Dear Merlovers,

Thank you very much to all who attended the Merlove Premiere Friday night at Copia. It was a great time of Merlovers coming together to share their enthusiasm for such a wonderful wine as Merlot.

The Merlove team wants to especially thank all the wineries & people who donated wine and/or came to pour. This folks include Markham Vineyards, Kelham Vineyards, Steltzner Vineyards, Darioush Winery, Swanson Vineyards, & Provenance Vineyards. Much obliged to you all.

We are eagerly awaiting every one’s feedback via snail mail or email. You can only make for a better film. We are most definitely going to tighten the movie up a bit. We really want to hone in on the key messages, so they come across easily and focused. We will also be adding more pieces of animation throughout the documentary.

FYI = There will be another showing of Merlove at Copia, Friday September 5, 2008 at 8pm. This should be the final cut! We are told by Copia staff that tickets are already starting to sell. Don’t forget to get yours before we have another sold out show. We would Merlove to see everyone there.

Please contact us with any questions or comments.

info@merlove.com

or

Rudolph N. McClain
Producer/Director
P.O. Box 713
St. Helena, CA 94574

Hope to hear from you soon & see you all in September.

_Marisol

I think what we most went away with on our trip to Washington State was that it’s wine industry is very much like a family unit. Many of the people in it share equipment and cellar recommendations. They feel as if each individual succeeds, then they all succeed. This was a refreshing outlook. It was a “all for one and one for all” type of attitude, very much unlike some rock star wine makers that are just out for themselves to succeed and not necessarily caring about others. There is a definite strong sense of place for Washington State wine producers. They are not afraid to help their neighbor out, even if they are seen to the world as competitors. They are all still friends just the same. I think many can learn from their example. It is all about not being afraid to try something new, whatever it may be…..it can only lead to better things. In this case study = better wines, better Merlot.

While in Washington State we felt as if we were extended family. We were given the royal treatment. This was indeed a warm and fuzzy feeling inside of us. It made us not want to leave. We can’t wait to visit again.

http://www.washingtonwine.org/

-Marisol

This morning we left for our last interview. We were heading to Leavenworth, WA to meet with owner/winemaker Rob Newsom of Boudreaux Cellars. It was quite a drive, but an amazing experience. Let me tell you how it went. Well, first of all Leavenworth is like the Solvang of Washington State. It is a storybook town and Rob Newsom lives in that storybook log-cabin in the woods. His property and home actually exist in Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. Driving in this National Forest somewhat reminded me of a mini Yosemite. We were about 2000 feet above sea level and the mountains on both sides of us were about 7000 feet above sea level. The air here was so invigorating. We felt full of life with the vivacious nature that surrounded us. There were small flowing waterfalls here and there. Along Rob Newsom’s home he has the Icicle Creek which flows year-round. He actually rigged up pipelines coming from the stream to his cabin home. He has some of the freshest water around and he doesn’t even have to pay for it. How about that! We got to quench our thirst with some.

Lucky timing on our behalf, some of the Newsom family was in town. Not only did we get to meet Rob’s wife who lives in the forest with him, but we got to meet Rob’s mom and dad, as well as his daughter. We learned that Rob’s father Jimmy has been a musician his entire life. He started playing guitar and singing as a little boy and much of it was just from what he heard around him. We were privileged enough to have both Jimmy & Rob perform 3 songs for us in the cabin before we left. We have this on tape and it will definitely be in the movie. Just so everyone knows, Jimmy is in his mid 80s and his family refers to him as a “Human Jukebox.” He has many songs in him. Rob has been playing with his dad for many years and he tells us it is always a surprise to hear what his father will sing and play. Jimmy told us that Rob is always able to catch on and accompany him with another guitar. Somehow it is no problem at all.

The Newsom Family is the epidemy of southern hospitality. They are all originally from Louisiana. I would say their kindness was as typical as what you hear about or even what you see in some movies, but we lived it. It was real life. Not only were we showered with kindness, realizing we were hungry we were treated with warm Marionberry pie, brownies with walnuts, smoked ham freshly made from the night before, local bread with homemade dipping sauce (balsamic vinaigrette, olive oil, truffle oil, & herbs), and coffee. Rob even sent us home with a full case of wine. We thought all of this was more than generous.

We most definitely saved the best for last without even realizing it until we were there. It was like saving the cherry on top to enjoy last after you’ve enjoyed your ice-cream sundae. Maybe in this case a Rainer cherry.

Going to Boudreaux Cellars was like a beautiful dream. Overall, impressive experience from wines to location and hospitality.

http://www.boudreauxcellars.com/

I found a website that has many short stories about the Southern Louisiana character Boudreaux and his friend Thibodeaux. It is this Boudreaux character that gave Rob the inspiration for his winery. You should read some of them. They are quite hilarious.

http://www.southernthoughts.com/STBoudreaux.htm

We even left with the perfect song to end Merlove with. The name of the song is I Wanna Drink It Today and it is by Paul Gregutt, one of Rob’s good friends. Paul Gregutt is the author to “Insider’s Guide to Washington Wines,” he is a columnist for The Seattle Times Newspapers, and he is also a contributing editor to The Wine Enthusiast.

As we left, driving west closer to the coast there were more and more trees that started to be present. The desert was behind us now. There were many green glowing hills and meadows with vibrant wild flowers. After a while, then came the rain pushing through the thick gray clouds to be heard and seen. Although, sky wasn’t completely saturated with gray. There were small bits of blue sky occasionally making a stand amongst the domineering clouds. As we drove through The Cascade Mountains on Hwy 2, we saw multiple mini waterfalls. There were ones that were solo and fell from very high and others that started low that spanned out into other small veins of falling water. We also saw many snow-capped mountains. It was like driving through a winter wonderland. The mystical mountains and all their glory gave way to their hidden magic as we drove through. The fog appeared to lift away for our car as if curtains alongside a movie screen. The beauty, the amazement, and wonder of the Cascades left us desiring for more time to explore. So until next time, such lusciousness will be an imprinted memory in our minds.

When we got back to Seattle we were to spend one more night at Hotel Vintage Park. Chris decided to part us and meet up with some of his old friends from the area. Rudy & I decided to have one last nice dinner out. We ended up going to The Kingfish Cafe on a friend’s recommendation. We figured southern food would be an appropriate end to our day. It was excellent! Amazing flavors and huge portions. Their cornbread has whole pieces of sweet corn in it. Yum! We even shared a strawberry shortcake for dessert that probably stood about 12 inches high.

Next day we were to head home. We made sure we had some Pho first and then it was off to the airport.

-Marisol

This afternoon we headed to Benton City to meet with vineyard growers/owners, Patricia & David Gelles of Klipsun Vineyards. Klipsun is a word for beautiful sunset that comes from the Chinook Native Americans. The Chinook people use to live along the embankments of the Columbia River spanning from BC, Canada to Eastern Washington.

We met Patricia a.k.a. as “Queen of the Mountain” and her husband at their vineyards located in the tiny area of Red Mountain which is within the Yakima Valley. This easternmost tip in Yakima Valley is known to have smaller clusters/crops, but makes for greatly concentrated wines.

It was a very gray and windy day of filming. We had to find a wind barrier and the guys interviewed/filmed behind some white plastic grape bins. These bins were big and stacked high, so really helped with breaking the wind barrier. It was an exciting site to take pictures of this interview with Patricia’s pink hair dancing all around in the wind as she answered our interview questions. The pink almost was glowing with the intense gray clouds giving us an audience in the background. Patricia agreed with Rudy that if people started drinking wine instead of soda with their fast food would be a beginning at getting healthier. After our interview we had a quick lunch with Patricia & David. They brought us an assortment of cheeses, some bread, and pears to eat. We also enjoyed some wine with our meal. It was not a Merlot, we actually had some Sauvignon Blanc from one of her clients. So, the wine was made from her grapes. Patricia & David had to quickly be on their way for a big wine event that was going to occur in Walla Walla.

We were very excited that Patricia loves The Triplets of Belleville, a common favorite movie with us.

http://www.klipsun.com/

After our time spent at Klipsun Vineyards we drove to a couple neighboring wineries just for tasting. Rudy, Chris, & I did some wine tasting at Fidelitas Winery. We wanted to film at Fidelitas, but unfortunately Charlie Hoppes the owner/winemaker had previous engagements. He may have been heading to the same event Patricia & David were going to. There were 2 very nice ladies that poured for us. One was named Jessica and unfortunately we didn’t get the other’s name. We also went to the beautiful Hedges Family Estate. Only Rudy & I tasted there. Chris just relaxed in the rental car. While there, Sabrina Greever took very good care of us. She tasted us through several older vintages of their wine to compare vintages. She even took us through their barrel room, fermentation room, and the Hedge Family’s private wine cellar.

After tasting, we decided to check out were we would be staying that night. We were to drive back to Prosser at stay at the Prosser Precept Ranch. This ranch was strangely enough on Crow Road. In this area there were tons of cherry tree orchards and hops plants being trained to grow as a vine along angled ropes and wood stakes. When we finally figured out where the ranch was there was no one around. We checked to see if any doors were unlocked on the main building on property and found that the back door was, so we were able to bring our things in and relax. Eventually an older man named Bob (Gus Chiggins kind of character/SNL) came out to greet us with his 2 old dogs. Gus use to be the farmer who owned the property where the new Prosser Precept Ranch is. He asked us if we wanted the barn unlocked. We said “sure” and when he opened it, we came to realize that there a complete Party Barn on property. This barn was loaded with any type of liquor one could desire and all up for grabs at one’s disposal. There were snacks and sodas and even a popcorn machine. There was a pool table, dart board, large screen tvs, video games, card table, etc. In the main house there were many multiple rooms both up and downstairs. The cabinets and refrigerator were filled with food.

A few hours after we got there a big group of Precept Brands distributors and retailers came to stay the weekend. They were a rowdy party group. It was a little bit of a weird vibe, but everyone was very nice. They ended up putting dinner together which include BBQ meats, rice, beans, tortillas, cheese, chips and salsa, etc. There was enough wine on the table to quench the thirst of a small country. We even got to try several wines from Australia. Que Syrah-Syrah! The party crowd stayed up to the early hours of the morning and both Chris and Bob hung out with them. Rudy & I were somewhat party-poopers. We hung out for a little bit, but I think we were just mostly exhausted. It was a huge week of constant go-go-go. It was great though, well rewarding and worth it. I forgot to mention earlier in the night good ol’ Gus Chiggins “Bob” helped us to start some quads that were available on property for us to use. We had a great time driving them all around the vineyard property. Chris road solo and Rudy drove us around in one. There were clouds of silt we produced as we drove around. We even drove through a Rainer cherry orchard. I picked a couple to eat. Sweet. Yum.

This morning we checked out of The Green Gables Inn. We headed on our way to Lowden where we were to meet with Marty Clubb, the winemaker & co-owner for L’Ecole No41. He was a cool Ned Flanders kind of character. He was even a good sport enough to let Rudy push him back and forth on a tall rolling ladder holding a magnum of wine in their tasting room. Chris filmed the entire event. We could hear the tasting room staff saying it was the most hilarious thing they had ever seen. It was quite humorous. L’Ecole No41 is located in an old french schoolhouse. It is very cute! On their bar they even have chalkboards to write on.

Marty was another complete wealth of knowledge. It found it very interesting how he explained himself pouring some of his Merlot at an international wine event and how he could tell the French winemakers attending were impressed with his wine. They didn’t tell him they liked it, but he did notice that they kept telling their friends to come and try his Merlot. That said enough for him. He felt honored. These were top French Merlot producers enjoying his American Merlot.

http://www.lecole.com/

-Marisol

In the early evening we conducted our final interview of the day with Rick Small, the owner & winemaker for Woodward Canyon Winery. We met him at a Walla Walla wine shop called Vintage Cellars. Rick Small is a man full of energy, as well as good information about the wine industry in Washington State. He is a quick talker with lots of words, so you better listen closely because if you do you will learn a lot. He loves that the focus in Washington State wines are “quality for value.” We found this to be most definitely true throughout the state. We didn’t feel that we could purchase aNapa Valley wine on the same price of a Washington State wine and have the same quality. Again, you get more bang for your buck in Washington State wines.

Rick told us that if you go down into a wine maker’s cellar that you can learn much of what to expect from their wine. Is it clean or dirty? Is it organized or scattered? etc.

Rick really doesn’t want to see people give up Merlot, just because they don’t have the confidence to order or drink it in front of their friends or family. In general, it is one of the easiest wines to enjoy. Merlot is much more accessible to drink than a CabernetSauvignon. You don’t necessary have to age it as long, but if you do desire there are many Merlots that will age for some time. There is great acidity in Merlot that pairs well with food too.

http://www.woodwardcanyon.com/content.cfm?id=15

This evening we had another great meal. This time we ate dinner at Walla Walla restaurant 26brix. We decided to eat casually at their nice bar. Strangely enough we saw Merf’s daughter once again. She was working there. Walla Walla is a small town and seeing one person randomly 3 times in 2 days is a great example of that.

-Marisol

Today we also briefly met with John Freeman, the winemaker of Waterbrook Winery & Vineyards (Precept Brands). We met John in downtown Walla Walla at the Waterbrook tasting room. John told us that he actually grew up in Napa, but has been living in Walla Walla the past few years. He told us that many Napa & also French folks have been recently moving to the area. He further explained that much of it has to do with it being a more reasonably priced booming wine business area. Not only that, it is also a great place to raise a family. Walla Walla is a very safe and community based town.

http://www.waterbrook.com/

-Marisol

This afternoon we met a Swiss man named Jean-Francois Pellet. He is the winemaker and part owner of Pepper Bridge Winery in Walla Walla. We filmed him on his nice wood deck outside of his tasting room. There was a great back drop of green vines.

I think something that stood out most in this interview was the notion of growing up in a culture where wine is surrounded and enjoyed by all in everyday life, even as a child as Jean-Francois in Switzerland. Jean-Francois was also very knowledgeable about sales of Merlot past-present-and possible future. He was a very nice, friendly down-to-earth kind of guy. He did not even get annoyed when Rudy accidentally called him Jean-Pierre.

http://www.pepperbridge.com/

-Marisol

This morning we met with Dave Merfeld a.k.a. “Merf.” He is the “Bono” of winemakers. Check out his yellow glasses in the pictures below. Merf’s daughter referred to him as “Dado.” Merf is the winemaker for Northstar Winery which is owned by Chateau Ste. Michelle. Northstar is their Merlot focused winery.

Merf told us that being filmed is not his favorite thing to do, but he graciously did the interview anyway. I tried not to take too many pictures so he wouldn’t feel that the paparazzi was in town. Filming this interview, it was obvious that Merf has a passion to produce magnificent wine. Merf stated that, “Wine evokes memories, just like music.” Merf told us that one is at peace when listening to the music you love and this translates to the winemaker and then directly into the wine. Merf is a passionate winemaker who believes in putting all one’s heart and soul into what he produces. He considers the people who will eventually be enjoying his wine. He wants them to have a good experience for a lasting memory for whatever the special occasion is (e.g. Weddings, Anniversaries, Birthdays, Graduation Days, etc.).

Merf promised to send us some wine. (Received 2 of his club wines 6/23/08)

http://www.northstarmerlot.com/

-Marisol