September

Late summer returns and I find myself at once in a familiar and changing situation. First, the change, all great, great news.

My winery, Vincent Wine Company, has moved from our home of the past three years to the Southeast Wine Collective, at SE Division and 35th Place in Portland behind the restaurant Cibo. This new urban winery and tasting room are going to be great. I couldn't be more excited about being part of this project. The Southeast Wine Collective is the brainchild of Kate and Tom Monroe of Divison Winemaking Company, which will be in the facility along with Bow & Arrow and Helioterra Wines. We have a gorgeous tasting room that's opening later this month and we're definitely going to bring wine and wine making closer to Portlanders and travelers alike. I'm so glad to have a place to call home, and a tasting room where people can try my wines. It may not sound like much but it's something. Something to celebrate, for sure.

And, I once again have wine to sell. After selling out of my 2010s earlier this year, it's been odd to not have wine to sell, not to mention not having to sell wine. It's been kind of nice actually. I've just had to make wine, and yes there has been other business to attend to and my Guild Winemakers project keeps me incredibly busy in what free time I have. Don't forget my day job. So you can understand how a break in the day to day selling of bottles and cases of wine was rather nice.

At this point, I'm only selling the 2011s to my mailing list members. It my annual first offering at the best prices of the year, including wines that may not make it to retail. That offer ends September 28, then the next day -- September 29 -- I'm having tasting and sales event at the new winery, SE Division at 35th Place, 1-5pm. Helioterra will also be pouring and the winery tasting room will be open as usual. Should be a great time.

After that I'll be getting bottles to local shops and restaurants again, though sooner than that I'm heading back to New York for a seminar and trade tasting my distributor is doing with another small importer/distributor. This is the first time I've been squeezing in a sales trip before harvest. It's the start of many I imagine (and hope, for my own success).

With all the change and newness, there's a familiar sense in the air. The days are quickly growing shorter, some mornings surprisingly crisp. It happens this way every year, but the feeling is always so new again, so fresh, like we're reliving something from Septembers past. Already I've had that sense of autumn from growing up in LA, a cool, dry day with long shadows but little else to suggest fall, which you might get around Thanksgiving but comes here in mid-September or so. Not really autumn, but something I had there that seems to pass through this town too.

In Portland, that feeling has come to mean something new for me. Harvest. And it feels great this year. My first grapes will come in by the end of September, maybe the first week of October. In the new winery, in a new neighborhood, with the same old me. I can't wait.