Dear Friends,

Here is a salute to 2006, and a few thoughts for 2007:

Fabbioli Cellars has had a great year. The wines we offered were well received, and Vintage 2006 looks very promising.

We made a lot of new friends this year, and shared our wines with many old friends. We poured at the Virginia Wine Festival in the fall and hosted the Fabbioli family reunion in May. We had friends and family, old and new at our Open Houses. We had some private tastings at people’s homes and had them here in the cellar. We had Mom’s Apple Pies help us with marketing by letting us pour before Thanksgiving. We have also poured and met some of you at the Farmers' Market. All of these opportunities and introductions have added up to the start of a healthy business. I feel the best way to say thanks to all of you is to focus on making the best wines I can and make sure they can get to you in the best way.

I have tried hard over the holidays to work a little less and reflect a little more. I want to choose the right points of effort for 2007.

Industry: I am becoming more involved with the Loudoun Wine Growers in 2007. We as an industry need to stay united to protect the noble work we do and our goals to survive as an industry. I have also become involved with the Loudoun Rural Economic Development Committee. I have personal goals of balanced growth for Fabbioli Cellars along with helping the local wine industry expand and thrive over the next few years.
Political: I will be visiting Richmond this month to lobby to regain the right to self distribute. Many of you are aware of this issue and how it effected the smaller wineries in 2006. If you want more info on this , please email me and I will get you up to speed.
Wines: We have Cabernet Franc coming! I am focusing on making the 2006 Cab Franc at a $15 price point. I am confident that we can regularly make this wine and use it as a model for the industry as a quality product at a reasonable price.
Farm: Along with some replacement vines, we will be planting more Black Raspberries, Red Raspberries and some Black Currants. I am looking forward to getting new plants in the ground so that we can really develop some unique specialty products along with our solid estate wines.
Marketing: We will be doing more wine festivals this year. I hope they are all as successful for us as the VA Wine Festival was last fall. We will continue to do periodic Open Houses as well as be open for tastings by appointment. The private group tastings we had here were very successful. We hope you can gather a group together, 6-20, and share us with your friends.

Upcoming Events:
January thru March: Loudoun Winter Farmers' Market Saturdays 10 am to 1pm. This has been quite successful for us throughout December. As long as the weather is tolerable, our wines will be there. This is located in Leesburg at the corner of King Street and Catoctin Circle. We will be at the Summer market but I am not sure where yet.
February 2,3,4: Lucketts Antique Store Ground Hog Day Sale Noon to 5pm. We will be tasting and selling our wines at this historic shop in Lucketts.
February 11, 2-4:30pm: Home Winemaking Seminar: Many of you have made wine in the past. This is an opportunity to learn some of the skills, techniques and thought processes that will help you turn those grapes into wines that are even better. Bring a wine that you would like to learn from or share with the group. This is a great opportunity to improve your skills and have fun doing it. RSVP to doug@fabbioli.com as space is limited. $40
February 18: Open House at Fabbioli Cellars. We will be focusing on chocolate with our red wines. Bring a dish or taste one of ours.

FYI: Fabbioli Cellars will be on the Loudoun County Farm Tour this year. These weekends will be May 19 and 20 and October 20 and 21. We will have tastings, vineyard tours and winemaking demos. More info to come. Mark the dates.

We hope to see you folks this season. Thanks again for helping make 2006 such a solid success!

Doug, Colleen, Matt and Sammy