I am full of apologies.

Since I last wrote you, I have been in Brooklyn, bottling wine at the Redhook Winery, where I am one of the winemakers. It is an understatement to say that bottling has been a challenge. We have never bottled at our little urban winery before, and we had a lot to learn to make everything run smoothly. The challenges have consumed me to such a degree that I have fallen out of touch with you. I hope that you will pardon me for that. One of the reasons that I kept quiet was that it became clear to me from the second hour of our first day of bottling that I might not make it back to California on the schedule that I had projected. This afternoon, after a pump on the mobile bottling line failed (in the middle of Brooklyn, it's not like we could run down the road and borrow another from the winery next door), I became certain that I could not make the date that I had promised you on September 12.

So I am writing to ask your forgiveness—but also with good news. We had originally intended to limit the tasting to the first 50 respondents, and to forbid respondents from bringing guests—since we would be turning away so many of you who had responded. I can tell you now that this would have meant turning away more than a hundred and thirty of you. My offer now, to atone for rescheduling the date of the proposed tasting, is to promise to receive all 185 of you who had requested spots.

In order to do this, we have decided to offer two larger tastings. We will hold them on the following nights:

Now, all that I am asking you to do, is to choose one of the new dates and RSVP. We will award spots in the order that we receive RSVPS; if we cannot accomodate your first choice, we will offer you a spot in the other tasting.

Lastly, if you have already made plans for the 12th and cannot change them, please email me directly and we will try to work something out for you.

Please indicate your choice of date here:

I thank you very much in advance for your understanding. I look forward to meeting every one of you and thanking you for your support.