Josh and I raise our glasses to the New Year, to you, and in celebration of new things to come for Gård this year!
With all the challenges these crazy COVID times have brought, the beginning of the new year always brings fresh optimism and energy to the farm and winery as well as the prospect of great things to come with a new vintage!
2021 was an incredible year for Gård with many exciting new beginnings, including:
New Winemaker & Production Location: 2021 was highlighted by the announcement of our new winemaker, Matías Kúsulas, who also continues on as our viticulturist, as well. We also welcomed new Assistant Winemaker, Hannah Coulson, and a top-notch team in the cellar. In addition, we moved wine production to Desert Wind, a winery we purchased together with our friends Tom and Tami Merkle. Matías is head winemaker for Desert Wind, as well. Speaking of...
Desert Wind Winery: Together with the Merkle family, we purchased Desert Wind Winery in Prosser. This incredible destination winery features a large tasting room, restaurant, spacious patio, inn, spa and event center with a unique southwest vibe all perched on a bluff overlooking the Yakima River. We're proud to be involved with this sister winery to Gård and roll out reciprocal wine club benefits for Gård and Desert Wind club members beginning in 2022. If you're traveling through the Yakima Valley or Red Mountain, don't hesitate to stop at Desert Wind and let us show you what it's all about.
Gård Public House: Our newest tasting room/restaurant is in our hometown of Royal City, where our estate vineyards are located. Executive Chef Chris Selfridge and team hit the ground running with some amazing farm-to-table fare and we are appreciative of all the rave reviews. If you haven't visited us in Royal City yet, we welcome you any time as we're open 7 days a week for lunch and dinner (and also have a cozy condo upstairs if you don't want to end the evening with the drive home after dinner and drinks).
A Growing Marketing Team: You might not see much of this hardworking team in person often, but we have a fabulous team of three who lead up social media, newsletters, website, marketing communications - and the list goes on and on! Jennifer Cochran, Marketing Director, has been with us for several years - and was one of our flagship wine club members early on. She was joined this year by Marketing Specialists William Muñoz and Ally Panter, to round things out, as well as Brand Manager Taylor Ramsey, whose focus is on sales and business development.
What's ahead for 2022?
New Wines: As always, the new year seems to bring exciting new wines for Gård! In February, we'll be releasing 2019 Boneyard - a Rhone red counterpart to The Don. Also, keep an eye out for a Muscadelle white wine later this year as well as our new 2019 Vineyard Series collection of red blends from three of our vineyard sites: Conner Lee, Solaksen and Stoneridge. We'll also be adding a vineyard-designate 2019 Syrah Collection (akin to our Cab Collection), with Syrahs from Scarline, Stoneridge, Thunderstone, Solaksen and Conner Lee.
New Vines: Seems that Josh can never slow down on the vineyard side! This year we'll be planting Chenin Blanc, and hopefully also Vermentino, Verdejo and Sangiovese.
New Releases: The eagerly anticipated 2019 Skål sparkling wine and our 2017 Cab Collection (a set of FOUR this vintage) will be available just in time for Valentine's Day, plus the return of fan favorites like 2021 Freyja coming this spring.
Another New Location: Details pending ... look for an announcement later this year!
An Awesome Gård Team Ready to Welcome You: What can we say, Gård has an incredible team of folks at the tasting rooms, as you've hopefully come to discover for yourself. As always, we are pulling out all the stops and rolling out the red carpet to welcome you and your family and friends to our tasting rooms and restaurant. We provide accommodations for all ages, dogs on our patios, and wheelchair guests indoors and outdoors, just to name a few. If there's anything we can do to accommodate your group or make your experience even more enjoyable, don't hesitate to let a tasting room staffer know or email us at wine@gardvintners.com.
Lastly, we welcome your feedback and suggestions - please email us at wine@gardvintners.com and if you've had a great experience please consider leaving a positive review on Yelp, Google, Facebook or another favorite site. We sincerely appreciate it!
Here's to 2022 and what's to come! Cheers, friends!
Lisa
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