It’s one week before the High 5 trade tasting in Scottsdale; 8 days before the one in Tucson. Included below is a preview.
It’s two days since a cyst was removed from my vocal chords. I have to be silent for another day and then we’ll hear how my voice is. Expect me to be speaking softly for a while. More details are in this month’s rambling.
New Restaurants: 0
New Retail/Wine Bar Outlets: 2
New Sales People: 1
Trade Events September 9th and 10th
Blame it on the Wine Store & Bar
1065 East Dobson Rd Suite 101
Mesa, AZ 85201
(480) 964-0400
Cata Vinos
3063 North Alvernon Way,
Tucson, AZ 85712
(314) 882-5108
Erin Braden
Erin Braden lives in downtown Phoenix and is ideally positioned to call on all the old and new restaurants and wine bars that make up an increasing vibrant area. She started in wine sales at the retail level when the Red Kangaroo at Shea and Tatum was owned her parents. Erin will be taking over some existing accounts, and if I haven’t already done so, I will be introducing you to her soon.
The trade events in Scottsdale (Sunday, September 9th) and Tucson (Monday, September 10th) are in conjunction with other small distributors as they have been in the past. This year we are all taking the step of inviting some of our wineries to attend and present their wines directly to our customers and prospective customers. After some thought, I invited those wineries who had not been in our market recently. While this is an especially tough time at the wineries with crush underway or imminent, the line up, in alphabetical order is:
Barlow Vineyard is represented by owner Barr Smith. This winery makes small quantities of big, unfiltered reds from their estate vineyard on Silverado trail just south of Calistoga in Napa Valley.
Buttonwood Farm Winery and Vineyard is represented by new wine maker Karen Steinwachs. While well known for their Sauvignon Blanc, they will be taking this opportunity to present their red wines and the direction Karen will be taking them.
Destino Wines is represented by owner/winemaker Chris Calkins. Destino, based in Napa, makes two lovely chardonnays and a terrific cabernet sauvignon. Chris will also be presenting “The Mask” a red blend that has just been released.
Kestrel Vintners is represented by Leo Kirk, National Marketing Director. This is a brand new winery for Orangewood. They strive to to craft superior wines at reasonable prices that rival the best Washington wineries. This will be your first chance to try the wines.
Richard Grant Vineyard is represented by Jim Wallace, a long time associate of owner Dick (Richard Grant) Peterson. He will have both the current vintage (2000) and the new vintage (2001) of the English Champagne to taste.
Stoller Vineyards is represented by Cory Davis, National Sales Manager. He will be showing the just released 2005 Estate Pinot Noir as well as the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir JV.
Strata Winery is represented by co-owner Dave Cofran. He will be presenting the Merlot that is the single wine produced from their vineyard and winery in the Oak Knoll sub appellation of Napa. Dave helped start up the Silver Oak operation and was there long enough that I believe his entire wardrobe has Silver Oak logos on them.
Ventana Vineyards is represented by Sarah Robinson who is responsible for sales and marketing. She will be pouring the full range of wines available in Arizona and telling us about the winery and its history and plans.
The remainder of our portfolio will be presented by Orangewood staff.
In this newsletter I generally talk about additions to the winery, retail and sales folk lists. If you have been reading carefully you might conclude that we now represent 38 wineries. Actually we now represent 23 wineries. What happened to the rest? I asked myself that question and analysed the results as follows:
Overall the wineries we represent make great wine and have been patient with us. The longest time is over 6 years (thank you Jim and Suzy at Vino Noceto) and the shortest is zero, (welcome Leo at Kestrel). The average time we have represented them is 2.4 years.
When I went for my annual checkup a couple of months ago, my Doctor suggested that I see three new specialists. Getting older isn’t for sissies, nor is being a patient my idea of a full time job, so we prioritized the list. I met with the ear, nose and throat guy who put a video camera up my nose and into my throat and observed a cyst. He would take it out. He said it was most likely due to my shouting recently. I did remember an occasion when an ATV was driving through the wash that runs through the back of our property. I screamed at him words to the effect “I say old chap did you realize you are driving though my back yard?” So yesterday the cyst was removed in about 2 – 3 minutes, though how would I know? They had put something in the IV that left me caring about exactly nothing. When I came to, the nurses were saying soft foods and no alcoholic beverages, but the otorhinolaryngologist said to ignore that – he recommended pizza and beer. Call me for a recommendation – the Doctor not the pizza!
The rambler rambles on…
From all of us at Orangewood Wines,
Richard (newsletter writer) and Laurie (editor)
Orangewood Wines