Hi everybody… Kirk Wille, here. Thought I’d share a few recent pix of what we’ve been up to lately.

New Vines at Appassionata Vineyard
We have planted the first five acres of new Pinot Noir vines at the Appassionata Vineyard (J. Christopher) property in Newberg, Oregon. This view is toward Hillside Drive, and you can see one of the new blocks, as well as work being done on the driveway. We planted a mix of three Pinot Noir clones: Pommard, Dijon 115 and Wadenswil.

With Alejandro Fernandez
Ellisa and I went to a winemaker dinner at Oba! in Portland, Oregon, with legendary Spanish winemaker Alejandro Fernandez (second from left) last Wednesday. Also in the photo with us (far right) is John Kennedy, owner of Great Wine Buys in Portland, Oregon.

Mr. Fernandez owns the well-known and highly regarded Tinto Pesquera and Condado de Haza wineries in Ribera del Duero. The wines were fantastic and the dinner, at Oba! was excellent, too.

According to the Tinto Pesquera website, “pesquera” wines are always made from whole de-stemmed grapes. The grapes are macerated at a controlled temperature and the process lasts between two to three weeks. The grapes are then pressed. The resulting wine is poured without clarification directly into a subtle combination of American, Spanish and French barrels with different levels of toasting. The wine is stored and decanted frequently for at least eighteen months in the barrel.

Well worth a try if you haven’t tasted these excellent wines already.

With Eva Loosen in Graach
I arrived in Germany on Monday, which was a holiday here. So I spent a lovely afternoon with Eva Loosen walking their dog, Diana. We only made it to the neighbor village, Graach, where a few wineries had open cellars. Here we’re sitting outside Weingut Kees-Kieren, a very nice producer in this village, and enjoying a glass or two.

Tomorrow we start our annual Loosen Customer Tour 2010! More pix and vids to come!