The Thumbs Have It (Haystack Needle Labeled Wines)

Random BORG: “I have the same water bottle as you!”
Non-BORG (me): “Cool.”
Random BORG: “I love it! It keeps water cold and besides, Nalgenes are bad for you.”
Non-BORG (me): “True.”
Random BORG: “And it’s pretty!
Non-BORG (me): “Yes.”
Random BORG: “The only thing I don’t like about it is the cap. You have to twist it off to drink from the bottle.”
Non-BORG (me): “That’s why you have opposable thumbs you twit! It’s called evolution. Didn’t they teach that in BORG school? It’s called being at the top of the food chain.”

Speaking of having opposable thumbs and actually USING them – I helped “foil” wine bottles, pack the bottles in boxes, and load the boxes on pallets for about four hours last Saturday for a winery called Clubhouse Cellars. Clubhouse Cellars doesn’t have a tasting room but they do share some space with Page Cellars in the warehouse district in Woodinville. As mentioned in a previous post, the warehouse district is my favorite area in Woodinville to go wine tasting. There are about 25 wineries in the warehouse district, all within stumbling, I mean within walking distance of each other in this part of Woodinville Wine Country. Bob Bullock and his wife, Lauren, are joint owners of Clubhouse Cellars, along with Jim and Rothelle Page (Page Cellars) and are incredibly sweet people. I helped them with their Chardonnay, and their Rose of Mourvedre. All of these wines have the same Haystack Needle brand on the labels, which is extremely savvy on their part. As you can see from the picture of the label in this post, it’s a nice label, and easy to recognize and remember. And the icing on the cake, or in this case, the thimble on the needle in the haystack is: their wines are delicious and priced to sell out quickly. The Sangiovese and the Chardonnay sell for only 10 sheckles, the Rose for 13. You can purchase the Haystack Needle wines at Esquin in Seattle and Top Foods in Woodinville.

My favorite, at least that day, was the Rose of Mourvedre. I’m not a huge fan of Roses but occasionally I taste one that stands out from the crowd. I like the Haystack Needle Rose because it’s much darker than most Roses in color so it doesn’t make me full like a wuss for drinking a “pink” wine and it isn’t sweet, nor is it too dry. In the words of Goldilocks, it’s just right.

I received a couple bottles of wine for my efforts that day, which isn't bad for about four hours of work, and we were given lunch, and of course a couple of samples of what we were busy foiling and boxing. The Rose is extremely quaffable and was perfect for the warm weather we had on Sunday. More please!

I love my opposable thumbs and the wine they sometimes earn for me. Just like the Tyrannosaurus Rex, if that BORG doesn’t embrace the fact that she has thumbs and she needs to use them regularly, she just might become extinct.