Off the Cliffe

 So many wonderful people come visit SageCliffe and tell us they plan to return, and would like to share SageCliffe with their friends and family, too.  But we’re all feeling the squeeze these days and sometimes we just need that little bit of help to make trips like these possible.  Enter the SageCliffe Gift Card. 

We have our Gift Cards available in our Cave B Webstore  in a wide range of denominations; several have bonus gifts attached with purchase, or a great holiday-period discount.  This is truly the best time of year to purchase a SageCliffe Gift Card for someone you care about.  We also have cards available for corporate clients.  To read more about the cards, their special offers and to purchase, please visit our Cave B webstore.  Enjoy!

Do you know Chefs Jason Wilson, Greg Atkinson, Dan Gilmore, and John Sundstrom?  Do you know a foodie who you’re pretty sure does?  Then we need to let you in on our all-new SageCliffe Chef’s Weekends:  coming to you four separate weekends January-March. Tickets to these weekends are available for purchase now, as we couldn’t think of a better gift to make available over the holidays.  (You may just be someone’s new best friend or rise in the spousal ranks with this gift…)Now to the nitty gritty…what are these Chef’s Weekends? Each weekend features a different celebrity chef.  What you or  your gift-receiver will experience:

Friday Evening
The weekend begins on Friday evening, with a special tasting menu prepared by Chef Ritchie and paired with Winemaker Freddy Arredondo’s Cave B wines. In the tradition of his background at the famous Herb Farm restaurant, Chef Ritchie will guide students course by course through this culinary adventure.

Saturday
On Saturday, the students get down to business, working side-by-side with the Chefs to sharpen their culinary skills in a series of hands-on workshops. Between culinary sessions, Winemaker Freddy Arredondo will lead students through a wine tasting and pairing training. Armed with their new skills, students will be tasked with crafting a signature wine blend utilizing a selection of the many varietals available in the Cave B cellar.After an intensive day of food & wine training, students will sit down to dinner to enjoy the results of their efforts, which will be critiqued by their Chef instructors. The competition is a friendly one, but expect the kitchen to heat up as teams compete to see who has what it takes to cook with the pros!

Sunday
To wrap up the weekend, students and chefs will sit down together for a family-style farewell brunch on Sunday morning.

Weekends include 3 days, 2 nights’ accommodations at Cave B Inn and all meals.  To get the rest of the details, see pics of the Chefs (we know we always like to see who we’re cooking with) and learn about pricing, please visit our website.  These will truly be weekends that create great, adventurous lasting memories.  You’ll have story after story to tell for years to come….and you will likely be able to do so over a recreation of the meal you create at SageCliffe!   We hope you join Freddy Arredondo, Chef Ritchie and all the celebrity Chefs for these very special weekends.  See you soon!

All Cave B Wine Club Members…

October will forever more be the month when you can look forward to a Cave B event just for you…this year we kick off what will be our annual Wine Club Harvest Dinner Weekend for our growing number of Cave B Wine Club Members on Saturday, October 17.  This is a weeked of drastically reduced Cave B Inn room rates,  a paired Wine Club Dinner to top all Wine Club dinners in the intimate, rock-lined Cellar, the first-ever Film in The Cellar, multiple sophisticated and fun hands-on wine-oriented tasting activities, brunch at Tendrils, and more.  It’s a chance to meet other wine club members, spend great quality time with Winemaker Freddy Arredondo, eat a fabulous meal by our new Tendrils Chef, be awakened to some tremendous wines presented by Cave B Winery, and all in all feel pampered, refreshed, educated, and stimulated.

For all the details, please visit www.caveb.com, and click on the Wine Club Harvest Dinner Link.  Cave B Inn rooms are going fast, so make your reservations soon!  This is an event hosted by Freddy and designed especially by him for all of you…it will be a real treat.  We look forward to hosting each and every one of you.

It is, amazingly, almost that time of year again:  our annual Harvest Festival (sixth annual, this year) runs October 2-4 at Cave B Estate Winery.  The big day full of all Harvest Festival activities is Saturday, October 3rd.  And the best thing?  All activities on the 3rd are free.  There is a price for the BBQ and wine tasting, but, if you live within Grant, Kittitas, Chelan or Douglas counties, kids 12 and under receive their lunch for free…not a bad deal at all!

And truly the best part of the Festival is the family-friendly nature of the event…this is the Cave B event to bring your boyfriend, your mom, your best friend and your kids.  Three guest experts are lined up:  Amy Mumma, CWU’s Wine Program Director, who will give several fantastic wine seminars, Greg Atkinson, Wine and Food author and columnist extraordinaire will do three interactive cooking demos, and a Cave B favorite, Wine Trails Northwest author Steve Roberts will be on hand to sign and sell his book.  Plus, Harvest Festival will also give us a chance to introduce our new Tendrils Chef to all of you–he will turn out a fantastic BBQ, and will also head up several cooking demos throughout the day. 

And what about for the kids? –Pumpking carving and cookie decorating, tractor-driven hayrides, apple juice-making with an old-fashioned apple press, and much more.  And, for kids and grown up kids-at-heart, there’s the ever-popular Great Grape Stomping Competition–an absolute not-to-miss!

There’s a great special on Cave B Inn rooms for the weekend, as well as a bevy of wine specials at the winery, so read about it all by visiting www.caveb.com, then plan to come on out!  The weather has been nothing short of spectacular, the grapes and apples are rich and dark with color, the leaves are changing to their fiery hues, and we’re ready to give you a weekend of good, pure fun.  We look forward to seeing you!

 Three-time returnee Mark Pickerel comes to Live! at The Cellar on friday, September 25.  With his full-house crowds and tremendous back-and-forth with the audience, Mark always brings a great time along with his dynamic urban-country Americana croonings.   If you missed Mark at The Cellar before, make this three time’s a charm and get your tickets (only $12) to this performance just as soon as you can reach your phone or computer!  For more info and to buy through our webstore, visit http://www.sagecliffe.com/cellar.htm, or simply call the winery at 509-785-3500.  We guarantee you’ll be glad you did.  See you September 25!

Come and join us for a fabulous Autumn retreat in the beautiful Columbia Gorge. Wine tasting, hiking, yoga (for all levels), delicious cuisine and a room with a view all in one weekend. Depending on the weather, we will have the yoga sessions poolside or in a large open room above the vineyard. Body Atelier Nicbfit is located in Seattle, Washington and we are excited to host this unique weekend. I am the founder of nicbfit and will be your guide. I have been involved in the yoga and wellness community since 1996. My beliefs for being healthy start with attitude, motivation and a strong desire to create a change in lifestyle. Setting realistic, specific and time sensitive goals is a great start. The most difficult challenge is the beginning. Once you start your path, find ways to reward yourself with the successes you have made. Surround yourself with people you trust, admire and respect. They will be there when you need them. Enjoy the journey-this is all for you. I hope you will join me for a weekend of fitness, food and new friends!

For dates and details, please visit:  http://www.cavebinn.com/experiences.htm

~Nicole Morgan 

Next month, Saturday July 18 is Cave B Estate Winery’s annual Red Wine Release BBQ, followed by a dinner for Wine Club Members.  The BBQ is open to the public, runs from 11-3, and is truly packed with wine country experiences.

 What is the reason for this annual event?  Twice a year the winery presents their new vintages–those that are bottled and ready for consumption–to the public.  In the spring we hold our Spring Wine Release event, where our white wines are “released,” or presented for the first time.  In July we hold our BBQ to celebrate the release of our new red wines.  This is an exciting day for the winery, and particularly our Winemaker, Freddy Arredondo, as he has the opportunity to pair his released wines with the food prepared by Chef Scriver of Tendrils, and bring this carefully-thought-out paired meal to all of you.  To be able to speak to each wine and hear your feedback there on the spot is a true pleasure.

And there’s so much more:  this year we have special guest Braiden Rex-Johnson, a well-known food and wine author and columnist, live music, an interactive cooking demo with Chef Shauna Scriver, and the first-ever Cave B Wine Rating Event, where you get to taste and rate some varietals you may not be familiar with.

July is utterly beautiful in Quincy, and the entire day has a festive air along with that ever-present sense of peacefulness and tranquility which is the hallmark of the winery’s stunning location.  Whether you’re a wine afficionado or a beginner, this is an event that will send you home with that “Ah….what a great day” feeling.  For all the info, please visit www.caveb.com.  We look very forward to celebrating with you! 

If you have not had the chance yet to come to a rock performance in The Cellar, this would be an unbelievable first visit:  to see Vicci Martinez in a three-person acoustic set this Friday, March 20.

What is The Cellar?  It is a long, intimate room with one wall comprised of giant basalt boulders from the property.  It adjoins the Cave B Estate Winery, has standing room and a creative use of all sorts of seating arrangements to suit your mood and style.  And most importantly, it is simply an oustanding music venue for strong and talented emerging Northwest rock musicians.

 To put it succinctly:  It’s a fantastic space to experience really great music.  Good times in The Cellar…it’s what you’ll have.  Go to our webpage to learn how you can purchase your tickets:  http://www.sagecliffe.com/Cellar.htm.  They are only $8.  Vicci Martinez is a powerhouse who is about to explode upon the national scene.  Come hear her so you can say you “knew her when!”

Fantastic dog photographer Erin Vey and attendee Amber (with her Rhodesian Ridgeback, Nala) have posted their photos and thoughts on the Cuvee Birthday Bash Fundraiser, which took place Saturday, February 7 at SageCliffe, on their blogs. 

Click on the following links to drink in their fabulous pics and the wonderful comments about our paws-for-a-good-cause event!

http://www.erinvey.com/bark/2009/02/09/cuvees-birthday-bash/

http://www.nwridgeback.com/2009/02/birthday-bash-for-good-cause.html

Every year it happens:  Here at Cave B Estate Winery we prepare…once in the spring, and once in the summer…to release the wines.

 It sounds like a fox hunt.  A horse race.  Buckets of butterflies popped open at the end of a wedding. And yet, we’re talking about wine.  Why ”release”?  Why not the more formal–albeit stodgy–”present” or “introduce?” What accounts for such an active verb put with such a noun?  After all, we don’t line up the bottles at the end of Silica Road and cheer as they lunge forward in their fragile glassy clunkiness, watching as they race for the finish.  We don’t hurl them into the sky to see them swept up into the warm air currents above the gorge, watching them flutter away in a great flock of green and amber.  There’s no holding back, then letting go…

 Or is there?

Every spring presents the end of a tremendous period of becoming for the white wines.  They have been harvested, crushed, put in barrels or tanks, ever so carefully watched and nurtured; added to or carefully left alone, crafted and brought along…all within the confines of the estate winery; dynamic and ever-changing, but contained. 

 But finally some of those wines have become just that, and they are ready to be removed; to be funnelled out of their containment and brought into the light, allowed to breathe, be seen, be tasted and felt on the tongue, in the throat.  Their journey to this point is finished; the rest of their life just beginning. 

Why are wines released? Because they cannot be held back any longer, or they will become something entirely other than what they have become at precisely that moment. They leave the domain of the winery and winemaker with purposeful timing, yet with that great sense of hope–ribbed with confidence, lined with unknowing, shaded with total abandon–that there will be people there on the receiving end of their release, ready to catch them up on the palate and experience through taste and nose and feel their entire life to date.  Release and catch…. Winemaking–it’s a horse before the cart art.  A grand risk.  A tremendous rush.

Cave B Estate Winery’s Spring White Wine Release:  Saturday, March 28, 2009.  Come experience the release of the whites.  Be there to catch them.