August heat is here!
“Ladies and gentlemen. Please make sure your seat backs are in an upright position and your seat belts are fastened because we have a lot of new information for you!”
We are at a pivotal time for the winery and in order to move forward we must take a temporary step to the side and close our downtown tasting room. This coming weekend will be the last we will have at 9 S 1st Ave. We celebrate 3 years downtown this month, and I really enjoyed all of them.
To celebrate this last weekend, we are bringing you Chris Jonlick today (August 1st), and Larry Lear Saturday, Aug 3rd. Both shows are 5:30-7:30pm. Sunday will be the final day we are open to the public downtown, and I will be pouring all day (12-6pm). Stop by to say hello again, and let’s talk about good times past and what’s coming next.
Our “kick-ass” specials will be:
$3 glass pours of Eternal Beauty Rose.
$5 glasses of Eternal Perspective Grenache Blanc and Drink Washington State Chardonnay & White Blend.
$7 glass pours of our Drink Washington State Cabernet, Carmenere or Pinot Noir
20% off all case buys.
For those of you who actually pay attention to the details of this newsletter (“Hi mom!”), you may have noticed we have Drink Washington State Cabernet Sauvignon back! Turns out our cold storage company lost 14 cases and just found them again…. (Well at least they were found) so we are putting this wine back on the table.
As we close the chapter on the downtown tasting room, we’ll be expanding our hours at the INK with the addition of a new manager, Kate Hoover. Kate has worked in many aspects of the wine industry, and her love for Washington wine brought her here to live in the region with the climate, vines, and the people that create this juice. In her free time, you may find her in a yoga studio or spending time with her dog, Willie Nelson, a winery dog wannabe. The INK, located at 602 Piper Avenue, Walla Walla, will be open Monday and Tuesday by appointment only, and Wednesday-Sunday from 11-5pm. This will allow us to focus on harvest this year (next month) and a tasting room outside of Walla Walla. (Yes, I hear you!)
To celebrate the amazing customers we have, and being solely at our winery in Walla Walla, we are throwing a free concert! We are bringing back crowd favorites Naughty Pine from Tri-Cities, and The Shop Singers. We will have the Fiasco Pizza Food Truck on site all night. No cover, all ages.
Date: Sunday, August 25
5pm: The Shop Singers
7:30-9:30pm: Naughty Pine
Fiasco Food Truck: 5-10pm
Specials:
$3 glass pours of Eternal Beauty Rose
$5 glasses of Eternal Perspective Grenache Blanc and Drink Washington State Chardonnay & White Blend.
$7 glass pours of our Drink Washington State Cabernet, Carmenere or Pinot Noir
5% off wines by the bottle across the board.
Looking ahead I have one more Seattle trip left before harvest. I’ll be presenting my documentary, “Through the Grapevine: The (Almost) Tragic Story of Carmenere”, at Red Wines Bar in Kent, WA. on August 8th. We will be tasting a vertical of our Drink Washington State Carmenere from 2014-2016.
Aug 10th you can catch me at the Bellingham Wine Competition pouring some of our award-winning juice. They have assured me we get a participation ribbon at the least, which, if you like ribbons, is AWESOME!
Looking back, we had a great Spokane weekend July 19th-21st. Tasting at “Vino! A Wine Shop” was great and always fun when other winemakers show up (Spencer from El Corazon). Petunias Marketplace was an intimate event that paired well with my morning hangover. And Vintage Spokane was bigger and better than last year.
Our single vineyard Syrahs continue to impress (time to be proud). They were just reviewed by “Wine & Spirits” magazine. Our Eternal Darkness Syrah from Cockburn Ranch was rated 91 points while our Les Collines Eternal Zen Syrah came in at 92! Both these wines were also reviewed by “Washington Wine Blog” and rated 91 each. Come grab one of these small lot Syrah bottlings before we’re SOLD OUT. Speaking of sold out, we only have 3 cases of our 2018 Eternal Bliss Fortified Syrah left. Don’t miss out on this age-worthy wine.
UPCOMING EVENTS 2019:
8/1/19: Chris Jonlick plays downtown 5:30pm-7:30pm
8/3/19: Larry Lear plays our downtown location5:30pm-7:30pm
8/4/19: Brad Binko pours the final night at our downtown location 12-6pm
8/8/19: Brad presents his documentary/tasting at Reds Wine Bar in Kent, WA 6pm
8/10/19: Brad Binko pours for the Bellingham Wine Competition
8/25/19: Customer Appreciation Night @ INK. Naughty Pine with special guests The Shop Singers. No cover, all ages. Fiasco Pizza Food Truck on site 5-10pm
9/1-11/15/19: Harvest in Walla Walla (When the magic happens)
11/1- 11/3/19: Fall release weekend
12/6 – 12/8/19: Holiday Barrel Tasting
*Bold locations in Walla Walla
As always, thanks for reading.
-Drink Wine Be Happy
Brad Binko