It is fun to get noticed. It took some time but our small winery and wines seem to be a little bit of a press roll. Good time to be on a press roll - just read about a famous winery which is 40% off in revenue this year. (We aren't off 40% because of our wonderful customers.)

Anyway, The Tasting Panel magazine recently named me as a winemaker to watch or more precisely as a "Hot Young Turk". One of four rising stars in California making Rhone Wines. It was great to read. You can read the article online at The Tasting Panel. Tracey, of course, deserves as much credit as I do if not more.

We were recently honored by being selected as the best Urban Winery in the East Bay.

No big Cabs. No buttery Chardonnays. No grapes from the wine mecca to our north. Really, the beauty of A Donkey and Goat Winery is the individuality of its owners. In 2001, Tracey and Jared Brandt left high-tech jobs to learn winemaking in France. They make what they like: Rhône wines with a nuanced balance of fruit and acidity—and the occasional stunning grace note of, say, thyme. Their wines are in more and more restaurants and shops, and you can taste at the winery by appointment.
Diablo Magazine - Best of the East Bay 2009 - Editors Pick

They also promoted our wine a spot on ABC 7's View From the Bay today.

Last year, if you remember, a leading "conservative" commentator was promoting that all Americans should not do business with Berkeley since the city supported a group trying to stop Marine recruiting. Melanie Morgan since lost her job and the boycott seems to have disappeared.

We lost an order over it and I started to doubt Mrs. Morgan conservative credentials. A small business should suffer over a parking space? (And of course, I don't think the boycott was thought through. The Mayor is an ex-Marine. Berkeley may be liberal but Cal runs Laurence Livermore Labs which both works to protect us from various attacks and designs the next generation of nuclear bombs. )

Anyway, we just spent a long weekend at Berkeley's Family Camp. It was delightful and I think it is as close to the 1950s I will ever get. The camp, run by Berkeley's Parks and Recreation, is located near Yosemite. We stayed in a small tent cabin within feet of the Tuolumne river. Isabel spent time with other kids in Kiddie Camp, playing on the beach, hiking and having fun. The wonderful staff did everything from feeding us 3 meals a days to singing campfires and even putting on a play.

It was over 100 degrees on the day we arrived. We chilled our 4 13 and drank it cool. Turns out, it drinks well in 1950 or at least 3500 feet above sea level...