Subject:
PV newsletter May-2025
Date:
5/1/2025, 4:05 PM

Perennial Vintners In this issue:
 ▪ Hours/events: Summer hrs
 ▪ Special tasting event this wknd 04-May
 ▪ New releases, running low & sale wines
Newsletter -- May-2025  ▪ Estate Zweigelt
Click here to view in HTML on website)
  ▪ Vineyard: Weeding and fertilizing
http://www.PerennialVintners.com/  ▪ Looking for tasting area help

▪ Hours/events: Summer hrs

PV is currently open for tastings, Winter hours:
  Sat-Sun 11am-5pm
We'll be making our annual transition to Summer hours starting Memorial Day weekend:
  Fri, Mon 11am-5pm; Sat,Sun 11am-6pm
Other times may be available by reservation, reserve at the website or call/txt 206-780-2146.
And of course you can always shop online if making it here to the winery is not convenient.


▪ Special tasting event this wknd - 04-May

This coming Sunday, we're having a special wine tasting for all the KWA wineries at Rolling Bay Winery, noon-4pm.  This event will include the usual suspects on Bainbridge, (Perennial Vintners, Eleven Winery, Eagle Harbor Winery, Bainbridge Vineyards, Rolling Bay Winery), plus some you may not be familiar with, including Hard Hat Winery (Poulsbo) and Telve de Sopra (Hansville).

Tickets at the door (more info at): https://www.kitsapwineries.com/special-events

Background: Circa 2006, all the wineries on Bainbridge came together to form an industry association, which we called the Winery Alliance of Bainbridge Island (WABI).  This group put on special events, with the intent of getting people to come out and visit all of the wineries on the island; you may have attended some of these events, e.g Wine On The Rock and Wine Around the Rock.

Last year we've re-formed and renamed to Kitsap Winery Alliance and we now include wineries up and down the peninsula - anywhere in Kitsap County.  Hope you can make it!


▪ New releases, running low & sale wines

  o  We are now completely out of our Melon de Bourgogne (still wine).  However we do have a spectacular Sparkling version that you won't want to miss.
  o  We just sold out of the Lemberger last weekend, sorry if you'd hoped to get some.  We won't have this again for at least a year.
  o  Our Siegerrebe is now the 2022 vintage.
  o  We will be introducing our first Estate Zweigelt this weekend.
  o  We have a new Isletage 2023 (blend of Melon and Sieg) which we'll be introducing this weekend as well.
  o  We are down to our last few cases of Syrah 2018.  There won't be another Syrah for about a year.  This will be on sale 20% off ($36) until sold out.
  o  We have plenty of the Plant-A-Tree Red Blend 2020 available.  This is a blend of Pinot Noir, Zweigelt, and Fhruburgunder (AKA Pinot Precoce) from our friends at Appletree Cove Farm in Kingston, along with Eastern WA Syrah.
  o  We also have our Sparkling Sieg and Sparkling Rose' available.

We're happy to ship wine - mixed cases Ok.  Note that we'll also ship to most anywhere in the continental U.S. for $20-$25.  Our Wine Club members get an additional 20% off as well.  Of course you can send us an email, or shop online.


▪ Estate Zweigelt

In the main block of grapes in front of the winery, I have just a few Zw plants that went into the ground around 2010.  There's not enough plants there to make a commercial release of this wine, but we have made small test batches over the years.

I've been so thrilled with these test wines, that when I made space available at the back of the property for new planting, I chose to plant Zweigelt (in 2020).  We got our first (small) harvest in 2023, and that wine is now available in the tasting room.  The first harvest from a new vineyard is always small, so we have very limited quantities.  I only know of one other producer of this grape in WA State, and it's from warm climate Eastern WA so it's quite different.  I really love this wine - I feel it is the perfect red for our cool climate Puget Sound region, I think you'll agree once you've tasted it.


▪ Vineyard: Weeding and fertilizing

I spent much of Jan,Feb, Mar pruning the grapevines.  This is an essential part of grape growing, as the plants will go completely out of control if left to themselves.  This year we had some wonderful dry weather in Jan which made it easy to get an earlier start than normal - it took about 7 weeks total.

At this time of year, the vineyard work is split between weeding and applying manure/fertilizer.  Weeding is mostly just taking a line trimmer up and down the rows to shorten the weeds amongst the grapes.  We do not use herbicides for weed control in the vineyard, only manual labor.  The new block has a lot of Scotch Broom starting to come up so there's also a lot of manual pulling involved.

Additionally, we need to help rebuild the soil, as each year we take a harvest which reduces the soil fertility.  We must manually wheelbarrow truckloads of manure down the rows and spread it with a shovel - hard work.  We'll also be adding commercial (certified organic) fertilizer by carrying 50lb bags down the rows and dispersing.  Again, lots of work!

If you're interested in learning about how to manage grapevines, consider joining our pv-helpers email list.


▪  Looking for tasting area help

Last year was the busiest it's ever been in the tasting area.  For those of you who have visited, especially during the Winter, you may have had an experience of myself with no, or few, other customers.  During the Summer months I've had weekends where all our tasting tables are full, and I've been hard-pressed to keep up with everyone's tastings.  So I've crossed the threshold - I need to have help with tastings!  If you'd be interested in working with me in the tasting area on weekends, please reply to this email.