An Impromptu Drive

Did anyone notice the weather yesterday was actually pleasant? I mean, I'm not one to call 88 degrees pleasant on most occasions, but by comparison yesterday was lovely. So, of course, Tom and I had to play hooky! We jumped in the Jeep with the top down and the windows off and headed south. The wildflowers are beautiful right now. Queen Ann's Lace and bright yellow coreopsis made fields look like giant bouquets from the florists. Still some echinacia coneflowers out there, and bee balm, and tons of beautiful stuff. Everything is green and lush from all the rain we've had, even if it has been wicked hot.

So, we're on our way, driving from little highway A to little highway B to little highway C (no, really, that's what we did!) and on and on until we ended up in Rolla, where we stopped at Russ & Rena's Place, an awesome liquor store in the downtown area. They, of course, being an awesome liquor store, have our wine available, room temp and chilled (thanks Tammy!!) We picked up some fun beers from their mix and match 6 pack selection. Tom found Little Kings, 7 oz cream ale shorties that are A) adorable and B) really tasty. Too much fun. Then we went on to some cool roads - little highway V, and little highway YY, and some other little highways I don't remember. Thought about heading to Peaceful Bend Vineyards (hi Clyde & Katie!), but it was late and they were closed, so we just headed on back toward St. James.

And YEAH, YIPPEE, WOOHOO!! Tom took us to dinner at Sybill's, THE best restaurant in this area. SOOOOO good to see old friends there, and some charming new faces. Our server was new to us - she is originally from Russia, near Sochi where the next Winter Olympics are to be held. We told her we really wanted to go, and she said she'd show us the sights if we made it - now it's even MORE tempting!!!!!

Best news of all - SYBILL INVITED US TO DO A WINE DINNER THERE!! We will work out dates, times and details soon, so I'll keep everyone posted. I REALLY can't wait!

So it was a wonderful day with some very cool peeps. Thanks for sharing it with me!

Resolutions

2010 - Twenty ten - I can barely wrap my head around it. Shouldn't we still be partying like it's 1999? But it is the second decade of the new century, and resolutions do seem to be in order.

Well, "resolution" is a bad word - nobody keeps them - so lets go with vision. As in our vision for Wenwood Farm Winery for the new year, the new decade, and, well, OK, the new week. I guess that is where it starts. January is the time for getting taxes done, clearing up the leftover 2009 "junk" and filing away all the good and the bad that happened in the past year. It's quiet and introspective now, and it is good to have a cold winter month or two to sit by a fire and organize your life. So, what do I intend to evaluate and envision for 2010?

My whole focus is the winery. It has become the best thing in my life (it may not always feel like it, but it is!) and I'm so thankful for the friends it has brought me and the work that I love. So we are going to keep growing and finding new ways to share this passion we (Tom & I) have for wine and community. The Wenwood "family" is really awesome! I can't wait to spend time with you all this year, and welcome new members. We'll continue to present the best in festivals and music events, with outstanding local musicians, artists and artisans, as well as offering support to great organizations like Earth's Classroom, The Central Missouri Humane Society, The Breast Cancer Foundation and more. And, most importantly, we're gonna make great wine!

We are increasing our wine production by hundreds of cases this year, in order to avoid a shortfall at the end of 2010 like we had in 2009. Providing our retailers with a consistent supply of wine and doing tastings at those shops will be a top priority. But you'll still have a good excuse to come to the winery - our Signature Series and many of our seasonal wines are available only at Wenwood. Plus, we have a new wine or two up our sleeves to keep things interesting. So come on out and have a blast!

So, good luck, everyone, with the organizing thing and the staying warm thing and the getting through winter thing, and come see us soon! And, go ahead, party like it's 1999 - it still works!

Merry Christmas!

Wow, has it been a great year at Wenwood! Thank you all so much for supporting us. We've been a little crazy, and as many of you know we actually grew so much in wine sales that we have been out of a number of wines at the end of the year. . . oops! We apologize to all our customers both at the winery and at our retail outlets, and we appreciate your continued purchases as wines become available. It has been really humbling and wonderful to know how much you all love our wines! For 2010, we've increased our production by a great deal and plan to be fully stocked all year long.

As for me, I'm loving Christmas as usual. We have a beautiful tree at our house (Tom calls it "Mike" - who knows why!), and with all our remodeling we were able to have an employee Christmas party at our house this year. It was beautiful - this old farm house LOVES being full of people. Lee made the winery incredibly beautiful, as well - if you haven't been there to see her tree, you really should get out or check out the pic's on facebook!

And as for New Year's plans and resolutions - I promise to blog more, the winery will be out and about doing many wine tastings, we'll have plenty of wine, and the next decade will ROCK at Wenwood! Cheers to you all, and Happy Holidays!!!!

Wow, there are some yucky colds going around! I had a nasty one all last week, but things definitely looking up this week. I'm really glad - I'm looking forward to this week's Home for the Holidays Open House and the Ol' Fashioned Hayride and Hot Dog Roast on Saturday, so being sick wasn't an option! After that I'm going to buckle down and get my house ready for a big family Thanksgiving. My dining room is a mess - it seems to somehow turn into a storage room during the busy winery season. So, I have to clean it out so I can clean it and do some minor remodeling.

I have some GREAT old wallpaper that I found in a trunk in a back room when we moved here about 15 years ago. Now, I'm going to use some of it in the dining room, and create a bit of a French country flair in there. That leads to searching some of my closets, barns, and shed for cool stuff to fix up, and trolling antique stores and flea markets to complete it. I LOVE that stuff. So, I'll try to post some pics when it gets done.

I hope you all have as much fun preparing for Thanksgiving as I do. It is such a great season, and a great concept - remembering what we are thankful for. Hope you all have plenty of things that you give thanks for - Happy Autumn!

Hello Wenwood World

Hi everybody! I'm Laura from Wenwood Farm Winery, and this is my weekly WenWord. Today I'm watching football, enjoying some awesome weather, and getting started sharing my thoughts with cyberspace. It's kinda cool. As for the winery, we just closed and had a great day with Val and Mal making music for us. Thanks to everyone who came out to join us!

I am looking forward to a busy week, but I hope to take Monday or Tuesday off with my guy (and winemaker!) Tom and visit some OTHER Missouri wineries. Maybe Clyde and Katie at Peaceful Bend (Steelville) or all the Puchta people at Adam Puchta (Hermann), or perhaps we'll even try a newer one we haven't been able to make it to yet - Cooper's Oak, or Jen and Chris at West Winery (Moberly). I really want to enjoy a last Jeep ride of the year with the top down and enjoy those gorgeous fall colors. Hope you can get out to enjoy it, too.

So, wish me luck on the Jeep trip and thanks for visiting me on my first blog. It was fun, and I'll talk to you next week!