Seattle Hot Picks!

This past week was the Seattle Wine&Spirits Magazine Hot Picks event.


Presented with the catchy phrase of "Drink Wine. Save Water" the event was a celebration of Wine & Spirits critic's top picks. A to Z's 2006 pinot noir, with a critic's score of 90 made the grade and we were invited to pour our wines and hang out with a bunch of other wine professionals, eat some tasty bites, and generally have a good time.


The event was held at the Paramount Theatre, a beautiful old building with quite a fascinating history.



To all of you that turned up and to our hosts, thanks for making this a great event!

The Steamboat Inn

Ed note: several posts have been languishing in drafts unpublished. apologies/enjoy

Every year in May we run down to the Steamboat Inn on the North Umpqua river for a weekend of winemaker dinners, and this year was no exception.



What has changed, however, is the composition of the weekend. Steamboat weekends follow a pretty set formula. Each night a winery is paired with a chef. Last year, for example, we were paired with the inestimable Marco Shaw from Fife. We came in on Friday and enjoyed Eric Bechard's pairings with Patty Green's wines, and then Saturday it was our turn to "host."


This year, well -- as Bill likes to say, we've become the monster that ate Cleveland. With four brands all together we got a whole weekend to ourselves -- which was both nice and bittersweet. Part of the fun is having a chance to get away from the rat race, as it were, and hang out with your colleagues. In the past Bill's daughter Hadley has organized a softball game for us with winemakers against guests.

Anyway, as usual Steamboat was a brilliantly tranquil retreat.


If you haven't had a chance to make it into the Umpqua National Forest I strongly recommend you get a trip on the calendar. With pristine glacial waters and silent pools it's one of the most rejuvenatory spots I can imagine.

Even better, come down next year for one of our dinners! They're simply amazing -- insanely good food, excellent wines, and good company. What more could you ask for?

Many many thanks are due our hosts, Jim Van Loen and Pat Lee. Thanks are overflowing as well for the chef's who paired beautiful dishes that made our wines shine -- Gabe Rucker of Le Pigeon, and Marco Shaw of Fife. See you next year?

Spring's in the air!

Memorial Day Weekend

ed. nb: Several posts got lost in "draft" land and didn't autopublish. Though written previously and no longer timely its still nice to see what we've been up to!

Did you stop by and see us for Memorial Day Weekend? I know I had the chance to chat with several of you out there, and it was certainly nice to meet you!


We had a lot of fun pouring a sampling of our wines -- from Rex Hill stainless steel Chardonnay to Francis Tannahill Syrah. With four brands we have the opportunity to play with a lot of different grapes and styles, which means we make some killer wines.


Perhaps the most fun came from the looks on some of your faces when our winemaker Michael Davies came wandering through wearing a mullet wig.


I actually had a very sweet woman confide in me that she thought I ought to suggest he get a hair cut.

Hopefully you had a chance to stop by and meet some of us, taste some of our wines!

What a week! -- LocalHarvest's Veggie Ball

Whew, it's been a busy week for the folks here at A to Z! We've been out and about all over the state for winemaker dinners, guest pouring events, and even a charity ball! A Veggie Ball, to be more precise...

Rachel, {whose several-acre garden/orchard out in the coast range is a thing of rare beauty}, anchored our participation in LocalHarvest's Veggie Ball this past weekend, and sent me the following missive....

On May 17th, I headed into the NW Industrial area to pour for the second annual Veggie Ball, a benefit for Growing Gardens. Despite the 90+ degree weather and the fact that the event was in an old train depot with no cooling system and lots of skylights (*gasp, drip, sigh*), everyone was in good spirits and lots of great folks turned out to raise money for this worthy cause.

Growing Gardens creates community garden space from industrial wasteland, organizes fruit and vegetable gardens for inner-city kids who have never so much as eaten (much less grown) a fresh radish before, and builds raised gardens for low income disabled individuals and families. I brought the A to Z Night and Day big red blend and the Rex Hill Chardonnay to share with the crowd. The Night and Day was a hit as always, and the Chardonnay was the wine of the night. A nice cool glass of delicious un-oaked Dijon clone Chardonnay was just the right thing on such a sultry evening. Despite the heat, the quince blossoms from my yard held up beautifully and highlighted my fresh sunburn quite nicely for the event. I'm sure people were whispering to one another: "Head towards the pink glow for the best wine here".

NPR senior correspondent Ketzel Levine emceed the event all the way through the veggie costume contest (let me tell you, people take that competition SERIOUSLY), the live auction, and the award ceremony. Add to that the great wine and delicious bites from some of Portland's top restaurants, the most amazing auctioneer I have ever heard in action, and the chance to dance along with local band Steppin' Out, and a great time was had by all. Fingers crossed there will be some pics of that costume contest up on Growing Gardens' website soon! I was too busy pouring samples and chatting with attendees to take any pics of my own. Check out www.growing-gardens.org for info about this great cause and their work.

Cheers,
Rachel

Scott Huler examines Wine Glasses

I don't know how many of you listen to NPR but most Sunday evenings you can find me puttering about the kitchen listening to Lynne Rossetto Kasper and The Splendid Table. There's Jane & Michael Stern's featured Road Food segment, something seasonal, a couple of interviews, callers, and almost always a wine segment. In fact, Lynne's regular contributor Josh Wesson was one of the first to jump on our rosé bandwagon, though he got the varietal wrong.

Last night's segment included a touching piece about the joys of a life full of broken wine glasses. You'll need Real Audio Player to hear it.

Enjoy!

Pecha Kucha III

Pecha Kucha Night Volume III is this Tuesday May 13, taking place at 34 NW 8th Avenue, on the corner space of NW 8th and Couch.

Doors will open at 7:30, and the event begins at 20:20. Entry is free and open to the public with a suggested sliding scale donation at the door. Pecha Kucha, (which is Japanese for ‘the sound of conversation’), was devised by Tokyo based architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham architecture and has spread to numerous cities throughout the world, including Berlin, Bangkok, Los Angeles, Prague, and New York, to name but a few. It is a cross-disciplinary event that creates a forum for young designers, architects and artists to meet, network, and to show and discuss their work in public.

Presenters are allowed 20 images, shown for 20 seconds each - giving 6 minutes & 40 seconds per presentation. This allows the audience to experience a diverse group of speakers in a relatively short space of time. The theme of Pecha Kucha Night Vol III is Projection.

After the presentations, the evening will continue with drinks (A to Z!) and music.

I'll be helping to pour, hope I see you there!