Off the Cliffe

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.

Have you come to a Live! at The Cellar performance yet? 

Have you parked in the upper parking lot, walked along the winding gravel path above the Spa and Chef’s garden, rising higher until you reach the giant doors of the old tasting room?  Have you laughed and talked with your friends while you continued on toward the giant Roundhouse just down the path, your breath making frosty puffs before you in the cold night air?

Have you burst into the tasting room like an exploding party favor–all high spirits and noise–and laughed and talked your way as you rubbed your arms briskly and move–immediately and happily–toward the tasting room bar? 

Have you had the pleasure of chatting up Winemaker Freddy Arredondo or tasting room extraordinaire Joe France while they pour you a glass of deep red Cave B Wine or white wine so clear and crisp it’s like winter in a glass?

Have you caught a glimpse of the performers as they linger in the back hall, or had the pleasure of realizing they are the very person you’re casually chatting with while you take your first sip and place your order for your oh-so-perfect BBQ slider?

Have you moved with anticipation through the doorway from tasting room to The Cellar and stopped, struck and amazed, when you see the tremendous basalt boulder wall, the musician’s instruments and microphone, the perfect overhead performer lights, the flickering candles around the room, casting the lively faces of the crowd inside into rosy high relief?

Have you stood at the back of the rock-lined room, your glass of SageCliffe 100 red or Cave B Cabernet hovering between your mouth and the wine-barrel bistro tabletop, as you’re too engrossed in conversation and listening to the performer to remember you’re holding it? 

Or have you moved to the front of the room, where there are pillows on the floor, tables with chairs, a bench, a barrel–all mere feet from the performers–so you can sit and sip, hearing every lyric and note, fully engaged, totally appreciative of this person there before you, singing their heart and soul out on this cold night to this merry band of travellers?

Were you there last October, when Ellensburg native Mark Pickerel picked up his guitar and took possession of the mic, the room, and everyone’s heart?  Have you heard his words, his urban country twang, his rockabilly sensibility? 

Have you made plans for 8:30 p.m., Friday, February 13?  Have you figured out how to get out of them so you can come experience Mark Pickerel’s return to The Cellar at precisely that time?  Have you?

At SageCliffe, everything begins and ends with the environment.  Late in the year 2006 our environmental sustainability efforts at Cave B Inn & Spa, Tendrils and Cave B Estate Winery were kicked up a notch.  We continue to seek more ways to bring the SageCliffe experience to guests in a responsible, sustainable manner.  Lately, this has included the holiday decorating of SageCliffe:  an endeavor both fun, and increasingly green.  

By using as many natural materials from the SageCliffe land as possible, and augmenting with reusable, recyclable or compostable decorations, we’ve created a beautiful holiday environment that is also friendly to the environment.  Dried sunflowers from the Chef’s Garden are to be found among the holiday decor, as well as cattails, lavender, curly willow, sage, tumbleweed and mustard plant from the meadow and gorge. Bundle upon bundle of grapevine cuttings from our own vineyards were twisted into wreaths, balls, swags and more.  Augmented by the purchase of dried berries, hickory sticks, cotton ribbon, paper holly, wreaths & swags, as well as tree skirts made from sustainable hemp burlap, the holidays at SageCliffe this year are naturally, sustainably beautiful.  Come on over to the steppe desert to see true green!

Did you attend this year’s Harvest Festival and take some great photos?  Visit our Flickr page and upload your photos–we’d love to see them!

Is it hokey to say that our latest Annual Harvest Festival was joy-filled?  Well, we’re saying it anyway, because it seems the closest adjective for describing the event.  This was the first year we had expanded the event to three days–always a little trepidation with expansion like that–but the three days seemed to simply spred the joy over…you guessed it; three days.Wherever you looked, there were smiles…on the faces of children, singles, couples, parents, SageCliffe staff.  The sky was dramatic and tumultuous, with clouds hovering over the Columbia River in great–and at times dark and thunderous-looking–piles.  But the rain held off and at times the sun burst through, bringing the leaves of the grapevines and apple trees to fire-infused hues.  And  smiles to those faces again.  It was three days of straight up fun.  There was everything from pumpkin carving to wine seminars–all in the same place, with the kind of easy flow and mingling that takes place at the best of parties.  As one mom put it, an event that had activities for kids and wine just seemed like a must-do!  Taking part in Harvest Festival just feels so good; it evokes those feelings of wholesome activity like the lemonade stands of all of our youth, coupled with that feels-good-in-your-soul sensation which comes from learning something new–like how to make a knockout recipe that pairs well with a particular wine.  Or what it’s like up on the winery crushpad.  The scenery, of course, can’t be beat.  And the fresh air and exercise just makes you feel somehow…joyful.  Joy filled!