Hi from Jean, here at Avalon Wine,

I'm writing to let you know about the new Owen Roe and Sineann wines that will be shipped next month. There's less than usual and we're going to sell out quite quickly. David and Peter made less than 100 cases of most of these.

Marcus, Chris, Kevin, Wendy, and I want to see that all of our past purchasers of Owen Roe and Sineann get some of these wines if they want them. Most of these wines are only posted on the web site at the bottom of our "Recommended" page:
http://www.northwest-wine.com/avalon-recommends.html
and here in this email. We'll make every effort to get you the wines you want.

Here's the wines:

Owen Roe Sharecropper's Cabernet Sauvignon 04 $21.55/$23.95
http://www.northwest-wine.com/owen-roe-Sharecroppers-Cabernet-Sauvignon.html
In keeping with David's tradition of making a range of good value wines along with his masterpiece higher end wines, the Sharecropper's Cab offers a high quality/price ratio. It's one of the best ready to drink, value priced "Big Reds" available from the Pacific Northwest.

Richer and a bit more complex than last year's Sharecroppers Cabernet Sauvignon, this wine contains a bit of Merlot and Petiti Verdot. It's lush and easy drinking, with smooth tannins and enough body to balance lots of foods, hearty cheeses, and to enjoy as a sipper while watching the game. This is a rich, full bodied, ready to drink wine, filled with fresh fruit flavors, a great value and excellent followup to the wildly popular Sharecropper's Pinot noir.

Owen Roe Cabernet Franc 04 $32.36/$35.95
http://www.northwest-wine.com/owen-roe-cabernet-franc.html
The 2004 Cabernet Franc is all about fragrance - it has an other worldly intensity of scent, with violets and fresh herbs in the nose, following through in the mouth. The wine is richer than last year's - the vintage was a small one, with intensity trumping quantity - it's very limited this year. If you like intense, dark Cab Franc with an exotic flavor twist, you'll enjoy this wine. The wine is drinking well now, but has the structure and balance to cellar for 4-8 years.

This is a crowd pleaser, a wine with lovely scents for those who like the exotic, and a massive, meaty, heavy weight flavor for those who like a full bodied wine, and such smooth, velvety tannins that the wine is easy for everyone to enjoy.

The grapes are sourced from the very special Rosa Mystical Block Vineyard in West Yakima, plus grapes from a new site that David is quite excited about, Slide Mountain Vineyard. There's a bit of Elerding Vineyard fruit in the mix as well.

I've spoken with David about this new vineyard site he's so excited about, and here's what I know so far - it's near the Dubrul Vineyard, and runs as a horizontal strip of land along a steep ridge. Above the vineyard, which is filled with round river rocks and chalky, poor soil, is sandy soil of a different type. Below the vineyard, the soil is dense and sticky, full of clay. So the vineyard land stretches oddly as a long, narrow, horizontal band across the area. Sounds like the soil bears some resemblance to the rocky soils of Cayuse's vineyards. More after I visit the site next month.

Owen Roe "Lady Rosa" Syrah $40.46/$44.95
http://www.northwest-wine.com/Owen-Roe-Lady-Rosa-Syrah.html
Amazingly fragrant, a huge yet multilayered Syrah from the low yielding, old vine Dubrul Vineyard, from Owen Roe's new vineyards surrounding it, and from Rosa Mystica Vineyard. The word for this wine is "ethereal", according to David. The fragrance of violets is intense in both nose and mouth, with big black fruit flavors, exotic spices, black pepper and hints of sandalwood. Very limited, only four barrels made.

Followers of David O'Reilly's Owen Roe wines know that David is a descendant of Owen Roe O'Neill, an Irish patriot of the 16th century. Owen Roe's wife was Lady Rosa O'Neill, and this wine is named for her. The image on the label is a photo of a gravestone from ruins of an Abbey near the O'Neill's ancestral home.

Other Owen Roe wines still available:

It's last call on the
Ex Umbris Syrah 04 $21.55/$23.95
http://www.northwest-wine.com/owen-roe-syrah-ex-umbris.html
Owen Roe Abbott's Table 04 $18.89/$20.99
http://www.northwest-wine.com/owen-roe-abbots-table.html
Owen Roe Pinot noir "The Kilmore" 04 $35.05/$38.95
http://www.northwest-wine.com/owen-roe-pinot-noir.html

And we have good supply of the lovely, world class
Owen Roe Dubrul Cabernet Sauvignon 03 $54.00/$60.00
http://www.northwest-wine.com/owen-roe-winery.html
You really can't beat this wine for an impressive holiday gift. It's a super choice for that hard to please client or friend or family member.

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Here's the new SIneann wines:

Sineann "The Blend" 04
http://www.northwest-wine.com/Sineann-The-Blend.html
Peter says this year's Blend tastes "more like a $40 wine than a $24 wine". It's a really huge and delish red blend for everyday and special times, It's much bigger than the 2003 vintage, a big, rich blend of Cabermet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah. The Blend is ready to drink, a blend of fruit frome vineyards in the Columbia Gorge, where Peter has sourced grapes fro some of his best wines.

I get the sense that Peter really put a lot of energy into this wine, as he plans to make it his entry level wine, the wine he sells to restaurants for glass pours and to customers who want to try Sineann wines but don't want to spend a lot.

From the winery: "That's right, Blend. I don't want to say we named this wine "Blend" just to add the letter "B" to our front labels. The wine is a blend of wines made from grapes grown by Lonnie Wright in the Columbia Valley near The Dalles, OR. It is made up of Syrah, Merlot and Cabernet."

The thing that makes this wine so interesting to me is the source of the fruit. Peter works a lot with Lonnie Wright, a vineyard manager in The Dalles, Oregon. His vineyards are on the south side of the Columbia Gorge, right near the river, and the site produces some wonderful grapes.

Peter's Old Vine Zinfandel is produced from these same vineyards, which are mostly sited on old riverbeds of round, river washed rock or on shelves just above ancient riverbeds. The vineyards' "soil" of rock is reminiscent of the vineyards of Cayuse, further east on the Oregon side of the Columbia. Somehow, the combination of heat that the rocks soak up during the day and the unusual microclimates of these riverbed vineyards produces a different and uncommon complexity of flavors in the wines made from the site.

Sineann Cabernet Franc 04 $37.76/$41.95
http://www.northwest-wine.com/Sineann-Cabernet-Franc.html
Very very limited, this is the first Cabernet Franc released by Sineann. It's a huge, dark, burly Cabernet Franc, full of big flavors and that interestingly different "Franc" flavor. The wine is sourced from Champoux Vineyard. I haven't had a chance to taste this, but the cellar rats who helped bottle the wine tell me that it's intensely aromatic, dark colored, and velvety lush.

Sineann Cabernet Sauvignon "Baby Poux" 04 $37.76/$41.95
http://www.northwest-wine.com/sineann-cabernet-baby-poux.html

Peter Rosback is sourcing more and more fruit from Washington's famed Champoux Vineyard - it's one of his favorite vineyards. His famed "Block One" Cab is made from a different block of Champoux Vineyard. And with this wine, the Baby Poux begins to compete for the title of "Sineann's Best".

At about $25 less than the Block One, the Baby Poux Cab has most of the intensity, complexity, and richness of the more expensive wine. Some of the volunteers who've been helping to bottle the wines this year tell me that they're snapping up this "Baby Block One". It's quite a hit.

Here's what Peter says about the wine:

"The Baby Poux block of Paul Champoux's vineyard combines great Cab intensity with a remarkable approachability that Cabernet just doesn't often deliver. We've gotten fruit off Baby Poux since it's first year of production and it has always had that approachable quality. Much to our delight, as the vineyard ages (it is now 15 years old) it is growing in depth and complexity. Where will it all lead to? We don't know, but it's fun going along for the ride!"

Highly recommended- Great structure, good blackberry Bordeauxlike Cassis, cedar, good weight, silky tannins. Cabernet from the Baby Poux Vineyard has the usual gushing, over the top flavors that characterize the wines of Sineann. Very limited, the 2004 vintage was very small.

Peter says on his website "we're out of the Zinfandel - stop asking!" Well, we still have a stash of the Old Vine Zinfandel , labeled under the "The Pines" label for Lonnie Wright, the vineyard manager that Peter works with a lot. It's the exact same wine as the ZInfandel, same bottles, just has a different label. See it here:
http://www.northwest-wine.com/The-Pines-1852-old-vine-zinfandel.html

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Our November Avalon Wine Club Newsletter is out, and you can read it here:
http://www.avalonwine.com/wine-club-newsletter-nov-05.pdf

We'd like to recommend a gift subscription to one of our Wine Clubs for that hard to please wine lover. You can order month to month, or save a lot and order in 6 or 12 month prepaid subscriptions. We'll enclose an attractive non-denominational, corporate looking card with the first shipment, or can put other types of cards in the box (birthdays, family, wedding, etc.). Over the years, recipients of this gift have told us how much they enjoy it -- seems to be a winner of a gift for business or family. Read about all the wine clubs here:
http://www.avalonwine.com/wineclubs.php

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FIRST ANNUAL AVALON WINE CLUB TASTING

Well, we've decided to have a get together for our wine club members this year on Friday, November 25, the day after Thanksgiving. A lot of you are scattered across the US, but if you're in the area, we'll be opening a range of the wines we've shipped to you over the last year, as well as some new releases, and maybe even some prerelease samples (Shea 2004's?). The tasting is free to Wine Club members, and $20 for everyone else. The $20 will be refunded if you make a $300 or greater purchase at the tasting.

For a map and info about how to get to us, look here:
http://www.avalonwine.com/avalon-map-directions.php If you want more info about the tasting, contact us at the store by phone or email, and we'll give you all the details.

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If we may help with an order for any of these wines, please let us know. We're available by phone at 541-752-7418 from 8AM Pacific time until 6PM Pacific time. Or you can call me at my direct line at 541-424-8004.

Thanks for your support -we appreciate your orders and your suggestions. Our customers always give us our best ideas!

Jean, Marcus, Chris, Kevin, and Wendy

Avalon Wine
201 SW 2nd Street
Corvallis OR 97333
541-752-7418
www.avalonwine.com
store@avalonwine.com (for customer service and shipping)

jean@avalonwine.com (for Jean - wine questions and orders)

marcus@avalonwine.com (for Marcus - wine questions and orders)