LATE MARCH NEWSLETTER - March 27, 2006

The end is near. We are about to cross over Spring Street to the promised land: Our new production building. There are a few details remaining, but this time next month we should be in full production there. Thank you David and Jacob Scarlett for this masterpiece of a facility.

We have been literally stuffed into our present lower floor production area for several years. Even our press house is full of wine and equipment. The new facility will have at least 6X more usable space. There is now plenty of room for shiny new stainless steel and oak, and room to comfortably walk around it. That will take some time getting used to.

Patricia has finished her cookbook and has it ready for sale. The front cover of the book is part of this newsletter. It contains memories and recipes of our son Charles and his transformation of a small, run-down little house into Weston's first 4-star dining restaurant. Also included is a history of the winery. There are lots of pictures of the early days of the winery and restaurant, and 60 recipes. The price is $12.95 plus shipping. You may order on-line. Reach Patricia at pirtlewine@aol.com. It is also available at the winery. The book will be available on our website soon!

Winter stubbornly hangs on. The only green today is St. Patrick's Day green. This is actually a blessing; it should delay budbreak and give some frost protection. we hope.

Winemaker-son Scott Pirtle and Steve Long finished pruning the I-29 Vineyard yesterday. Today they continue wine production; business as usual.

This spring we will have grapevines for sale that are suitable for a vine covered arbor and/or wine. They will be growing in pots and plantable all spring and summer. You can see them at the winery. They are vines from cuttings in our wine garden.

New building notwithstanding, you must still climb the "thirteen steps to heaven" to taste the wine. We hope you will.

Visit us online at www.pirtlewinery.com.

Yours in wine,

The Pirtles