Dear Friends,
September 4th was the 17 year anniversary of our founder and my brother Jimi’s passing. This year it fell on a Saturday just like it did the day he died. Many of his friends texted me yesterday. It is always emotional but I always try to find the silver lining. September’s theme is legacy so I will be sharing special stories with you about Jimi, what he started and how we have carried on. We are pouring the 2018 Red Letter all month in the tasting room and yesterday offered the 2008 Red Letter as well. The 2008 is so well integrated with lots of life left to it! Such a treat! This week I will be hiking to the very spot that this photo of Jimi and Pascal was taken just weeks before he passed away. His ashes as well as my parent’s ashes are at this spot. I was happy to hear from Pascal yesterday that he was visiting his grandparents and family in Krakow, Poland. I am sure it was comforting to be with family.
I have a lovely garden update for you from Shannon and I have included one of my favorite articles written about the winery. Don’t forget to sign up for our September Beyond Brooks.
Enjoy the holiday weekend!
Cheers!
Prepping For Harvest
The winemaking crew was very busy this week. Both fermentation halls were organized and deep cleaned to get ready for harvest. This week will be more of the same. Our harvest interns have started arriving and harvest will officially begin this week when we bring in our first fruit! We are expecting temperatures in the high 80s for a few days and then it looks like the weather will be turning to fall which will be perfect for the grapes. The team spends their mornings in the vineyards gathering samples to evaluate ripeness and can plan our picking decisions accordingly. We are so excited about this vintage!
Don’t Miss Our First Beyond Brooks!
Thank you to everyone who bought the entire season of Beyond Brooks! We are kicking it off with the Dry Goods Beverage Company and the Som Cordials. When we sat down to figure out the wines while tasting the cordials, we came up with some awesome combinations. We are super excited to showcase the new vintages of Cahiers Pinot Noir and the Ara Riesling!
This bundle includes:
- 1 bottle of 2019 Brooks Ara Riesling
- 1 bottle of 2018 Brooks Cahiers Pinot Noir
- A sample pack of Som Vinegar Cordials with 5, 4 oz sample bottles of Ginger, Cranberry, Oregon Berry, Pineapple Szechuan Pepper, and Tangerine Sea Salt
- Webinar with Adrienne Stillman Krausz, co-founder of The Dry Goods Beverage Company, Janie Heuck, Managing Director of Brooks, and Master of Wine, Bree Stock on Saturday, September 18th at 1 pm PST/4 pm EST
- $5 for every purchase will be donated to 1% For The Planet and Kiss The Ground
- As always, the webinar will be recorded to be viewed at a different time.
You cannot beat the price of $99 plus shipping.
Join Me At Beyond Brooks
New Homes For Bees in the Garden
“Act like you know what you’re doing, even if you don’t. Above all, send the bees love. Every little thing wants to be loved.”
-Sue Monk Kidd, Secret Life of Bees
When I throw myself into the abundance of flowering plants in the garden, I can closely glimpse the stirring of life that is created by the profusion of flowers. The population of bees in the garden at Brooks humbles me and stirs me with remorse for what we have lost in so many other habitats.
Beyond providing pollen and nectar resources, the Brooks garden provides habitat for our native bee population, helping sustain the bees that make their home here. There are many types of native with different habitat needs for the different species of native bees. The great majority of the thriving bee population at Brooks are native bees, 70% of which are ground-nesting bees. However, the remaining 30% of native bees are cavity-nesting, laying eggs in hollow or pithy stems, in addition to beetle holes in deadwood (https://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/nesting-resources).
In an effort to support all native bee habitat needs we have recently added nesting structures throughout the garden, with the hope of expanding habitat availability for cavity-nesting bees. This can be readily done by everyone and is an opportunity to reuse garden debris such as raspberry cuttings, providing habitat for carpenter bees or other cavity-nesting bees. Meanwhile, we continue to support ground-nesting bees in our garden by minimizing soil disturbance and leaving access points to the bare earth.
With the approach of fall native bees will be in a frenzy preparing nesting sites to overwinter their eggs, leaving a nourishing pollen meal for the emerging larvae. There is no better time to create a habitat for bees in your own spaces, as we are intrinsically tied to the pollen forage of bees. As the garden harvest continues to pour in I can’t help but reflect on how this abundance of zucchini, cucumbers, peppers, and so much more all owe their start to a pollen granule that in all likelihood was carried by a bee. We owe it to the bees to help carry them.
With Love from the Garden,
Shannon
One of My Favorites
As I mentioned above, during the month of September, we will be celebrating the legacy of Brooks. As part of that, I want to share with you reflections of Brooks written by others. I am going to start if off with an article written by Jeff Kralik who has a blog called The Drunken Cyclist. It evokes emotion and is very touching. Enjoy!
Read “The Glass of Wine I Just Could Not Drink”
I am looking forward to spending the afternoon with Sam Tannahill and Cheryl Francis. They are the winemakers/owners of Rex Hill and A to Z. They were dear friends of Jimi’s and the last people Jimi enjoyed a meal with. They are now dear friends of mine.
Reach out anytime: [email protected] or cell: 831-238-4828.
Happy Labor Day!
Janie