It's All Coming Together

I guess the very BIG news is actually small. Our first grandchild arrived Tuesday, weighing in at 6 lbs. and 1 oz. Emma Grace is an 18 inch bundle of love and a true blessing to our family. Mom and Dad are adjusting well and you’ll be seeing more pics of our latest release here in the future. 

Winemaker, Matt Barbagallo and 3 hour old Emma Grace

It’s was a very busy week in the tasting room. Among the items we coordinated last week was the installation of the new A/C unit. The window unit that was in the back of the building could not reach to cool the front of the tasting room, so a more energy efficient and  powerful, sleek unit made by Yamaha made it’s way to the mid wall and does a great job. County inspection tomorrow. Hopefully occupancy permit will be right behind it.

We met with our Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) agent Friday to go over the details of the tasting room. If the Commonwealth does one thing right, it’s that they hire great people.    

Road trip Saturday with our Concierge proved successful to round out the last part of our track lighting purchase. The track lighting has been installed.

Picked up two Black and Decker 2.7 cf refrigerators for the bar. We’ll have a larger refrigerator in our back prep room to store additional wines. These were a bargain $79 each and I couldn’t pass up. 

If you’ve driven by, you can see that we still have paper on the window. Please don’t let that discourage you from stopping by and say hello while we are in dust mode. The plan is to remove the brown paper today, clean the windows and put temporary lighting filtering shades until the custom shades arrive at the end of the month. I guess you can tell we DIDN’T use Next Day Blinds!

More touch up painting today and some rearranging in the tasting room to make way for furniture set up this weekend.  We should be rockin' and rollin' by mid August.

I'm Convinced We'll Open Within 30 Days

As you know we were targeting the opening of the tasting room July 1. I let my optimism jump the gun on that one. But as we continued to remodel the inside of the building, that was the original movie theater in the Town of Purcellville, we continued to unveil more issues... even in the dark.

We had been using flood lights and portable fans to guide us through repairing, painting and building.  Something we soon realized was not a good move. There is a lot of touch up painting to be done once the electrician has completed his work this week. To comfort our customers an 18,000 BTU unit has also been installed.

We have been able to add seating with the help of donations and Craigslist. The Purcellville ReStore has been a source for lots of our last minute items we need that Nichols Hardware didn't have - like doors for the back room. The Internet cafe chairs have been ordered, but we're still not sure if 2 or 4 are arriving,  and seems we'll just have to wait and see. The window shades have been ordered and are to arrive before July 31 (again... worth the wait $$).

Our temporary sign- hey!  It's within our budget and
keeps the heat out of the room.

This is looking toward the back of the room.

This is looking toward the front of the room.
Notice our unique window covering.

If the electrical is finished by Tuesday and the light installation is complete by Thursday (that's my optimism again), then we can finish the touch up paint, paint the hospitality cabinet Friday. Continue with building  the bar Saturday and Sunday and Monday clean the floors. YiPpEe! For some reason I'm thinking there are 38 hours in the day.

July 1 Has Come and Gone

Just like any other good story, there is always a twist and this one is no different.  Labels that were submitted are still awaiting approval from the Feds, so we might as well take our time and do the Tasting rRoom right.  We've picked a great color scheme that will match anything you're wearing.  So you'll always look good in our Tasting Room.

A couple of questions asked recently were - Will we have food in the Tasting Room and will we have live music, etc.  The answers are YES!  It is our responsibility to make sure our guests may compliment their wine with a light fare.  Other food options are available for delivery in.  All the details will be posted soon.  While we have a huge pool of artists to pull from, I'm a little partial to the Nashville music scene.  Stayed tuned for the music announcements.

We have been fortunate to take advantage of this downtime to get our professional photo shoot done by Erin Nicole Photography, a natural light photographer.  What would be a photo shoot without our winery dogs - and there are four of them Henry, Bunny, Chance and Lucy.  Check out Erin's great work at: http://erinnicolephotography.com/

Henry - Australian Cattle Dog / Beagle Mix Age 9
Sometimes known as "Rory"

Bunny - Australian Cattle Dog / Beagle Mix Age 9
Got her name because she often hops.

Chance - Beagle Age 7 months
Also know as Archie and K9 of active duty serviceman serving in Iraq.

Lucy - Cairn Terrier Age 5
Loveable, adorable, pocket size and has recently learned to bark alot.

Website will be up in a few days so keep checking.  Cheers!  Mary Beth

Coming Soon!

Seems like this wine thing was just idol conversation in 2002 when my Dad stood in the doorway of my home, and looking out into our modest yard said, "you should grow grapes."  He passed away later that year and the grapes were forgotten until 2006.  That little voice inside of me said I should continue the farming legacy that brought our family to Virginia in the 1600s during the potato famine.  My farm that year consisted of yellow and zucchini squash, bush beans, tomatoes and cucumbers.  I kept looking at that slope in our yard.  An gut wrenching emotion came over me and I needed to follow his word and plant grapes.  So with the help of Sebastien Marquet, Doukenie Winery and ever green thumb those 38 vines were planted.

Years of  patience and misfortune have led us to our modest winery.  We are planning to open our Tasting Room located at 105 E. Main Street in Purcellville, VA early July.  For the next two weeks we will be feverishly working to meet our deadline.

Guess What!

Our labels are with the printer and off to TTB and soon to the Commonwealth for approval.  We're closing in fast on our anticipated soft opening of July 1.  I just want to take a few moments and catch my breath between projects. 

So while the labels are a waitin' we'll be a paintin'.  Annoucement soon for our Purcellville location.

Bottling Continues

Its looking a lot like a winery now.  After bottling 40 cases of Sweet Rebecca Lynn and 24 cases of Chambourcin we're rounding the bend to complete our line up for our anticipated opening July 2011.  We'll be bottling our last wine, Karma, this week.  Nothing makes me more nervous than tasting the wine before filtering, then bottling it, and wondering what the surprise will be when we open it in 6 weeks.  Winemaking is truly a procrastinators job.

Our Anniversary

Today is our 22nd wedding anniversary.  If you had asked me 10 years ago what I'd be doing today, making wine and building a business would not have been one of them.  Last night Matt and I bottled 19 cases of  2010 White Chambourcin.  Don't really know how this one is going to come out.  All the sampling that we did it was at cellar temperature.  I think we put one on ice and and give it try!