After 25 years of marriage, and being open 363 days a year, we have decided to close the tasting room for seven weeks and go on a honeymoon! Two ideas kicking around are a road trip down the West Coast to visit our many family members and friends (hoping they will want to host us for a day or two). And then we would like to visit Costa Rica and stay with a friend in Liberia, and perhaps visit Panama to visit a friend who was a Wwoofer here several years ago. All the plans are a bit fuzzy at the moment, but we know we want to travel a bit and have a real vacation or two.

In between, there will be Barbara’s usual trips to Seattle, so it will be possible to get wine from us during this period. Please send a text or phone us. We will not be checking email as diligently as usual.

This will give us a taste of what retirement might look like. At 68 and 72, we are ready to move on to our golden age!

We are still hoping for someone to wander by and want to buy up all of our cased goods (bottled wine), and perhaps buy the vineyard and 12 acres of pasture. That said, it is a dismal time to be a winery (or a brewery or distillery or restaurant). For Thanksgiving in Wine Country, which used to be the second-biggest weekend of the year, we had two customers over the three-day event. Two! And November was the slowest November ever. We keep hoping that things will magically change for the better, but we are not holding our breath. Many of you have indicated that you are no longer drinking alcohol or have cut back dramatically for various reasons. We understand why, but wish it wasn’t happening.