Dawnelise Regnery

May, 2008

Dawnelise is now the proud mama of...

A newly born restaurant called Scopa on the Healdsburg Plaza and a happy member of our wine club.  You should join too to see her at our events!

April, 2008

Spring time at Iron Horse!

Pebble Beach friends I am already looking forward to next year! A saber goes to the person to sell the most Iron Horse Chardonnay
between now and then! Private lesson in saber safety included!
Lukka and Wade this is your chance! Let the games begin!

                                                       Springtime at Iron Horse Vineyards

                  Iron Horse Vineyards Wedding Cuvee                           LIsa Simon and Me in Pebble Beach                  

                                                                Pebble Beach Food & Wine

                                                              Brut Rose on the beach

                         LIsa Simon, Ted Allen (from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy), and me

                                          Douglas Keane of Cyrus and his beautiful wife Leal

January, 2007

New Year's Resolutions

-to make every day Earth Day in Green Valley where we strive to save the world … one glass at a time.

-to go gently into the day, with the 2004 Wedding Cuvee and nastursium
flowers!

-to spend much more time in the vineyards- Harvest 2007 here we
come!

-to Celebrate Green Day in Green Valley where my favorite people and
wine can and will make a fantastic difference in the world.

-to get more of you up to the winery to share the goodness!

December, 2006

What a year.  What a wild and wonderful year!

Rather than going into too much detail I thought I would give you all some rare photographic insight into some of the year’s highlights and give you my holiday picks for my seasonally favorite Iron Horse wines!

The evening ALWAYS begins with an icy cold flute of the 1998 Blanc de Blancs.  The best pairing here are golden French fries and a bit of truffles aioli, serve up ala Thomas Keller for flair!

The 2005 Viognier is my favorite winter white.  It is such a luscious and food friendly white, especially for the spicy fair, yet complex enough to stand up all on its own.  It is the perfect transitional from white to red wine and such a cool white that it warms you up from the inside.

If you live in the snow, or even if you don’t, you must meet the 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon.  This showstopper is rated with 93 points in Wine Enthusiasts December issue and is THE wine to cuddle up with in front of a crackling fire.

DELICIOUS.

The 2005 Late Harvest Viognier is THE desert of the season, although the Russian Cuvee is also a favorite at this time of the night.  Wedding Cuvee is the Bubble of choice for New Years Morning- with fabulous pairings too decadent to list! - And for the New Years Eve only the

Joy magnums will do!!

Happy Holidays!

August, 2006

I see you!

One Love!  One Reggae!  One bubble!  Ok, maybe two or three, but it better
be Iron Horse and come with pomme frites! 

What a week what a month what a year.  This is one busy happy girl. My friend, I have just returned from the most amazing days of song and dance and love.  In these days of so much suffering, I choose to seek out the JOYS because the sorrows will find you.  So seek the joy. Celebrate life and love one another.
Note: this goes best with the 1998 Blanc de Blancs, unless you have been out to see me at the winery and been introduce to the delightful 1991 Blanc de Blancs in magnums.  If not call me today! This 1.5 rare beauty is going, going, gone!

In any case, summer is in full swing, which means love and bubbles in the air.  Iron Horse Vineyards was the only sparkler found backstage at Reggae on the River, now in its 26th year and going strong. We are so multifaceted!  Jay Z- WE love you!  What other sparkling house so versatile as to be poured in the White House now four consecutive presidencies and still get down with Reggae. During the festival, sitting on the south fork of the EelRiver and feeling the love vibration in the air under a beckoning moon was almost as wonderful as waking up to Wedding Cuvee and nasturtiums for breakfast on the Mendocino coast!  This can be done anywhere but the flowers are most common in the coastal cool.  The delightful spice of the nasturtium mingles with the voluptuous fruit of the Cuvee and creates the most perfect balance.  Breakfast made beautiful. 

Speaking of the green and growing, Iron Horse will be opening its very first farm stand from 10-12 each Saturday in September.  No more will you have to take my word on the fabulousness of the mozzarella, tomato, basil and Cuvee R pairing.  It will be yours to enjoy and direct from Barry Sterling’s personal garden. 

Life keeps getting better and better. New rootstocks, new clones, precision farming, and Christopher’s gravenstine apple pairings all have me screaming WOW!  Now is the time to be buying selling and above all enjoying Iron Horse wines!

The Iron Horse team has just concluded its most fabulous national sale meeting yet.  And although we are saying good bye to one beloved member we are saying hello to renewed focus and fun and best of all sustainable frivolity. (The art of loving life's small guilty pleasures in a manner sustainable and respectful to all)  Pomme frits and bubbles anyone? 

On a more personal note- this is a big year for me as I am very soon to be wed.  I’ll bet you can guess what we will be toasting with on the coast!  And you can be sure each glass will be graced by a vibrant and spicy naturism!

Cheers and love.

Here's to hoping all is well and wonderful with you!
xoxo Dawnelise

When in doubt drink more Chardonnay. Have you seen my shelf talker!!? 

June, 2006

Greetings fabulous friends!

I hope the onset of summer finds you happy and well.  Things here at the winery could not be more beautiful.  We are busy as can be tending vine, disgoraging wines and hosting fabulous events.  Most notably of which was La Paulée banquet last month!  Dixie Bohlke our fabulous events coordinator and Chef Christopher Greenwald out did themselves once again creating the ultimate refined and Sonoma fabulous lunching experience for The Hospices of Sonoma benefit.  In a weekend full of excitement and for the benefit of the good, I for one look to the Iron Horse luncheon as the cherry on the cake.  The table spanning the entire length of the Corral block vineyard dressed in and iridescent blue green cloth was dotted with Barry Sterling’s outrageous fuchsia and California Girl yellow petunias.  The china, paired to each of the courses glistened first gold, then pearlescent pink translucent through each of the fabulous courses and abundance of wines!  The stinging nettle soup with Braised Salsify and Wild Fennel paired marvelously with the Rosato di Sangiovese, a summer time necessity!  And what an array of fabulous wines!  Each guest bringing their favorite and finest vintages, old and new in addition to the Iron Horse abundance.  Finishing with berries, bubbles, chocolate and dancing beneath the deep purple underbelly of the dynamic weather, it truly was a glorious afternoon.  It was, as always, wonderful to see old friends and to meet many new, some of whom I look forward to seeing again soon as I travel to Colorado, Texas and Arizona.  Overall I was left with an overwhelming feeling of goodwill camaraderie and jovial appreciation of those who have made a conscious decision to live well, in all ways imaginable and to enable others to do so as well.  We were all there to appreciate the food, wine, air, vines and company that make it all worthwhile with right minded appreciation for the goodness in all things. 

We have been busy.

On other fronts, I have had wonderful adventures in Chicago (hello new friends!  Come see me at the winery!) Arizona (we always have the most fun) and Texas where Joy, Chris and I spent a week adventuring in Houston for the Houston Grand Food and Wine Affair.  Wonderful people and places the world over.  Most excitingly I am working on a little something called “connecting the dots”.  If you are curious, and I hope you are……. you know where to find me!

May, 2006

Introductory Q & A

Title: Bond, James Bond

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Perfect? Happiness? Are we there yet?

What is your greatest fear in opening a bottle of wine?
Timing.

Which historical figure do you most admire?
Hummmm

What do you consider to be the most overrated virtue?
What were those again?
Prudence, temperance, courage, justice, hope, faith, love, humility,
kindness, abstinence, chastity, patience, liberality, diligence, charity,
fortitude.
None, I am a romantic optimist.
(love you Lisa!)

Do you lie?
Me? No never. My eyes give me away.

Which living person do you most despise?
The tricky treacherous ones. Life is too short to be shifty.

How old are you?
Old as all time- we are dinosaur and stardust.
I think that is a silly question. How old are you??

What is your favorite word to use to describe wine?
Nice. It gives you a moment to figure out what you really think.
Fabulous for everything else.

Which words of phrases do you use most in describing Iron Horse wines?
Luscious, crisp, balance, clarity, depth and complexity. The pinot gives
sparkling its sticky finger fruit base (cups hands) and the chardonnay is
the giggle that tickles up the back of your neck (motions up to the sky)-
oh and the undulating hills!!

To what or to whom would you toast a glass of bubbly in this very moment?
Life, friendship and spring blossoms!

What is the most awe-inspiring talent you possess?
Optimism

What inspired you to work for Iron Horse?
Joy of course! Satisfaction in the goodness of all things. Iron Horse's
family, wine and ranch are the embodiment of this. It is a total
privilege to work for something that you believe in.

What future do you predict for Iron Horse Vineyards?
I see greatness busting out of each and every vine and blossom.
It is impossible to walk through these rolling hills and not feel as if we
are participating in the creation of magic. And have you seen our
winemaker David Munksgard's happy dance lately? We are in for very, very
good things.

If you could change on thing about your job, what would it be?
2/3 of all market visits would be pool parties- doesn't everyone need a
little variety now and then? Everyone would come to the Green Valley
Symposium.

If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
Perspective. I would wish more for everyone, myself included.

What is your most priceless possession?
love

What is the quality you like most in a red?
Intrigue/inspiration. That big old earthy red that morphs for each glass
poured. The chameleon. It starts evasively with leather and land and
blossoms into berries and perchance a juicy violet. It brings you back to
what wine and life should be about and readies you for more.

What is the quality you like most in a white?
Its ability to balance tone mineral and fruit. 2003 Chardonnay baby.

What is the quality you admire most in a bubbly?
Everything. Its delicacy, its sass, its tiny tickles, and its ability to
make us feel fabulous!

What are you reading these days?
Trashy Japanese murder mysteries. Love them!

Who is your greatest influence?
My family.

What is your motto?
Details, details. The possibility is infinite.