Hi Mica, I can't believe you're about to ship! Cool! Time flies! Say, anybody know what a time fly looks like?
 
Reid

Mica, you guys got me again...I'm speechless! OK, maybe I'm not. I can't believe how gorgeous that logo is, and I can't believe I'm going to be thumping on that bass within days!
 
Thanks more than you guys can imagine! :-)
 
Reid

OK, get out the champagne, I'm about to Christen this here bass guitar. In honor of my favorite sunburst of all time, the WineBurst, and of the most favored grape status of the pinot noir varietal here in the Willamette Valley, Ladies and gentlemen, I give you 'Pinot.'  
 
Next, I'm going to order one in a tobacco sunburst and call it Stout. Only kidding...
Oh, and actually I'm not giving Pinot to anyone!
 
My thanks to everyone that's worked on the bass, I know it's going to sound every bit as gorgeous as it looks!
 
Reid

Reid, I'm also a wine lover, and both the Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris are favorite wines of mine. Your beautiful Pinot is certainly amongst my favorite basses, cheers!
 
Wilfred

Great name - and Alembic is situated in wine territory too, right?
 
I can see the tint of the pinot noir. But the picture has a purple haze all over, could be due to the carpet. If it is more like purple in real life, perhaps you'd have to re-baptize her Merlot.

Yep, there are some great wineries within a few minutes of the Alembic shop.  Santa Rosa is in the middle of the Sonoma wine region.  Among other wines, it's the heart of Zinfandel country with lots of grape trees.  They are really vines, but if you've ever seen a 100+ year old zinfandel vine, you know why I call them trees.  I think they might be big enough to get a headstock laminate out of them.
 
If you go for a factory tour and have an interest in wine, you will be torn between hanging out in the showroom and playing great instruments and racing off to the wineries before they close.  The only solution is to plan to be there for multiple days.
 
For an Alembic-area Pinot, Mayo family winery has their last vintage of a pinot made from grapes grown up the road at Kunde.  Kunde ripped out the vines last year to plant something else, so this is Mayo's last year releasing this wine.  We bought half a case of that, among other things, when we were there last month.

Unfortunately I don't have a wine budget to match my taste buds. But sometimes there's an opportunity where you get a taste of the real stuff.
 
One comforting thought is that if you never get to drink top wines, you won't know what you're missing (sounds like sour grapes anyway []).
 
As far as California wines go, i once tasted a very velvety red Fetzer that I can sort of remember having in my mouth. And once a very, very nice white Benziger (not entirely sure about the spelling) probably a chardonnay.

I'll make a shocking recommendation then.  Try Black Box wines.  They're quality California wines sold in a box.  The price is excellent at about $20 for a 3 liter box, equivalent to about $5 per bottle, and the box can live a month or more in the fridge.  You don't have to worry about what to do with the other half of the bottle if you only drink two glasses, because the bag keeps it fresh.  
 
I'm not affiliated with them, but was pleased with their quality when we did a tasting back in May.
 
-Bob

Wilfred, I forgot about pinot gris, that is a fantastic white! I discovered it just a couple of years ago and it restored my interest in white wines. Well that and Evolution, a special blend done by Sokol Blosser here in Oregon. It's purpose is to accompany hot food dishes, and it works really well!

Adriaan and Bob, I also like California merlots, cabernets and zinfandels. Rodney Strong makes some great merlots and cabernets, and I liked Bonny Doon zinfandel so much, I have a framed poster based on their label in my dining room! The artwork was done by Ralph Steadman for their Cardinal Zin zinfandel, and was so controversial that it was actually banned in some places! I first came across Ralph's work in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the book by Hunter S. Thompson. What a wild story!
 
Reid

Reid
 
Thanks for the compliment but your bass is pretty stunning as well. What a great idea I don't think I would have ever thought about doing something like that. What a beauty!
 
Rory

Reid,
 
Very, very nice! Another surface mount logo as well, and with the Alembic script! What'll they think of next. I'm sure those pix don't even come close to doing this bad boy justice. Quilt tops are very hard to photograph without the figuring washing out (ask me how I know, LOL!).  
 
While I really enjoy Cali, including wine country, I'm not much of a wine drinker (I could tell you more about balsamic vinegar than I could wines, LOL!), but I am a stout fanatic (Guiness anyone? LOL!) so I am a little disappointed about it not being a tobacco sunburst (LOL! J/K).  
 
Never mind my authentic frontier gibberish, Good Luck with the thing: I can't wait to see it completed.
 
Cheers,
 
Kevin

Kevin and Rory,  
 
Thanks for the compliments on Pinot, I'm stoked for sure! I love the natural quilted maple look too, and you guys have prime examples of that wood's eye-popping beauty. Kevin, I imagine it might be a bit frustrating trying to photograph that stunning top on your Orion. For what we spend of these basses, it isn't too silly to think of taking them to a professional photography studio to have them photo'd! Heck, they're members of the family!  
 
Another good/bad thing about living in Oregon is the fabulous micro-brewery scene out here. I like fine beer as much as fine wine and here there's dozens of locally brewed stouts, porters, bitters, amber ales, it goes on and on... I switched to wine as my preferred poison in part because of all the calories I was getting drinking the killer ales! Red wine is of course, a health drink, since it is good for your heart! Yeah, right! :-)  
 
Here's to ya,  
 
Reid  
 
P.S. I do drink beer when I'm out playing, since beer is the official lubricant of rock 'n roll!

Woooof!
 
I thought for a moment : Wine??wine? Wine? What happened to the good'ol beer??
I was ready to start some beertalk but ...well ...brother Reid beated me in the end run!
 
To your health!
 
Paul the bad one
 
 
DOH! Did I tell y'all that I like Irish whiskey too?!?!?!  Bass-beer-women and whiskey ...that must be PTBO.
 
Kiddin' ...well ..kindoff

Brother Paul, educate me in the ways of Irish whiskey. Having grown up in Tennessee, I tended to stay close to home whiskey-wise. I like Jack Daniels, of course, and up in Kentucky, Makers Mark and Wild Turkey are good. As far as international whiskeys, well Canadian Club is about all I've sampled. After all that then, the question is, What Irish whiskey do you prefer?
 
Top of the mornin' to ya,
 
Reid