So here’s the thing…we have been very busy since the last message we sent. Like all vineyards all over B.C. we have been hard at work pruning which is now complete and we have moved on to “tying down” the canes to the cordon wire which Jamie is doing in this picture. From these tied down canes, buds will form and vines will grow (rather quickly!) and eventually become our 2018 vintage.
We have also been busy finishing the interiors and exteriors of our buildings. This picture was taken Tuesday morning and shows the trim colour on. Sadly, it is the wrong colour and is being redone even as I type these words. Construction never goes exactly according to plan! I do have to say, though, that we love the look of our buildings and we have had lovely comments on the design from our neighbours.
We are waiting for it to warm up a bit before we finish levelling the driveway, roadways and walkways then gravel them. We are also in the process of deciding on landscape which is the fun part! I think it is like decorating interior spaces – just outdoors. Next time we write we hope to show you a completed landscape as well as pics of the interiors.
We have also bottled our first wines!!! Well, we have one more to go later this year, our Gamay Noir, and all of you on our newsletter list will be the first to know about the release of this very special wine. More about that later in the summer…
We ended up with 1,050 cases in total. Whew! Bottling was done at Bartier Bros. winery just two doors down from us so we were close to home. Michael Bartier is our consultant, our winemaker and he also generally keeps me in check when I get frantic (often). We have chosen names for our wines as if they are our children and we hope you like them as much as we do. Our goal at our winery is to deliver our wines to the public in a relaxed, almost carefree manner but to also convey how serious we are about making really good wine. I think this picture shows just how thrilled I was to get this very first bottle off the line.
Seven weeks from today, we will open our winery to the public and we can hardly wait! Jamie is very hard at work in the vineyard and my brother, Kelly, has agreed to join us in Oliver to help us with this very big job. I am turning my attention to finishing the decorating and buying and all of the things we will need to open the winery.
We thank you so much for signing up for our newsletter and watching us as we develop our winery. We thank you for all of your encouragement! It means so much to us. Don’t forget, you can follow us on Facebook and Instagram. I am new to social media and was terrified of it but I am muddling along. And of course, we hope to see you in the tasting room sometime between May 17 and Thanksgiving.
We hope your spring is going well so far and we wish you a happy, healthy, safe Easter weekend.
