Pinot & Perspective on June 27—with a Mystery Guest

Occasionally in this newsletter, we interview our grape vines or apple trees. So we asked Charlie the Chardonnay vine for his comments on Pride Month.

Q: Charlie, it's Pride Month. Any thoughts?

Ch: You're asking the wrong species. We Chardonnay vines have both male and female parts. We've been self-pollinating for millions of years.

Q: So you're bi?

Ch: We grapes try not to get hung up on labels, but humans would probably categorize us self-pollinators as LGBTQ. Around here we're more concerned about mildew—that's been a much bigger problem than identity politics this spring.

Q: But what do you make of all the arguments?

Ch: Frankly, I'm a plant. But it does seem a little odd to panic about diversity when the entire vineyard is full of hermaphrodites.

Q: Fair point.

Ch: Besides, if Washington starts investigating alternative lifestyles at Kristof Farms, they should probably begin with us vines. We're self-reliant—we don't need the birds or the bees to reproduce.

Q: Anyone else like you?

Ch: Well, while we're discussing the diversity of life in Oregon wine country, the elk seem to have found their own expression for Pride Month. Our friends at Elk Cove recently captured on a wildlife camera a reminder that nature doesn't always fit neatly into categories. We'll leave the interpretation to you.

But the real stars of the month are the bears.

There are now at least five bears roaming around Kristof Farms, including the enormous fellow pictured above. We suspect they're impatiently waiting for the apples and grapes to ripen.

Even more exciting, our cameras recently captured a pair of bear cubs. Here's a little cub racing to catch up with his mom:

🍷 Pinot & Perspective on June 27

If you'd like to meet Baby Bear, Big Bear, or perhaps some particularly broad-minded elk, we'll be opening the farm again for our next Pinot & Perspective gathering:

Saturday, June 27: 1:00 p.m. and 2:45 p.m.

Nick and Sheryl will lead tastings of our wines and ciders, followed by a walk through the vineyard and orchard. And because this is Pinot & Perspective, the conversation often ranges beyond wine and farming into current events, global affairs, and whatever questions guests bring to the table.

We may even have a special mystery guest you probably know of, to help answer questions. Any guesses? Come join us!

The cost is $50 per person, but that amount is fully applicable toward a wine club membership, cider club membership, or the purchase of a case or more of wine or cider.

🍎 The Bears Aren't Our Only Winners

While the bears have been getting most of the attention lately, we're delighted to report that two of our ciders won America’s Good Food Awards. Our Orchard Cider and Reserve Cider were named winners!

The announcement comes on the heels of another gratifying month for our ciders. At the recent Cidercraft Awards, our ciders received three gold medals, a double gold medal, and a platinum medal. The Good Food Awards celebration will take place later this month in New York City, and we're humbled to be part of it.

If you'd like to see what all the fuss is about, we're always happy to ship our award-winning ciders directly to your door.

We hope to see some of you on June 27. And if not, our wines and ciders are always happy to make the journey to you.

Oh, and finally an apology if some of you have been on our social media and seen abusive comments there that have nothing to do with farming, cider or wine. They arise from a major investigative article that Nick wrote in The New York Times about sexual assaults of Palestinians in Israeli prisons. Prime Minister Netanyahu denounced the article in furious terms, and it has been, er, controversial.

We try to keep our farm lives separate from our professional lives, but that doesn’t always work. We even lost some wine club members because of it. But Nick has spent his career covering human rights issues, and anyone who thinks that he will soft-pedal sexual assaults because of concern about wine sales doesn’t know Nick! And we should also say that we’ve been touched by the wave of warm and supportive messages from people who reached out, reported hateful online comments to the platforms and generally reminded us what a wonderful community this is!