Dear Friends,

After evaluating the local conditions along with my own ambitions and motivations, we have decided to have our chocolates and reds open house next Sunday, February 25 from noon until 5pm. We will be here this Sunday for anyone ambitious enough to come out and taste some wines and see the lovely sheen across the vineyard. Our coming week of warmer weather is sure to break down the ice on Limestone School as well as here on the Fabbioli ranch.

Being a winegrower in VA forces one to fight Mother Nature in order to survive. Whether it be a spray of fungicides in the summer between thunderstorms, picking grapes in the shadow of a hurricane, setting up for a wine festival for a very rainy weekend or even braving the wind chill of the winter Farmers' Market. I have been accustomed to not giving in to the mother that gives us all so much in the end.

Okay, I give. I will enjoy some of the time that this weather forces me to take. I will find my Zen. I will have a second glass of wine! Oh yeah. There it is.

We look forward to seeing many of you next weekend. I will get a current calendar out to all next week along with updates on wines and stuff. Meanwhile, back to this glass of wine.

Doug, Colleen, Matt and Sammy