Stuart Blackwell from St Hallet Winery in Australia was the most pleasant of guests. He clearly has the Australian sense of humor and makes some pretty damn nice wines. Thanks to him and to all of you that attended his presentation on Friday.

On February 9th I’m going to do the presentation. We have picked out a mix of wines from Arizona, Washington, Oregon, California and Italy that include a Pinot Gris from King’s Estate, a Chardonnay and a Merlot from Painted Horse, a Pinot Noir from Martin Ray, a blend from J Bookwalter and an Amarone. I don’t believe we’ve ever had any of these wines at a class before. There will be no wine class on the 16th because of a calendar conflict.

We have had a nice response for members of a bowling team to compete one time in early April on a Monday. It looks like we have enough for a couple of teams. I’ll see we can get more than one into the competition. If you are a bowler and would like to join us to have some fun, please let me know. The Steele Winery is sponsoring the event.

As I mentioned last week, there’s a new Vineyard and Winery project underway in Cochise County that’s open for investors…Sam Pillsbury, noted film producer/director, and former co-owner of award-winning Dos Cabezas Wineworks, last year purchased 80 acres of superb vineyard land across the road from his Dos Cabezas holdings. He is raising $1.2 million in investment capital to launch the winery on 40 acres and hold the 40 excess acres for future development or sale. Land values in the immediate area have skyrocketed since Dick Erath from Oregon started his new vineyard next door, but investors will buy in at Sam’s purchase price of $4,375 an acre, substantially lower than the most recent adjacent sale at $7,000 an acre. Page Springs Cellars group has purchased Dos Cabezas vineyards and Eric Glomski of Page Springs will be Sam’s new winemaker. Anyone interested should contact Sam Pillsbury at spillsbury@aol.com for an investment package.

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