Cork Cellars' Newest Addition

We're proud to announce the newest addition to the Cork Cellars Family, baby Nora Jeane Pelletier. Born March 14th at 2:39pm, Nora was 9lbs 2oz. and came in at a whopping 21.5 in long. Mark and I want to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone - all of you have been so grateful and encouraging!

Mama, Papa, and Baby Pelletier are all doing fine and resting at home. We haven't had a chance to celebrate yet - but plan on popping open a bottle of 1999 Vilmart & Cie Coeur de Cuvee Champagne to toast the healthy arrival of the new one.

We look forward to introducing Nora to you all when she's ready! In the mean time, take advantage of all the great happenings at Cork Cellars - maybe you'll catch us there soon.

I'll also be excited to hear who won the pool! Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive throughout the months - be sure to check and see if you've won the gift certificate to the spa...we'll be pouring you a glass of champagne to celebrate your correct guess! Cheers, Emily

TOTALLY TUESDAY's at Cork Cellars

We're with ya - as local business owners we understand the need to tighten up those straps as we all try and get through this tough economic time. But, we also realize that it's still important to get out every once in a while, socialize, laugh, and have a good time with friends and family. That's why, starting St. Patty's Day 2009 - Tuesday, March 17th, we're launching TOTALLY TUESDAY's.

Totally Tuesday is an expansion of our 10% Tuesday's - so, not only will our customers receive 10% off your purchase of 3 or more bottles of wine every Tuesday, but you can also sit down in our comfortable tasting bar and get ANY TIME OF THE DAY:

• $1 off your glass of wine
  
• $2 Mirror Pond and Bud Light bottles
• $1 off grilled paninis and decadent desserts

You read it right! It's a great deal on our already reasonable prices, so we encourage you to take advantage of it. We look forward to serving you!

A reminder about our wines by the glass list. Cork Cellars has a very unique business plan to encourage our customers to ALWAYS be trying new and exciting wines - from here and around the world. We STILL change our wines by the glass list every week, allowing you to come in and try a variety of wines, varietals, and producers, WITHOUT the big city prices. In fact, our wine list prices are really reasonable, considering the quality of wine and compared to places even around Central Oregon! Combine that with a friendly staff and a great selection of wines to take home, Cork Cellars is a great place to hang out, learn, and enjoy food & wine. That's our goal.

We look forward to seeing & serving you on Tuesday's for TOTALLY TUESDAY!

Discovering Italy: Cheese and Wine Tasting of Northern Italy

Our first attempt of a more "structured" wine event was scheduled Thursday, Feb. 19th. With our good friends, Juri and Kinley Sbandati, we featured a Northern Italian Wines and Cheeses tasting event. Juri, who is an Italian historian and personal chef from Florence, Italy, spent some time talking about the northern Italian regions and the cheeses you typically find there. Earl, our good friend and Italian wine guru, then spoke about wines and they are typically paired with the cheeses.

Here, Juri and I are discussing the evenings activities. We structured the event to have a 30 minute (or so - Juri got to talking so I think it went much longer than that) presentation about the cheeses. Guests were greeted with a glass of Prosecco (Italian sparkling wine that is common to hand out when a guests comes to your door) for the first part of the presentation.

Then, Juri started to "cut the cheese" (which, by the way, has no comical meaning in Italian - so Kinley had to explain to him why everyone laughed when I encouraged him to get "cutting"). His family has a rich history in the culinary field, and this great cutting board that is over 100 years old was passed down to him.

We had 5 different cheeses, and 4 different wines paired with each cheese. The information presented by Earl and Juri was fantastic - encouraging great questions and second tastings around. The group gave great vibes, and it was a fantastic evening of knowledge, food, and wine. For a full list of the wines and cheeses presented that evening, please feel free to stop in the shop and ask. We can set you up to have your own tasting! And, if you missed this great event and are interested in learning more, look for another planned event in the upcoming months. The event was so successful that we plan to move down the country and present wines and cheeses from Central Italy next!

More Music at the Wine Shop

Each Sat. night we feature a local music artist - and we couldn't be MORE happy with the quality, sound, and excitement from these live music nights. It's a great venue to come and listen, a relaxing atmosphere, always great wines by the glass, and great food to consume.

Feb. 21st was the first appearance of NTT ("entity") at our place, and it was a HIT! Kevin and Deb played an array of music that hit home for everyone there. The combination of musical instruments, the classic vocals, it all added up to a great night of music. They are playing again on March 28th. If you missed the first show - make it to this one, it's fantastic!

On Feb. 28th, Willie Carmichael ROCKED the house - again - with his original music and special guests. No doubt, if you made this show, you know why he is so popular! Standing room only, I didn't have much room to move around, but the folks didn't seem to mind. And, not only is Willie one of our favorite artists to play - he is SO generous, he came with loads of his current CD and passed them out to ALL the party goers as a thank you for coming! Now, he's a busy man and he's not planning on coming back to play until Friday, April 17th. Put that on your calendar - it's the My Own Two Hands Art Stroll, and Sisters will be hopping with live music, lots of art, wine, and food. We will see you then.

Live music is planned through the end of April. Check out our website for the next event!

Meet the Staff of Cork Cellars

It's no wonder folks who visit Cork Cellars call it "The Cheers" of Sisters - we strive to provide all our customers with a great atmosphere and fantastic service where "everyone knows your name". And, it all starts with our awesome staff!

Over the next two months, my staff is taking over Cork Cellars - come meet them and see why I entrust them all to you. From left to right, we've got Kim, Kerry, Patty, Bill, and Melissa. Missing from the picture is Ellina and Sondy (and me - I'm taking the picture).

A majority of the time, when you visit Cork Cellars, you'll see Bill and Melissa. Both have been working with me for almost a year and a half.

Melissa, who lives just around the corner from Cork, has 2 young girls and a husband who works for the Forest Service. She is great with customers and knows the in's and out's of the day-to-day operations at Cork. If you need to order wine for a special event or for personal consumption, let her know! She'll be working closely with me and our distributors over the next couple of months to make sure all of your orders are filled!

Bill, and his wife Cheryl, live in Bend and are definitely wine aficionado's! We became fast friends about 2 years ago, and after about 6 months, I finally coaxed him into working at the shop part time! He's great behind the bar, serving up glasses of wine and great food. He loves talking about wine and wine tasting - so if you have questions - he has the answers.

Kerry and his wife are retired and live in Sisters - and have been great customers since their move here to Central Oregon full time. I guess what I'm saying is that Kerry definitely knows the ropes of the shop - he's been in for wine tastings, sampled everything on the food menu, relaxed with a glass of wine, and can pull off wine from the shelf blindfolded:) Don't hesitate to come in and give him a try - he's our newest member of the team and doing great!

Kim, Patty, Ellina, and Sondy are my best friends in town who have worked at Cork as occasionally as I needed someone to fill in. Sondy and I have been working together on Friday evenings for over 2 years - she's about to have a baby as well, so you won't see her much in the upcoming months. The other 3 lovely ladies have stepped up to the plate to help while I'm on maternity leave. All I can say is watch out! If they are working, you are guaranteed to have a GREAT time, laugh, and meet some regulars.

Here's a picture of us, including me! Again, stop on in and meet the great staff at Cork Cellars. Cheers!