Wow! What a
January! Welcome to February, the month of love.
Coming over the mountains and through the woods on Monday,
February 1st. We have a number of cases to deliver and need a few
more to make a full load. We have a couple of new things and some
chocolate specials for sharing with a Sweetie at Valentine’s Day.
Your honored status as our returning customer gets you 10% off of
2 bottles through 11 bottles and 20% - 50% off of 12 bottles or
more. These discounts are already reflected below and in the
order forms: PDF Order Form or XLS
Order Form.
Here is the list of wines available and their prices:
|
|
Bottle Price
|
Case
Price
|
|
2018
Rosé Paradiso
|
$19.80
|
$17.60
|
|
2014
Oyster White
|
$19.80
|
$17.60
|
|
2014
Sève
|
$19.80
|
$17.60
|
|
2016
B's Blend
|
$12.60
|
$11.20
|
|
2015
Sangiovese
|
$12.60
|
$11.20
|
|
H7
Old Rooster Red
|
$19.80
|
$11.00
|
|
2014
Rojo Paradisos
|
$19.80
|
$15.40
|
|
2013
Zort (375 ml)
|
$22.50
|
$20.00
|
|
2015
Angelica MRS (375 ml)
|
$22.50
|
$20.00
|
|
|
|
Red Wine and Chocolate!
February 13, 14, 15
Here is a link to our
annual Valentine’s Day menu. What are you
going to cook up for your loved one(s)?
Traditionally we make a big batch of Chocolate-Chicken Molé for Presidents' Day weekend, AKA Red Wine
and Chocolate. Fresh made tortillas and, this year, a glass of Rojo
Paradisos makes a scrumptious repast.
For Red Wine and Chocolate, we are offering some great chocolate
deals. With every purchase of our Zort,
included is an Intrigue Chocolate bar, $12 value. With all purchases
over $50, a free Intrigue Chocolate bar, $12 value. All tastings
include a plate with a tiny morsel of food with each wine. We pair
the Guajillo Chili, Hibiscus, Cassian Cinnamon, Vanilla Bean
chocolate bar with our Zort on our tasting
menu. It is a match made in Paradise! Come Taste Paradise and Sip,
Sip, Bite, Sip your way through the best Red Wines and Chocolates
available. Our famous Naked Chick Wine label
is back with Old Rooster Red Hatch
7. This is 50% off by the case.
|
|
|
We are OPEN for
tasting again!
We
are able to be open for tasting under the new Open
Air protocols. These call for lots of open windows to
provide enough outside air circulation to emulate the conditions
of outdoor dining. The number of folks is very limited, single
households at a table.
At Paradisos del Sol Winery and Organic Vineyard these are our
protocols:
- Reservation
required, it takes a minimum of ten minutes notice to make
preparations, call us at 509-829-9000
- Single
household at a table, limit of 4 people
- Multi-ply
mask required on winery grounds (gaiters and single layer
mask do not meet standards), masks available no charge
- Mask must
be worn until served at your table and when a server comes
within six feet
- Visits
limited to 30 minutes indoors
You are welcome to spend time outdoors, take a walk around the
vineyard, or a longer walk around our neighborhood. We can direct
you to walks of 1 -10 miles, bring your dog
|
|
|
The small footprint is
Digley, our Chihuahua. The large print is one
of the puppies, Sable. And Barbara's hiking boot for comparison.
|
When
you come for a visit you will meet our two new
staff-in-training winery dogs. Sable and Monkey are male pups
that are now three months old (and they each weigh as much as a
case of wine!). They are not as socialized as we would like,
not enough people around.
Help us with their training, please! They will likely bark and
be a bit fearful. Squat down and call them over, they should
come to you. Should they put paws up on you, tap them on the
head and say “Down!” They are pretty good at Sit, but forget
when excited.
If you are bringing a dog along, we’d love to come out and get
them introduced. Our goal is for them to politely greet
visitors both human and dog. They are doing well but need a
little more practice and polish.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Paul's first biochar burn, read on to find out what
this is.
|
|
Words
from the Winegrower
Biochar
It has been a very mild winter so far,
but it’s not over for a while. My pruning is a little ahead of schedule
since I’ve been able to be out almost every day.
I’m working on a Biochar project this winter. We had to take
down about 20 big Cottonwood trees that were planted in the
wrong place decades ago. They were impinging on a neighbor’s
orchard and the risk of having one or more fall onto the apple
trellises made the removal decision for us.
But what to do with them? Lousy firewood, lousy building
material. I am using some as mushroom logs. Want one?
Seriously, let us know, we can might be able to deliver it with
a wine order. Chipping it to use as mulch was one option and
another was burning it. But piling it up and burning it puts
all that trapped carbon immediately back into the atmosphere,
chipping and decomposition puts it slowly back into the atmosphere.
Turning it into charcoal, a very stable carbon form, can
sequester it for centuries and millennia.
Biochar is charcoal used as a soil amendment. It’s the
rediscovery of some ancient practices. The Prieta
Negro, Black Soil, of the Amazon basin, farm plots using
charcoal and sometimes pottery shards to create gardens of high
fertility that have maintained that fertility for centuries.
The Black Earth of the Midwest, like in Iowa, soils built up by
millennia of prairie grasses frequently burned. Many places in
the Americas had areas where people did controlled burns that
maintained meadows.
The key is burning the wood to create charcoal rather than
smoke and ash. The fire needs to be contained so it burns only
at the top. So, what is termed a kiln is used. Water is used to
quench the fire at the right time.
We’ve taken an old ruptured water tank, 14 feet long, 40-inch
diameter cylinder, cut off the top third, voila, a kiln. Load
it up with dry brush, light it up. The gases, smoke, gets
burned cleanly by the air at the top, rather than being
entrained with air going through the fire from the sides and
bottom. Once the flames die down and there is a mass of red-hot
coals, we put it out. Or we could throw a grate on it and roast
three hogs! (Shhhh, don’t let Miss
Piggy hear.)
The best way to utilize Biochar is to add it to compost piles.
Charcoal is good at grabbing onto things like ammonia, so it
catches a lot of the gases produced during decomposition.
Rather than going into the atmosphere they are captured to be
used later by microbes in the soil, making those nutrients
available to fungi and plants.
Carbon rich soils are more resistant to both erosion and
leaching of nutrients. I’m sure you have heard of the pollution
on the Mississippi River system and Gulf by fertilizer run off.
The Soil Conservation Service is encouraging the use of Biochar
as a way of keeping the fertilizers on the fields and out of
the rivers.
Since we don’t have run off and soil leaching as an issue in
our desert and deep soils, our interest is carbon capture and
the improvement in soil health. The real essence of Organic
Agriculture is building fertile, carbon-rich soil. Healthy soil
results in healthy plants resistant to pests and diseases.
Healthy plants make healthy food which results in healthy
people.
The bonus is we are going to stash away a bunch of Carbon for
many lifetimes rather than letting it go back to the atmosphere
as carbon dioxide.
|
|
|
|
Who wants wine?
If you are saying,
"I do! I do!"
We
have got you covered, in a few different ways.
1. We can deliver wine directly to your home or to the home of
your relative or friend. Estimated delivery is next Monday,
February 1. Earlier if we fill up the car sooner.
2. You can get a gift card from us either electronically
or we will send out a physical gift card for you. Give us a call
for the physical card 509.829.9000.
3. If you are local or want to come for a visit, we are open for
tasting and sales 11-6 every day. Tasting requires a call about
10 minutes ahead of time.
4. If your wine gift is going out of the state of Washington, you
can order via VinoShipper.
Whether we can ship to that location during the winter is
dependent on the weather. If it is too cold, we have to hold off
on shipping until the weather warms up a bit.
If you want to keep up with
us on a daily basis, you can follow us on FaceBook or Instagram.
We are still doing vineyard tours if you happen to
be in the area.
We are so very thankful that you include us in your wine
consumption and we hope that you will keep us in your rotation.
All
the best from our home to yours,
Paul and Barbara
|
|
|
|
