Yes, I have to mention the weather this week! It's Friday morning. It is raining a little. It is 50 degrees out already. Spring is here, and I feel like walking into Walter Hobbs's office right now to interrupt an important meeting shouting how happy I am!

Have you heard of the grape Seyval Blanc? Have you heard of Bells Up Winery? Have you heard of Sparkling? When you put all three of these together, you have some exploring to do! You have got to check out this wine and soon! Only 39 cases were produced, and it's selling like hotcakes!​

​Celestial Hill announced a new winemaking team with Wynn Peterson-Nedry (who is a legend, and you should already know), and Alisa Le was the assistant winemaker at Authentique!

Alloro is welcoming a new executive chef, Christopher Smith, who came from the Allison.

Owen Bargreen published an Oregon 2015 Retrospective that is a great read!

Jancis Robinson has a nice write and history of Elk Cove.​

If you are keeping track, it is a podcast week, and I don't know why it took me so long to interview Andrew Riechers from Audeant. I instantly fell in love in January 2020 and am a self-proclaimed Audeant Fanboy.

Since 2020, I have enjoyed following Andrew, Teal, and Dan's journey. For the past three years, I have attended many tastings, had many conversations, and been a cheerleader for this fantastic team. When one of their wines won at the Decanter Awards, I was super excited for them. Seeing them at the Oregon Chardonnay Celebration earlier this year was an absolute joy!

When I started #ajsHappyHour in 2020, Audeant at the first one even before it was called #ajsHappyHour. That first Zoom Happy Hour was a blast, and ever since, I have patiently waited for their estate vineyard to come online. Last year, there was the tiniest amount of grapes from the 1,100-foot vineyard on Parrett Mountain. If we are lucky, fruit will come from the vineyard this year. If we are crazy lucky, it will be fruit for Sparkling which means in 2027 or 2028, or 2029 we might see an Audeant Sparkling. Yes, I do enjoy starting Sparkling rumors!

It is always an honor and a pleasure to chat with Andrew, and this week you can know Andrew a little more. His stories are amazing, but his philosophy on winemaking is humbled, down to earth, and striving for excellence that blows your socks off!

Talking about getting your socks knocked off, I am still trying to find one of my socks from this past week after diving into Lytle Barnett's 2016 Brut Rose on Day 4. Holy Toledo Batman, I was impressed with Lytle-Barnett before they sponsored the podcast, and it has been an absolute honor to have the ability to dive deeper into their wines. If you haven't already taken advantage of the 20% promo code, WEINNOTES, by visiting their website, time is running out! (and yes, I am ordering more socks since all of them seem to be flying off my feet)

Getting back to my time with Andrew was spectacular, and during the interview, I had to note something he said, "You're never going to achieve greatness if you're not exposing yourself to it, and if you're not setting it as your goal." Andrew has exposed himself to incredible greatness, including Teal and Dan. Please take the time to listen to this week's podcast episode. It is a special one to me, and you also have to sign up for Audeant's newsletter to get the latest on when their new releases drop. It is only about five emails a year.

Here are all of the links for this week's episode and any likes, subscribes or comments are always appreciated!

• ​YouTube​
• ​Apple Podcasts​
• ​Spotify​

Also, next time you see Andrew, please tell him, "A.J. sent me!"

With Gratitude,

A.J.

PS - True story. I misspelled Audeant in the newsletter a few years back and felt awful. Can you believe I did it again this week with the title for the podcast? Sometimes, I don't learn…….