Our Neighbor, the Cougar

Happy holidays from Kristof Farms, and a special note: We’d love to deliver some holiday cheer, so if you gift a wine club membership to a friend today or tomorrow, we’ll send a customized holiday video to your friend. This offer lasts until midnight on Christmas Day.

And now, back to the cougar. We found a spot where deer seemed to be sneaking under our “impregnable” deer fence to munch on our apple trees and grape vines, so we barricaded the opening and set up a couple of wildlife cameras. We figured we’d get images of frustrated deer peering in through the fence, and we could gloat at them. Instead, it looks as if we fenced in an animal inside. And it’s not a deer but a cougar.

Here is the cougar on the inside of our fence near our orchard, looking forlornly at how we blocked her from crawling out underneath the gate

She’s prowling…

We’re wondering what to think of having a cougar roaming inside our fence so near to our house. Is she beautiful? Is she dangerous? She is pretty big. And possibly hungry. So we weren’t offended when a day later she showed up on camera on the other side of the fence, after apparently figuring out how to climb over. So now we look over our shoulders when we walk around on either side of our fence.

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We won’t ship our first wines until March, but we’ve had some secret tastings and we’re VERY PROUD of how they turned out. The Pinot Noir is divine, with rich notes of dark fruit. The Chardonnay is a classic Oregon version, the kind that is leading wine connoisseurs worldwide to turn to Willamette Valley Chardonnays. And our Rosé is so full of life and zest! We think these wines stand with America’s finest.

And while we said that our tasting was secret, it wasn’t so secret that we couldn’t take a photo.

Don’t tell anyone, but here’s that moment of (clandestine) tasting. That’s the Kristofs (l-r Nick, Geoffrey, Caroline and Sheryl) with Adam Campbell, our neighbor in Yamhill who runs Elk Cove Vineyard and has been gracious enough to make our wines.

We’ve been admiring Adam’s work since Nick and Sheryl were Tokyo correspondents for The New York Times and one of Adam’s wines was chosen for a state banquet when the Japanese emperor visited the White House.

Our production is small, so at least initially our wines will be available only to members of our brand-new wine club. Wine club members will get the wines, discounts and access to special events with the Kristofs and the beautiful Kristof farm. Check out the wine club here.

In the meantime, how is your cider supply? We’re proud that our ciders just won gold and platinum at the SIP magazine cider competition, on top of other national and international cider awards. Hard ciders make a sophisticated holiday and winter beverage, especially beside a blazing fire, and you can stock up here.

Finally, some in-house news. We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve hired Jamie King to be our sales and marketing manager. Jamie is a Portlander of many talents: She previously worked in the tech sector in San Francisco, she then ran her own yoga studio, she has a large Instagram following, she’s a mom, she loves great cider and wine, and she runs 100-mile ultra-marathons. (We’re proud of our family expeditions backpacking around Mt. Hood on the Timberline Trail in two days, but Jamie runs the loop before lunch! And as a warm-up!) Meet Jamie:

Jamie is connecting with restaurants and bottle shops eager to stock Kristof Cider, and thinking about events to pursue. If you have any questions about ordering quantities of cider, you can reach her at Jamie@KristofFarms.com. We’re thrilled to have her on board. So are the cougars, who are hoping that our newsletters and social media will now focus more on Portlandia and pry less into their lives.

Happy holidays from all of us at Kristof Farms!