A couple of days ago, I received an email with the subject line “Replicating a Sense of Touch in the Metaverse.” The title got me thinking a bit, “How will we drink wine in the Metaverse?” If I have lost you about this topic, feel free to move on to the next paragraph. But, if you are still here, aren’t you curious how we will share this wonderful delight in a glass virtually? What will the contraption look like giving us the ability to smell, taste, and experience the physical while being virtual? If you don’t think something like this is coming, think again! The following ten years are going to blow your mind.

The big news of the week, Shafer Vineyards, was sold to a Korean Luxury Firm / Retail giant for $250 million. So many different links on this from the Korea Herald, Wine Spectator, and Wine Searcher.

Wine Mag featured Sam Parra this week, and last week Jancis Robinson had a great piece on Hundred Wines! And real quick, SOMM TV had a new movie drop called Saving the Restaurants. It follows Master Sommelier Bobby Stuckey for the entire pandemic. I watched it last night and enjoyed it. It is eye-opening to get a glimpse of behind the scenes what the previous two years have looked like for restaurants!

Exciting news, on April 1st, I am hosting my first wine dinner! I have teamed up with Tavern on Kruse for the event and limited to 20 people. There will be appetizers, salad, main course, dessert, and wine! I have hand-picked four killer wines to go along with the evening. There will be Bubbles, Chard, a young Pinot, and an older Pinot. If you are interested in more details, reply to this email, and I will make sure to send more information in a separate email next week.

Wine of the Week

The 2014 Domaine Serene Blanc de Blanc displays deep tones of gold with fine trails of bubbles right off the bat. My first sip was a bit overwhelming. Intertwined with the bubbles is a multitude of flavors and experiences consisting of crispy brioche coming in and out like the tide. Bubbles harmoniously bring forth the second act with a mouthfeel that serves one purpose put a smile on your face. However, getting lost in this pleasurable experience is the acidity of this wine. Pairing this with a nice fatty ribeye sounds like I lost my mind, but trust me, so good!

When I took Globgor for a walk this morning, it reminded me how foggy it was when I went out to visit Piper Underbrink from Prive. Last summer, I visited Prive for the first time. Turning off Bell Road onto the long driveway for the winery, you are magically transported into another country. Imagine some small family-run winery in France. Prive would be my expectation. I did a newsletter on Piper and Prive if you want a little background.

Since last summer, I have talked with Piper on a few other occasions, and I wanted to dive further into her stories. The full interview is an hour-long filled with great stories, laughs, and a teeny bit of wine.

Here are the Spotify and Apple Podcast links for the audio versions.

To help with your time, I did break the interview down into smaller sizable chunks. Click on any of the links below to watch the segment. I would appreciate likes on the videos you watch, and I would be grateful for any subscribes on YouTube.

📺 Visiting Oregon​

I know the first week I visited Oregon, I fell in love. I am always intrigued by how other people fell in love with the beautiful state of Oregon.

📺 Finding and Buying Prive​

It’s fantastic to hear Piper talk about flying back home after visiting Prive when the world shut in March 2020.

📺 Oregon Wild Fires of 2020​

Even though Piper had just purchased Prive, and the threat of wildfires came out of nowhere, listen to how this seasoned wildfire veteran stayed cool, calm, and collected.

📺 2020 Futures selling out​

Being the new owner of Prive, Piper was more than a little surprised when all of her estate 2020 Pinot sold out in March of 2021.

📺 Buying another estate vineyard​

With a desire to expand production, listen to how Piper falls in love with the latest addition of an estate vineyard.

📺 2021 Vintage​

So many people in the valley expressed extreme gratitude for the 2021 vintage. Listen to Piper’s insight of Oregon’s 2021 Vintage.

📺 Is Wine Art​

I asked for yet another opinion on the ever-elusive question of combining art to wine.

📺 Prince of Pinot and 99 pts​

Rusty Gaffney, aka The Prince of Pinot, has been a tremendous Prive fan. He gave the 2018 Privé Vineyard Joie de Vivre 99 points. So asking Piper the question, how does one live up to that sort of expectation was engrossing.

📺 Visiting Abbott and the SALUD Auction​

Being the new kid on the block, Piper has enjoyed experiencing other wineries and attending the annual SALUD auction.

📺 Torn ACL​

We all have occurrences in life where we have to stop from our daily life to take a break. For Piper, it was a torn ACL while playing volleyball in college.

📺 What got you into wine​

Wine isn’t something people usually dive into at a younger time in life. So there always has to be an outside influence. So what was Piper's sway?

📺 Rapid Fire Questions​

Wrapping the interview with quick rapid-fire questions to understand more about the person behind the wine.

📺 Full Interview​

With Gratitude,

A.J.

PS - The Sparkling Report is coming back this year with a flair! The theme will be, "Will it pair with Sparkling?" I am going to provide some behind the scenes content on the wine and the food before the final report comes out. If you would like to be included on some BTS action let me know.

PPS - If you have enjoyed the newsletter and would like to help support what I am doing I setup a tip jar. Or you can share the newsletter with a friend.