Starting November 1st we’ll be launching a fun, tasty, educational, wine buying club that features one ConsciousWinery per month. What’s special about a ConsciousWinery? They follow ConsciousWine’s 4 Principles: 100% organically grown grapes, sustainably (or holistically farmed), creating vital products that rock! All wineries on consciouswine.com have been ‘vetted’ in person to meet these principles. Our focus on the website and in CW’s Winery of the Month Club will be primarily wines & wineries from the West Coast of the United States.

What’s special about CW’s Winery of the Month Club?

Lots! Club Members receive a Winery of the Month 2-bottle pack either monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly. You choose how often you want to receive a pack at time of sign up. You can change this at any time. The pack ranges in price from $50-$70 plus shipping, handling & taxes (where applicable). Shortly after each month’s packs are shipped, Club Members receive an e-mail which includes 3 main features:

1. The date, time and link to attend a Club Member Only Webinar where Jeff Weissler (aka The ConsciousWineGuy) will taste the 2 wines in the pack, introduce the ‘Winery of the Month’, share wine & food pairing ideas, take questions, and probably embarrass himself a little. The webinar will be 30 minutes in length. You can taste along at home or just gather some ideas for when you do enjoy the wines. A separate e-mail will be sent to all Club Members on the details of being part of the on-line event. If you don’t attend the actual event, it will live on YouTube & ConsciousWine’s Facebook Page.

2. A list of all the wines presently available from ConsciousWine’s Winery of the Month. If you choose to place an additional order (12 bottle minimum with mix & match allowed) within the calendar month that the winery is highlighted, you will receive a special 20% discount off the normal retail prices!!!

3. A short introduction to CW’s Winery of the Month, and links to both information on the winery & the wines in the club shipment.

 Additional Club Member Features & Benefits:

1. The Menu & The Wine List Video Series–6 videos created to help you with pairing wine & food while dining out.

2. Discounts on all ConsciousWine Dinner’s, Events & Tours!

3. You’ll be entered in a monthly drawing for a 1 hour consultation with Jeff Weissler (aka The ConsciousWineGuy) on anything wine.

4. If you’re traveling to West Coast Wine Country you can call for a 1 hour consultation (FREE only as a Club Member) to help make your trip rock! Tell us what you like in wine & we’ll tell you where to go. You’ll have a hand tailored itinerary based on ConsciousWine’s commitment to supporting vital choices to both palate & planet. Normal rate for this service is $75/hr.

How do you sign up for CW’s Winery of the Month Club?

The sign-up on the website will be available the end of the 1st week in October.

For now, you can comment on this post, drop us a note at info@consciouswine.com or call 541-531-7653 and we’ll get you hooked up!

Totally excited to be getting this together & looking forward to sharing these amazing wines with you.

Cheerio!

Jeff & The ConsciousWine-ers

In Basic Wine Enjoyment, Jeff's Blog, Tasting Wine, The Shop, Uncategorized, Wineries | Tagged with california, education, oregon, organic, sustainability, the 4 principles

From the Oregon Wine Press, August 1, 2012

Several years ago, I discovered that rockin’ wine often comes from sustainably farmed grapes. With a new-found passion for natural wine, I wanted to learn more and dig deeper. Through research — and a bottle or two — I have unearthed the following conclusions:

1. Diversity on the farm and a strong immune system go hand and hand.

2. Through observation, the farmer discovers the assets of his farm and, as a result, builds a growing, evolving, living relationship with the land. The depth of that relationship supports the ongoing health of the farm.

3. The farmer/farm relationship is what can allow the farmer to not put round pegs in square holes when making choices. This supports a set of dominoes which keep the farm’s immune system strong. The easier things fit together, the less stress on the system, the more naturally the whole system works.

4. When you take, you must give back. That’s what makes any relationship work well and sustainably. If you remove the natural vitality from the soil (because it’s been absorbed by the products harvested), then that vitality needs to be given back. Indigenous cover crops and composting — created ideally from materials on the farm — are a couple ways to accomplish this.

5. Synthetic chemicals used in farming can help in the short term but come with side effects, including nutrient and diversity depletion. Think of taking medicine for an ailment and how it affects your system, especially if you take it long-term. How do you support your overall health, and what might you do to balance or counteract the side effects of taking medicine both short and long-term.

6. Agriculture doesn’t exist in nature; its roots go back approximately 10,000 years. When a farmer takes away the natural diversity, a lot of conscious work is required to reinvigorate the soil and the environment with diversity and vitality.

7. Farm as if it were 1850. Huh? Use what’s on the farm to support the farm. Think of it like a closed loop system. If you want to build a house or wall, where does the wood and stone come from? The idea is to create a closed loop system, where the nutrients and resources needed to nourish that system come from within that system.

A commitment to move in these directions can lead to sustainability defined as: leaving the land healthier than it was before farming; passing a healthier place on to our kids and their kids; and minimizing the pull of resources from outside the farm.

Specific practices include animals on the farm, biodiversity, Biodynamic farming, energy conversation, family farming, good worker policies, natural winemaking, packaging conservation, polyculture (growing or raising different plants and animals on the same land) and water conservation.

Cheers to the wineries walking the talk while putting in the bottle wines that rock. Luckily for us here in Oregon, this trend is becoming more the norm and less of an exception.

Jeffrey Weissler writes about natural and organic wine on his blog, ConsciousWine.com. Originally from New York, Weissler now lives in Portland, via Ashland.

In Demystifying Natural Wine, In The News, Jeff's Blog, Natural Winemaking, Sustainable Practices | Tagged with biodynamic, education, in the press, natural wine

May is Oregon Wine Month, and the Oregon Wine Board is welcoming it in style with “Unwine’d”, a major event in Portland on Sunday, April 29^th.  More than 85 wineries and over a dozen restaurants will be showcasing extraordinary wine and food, casting a spotlight on the incredible breadth and depth of Oregon’s fertile, vibrant landscape.

Unwine’d is being held at Portland’s Left Bank Annex, from 3pm-6pm. Trade and Media early access is from 2pm-3pm.  Tickets are just $50 and can be purchased through the Oregon Wine Board’s website.

ConsciousWine is honored to have been invited and is especially proud to participate in Unwine’d, and to join our colleagues in celebrating not just the overall growth and success of Oregon’s wineries and farms, but specifically the growing and thriving community of organic and biodynamic farms and vineyards.

To demonstrate just how spectacular these wines are, ConsciousWine’s Jeffrey Weissler will be pouring at least two exceptional wines from Cowhorn Vineyards located in Jacksonville and Dominio IV located in McMinnville.

Don’t miss a chance to see Jeff Weissler in person, sharing and talking wine.  Jeff is an expert on wines made from organic, biodynamic grapes and a passionate advocate for what’s happening in Oregon.

Come to Unwine’d on April 29^th and say “hi”!

In Blog Roll, Conferences, ConsciousWine, In The News, Jeff's Blog, Media, Sustainable Practices, Tasting Wine, Winery Events | Tagged with biodynamic, education, events, Food Related, oregon, organic wine, sustainability, Travel, willamette valley

We have a pretty cool way to enjoy wine that’s summarized in a few videos. You’ll feel like a “wine-know” without even trying. Ready? Continue reading “Basic Wine Enjoyment” »

In Basic Wine Enjoyment, Demystifying Natural Wine, Jeff's Blog, Tasting Wine, Wine & Food | Tagged with education

100% organically grown grapes is  the 1st Principle of ConsciousWine. What the farmer does and doesn’t do in the vineyard is where ConsciousWine begins its vetting process. The legal term “Made from Organically Grown Grapes” means that only National Organic Program (NOP) approved products are allowed to be used in the vineyards. Continue reading “Organically Grown Grapes” »

In Basic Wine Enjoyment, Digging Deeper, Jeff's Blog, Storytelling | Tagged with education, kymberli colbourne, organic, the 4 principles

I need a massage.  I have a few rows of Merlot and Cabernet Franc in a hobby vineyard in Southern Oregon that I “manage” and coax into wine.   Each year I try to develop more skills and spend more time with the vines.  While this growing season had me Continue reading “Green Farmer” »

In Guest Bloggers, Jeff's Blog, Sustainable Practices | Tagged with Beverly McKenzie, education, organic, sustainability

Discovering value in wine is real adventure these days. My Dad liked $3.99 a bottle as his high end purchase, but that was a little over thirty-five years ago.What does that translate to today? $8? Nope. $10? Not really. $15? Now we’re getting closer. I’d say about $18 in today’s market, and that would be a real value in wine. Continue reading “Value in Wine: What Should a bottle of “Vital for Palate and Planet” wine cost?” »

In Basic Wine Enjoyment, Demystifying Natural Wine, Jeff's Blog, Storytelling | Tagged with education, natural wine, value

Matthew Domingo and partner Erin Daugherty, have created a “farm to fork” program that feeds the belly and the soul. When I think about what nourishes me, lots of things come to mind. It’s a balance of elements combined in ways sometimes difficult to explain. Continue reading “Farm to Fork: </br>Vital Choices for Palate & Planet” »

In Jeff's Blog, Restaurants, Sustainable Practices, Wine & Food, Wineries | Tagged with Dinners, education, events, Food Related, Matthew Domingo, oregon, Vitality

How a wine changes once exposed to air is a favorite conversational topic in the world of ConsciousWine.

There’s a white wine called Savennieres from France’s Loire Valley, that is made from 100% Chenin Blanc. I was trying the 2004 Domaine du Closel “Clos Papillon” Savennieres. Continue reading “The Wine & Time Play-by-Play” »

In Demystifying Natural Wine, Digging Deeper, Jeff's Blog, Tasting Wine, Wineries | Tagged with biodynamic, education, natural wine, oregon, tasting notes

Ready to discover how foods and flavors can alter your experience of a wine? Grgich Hills Fume Blanc (from Napa Valley) is a wine I’ve loved for many years. What made it special for me? There seemed to be a sense of balanced wildness about the wine: an intoxicatingly inviting nose, great natural acidity, exotic flavors, and a long length of lingering. It consistently makes me want to come back for more. Continue reading “The Wine & Food Experience” »

In Basic Wine Enjoyment, Jeff's Blog, Wine & Food | Tagged with education, Food Related, Samantha Stovall

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