully and sparingly filled with samples of liquid joyfulness. From left to right each of our four glasses held the baseline sample of the wine currently in tank, followed by three glasses with slightly increasing amounts of enzyme. Of course, it is possible to have too much of a good thing --much as has empirically proven when eating unlimited supplies of M&Ms. In like fashio, the last glass was not necessarily the best glass.

It was quiet in the room except for slurping, swishing, and spitting noises. We all had standard evaluation sheets and the grand aromatics wheel of wine descriptors. We were all learning about what makes a wine good. We were also practicing our tasting and discriminating skills with the samples while providing Rick and Sharon with real world information that would help them with their own choices. We're all regular folks who like wine. Other than Rick, Kristin, and Sharon, I am not ashamed to say that there was not a qualified taster among us. Armed only with our palates and common sense we were being asked to have an influence on the final product and again I repeat: this is where the fun was! Tasting and proving the wines represented a creative nexus of imagination, knowledge, opinion, and happenstance. So cool! And I don't think that I was the only one enjoying the moment.

What did we decide? Well, consensus wasn't reached, but there was general agreement. Sharon and Rick seemed satisfied that they had some guidance from the peanut gallery and we all felt that we had learned while contributing to the welfare of the business. Will our efforts translate into better wine? I guess the verdict will be out until you try it later this spring!

Cheers.

Today was a perfect day

We met Chris at 11am. He came up to the office for the first time and took in the big view out the window westward toward the beautiful Piedmont. Sharon was just back from the gym (she has kept to it religiously except during the harvest and I envy her willpower). Chris had driven up from Crozet, South of Charlottesville. He's our vineyard consultant and a really great guy. Probably early 60s but looks a lot younger. Maybe the wine-tinged good wholesome living? Great drawl and tall, outdoors rugged and handsome, a true leader in the Virginia vineyard industry. We like Chris because he calls it like it is. His honesty and directness have meant a lot to us.

Our plan was to walk the vineyard. On the coldest day of the year. With the wind blowing the temp was single digits. Sharon had on so many layers she looked like the younger brother in that movie..."A Christmas Story". Her arms kind'a spread outward and she looked like a standing snow angel. We tromped out of the office together...excited and expectant. We were going to walk the vineyard. The vines were dormant and yet there was so much to see!
First we swung by the winery. I needed to check in with Kristin to confirm the day's plan and activities. We expected it to be slow with the frigid weather. Rick was also there and we needed him to join us in the vineyard. Rick is a very good wine maker and he and Sharon are making magic downstairs. He was also a landscaper once. He wants to work more in the vineyard where we're all weak on experience. Having Chris here was a big deal for him too. The saying is that great wine is made in the vineyard.

We also needed to collect Benny and Jose. These guys are brothers and they've done the work for the last several months in the vineyard. They're a precious asset. They are smart and hard working and a great team. Benny will become our Vineyard Supervisor in the Spring and we wanted them to hear directly from the war horse's mouth. Chris has seen it all and he knows his shit. If Benny and Jose are to do a great job for us, they had to be a part of our meeting with Chris.

Collected together, we headed to the vineyard in three SUVs. We were joined by Walker Elliot who is doing research for a new book. It was the first time we'd met and it added a twist to the day's objective. He's a nice guy and he had good questions. "what have you planted? What's the time commitment? Does the consultant make a big difference in the quality of what you harvest?" The man was taking notes.

Stepping out of the cars we were blasted by wind and the cold. Those layers of clothing were coming in handy. Chris had on his dead-animal-lined Admiral Perry Blue Arctic jacket. He apologized for the offence of the dead animal lining his craggy face but we said it looked cool. He said he'd had it twenty years and wore it on the coldest days; less than a dozen times. He called it an old friend.

First up was the Vidal. At the lowest altitude in the hybrid vineyard, the six of us walked along the rows. Chris explained the pruning he wanted to see and Benny and Jose worked a few plants so that we could make certain that we were all on the same page. They immediately showed their experience and Chris was impressed. "Those guys are a find!" he said. "Yep" I replied. Chris pulled out his knife "too dull" he growled. He took a cutting of two foot of cane and sliced the buds carefully. "See, you want to see the green in the bud. Cut too deeply and you get the underlying stem. That tells you nothing." Benny and Jose leaned in. "Cut it right and find brown and you've got cold damage. Here's some see? Probably from that November frost. It'd take hold further out on the branch end. The wood gets hard and brown at the trunk and the dormancy works out toward the ends as the fall turns to winter. Should be green in the buds lower down." Chris cut some more. "See? It's greener down here." He threw down the branch and seemed satisfied that we understood the importance of the bud check. "Check 'em in a week or two after this hard freeze and let me know if you have more than 20% loss. If we do we'll have to prune 'em differently."

We were twenty minutes into our walk. It was like I'd just spent five hours at the computer doing research. It was cold, but man were we learning stuff. We walked over to the Chambourcin. It was tied to a high wire at about five feet. On these vines the fruit will hang at eye level.

It's all about controlling vigor. The summers are wet in Virginia and the vines suck it up. They'll only send sugars to the fruit if they're thirsty. The more water, the more vine vigor. That means less sugar and more green flavors in the wine. Not good for making wine; not good for drinking wine. Every vineyard manager has his own way of controlling vigor and getting sugars into the grapes. One way is a high fruiting wire. Chris had made us put it on the Chambourcin and Traminette. "These look good" he said. We smiled. "But look at this one...and that one! Lots of vigor. The cane is almost eight feet long here. This is healthy. But you'll need to watch the vigor." Chris showed Benny and Jose how he wanted the vines pruned. "Benny," Chris asked, "how many buds do you think for the Traminette? " "Five per cordon" replied Benny. Chris smiled. Benny had passed a test. Benny knew it.

Last was the Seyval. "Look at this. Healthy" exclaimed Chris, "Beautiful! We want about one and a half tons an acre for all of this. We'll add to the cordon a foot each year. Add the load incrementally. That'll allow the vine to mature without damage from the fruit clusters." Chris looked at us all. "Take down the extra buds in the spring while they're no longer than this" he drew a line from the ball to the tip of his thumb like he was measuring for a suit. "Let 'em carry twenty clusters max. Drop everything else. Less is better."

We were really cold now. Almost two hours walking the vineyard on the coldest day of the year. I had been worried that Sharon would trip in a hole and fall down. She had on way too many layers; if she fell she'd roll around on the freezing grass and become that kid in the Christmas movie: "I can't get up...I can't get up!...I...can't...get...up...! I decided we'd had enough and we headed back to the cars and drove up to the winery. Benny and Jose went back to their painting in the production room.

After a bit it was 4pm. We sat around and talked shop. We laid out the spring planting of Chardonnay and Viognier and decided the direction for the rows around the winery. We brought up beakers from the barrels and tanks of '08 wine. Chris and Walker tasted and commented and asked questions. Everyone but me was spitting. I ate cookies and drank '08 barrel aged chardonnay.

By 6pm we were ready to call it a day. We cracked an unreleased '07 BOWHaus Red and savored the vintage. Such a dry summer. Such an epic wine. So much body and structure. I smiled at the enjoyment taking place at the table. Walker was the first to leave and not much later Chris headed out with a prerelease '07 Tour'Ga Franc. He was happy and ready for the drive home. It had been a very good day.

Sharon and I retired to the office with the remainder of the '07 BOWHaus which we shared with Rick, Kristin and Cathy. The day's take: $90. The things that we had learned: priceless. We told stories and laughed about some photos we'd posted at Facebook. I thought about camaraderie. So many of the jobs and companies I've had in the past had lacked it. We listened to Kristin talk about the home that she and Kurt had purchased and their plans to move in. Cathy called her sister to invite her to next week's Mystery Dinner. We laughed about a lot of things as we enjoyed the good wine. Standing there with my friends and colleagues, I thought about the cold outside and the warmth inside and I decided it had been a perfect day.

Our November 11th email...

Our alarm went off at 6:30 this morning. We rolled over and looked westward out our window at the beautiful Piedmont, once again lit by the sun rising out of the East. Dawn finds the hills a duller brown and mostly bare with the fall. The leaf drop is stark; the gentle roll of the mountain flanks are revealed and the neighbors become easier to find nestled among the tree stands and meadows. Hello Kate! Hey there Steve. Good mornin' Gary! After the verdant summer and the golden fall, the story of November is that the neighborhood is reintroduced. On nights when the wind howls outside we gain comfort seeing many the porch lights shining out from the country darkness along the valley.

The fluries had not yet started as we lay there waking, so there were none of the shimmering ghostlike floating columns of snowflakes that have come out today since. The room was quiet except for the swish/pant/swish of our fuzzy tail-wagging dogs. We didn't say much but we both felt excited. "Today is Chocolate Lab Day. Today we bottle the Chocolate Lab!"

It was a bit early for us. We've been sleeping in a little later and recovering from the craziness of the harvest and crush and tasting room. My feet don't hurt these days and Sharon has been getting back into the gym. But this morning was different. Our customers have been patient, at first quietly waiting for the ChocoLab, then persistently asking for it, then beginning with the pleading, and more recently threatening us with beatings if we didn't get more soon. Lying there...we felt...safer. I rolled over and smiled at Sharon. "hmmmm....not gonna be any beatings." Sharon smiled.

Fast forward to now. Mid afternoon and I'm at my desk writing. The wind is blowing outside my window and I can see the white flurries working their way South to North and West to East. Because the snow showers are clearly viewed as discrete white columns floating over the landscape, I imagine that they could be falling -or rising. I think that maybe there is a giant vacuum up above in the clouds pulling rather than pushing the precip. Was that a lake being sucked up or was that a cloud raining down?

Clearly today is a day for imagination !

But hey, CHECK IT OUT, this is no imagining! We just found out that we made it into the Wall Street Journal. In today's Food & Drink Section is the article: "Wine Events: Post-Turkey Quaffs" written by Melanie Grayce West. Ms. West is my new favorite journalist! Here's the website link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122722062836545671.html.