Masquerade Wine Company

I'm a terrible blogger

2009-03-02T13:09:00.000-08:00

On New Years Day 2008, after not having blogged for four months, I made it my New Years Resolution to be a better blogger. That was 2008. I didn't do a very good job on that one. My other resolution was to lose some weight. Bet you can guess how that one went.

However, recently Jennifer and I have drank the Facebook Kool-Aid, and we've both re-discovered the value of the Internet as a communication tool. So now, after 19 blog-free months, I am back. And I pledge to all to do so with regularity.

Hopefully there is someone out there reading....

A lot has happened at Masquerade in that time, and even more big changes are on the way. I will be catching you all up on it in the coming days and weeks.

Santé!

Our doors are open!

2007-08-08T15:42:00.000-07:00

At long last, Masquerade Wine Company opened its doors to the new winery and tasting room at Winemaker's Loft in Prosser last Saturday. Jennifer and I have had our noses to the collective grindstone for the past few months trying to make this happen. We have never painted anything in our lives, and I must say our tasting room looks mighty fine. The floors aren't in yet, but what they hey. All in good time.

We had a great turn out on Saturday, probably over 100 people stopped by to taste our wines. And we had another 50 or so visitors on Sunday. Both days we cooked up a huge mess of crawfish that we'd flown in live from Kyle Leblanc of Raceland, LA. They were feisty little dudes I tell you. I can't recall how many times I got pinched! But the cook always has the last laugh (except for the three lucky ones who were transplanted to the fountain in the courtyard of Winemaker's Loft).

Christina Wu from the local ABC affiliate KVEW came out and did a short piece on us on Saturday which was very well done. We want to thank our first customers for coming out and supporting us, and as they used to say on The Beverly Hillbillies, "Y'all come back now, ya hear?".

Jennifer and I also want to thank Mike Haddox and his assistant, Greg, our neighbors at Winemaker's Loft, for their help along the way, as well as that of her parents, Pat and Patty, who have been a godsend for us the last couple of months helping us out in more ways that you can imagine. We couldn't have done it without you!

Our first weekend is behind us, and we're sure there are many more fun ones to come. So come on out to The Loft in Prosser and sample some Masquerade Wines. Check out our neighbors, Michael Florentino Wines too!

I know I've been remiss on my blogging duties over the past few months, so in the coming days and weeks I will catch up on all the Masquerade happenings of the last few months, like the New Orleans Wine and Food Expo, Taste Washington in Spokane, and IPNC.

Taste Washington - Seattle 2007

2007-04-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

Jennifer and I have safely returned back to Masquerade Corporate World Headquarters after our very first trade show, Taste Washington held at the Qwest Field Event Center in Seattle last Sunday, April 15th. On a day typically reserved for late-night number crunching and frantic midnight rides to the post office to file income taxes, we along with 200 other wineries from Washington State, instead poured our wares for several thousand Northwest winos who descended upon us. It was a smashing success on many levels. We got a reasonable amount of traffic for a winery that no one knew much, if anything, about. But we were helped out by being sandwiched between a couple bigger wineries on either side (Matthews Cellars to port, Maryhill to starboard) which brought more people our way. And just our luck, the one and only exhibitor who was serving beer, Pike Place Brewery, were only two tables away from us! A hop, skip, and a jump to the Dark Side! Overall we were very pleased with the comments and feedback we received, not to mention the many wishes of good luck as we are just starting out. Lots of great comments on the logo and labels too. We spent a lot of time talking with a very nice gentleman whose name I cannot remember, who had been past president for 20 years of the Boeing Employees Wine Club. He loved our story, and our wines. He came back to our table with a group of friends in tow and announced to them that we were his "find of the night". And by this point in the night, well he'd had a few and he said it REALLY LOUD so that all the neighboring wineries could hear! No, we really didn't put him up to it, but we were very thankful and grateful for the commendation anyway.

Early in the program a guy representing a non-profit group called Farestart came by our table and asked for a bottle as a donation for their raffle. Farestart provides meals and counselling for homeless men in Seattle. They wanted to assemble an "instant wine collection" to raffle off for their charity. Sounded like a fine and noble endeavor so I handed him a bottle of 2005 Masquerade Cabernet Sauvignon, and didn't think much more about it. Towards the end of the evening as Jennifer and I were finishing off the dregs of our remaining opened bottles along with Mumsy and Dadsy, we kept hearing repeated "last call" announcements to enter the raffle for this 200 bottle instant cellar. The four of us conspired briefly and off I went to buy a couple tickets. I returned to our table and had barely sat down when we heard over the PA system, "And the winner is Bill Kimmerly". I have never won anything in my life. So much so, that my first thought was "What are the chances of two people named Bill Kimmerly here at Taste Washington?" But no, it really was me. So we returned to Richland the following day with a much bigger payload that we'd arrived with. Not the way it's supposed to work when you're giving wine away, but hey we'll take it.

Welcome to Le Blog

2007-03-27T17:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome winos! Jennifer and I are embarking on a lifelong dream of opening our own winery. Here we'll chronicle our ups and downs (and Sideways!) of building our business and all the sordid and sundry adventures that come along the way. We're new to this blogging thing, but hey, it's bound to be cheaper than producing our own reality show! Masquerade Wine Company will open its doors sometime in summer 2007, in Studio C of The Winemaker's Loft, a brand new facility in Prosser, WA. We hope you enjoy following our story up to and beyond our grand opening. And more so, we hope you'll visit us at our tasting room and try our wines. We hope you like 'em and we hope you buy lots! As wineries go, we aim to be a little bit different. You might say we crush to the beat of a different drummer. Check out our web site too at www.masqueradewines.com.

Cheers,
Bill & Jennifer Kimmerly