January 2003
Greetings for the New Year

A friend and customer, Bernadette wrote me recently that her husband was stung by a bee in July and had such a violent reaction that he spent three days in a coma, not expected to live. Two days after his return home he was rushed back to the hospital with severe chest pains and spent nineteen days in the hospital with a blood clot in his lungs. When he was allowed to move again he ask for some wine, not just any wine but you guessed it "Graeser 1997 Cabernet Franc". His wife ask if I had any more of that vintage for his recovery since they used up all of their reserves. Sad to say I didn’t have even one bottle that I could send them for his recuperation. The whole point of the story is that you should buy enough wine to carry you through any adverse situation. The great part of the story is that Joe is at home and well on his way to recovery.

Rebecca is still here and working as hard as she can to get me organized, a thankless job. If anyone can do it Rebecca can do the job. She is a wonderful person who has added a great deal of pizzazz at the winery as well in my private life; let us raise a glass of Graeser Wine to the love of my life Rebecca. We have recently started several new programs. A monthly wine dinner featuring a vertical selections of library wines paired with great food prepared by our resident foody Garrett Day, ask Jag Patel how much he enjoyed our dinner. He liked the food so much that he signed up for the February dinner. There is only room for twenty-four so don’t miss out. We are having an informal get together on Sunday’s around 4:00 pm when those interested for the price of a bottle of wine to share may enjoy a light supper and discuss whatever subjects interest the gathered group and stay until they are talked out or wined out.

If you would like to sharpen your wine tasting skills we are going to have weekly classes featuring most of the positive aromas and some negative ones followed by a barrel tasting to test your new skills on real wine. With continued application your skills at wine evaluations will be second to none, so rally around the table and let the learning begin. Watch out Robert Parker, here come Graesers Enthusiastic Oenophilists, we will blow away the competition in the First Annual Wine Tasting Hall of Fame at Graeser Winery in February of 2004.

I haven’t forgotten the current wines that we are making. I didn’t sell any grapes this year so we will have plenty of Cabernet Sauvignon for the 2002 Vintage along with ample Cabernet Franc. The Merlot will be in short supply since the one acre that we planted is not producing as well as we would like it to produce. They all taste great now and have great color and extraction. We made some Zinfandel this year since many customers have requested it; the grapes came from Lake County. I am considering a label with a drawing of Simba on her back touting "Simbas Zinful Zinfandel". What do you think?

Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.
Have a prosperous New Year!!

Richard