Dear Friends,

I've come to the ridge above the vineyard this morning, to write to you, unmolested by the crowding idle concerns of the day. A year ago, I came like this, to find peace and mind to write to a cherished, distant friend, and was rewarded. I hope you all are very well.

This early, the valley lies soaked in silver dew. Dandelions, which will trumpet golden spring in a few hours, curl tight against the cold dawn. The low sun, tangled in gauze, bleeds shadows into gullies and hollows. Far away, sheep shift like underwater stones, a faint trace of sunshine describing their backs.

There is, however, joy and abandon overhead, as our nesting pair of harriers cartwheel and cry, coaxing two fledglings to try their new wings.

So an apt scene for beginnings: Claudia and I are thrilled to announce the release of our first wines from home.

You'll find new information on our home vineyards, and on the two 2006 Pinot Noirs being offered, on this updated website. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us.

For us, every pour of these wines will reflect a thousand glints of mood and mind - hope, fatigue, triumph, despair, elation, resolve, content. For you, we hope simply that the wines bring pleasure, engagement, perhaps a little magic, and a sure knowledge of your place in our life.

The dawn is so breathless, the rising chorus of morning sound feels almost like a lifting wind: the trembling fuss of lambs, natter and holler of shelducks, eruptive crow of roosters; and high above, the spangling, silver music of larks.

As the sun slowly climbs, our valley blinks sleep from its eyes, and spring's soft palette begins to emerge, in pallid blue skies, chalk white cliffs, pastel teases of willow, and radiant fields of rape.

All in all, not a bad morning to test our own, new wings.

Warm regards,

Mike & Claudia Weersing