Printing New Labels

Now that the 2009 vintage is finished and resting in barrel, it is time to prepare for bottling the wines from 2008. Every year at this time we print the labels for our new vintage. Our winemaker, Jean-François just returned from British Columbia where we have our labels printed. It is a very sophisticated and ecologically friendly printing process. Tapp Technologies uses a waterless offset printing press that adds colors to the blank paper one color at a time until the image is complete. The copper foil embellishment is than added and the labels are ready for us to use. Jean-François was visiting Tapp Technologies to observe the printing process and to do the final print check of the new Pepper Bridge label. We have made a label upgrade starting with the 2008 vintage. It isn't a huge label redesign, just a tweaking of the great label we already have. More than anything it is just a difference of font size for the vintage and varietal, making both easier to read. The new label also uses a little more copper foil which looks fabulous. This new label will be attached to a new bottle size as well. We have a new slightly taller, more elegant bottle for the 2008 vintage. We will be using our new labels and bottles when we bottle the 2008 Merlot and Seven Hills Vineyard in March. These wines will have their grand unveiling in the fall of 2010, so until then here is a sneak preview of our new label!

Holiday Barrel 2009

Holiday Barrel Weekend was a fabulous way to finish the 2009 year. We kicked off the celebration with our Bridge Club party on Friday. It was a night of food, wine, and visiting with friends, a thank you to all of our club members for their support during the past year. We opened some treats from the library, our vineyard designate blends, Pepper Bridge and Seven Hills from various past vintages. Its always nice to taste wines that aren't available. We were lucky enough to talk Chef Andrae Bopp into cooking up some excellent hors d'oeuvres to pair with the wines. Andrae is the Cellar Master for our neighbor, Dusted Valley Vintners, but he is also a fabulous chef that can be persuaded into catering on occasion. For entertainment we had the chance to enjoy The Mike Wagoner Band singing holiday tunes and some classic tracks. All and all a great party. We got lucky this year and had nice weather for the entire Barrel Weekend, no snow, no ice, no freezing fog. It made tasting around the valley much easier for all the visitors. Saturday we hosted guests in the winery and treated them to barrel samples of 2008 Reserve and 2008 Pepper Bridge Vineyard, both wines will not be bottled until next July and won't be released until 2011. Even so young, the wines were rich and fruity and delicious, so they will only get better over the next 2 years. The big news of the weekend was the unveiling of our 2007 Merlot. 2007 is shaping up to be one of the best vintages that we have had in Walla Walla to date. The growing season was just about perfect with a warm summer and a cool fall, with nighttime temperatures during harvest getting downright chilly. Warm days and cool nights at the end of the growing season set more color and aroma and acidity in the grapes. The resulting wines from 2007 are complex and full bodied, with lots of earth tones and great natural acidity. The 2007 Merlot is the first wine of the vintage to be released and it is fantastic. It is perhaps the most full bodied Merlot that Jean-François has made, perfect for cold winter nights. We thank all the guests that joined us for Holiday Barrel Weekend and we appreciate our Bridge Club members coming to visit. You made the weekend fun. Cheers!