New Releases, New Website with DELIVERY and CURBSIDE PICKUP

Dear Friends,

I truly hope you are all finding ways to keep yourself entertained and keep your spirits up during this unusual and stressful time we are all experiencing. Sarah and I have been trying to find uplifting entertainment to distract us from the non-stop stream of daunting headlines. This weekend, we watched the film Yesterday, which hits all the right notes for Rom-Com, musical, nostalgia and distraction – check it out if you have access to it and want something light and fun to sing along to.

That film has me thinking about The Beatles today as I get ready to head out to the winery, which has also become my music studio where I can go pound on the piano and try and distract myself from worrying about the future (without driving Sarah crazy!) This is a long way of telling you how I settled on the image above of the Fab Four posing for their film HELP, which seemed like a good message to include in our first main newsletter of 2020.

We know you’ve been bombarded with cries for help from the restaurant and wine industry, as we are receiving the same from all of our friends suffering through this shutdown and helping out wherever and whenever we can. And while I thought we would sit on the sidelines and wait until the air cleared and then have a big release party or something with our new releases, that timeline is looking far out in the distance and I believe we all need to drink more wine at home right now.

So with that in mind, I overhauled our website e-commerce platform this weekend and now can offer Delivery, Curbside Pickup (on a limited basis) and Shipping for our out-of-state friends (limited to states where we can legally ship). The Spring Releases from Viola are live and ready to order on the website now.

Having spent the last 14 years doing wine retail, writing Wine Finds newsletters to our old cork customers and more recently releasing Viola creations multiple times each year, I feel that one thing I can do to pass the time and also provide a service is to re-launch those Wine Finds and do a little wine writing. The plan is to offer a small curated selection of wines from some of my favorite people and places to do my part in helping keep some sales moving for our winemaking friends and distributor friends, as well as ourselves. At the same time, hopefully, this will provide you with the service of dropping some delicious bottles on your doorstep so you can enjoy them with the many many home-cooked meals you will be preparing in the days and weeks to come.

Some notes about how the online website works – bottles or full cases of products can be ordered and discounts are built into full cases as well as the mixed packs we are offering. Once you’re done filling your cart, unless you need shipping (the default setting), hit the ‘Change‘ button next to ‘Order will be shipped’ before hitting the Checkout button. Then just enter your delivery address and payment info. Delivery to the Portland area is FREE with a purchase of $50 or more. We will coordinate our deliveries based on geography – with most Eastside deliveries happening on Thursday this week and Westside deliveries on Friday. If you live in an outlying area (East of I-205, West of Beaverton, South of Tualatin) your delivery may be a different day but we are happy to bring the wine to you as long as you are within 30 minutes of downtown Portland. We will text just before arriving as well as once the order has been set on your door (or wherever you instruct us to leave it) in order to provide a contact-free delivery process. For everyone not in our delivery zone, you can have the wine shipped to you. We are using Fedex ground for all shipments for as long as possible while the mild weather continues.

Please see below for an introduction to the 3 new wines from Viola to kick this off. Next week, I will put together an offering of wines from some very good friends and send out a description of them for you to peruse. And from there, we will see where this new iteration of online wine offerings take us.

Note to our Wine Club Members who received their shipments last week – if you want to order more, please email me for a Coupon Code to receive your club discounts on future online orders.

I hope I can bring some of these to you this week so you can start enjoying them as the weather turns drier and sunshine returns to cheer us all up.

Thanks for reading along,

Darryl

2018 Pinot Bianco (Reg. $21)
Certified organic old-vine Pinot Bianco grown at the Acadia Vineyard on Underwood Mountain where the volcanic soil and cool climate works magic on acidity and aromatics for very dry Alpine-style white wines. We allowed the Pinot Bianco to sit for an extra year in tank to assure fermentation fully completed and get the most refreshing and clean bottling we could without fining or filtering. We think it’s magical and hope you’ll agree! It’s got a nice snap of apple and pear fruit with hints of crystalized ginger on the palate. Goes perfectly with sunshine, soft cheeses and whenever you need to lift your spirits! 12.8% ABV. 52 cases produced.

2017 Collina d’Allegre (Reg. $25)
Made with certified organic grapes from the Allegre Vineyard in the upper Hood River valley, we took the 2017 vintage as an opportunity to re-imagine the Bianco d’Allegre and finally create the blend we had always wanted to share. Collina means ‘top of the hill’ in Italian, and the top of the Allegre vineyard was originally planted with these 3 grapes in 2003. Equal parts of Sauvignon, Pinot Grigio and Moscato Giallo were fermented and aged together in a 500L large puncheon oak barrel. Sauvignon and Pinot Grigio saw extended skin maceration time, giving a rich golden color to the wine and lots of texture as well. The wine spent 2 full years on the lees and then was bottled and held for 6 months before release to assure the wine is ready to drink. The extra time to mature in barrel and bottle has revealed a very complex white wine, with aromas and flavors of pineapple and coconut lifesavers swirling in the glass with tarragon, sage, rosemary and other herbaceous goodness. This is the wine for everything from hearty stews to grilled kebabs and salmon. 11.5% ABV, 51 cases produced.

2018 Dolcetto Riserva (Reg. $28)
For the first time ever, we have made a reserve Dolcetto that was aged in oak. In fact, this spent a full year in an oak barrel that had only once before been filled with our Barbera, so there was still plenty of toasted wood character to impart into the wine. The 2018 vintage was spectacular for the Allegre Vineyard’s Dolcetto grapes. We couldn’t be happier with how the wine evolved differently in wood vs. the stainless version we released last Fall. Both share the fruit-forward punch of the juicy grape, but this one is a bit more brooding and plush, yet it still comes in at just 12.6% ABV. Only 24 cases produced, this limited release is age-worthy if you want to try and tuck some away for sunnier days ahead.

PORTLAND WINERY:
Pickup By Appointment Only • Free Portland Delivery Available