8/3/09: Special note to our customers

With six vintages released and 11 of those wines scoring 90 or better by major publications, we are very happy with our success in the Washington wine industry. Carol and I have settled into a seasonal routine that is comfortable for us as proprietors of an urban family winery in Seattle. There’s no doubt that fall and the harvest season is the most exciting time of the year for us and the primary reason we continue to make wine. As we write, fall is just around the corner and our preparations for harvest are underway; new oak barrels and cellar supplies including our favorite yeasts have been ordered. The anticipation and excitement of the arrival of fruit will give way to the hard work of crush, then fermentation and pressing. The hard work is rewarding and every year we renew our connections to the winemakers of the past who taught us the way to make wine in a traditional manner. We’ve also learned plenty from the scientists at work in public and private institutions around the world, but learning the hard work of making wine is best done in the cellar, something I’ve done for 24 years. 

We make our wines with grapes sourced from the best Washington State vineyards we can find. Some of our vineyard relationships go back more than 20 years as with Paul Champoux of Champoux Vineyard in Alderdale. We are concerned about the environment and the way our grapes are grown. We believe that sustainable farming is the best viticulture model to embrace and are happy to mention that one of our vineyard sources, Stillwater Creek in Royal City, has been certified as Salmon Safe. We are also proud to note that all of our Washington State grapes are grown on their own roots…something that is not done in Europe or California. We greatly value our vineyard sources and list them on every bottle of :Nota Bene wine.

We are négociants in the sense that we don’t grow the grapes, but we buy them from growers. We believe this allows us to concentrate on the science of winemaking and to balance our lives in an urban setting. There’s no doubt that we must trust our viticulture to other professionals, but there is plenty for us to do. It’s also a common French model of winemaking with plenty of history to prove its case. Do what you love best. We love to blend wine and the grapes from many vineyards. This is the craft of the négociant and the winemaker. 

It’s true that we are in business to sell wine and we really do love selling wine. I say that harvest is the most exciting time of the year, it’s true, but the smiles on the faces of happy people sipping your wine is also a wonderful thing to see. Maybe this is why we make wine too…to be happy and to make people happy, because wine is a wonderful thing to enjoy. We hope you think so as you drink your next :Nota Bene wine.

Sincerely,

Tim Narby and Carol Bryant
author and inspiration respectively

:Nota Bene Cellars Staff

Tim Narby, CEO, COO, master winemaker, and name partner
Carol Bryant, CFO, corporate counsel, and name partner
Kimberly Narby, apprentice counsel and junior partner
Ryan Narby, apprentice winemaker and junior partner
Beau, corporate dog
Angel, corporate cat

In the beginning

It all began with a bottle of Chateaux Margaux 1982.

Tim Narby (the "N" in :Nota Bene Cellars) and his new wife Carol Bryant (the "B" in :Nota Bene Cellars) decided to celebrate an evening at Ashland’s Shakespeare Festival with a gourmet meal. They had discovered good wine a few years before, about the time they discovered a shared interest in fine dining and in each other. Tonight, to celebrate a marvelous performance of The Comedy of Errors, they decided to order something even better – possibly even great – to match the quality of the play.

Tim took one swallow and gazed into the eyes of his bride and said, "This is what I want to make." Carol gazed right back at her new husband and said, "Sounds like a plan. I’ll help."

Carol was the child of missionaries serving in Chiengmai, Thailand. Her previous acquaintance with wine was as Christ’s first miracle at the marriage feast in Cana. Tim knew a little more, growing up among Italian steelmakers 40 miles north of Pittsburgh. He and his friends secretly sampled Guff Geniviva’s wine he made in his cellar from a mix of Zinfandel and Muscat grapes.

They went home and broke out a home winemaking kit they received for their wedding. It featured a can of blackberry syrup but the end product was drinkable. They were elated.

In the fall of 1986, they bought fresh Zinfandel grapes out of the back of Tony Picardo’s 18-wheeler he used to park on a street end near the King County Airport. They enlisted some friends and neighbors to help and had their first pressing. It wasn’t Chateaux Margaux, but ever since they’ve done 10+ fermentations a year in their basement and every one has improved on its predecessor.

Tim, a Boeing systems analyst, joined the Boeing Employee’s Wine and Beermaking Club. For more than 30 years, this coterie of gifted amateurs explored Washington grapes before they were a glimmer in the national oenological eye. As Tim and Carol’s wines won many firsts in the club’s annual Winefest, Tim became Grape Procurement Officer and eventually Vice President of Wine.

The youngsters were incorporated into the burgeoning hobby. Kimberly developed a good eye for the best bunches of grapes in the field and Ryan became Tim’s trusted co-pilot on his excursions to the vineyards of Eastern Washington.

In 2001, Carol said, "Ryan’s out of pre-school. We can start the winery now." For years the wine had carried the name NB, for the footnote of the Latin phrase "nota bene," as well as being a nice combination of Tim’s and Carol’s surnames. As the commercial enterprise was contemplated their designer friend suggested moving from the footnote to the full Latin phrase and a Grey Poupon moment was experienced: "But, of course."

They leased a warehouse, bought racks and racks of French Oak barrels, cases of bottles, and an industrial-strength wine press. It was then that Carol, a state prosecuting attorney for 23 years, made her unique contribution. The stacks and stacks of forms necessary to open a commercial winery in Washington have stopped many an aspiring winemaker cold. But Carol knew how the bureaucratic mind worked and regarded the four-inch stack of paperwork as a challenge.

"What do you suppose they want here?" she would say cheerfully as she worked her way through entry after entry. It takes most wineries from 8 months to a year to never to get these all filled out and processed. Carol got :Nota Bene Cellars through the whole process in 3 months. It may be a record.

And this year came the results: three beautiful Washington reds, each with their distinct virtues, pressed from the 2001 vintage, the best grapes in years. Eighteen years of effort in every sip.

"The Latin root for amateur is amo: to love," says Carol, the company Latinist . "Wine is alive. It must be the product of love."

Tim just says, "Isn’t it delicious?"