Harvest!

Elsom Cellars has been going through some serious changes over the past month or so. If you’ve come by the tasting room you will have noticed our new interior decorations, such as  scaffolding, fermentation bins, new barrels and big stainless steel machines that look like they belong on a production line, not a winery. All this can only mean one thing: Its harvest! This wonderful time of year transforms the wine industry to a bunch of crazy people scrambling to find enough fruit, fermentation supplies and space to accommodate the new vintage coming in. In addition to harvest, we at Elsom are making up our 2009 blends and bottling in the next month. Lots going on around our neck of the woods, come by and check out the changes! Happy harvest from all of us at Elsom!

Jody Receives the Puget Sound Business Journal 40 Under 40 Award

Borrowed from the Puget Sound Business Journal Website

Last Wednesday, September 14th, the Elsom Cellars crew went to the Showbox in SODO to recognize the Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 honorees. Out of 400 applicants, Jody Elsom was one of the chosen 40 people under the age of 40, ahem (30 somethin’) who were recognized as true movers and shakers in our community. Above is one of the professional pictures taken of Jody holding her signature black and gold Elsom wines.

Jody is on a roll and we’re totally thrilled to see her recognized for all of her hard work as head of Project Planning Partners and as owner/winemaker of Elsom Cellars. Way to go!!

Jody accepting her award

Elsom Crew: Melissa, Jody, Erich and Mauricio

Farm to Table Dinner with Elsom Cellars and 21 Acres

The Vineyard Table at Elsom Cellars

On August 5th, we invited Chef Kristen Schumacher of Heirloom to create a farm-to-table dinner with 21 Acres to showcase the Elsom 2008 Malbec and 2008 Logan Malbec-Syrah blend.

Kristen’s Farm to Table Dinner Menu with Elsom Cellars and 21 Acres

Appetizer

Salt cod brandade on crostini, chives, Mama Lil’s peppers

Included Pairing of Elsom’s First Kiss Lewis Vineyard Cabernet Rose~

Bread Course

Soft brown butter, marcona almonds

Amuse

Eggplant frites with sea salt and honey

Salad

Arugula, soft boiled duck egg, manchego, chorizo, and blackberries with a citrus and honey vinaigrette ~Suggested Pairing of Elsom’s 2008 Isabella~

Palette cleanser

Drunken grape sorbet with edible flowers

Entrée

Cochinta Pibil Tamale (Achiote pork in a banana leaf), Guacamole salad

Included Pairing of Elsom’s 2008 Malbec~ $8 glass/$38 Bottle

Dessert

Grilled pound cake with grilled peaches and Cajeta sauce

French Press Coffee Service

Menu and Dinner by Chef Kristen Schumacher

Salt cod brandade on crostini, chives, Mama Lil’s peppers

Eggplant Frites with Sea Salt

Arugula, soft boiled duck egg, manchego, chorizo, and blackberries with a citrus and honey vinaigrette

Melissa from Elsom Cellars Serving the Salad

Chef Kristen plating the main course

Cochinta Pibil Tamale (Achiote pork in a banana leaf), Guacamole salad

Chef Kristen Schumacher Grilling Peaches

Grilled pound cake with grilled peaches and Cajeta sauce

Dining among the barrels

 

Kristen Schumacher is a graduate from the Seattle Culinary Academy, the Quillisascut Farm School of Domestic Arts, and Indiana University, as well as a cookbook contributor and an ongoing recipe provider for a Snoqualmie Valley newsletter, Kristen Schumacher focuses on food that inspires her to cook seasonally and locally.  Amazed at the natural abundance that surrounds her in the Pacific Northwest, Kristen continually seeks to learn and taste something new about the Northwest region and abroad. She volunteers her time with different organizations that help promote and educate people about sustainable practices. She cooked in the Seattle restaurant scene until starting her own personal chef and private cooking class business called Heirloom.  Loving to cook for her clients in intimate settings, her business focuses on serving local and seasonal menus while educating her clients about the origins of the food they are enjoying.  She also enjoys cooking for secret supper clubs in the Seattle area. Her mission is to leave a lasting impression on the palette, through conscious cooking, respect, empowerment, andsustainable practices. In her spare time, she loves to spend time outside with her husband Eric and two daughters, Ryanne and Finley, as well as painting, photography, art classes, knitting, reading, recipe writing and testing, family & food blogging, visiting farmers markets, traveling, and feeding her family.

photo!

A new photo has been added to Elsom’s photo contest, thanks for your submission! The contest end has been moved to the 13th of August, so hurry up and take your best shot at getting a free signed bottle of Elsom Malbec and a ticket to our upcoming Malbec Tango event this Saturday, the 13th!!

Elsom Cellars and 21 Acres Farm to Table Dinner at Elsom Cellars Friday, August 5th!

Join Elsom Cellars and 21 Acres for a Farm to Table Dinner at Elsom Cellars Friday, August 5th at 6:30 p.m.

Enjoy an intimate dinner party among the barrels at Elsom Cellars winery. Elsom Cellar’s Vineyard Table Catering Guest Chef Kristen Schumacher and  21 Acres Farm bring you an unforgettable farm-to-table dinner Friday August 5th at 6:30 p.m. Ticket price for this four-course dinner is $75 per person which includes two Elsom wine pairings. Additional Elsom wines by the glass and discounted bottles for the table will be available for purchase.

Additional Elsom Cellars wines available by the glass or bottle, 10% off all bottle purchases for this event

2008 Lewis Vineyard Cab Sauvignon $8 glass/$38 bottle

2008 Malbec $8 glass/$38 bottle

2008 Isabella Columbia Valley Red Blend $10 glass/ $48 bottle

2008 Logan Red Blend $8 glass/$36 bottle

Purchase Dinner Tickets Online atBrown Paper Tickets Here!

Elsom Cellars Farm to Table Dinner Menu

Appetizer

Salt cod brandade on crostini, chives, Mama Lil’s peppers

Included Pairing of Elsom’s First Kiss Lewis Vineyard Cabernet Rose~

Bread Course

Soft brown butter, marcona almonds

Amuse

Eggplant frites with sea salt and honey

Salad

Arugula, soft boiled duck egg, manchego, chorizo, and blackberries with a citrus and honey vinaigrette ~Suggested Pairing of Elsom’s 2008 Isabella~

Palette cleanser

Drunken grape sorbet with edible flowers

Entrée

Cochinta Pibil Tamale (Achiote pork in a banana leaf), Guacamole salad

Included Pairing of Elsom’s 2008 Malbec~ $8 glass/$38 Bottle

Dessert

Grilled pound cake with grilled peaches and Cajeta sauce

French Press Coffee Service

Menu and Dinner by Chef Kristen Schumacher

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Kristen Schumacher is a graduate from the Seattle Culinary Academy, the Quillisascut Farm School of Domestic Arts, and Indiana University, as well as a cookbook contributor and an ongoing recipe provider for a Snoqualmie Valley newsletter, Kristen Schumacher focuses on food that inspires her to cook seasonally and locally.  Amazed at the natural abundance that surrounds her in the Pacific Northwest, Kristen continually seeks to learn and taste something new about the Northwest region and abroad. She volunteers her time with different organizations that help promote and educate people about sustainable practices. She cooked in the Seattle restaurant scene until starting her own personal chef and private cooking class business called Heirloom.  Loving to cook for her clients in intimate settings, her business focuses on serving local and seasonal menus while educating her clients about the origins of the food they are enjoying.  She also enjoys cooking for secret supper clubs in the Seattle area. Her mission is to leave a lasting impression on the palette, through conscious cooking, respect, empowerment, andsustainable practices. In her spare time, she loves to spend time outside with her husband Eric and two daughters, Ryanne and Finley, as well as painting, photography, art classes, knitting, reading, recipe writing and testing, family & food blogging, visiting farmers markets, traveling, and feeding her family.

Purchase Dinner Tickets Online at Brown Paper Tickets Here!

Picture a wine…

Imagine a wine so spicy, peppery and invigorating that one sip can transport you to Argentina, where your taste buds learn to tango, or to Texas, where your medium-rare fillet Mignon has just come off the grill. Imagine this and you have imagined Elsom Cellars Malbec. Our Malbec has transported many a wine lover, but has recently found its way to Seattle Magazine. In the August issue of Seattle Magazine Jody Elsom is celebrated for her wine making, and to commemorate this we are holding a photo contest! The rules are: 1.  The picture must include the article from Seattle Magazine 2. You must submit your photos to Erich@Elsomcellars.com BY AUG 8th for consideration. The winner will receive a signed bottle of 08 Malbec and a ticket to our upcoming Malbec Tango event. So break out your Leica’s, your Polaroids and your disposables and may the best photographer win!

P.S. here is an example/the first entry to the contest!

Bottled Art this satruday!

This Saturday Elsom Cellars will be hosting “Bottled Art,” our newest art exhibit, here in the tasting room! Recent graduates from the University of Washington will be displaying their artwork in our tasting room and we cant wait! Here are a few pieces from one of the artists; from left to right the pieces are “engraved vase,” “Clear Carafe with pulled handle” and “Engraved Carafe with Pulled Handle.” Stop by the tasting room on Saturday to bring home these pieces and more! Our tasting room will be open from 12pm-5pm, so come by for great wine and amazing art! see you all in the tasting room!!

John Zimmerman at Elsom!

I’m no artist, and though I’ve been known to sketch a few drawings on napkins and stealthily doodle on those tablecloths that double as giant coloring books, I’ve never been attached to a canvas that has absorbed a piece of me along with my paints. If I stand before a canvas and trace the brushstrokes in my head and smell the oils from the painting I can begin to see a little more than a background picture that litters art halls and modern advertizing. If I try to imagine how I would create the painting, things I would do differently or colors I would have used, I get lost. I have no idea which colors are good together and how to turn my lopsided cartoon characters on my coffee stained napkins into anything more than garbage can interior designing.To have a relationship with a canvas and spend so much time thinking and creating is something I am completely foreign to and in awe of.

John Zimmerman is a local Seattle artist who understands the more sophisticated forms of art. He has long since graduated from Cucina Cucina table cloths and has opted for oils of a different breed. Recently John brought some of his amazing oil canvas’s to our winery and blew us away with his warm and inviting paintings that displayed many aspects of the wine industry. When John speaks of his work and talks about his color choices and what he sees in each painting you begin to realize all the amazing subtitles you miss in art, being ignorant to its technical ways. The way an artist looks at his work and describes its properties makes you realize that art is more than the end result; it is a labour of love that is so multifaceted that the layman could never understand its complexities. For John and other artists, their paintings are like pieces of themselves that have been captured on canvas and displayed to the world. How then, could an artist such as John ever allow us, the undergrads of Starbucks art school, to join him in creating a piece of art?

But on Saturday, that is exactly what happened! John brought with him a piece he had been working on and invited those in the tasting room to join him in creating a collective piece of art that was then going to be auctioned off to benefit a scholarship program for children. Needless to say after having all of my artistic

The collaboration pays off! "Elsom Romance"

epiphanies I was shocked that any artist could stand by and watch their art, a piece of themselves, be  descended upon by such unsophisticated artistic barbarians! At first it was a scene out of an art school horror movie; people with wine glasses in one hand, wielding fantastically colored paintbrushes in the other, I couldn’t look. There must be some art creed condemning something like this, right? But in the end we were all proved wrong and with the not insubstantial help from John’s wife, the painting turned out to be something I had never imagined possible: beautiful! Named Elsom Romance, the canvas eventually morphed into a really interesting and tightly sculpted piece of art that I need desperately to hang from my mantle!

John taught us all a lesson or two and all of us at Elsom Cellars are truly happy he came and shared his wonderful work with us! Thanks again John, see you back at Elsom soon!!

Corks on the Loose!

Elsom Cellars wine club is filling up and we don’t want you to miss out! Corks on the loose, named by Jody’s daughter Isabella, is a limited wine club that offers exclusive rights to our reserve wines as well as many more membership benefits!

Join the Elsom Cellars Wine Club

Elsom Cellars cordially invites you to share in our passion and love of wine.

• A 20% discount on all tasting room and website purchases.

• Free personalized tastings for you and up to four guests

• Member-only offerings to purchase limited release wines.

• Exclusive rights to purchase from our select library wines and future releases.

• Early invitations, first opportunity and special discounts to attend our private tastings, wine seminars, winemaking dinners, and other exclusive events.

• No monthly fees.

•  Choose to receive either 3, 6 or 12 bottles in each quarterly (beginning in 2012) shipment.

• We automatically charge your Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Discover card prior to each shipment.

• Shipments are sent out in March, June, August and November.

•  Wines are shipped directly to your home or pickup in our Woodinville tasting room.

•  Membership is for a minimum of one year (or 4 shipments) and continues until we receive notification of cancellation. After 4 shipments, you may cancel at any time. Cancellations must be made in writing.

Wine club brochures are in the tasting room so come by and stake your claim on Elsom’s most exclusive releases!

Elsom in the summer!

Summer has finally made it to Elsom Cellars and we are taking it seriously! This month we have a couple events planned that will be sure to help everyone ease into the summer season!

Firstly, we have an event planned for late summer where we will be welcoming back our friend, photographer Nick Shiflet to the winery. Nick took outstanding pictures for our Cabernet Cabaret (displayed on his website http://nickshiflet.smugmug.com/) and we are so excited to have him to showcase his new and past works in the winery! The event will take place during tasting hours and continue until 7:30pm. Hors d’œuvres and wine will be available while Nick showcases his photography and his work will remain on display for the following month to come!

Next, on July 2nd Elsom Cellars will be hosting the recently graduated Seniors from the University of Washington’s school of fine arts. Artists will be coming to display their hand blown glass vessels and sharing their artistic visions. Pieces will be available for purchase during normal tasting hours 12-5 as well as our 5-7:30 event. Come out to enjoy Elsom Cellars wines and support our communities newest artists!

Coming later this summer will be Elsom’s release of our “First Kiss” Rose. Produced in the traditional rose method, the juice from 100% Lewis Vineyard Cabernet is bled off after limited contact with the skins. This Rose is quite limited in quantity so be sure to stop by and stake your claim on Elsom Cellars FIRST Rose!

We look forward to seeing you all in the tasting room! Happy Summer!