The tasting was a lovely overview of the high acid, mineral-driven wines of the Ahr, Franken and AOC Thurgau (Swiss) terroirs.  Most notable was how fresh the fruit tasted within the confines of well structured, leanness.  The textures of these wines (and they were not pricey — US $ 20.00-30.00 suggested retail) — indicates that these VDP — small, independent German producers have a big potential to find an audience.  How about a German Pinot seminar in 2013 IPNC?

Here’s what we tasted:

2009 Jean Stodden, Ahr Valley, Spatburgunder

2009 Kreuzberg, Ahr Valley, Sonnenberg Spatburgunder

2009 Furst, Franken, Centgrafenberg Spatburgunder

2009 Bernhard Huber, Baden, Bombacher Sommerhalde Spatburgunder

2009 Burggarten, Ahr Valley, “Signatur” Spatburgunder — I loved this wine.  It had a funky cinnamon toast on the nose which I noticed on another wine.

It was very well balanced, had a tad of earthy funk.  As Rudy said ‘it is a beautiful use of the oak, supports the fruit so nicely.”

2010 Meyer-Nakel, Ahr Valley Spatburgunder

2009 Schlossgut Bachtobel, AOC Thurgau Switzerland Pinot Noir — this was a super cool label — cut out stencil deal.  Loved the austerity of this wine, still good fruit, and not shy but restrained in a way that leaves you wanting more.

Virtue will debut two additional styles of barrel-aged draft cider in the fall of 2012 in Chicago, as well as SW Michigan, New York City and Portland, Oregon.

To recognize the Chicago launch of RedSteak, Virtue hosted an event last night at The Hideout to benefit The Academy of Global Citizenship, a Chicago Public Charter School. It was an awesome night filled with copious cider, delicious food courtesy of Chicago’s top restaurants and live music.

Two bands took the stage. First was The Blisters. Spencer Tweedy, son of Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, is the drummer in this awesome teenage Chicago band. They rocked it.  Second up was The Waco Brothers, the alt-country band formed by Jon Langford of the Mekons. Their cult popularity is primarily a response to their live performances. And boy, was it a show!

Congratulations to Greg Hall and the Virtue Team.

Here at Watershed, we are pretty excited about the switchover to Timeline for brand pages. Timeline for brands offers companies a unique chance to craft a narrative story for their brand while simultaneously engaging with customers.

Here a few quick tips from our social team to make your brand’s transition a little easier.

Top Three Tips:

1. Create and rotate new apps into the top of your page regularly.

2. Pin relevant and timely content to the top of your page.

3. Update your posts with user-friendly content to create dialogue and encourage engagement.

5 Major Changes to the Page

1. Updated Look and Feel: Addition of a Cover Photo and a new layout

The new layout offers an opportunity for increased self-expression through a corporate narrative explained by Timeline “Milestones” (product launches, store openings, staff hires, etc.), a concise “About” section, and interchangeable “Tabs” at the top of the page.

Watershed Recommendations: The timeline offers the chance to humanize the brand. Content that depicts behind-the-scenes activities, exclusive updates, a story of company culture or offers promotions helps to craft a story of the brand over time and can stimulate conversation. Use these events and information as “Milestones” and in the “About” section.

2. Reduced Tab Visibility–and the ability to select which tabs are visible

“Tabs” have moved to the top of the page and only 3 are now visible without an additional click-through.

Watershed Recommendations: Because only three “Tabs” are now visible, it is really important for the tabs to be considered carefully. The three  you choose to show should encourage engagement and be in-line with company objectives or campaign goals. Facebook’s re-vamped “Insights” are a good way to measure this over time. To start, we recommend choosing basic tabs like the Map, Photo, Event or cross-promotional social media tabs like Twitter, and then measuring using “Insights” to see which are getting the best traffic or encouraging the most relevant conversation.

3. No Default Landing Page

Businesses can no longer choose which tab visitors land on when they visit the brand page, they will now always be directed to the Timeline.

Watershed Recommendations: To control content visibility, brands must now put more emphasis on the top messages in the Timeline.  The new “Pin” feature lets brands keep certain posts at the top of their Timeline. See below for more information about this process.

4. New Ways to Feature Content

The ability to “pin” content helps brands pick and choose certain stories, photos, videos or polls to keep at the top of their content for a specified period of time.

Watershed Recommendations: Because you can no longer use a landing page, this is the best way to highlight new and interesting content. Brands may even consider designing posts specifically for “pinning;” such “pins” might include images, a call-to-action, statements about the brand’s values, or messaging that encourages users to click-through to relevant content.

5. Private Messages Between Brands and Users

Brands can finally receive and send private messages with page followers.  This allows for a new and completely different kind of brand/customer engagement.

Watershed Recommendations: Because of the look of the new Timeline, long comment strings on posts can clutter the look and feel.  When a brand can better serve its customers through private communication, private messaging will allow this.

One new brewery that has captured Bend’s spirit for the outdoors and appreciation of good living is… well, Good Life. This new brewery just blocks from the main Deschutes brewing facility opened its doors in 2011, to a Bier Hall hung with extreme mountain sports photos, and has become a locals favorite, both for their beer and their awesome warehouse space. The beer is downright good. When I visited, they had 3 beers on tap: the Descender IPA, a hoppy balance of citrus and floral notes with 70 IBUs and 7% ABV – very indicative of an Oregon IPA, the American Stout Ale with 6 malts and 2 hop varietals , and the Mountain Rescue Pale Ale that’s dry hopped and delicious. Now I’m anxiously awaiting their next release… an India Brown Ale (IBA). So far, here at Watershed we’re fans of IPA mash-ups – India Red Ale anyone? – so our hope is that Good Life’s IBA will continue to evolve hoppy beer syles.

And Good Life really seals the deal with their space, they designed this place to grow. The Bier Hall spills into their giant brewery, with picnic tables right in the heart of the action, while their outdoor Biergarten could accommodate huge crowds, concerts or even festivals.

Good Life is just getting started, and their instant success is proof of Bend’s youthful renaissance. They truly capture the best of what Oregon has to offer… the good life.

“Serial entrepreneur” Steven Smith has done it again.

After an illustrious career founding Stash and Tazo tea companies, he is once again attracting serious media attention. Check out the February issue of Entrepreneur magazine if you don’t believe us.

Inspired by the story of  Steve’s passion for tea and his drive to continuously improve the quality, Entrepreneur writer Bruce Schoenfield  tells Steve’s career story as one of entrepreneurial success, marketing genius, and a unique ability to recognize the importance of design aesthetic.

Cheers to Steven Smith, 2012 is shaping up to be a great year for the Portland artisan community!

While the grocery and convenience store has long been the go-to place to pick up a six-pack or 22oz. beer, specialty bottle shops, beer bars and homebrew supply stores are becoming increasingly popular. Popping up all over the country (from New York City to Oregon), such establishments offer everyone from the beer novice to the connoisseur and geek the chance to taste a wide variety of specialty, hard-to-find beers and, in the process, learn about the history of beer, the science of brewing and more.

Located in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Top Hops Beer Shop is a premiere retail beer store and bar designed to showcase great beer from around the world. As “Merchants and Advocates of Great Beer,” Top Hops offers a welcoming, unpretentious environment that encourages experimentation. According to proprietor Ted Kenny, “Hopefully we will introduce our customers to beers or styles they have never heard of or tried before.” Beer education is paramount to Top Hops’ mission and Kenny plans to hold many events including presentations by guest brewers, visiting beer writers and beer pairing seminars. With its grand opening this past weekend, we welcome Top Hops to the wonderful world of craft beer!

To learn more about Top Hops, check out these recent articles from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Part homebrew supply shop, brewery and restaurant, Falling Sky Brewing will soon make its debut launch in Eugene, Oregon. Operating for nearly a decade as a homebrew supply shop, Valley Vinter & Brewer (the shop’s former name) is joining forces & expanding its repertoire to do what it knows best ⎯ beer! Partnering with a local chef and seasoned restaurateur, Falling Sky’s menu will focus on locally sourced, in season and sustainably raised ingredients. Opening in late January, Falling Sky will also offer handcrafted sodas and barrel to tap wines. With its new, on-site brewery, Falling Sky Brewing brings the educational aspect of its mission as a homebrew shop to life!

To learn more about Falling Sky Brewing, you can read the recent feature from The Register-Guard.

Cheers from Watershed, the craft beer aficionados!

Congratulations to Steve and Kim and the folks at Sandstrom Design and all the hands that went in to making the perfect story to sit and sip and enjoy over the holidays. We’re off to build more brands in the artisan economy in 2012!

Our inspiration this year? Cocktails. More specifically, barrel-aged bitters.

The first person we called was Jeffrey Morgenthaler, bar manager of Clyde Common.  If there’s barrel-aging involved, he’s the man to call. Jeff advised us to follow Gary Regan’s Orange Bitters no. 5 recipe, so naturally we went for it. It was when Jeffrey so generously loaned us the small oak barrel that aged his first ever barrel-aged negroni that we knew this was going to be quite the experience.

Next, we reached out to Douglas Derrick, bar manager of Nostrana, for a little advice on the process since he makes bitters seasonally. Luckily for us, he was just beginning his own cranberry bitters project at the restaurant and took us under his wings.

After 85 hand-peeled oranges, innumerable bags of Oregon cranberries, and countless hours of cooking in giant brewing vats, we have produced something we are really proud of.

What a great pairing: Oregon cranberry bitters and barrel-aged orange bitters — both perfect for creative versions of the Manhattan (a nice nod to our NYC office, led by media guru and cocktail loving Helen Baldus!)

So, in the spirit of the holiday season, we would like to share two fantastic Manhattan recipes and recommend you sip with friends and family. Cheers to a wonderful year to come and taking the time to craft something truly special.

Nocino Manhattan

Recipe by Douglas Derrick of Nostrana, Portland, Ore.

2.0 oz. Ransom Whippersnapper Whiskey

0.5 oz. Handmade Nocino or Nux Alpina Walnut Liqueur (See Note)

1 bar spoon of 2:1 Demerara Syrup

2 dashes of Oregon Cranberry Bitters (or Fee Brothers cranberry bitters)

Ice cubes

Stir ingredients, serve up, add two cranberries for garnish.

Demerara syrup:

2 parts Demerara Sugar and 1 part hot water.  Mix well.

Note: Look for a product imported by Haus Alpenz called Nux Alpina Walnut Liqueur, but using this version will require added sugar.

Orange Manhattan

2 oz. Rye Whiskey
1 oz. Sweet Vermouth
2 dashes Orange bitters (or to taste)

Ice cubes

Stir ingredients in a mixing glass, strain into a chilled martini glass.

Beagle owner Matthew Piacentini and head bartender Dan Greenbaum’s pre-prohibition-inspired drinks are worthy of the honorable mention. To keep the flavors intense, Greenbaum steams them through an espresso steamer rather than adding the traditional hot water. And, while we trust anything the innovative cocktail pair creates, you can personalize your own toddies by choosing from a variety of belly-warming whiskeys.

The Beagle offers four toddy varieties: hot toddy, whiskey skin, brick and hot buttered rum—all served with a plate of deliciously caloric savory shortbread cookies in flavors like bacon fat. I guess we know where our New York team member Helen Baldus will be spending her cold winter evenings.

Kurt Huffman, Cathy Whims, and Ryan Magarian

Monday night marked a momentous occasion for the Pearl District’s restaurant scene. We had the pleasure of hosting the media launch party for Oven and Shaker, the much-anticipated pizza-and-cocktail project of Nostrana’s Cathy Whims, ChefStable’s Kurt Huffman, and renowned cocktail genius Ryan Magarian. Oven and Shaker, a sort of urban-saloon-meets-pizzeria space, offers an Italian-street food and wood-fired pizza menu that puts delectable food items and enticing cocktail combinations on level footing.

The evening was ideal and the buzz in the media community was electric: Oven and Shaker is bringing a reasonably priced hot spot to the posh Pearl District restaurant scene. Karen Brooks of Portland Monthly magazine’s “Eat Beat” describes Whims as Portland’s “pizza goddess,” and  we couldn’t agree more with her trademark slow-rising, sourdough Neapolitan crusts and outstanding pairings of local and Italian ingredients. Magarian’s cocktail menu complements Whims’ creations perfectly by offering a nod to old and new Portland cocktail traditions that run the gamut—from classic with a twist to whimsical and unexpected.

Oven and Shaker opened Wednesday night to a packed house and rave reviews from the general public. Congratulations to the entire Oven and Shaker team, Portlanders are excited to have another forward-thinking restaurant in town and even more excited to see it in the Pearl!