Dear Friends,
It has been another fun and busy week in Amity. We had another few days above 100 degrees, a tiny bit of rain, and forecasts moving all over the place. As you can see above though, the days often ended with beautiful sunsets.
I had a couple of fun Brooks team outings this week that I will share with you, but first up, the chicken naming contest!
Happy Sunday,
Janie
They Grow so Fast
Two weeks ago, I alerted you about our twin chicken naming contest. Since then, the chicks have grown and it has become quite obvious that the person at Wilco, who was certain they were both girls, was incorrect. One is now much larger than the other with a growing comb and wattle. And every morning, he gives is best effort to yell “cock-a-doodle-doo” (His sounds a little more like “err-err-err-oo”). Needless to say, we had to rethink our names. We still gave out a few prizes (one person predicted one was a rooster!)
Currently, we have two roosters named after members of our production team, Chris and Davin. In keeping with the rooster naming theme, we want to name the newest rooster, Tom, after our current cellar hand. One contestant suggested “Chickira” for a name and it just so happens that on occasion, Tom listens to singer Shakira. So there you have it, Tom and Chickira!
Supporting Our Community
At Brooks, we have great respect for the hard work that goes into producing wonderful fruit in the vineyards. We were recently approached by Ahivoy, a local nonprofit, to purchase a foursome in their 1st Annual Golf Tournament Fundraiser. As someone who grew up golfing most of my life, I thought it would be a good and a fun thing for a few of us on the team to do. I invited Winemaker Chris, Cellar Master Darrick and the person who planted our Estate Vineyard, Don to play. It wasn’t always pretty. It was over 100 degrees. We all contributed some great shots. Our score was 1 over par in the scramble format. We had a great afternoon.
I want to share more with you about Ahivoy. They have elevated the title of vineyard worker to Vineyard Steward. Their mission is to strengthen the Oregon wine community by empowering Vineyard Stewards through education. They are committed to empowering Vineyard Stewards through education by providing resources and opportunities useful to advancing careers in the Oregon Wine industry. I am proud to be supporting them and we have some plans of how Brooks can continue to support them.
Learn More About Ahivoy
Season 2 of Beyond Brooks is Coming!
Were you one of the 600+ that participated in Beyond Brooks last year? We are excited to let you know we will be announcing the lineup and tickets for Season 2 in just a few weeks.
Beyond Brooks was created during COVID to bring together Brooks with other like-minded craft producers outside of the wine industry. The experience included wine, curated partner product, and a Virtual Event of tasting and talking. I was told by so many attendees it was fun and educational, a great value and a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
This week, I went on a field trip to Portland to meet with 3 of the partners for the upcoming season. I was accompanied by the Moderator of Beyond Brooks, Bree Stock, Master of Wine as well as our Director of Marketing, Jillian and our Director of Business Development, April. The goal of the field trip is to see the production facility, get to know the story of the brand, taste samples of products that we think support the theme/story telling that we want for Beyond Brooks. We gather those samples and will do a serious day of tasting these products with wine and selecting which two Brooks wines will accompany the partner product delivered to your door. Here is a sampling of what we have gathered to date.
I have a few more field trips this week and we have our wine tasting set for August 9th. We will announce tickets on August 15th!
If you didn’t participate in Beyond Brooks last year, I hope you will this year. If you would like to get a better idea of the event, below is a link to our YouTube channel with the series from last year. As you will see, we also utilize a wonderful virtual platform for these….no zoom!
Check out Season 1 of Beyond Brooks
COVID cases are on the rise here in Oregon. We are strongly encouraging masks again for those vaccinated and not. I am grateful I purchased the NASA-grade air filter for our building and that we have substantial outdoor space. Stay safe all and thank you to our front-line workers.
I would love to hear your questions about Beyond Brooks. Email me at [email protected] or call me at 831-238-4828.
Cheers-
Janie