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September Amista Friends of the Month Newsletter!

Here at Amista, we take the time to honor our Wine Club members as each and every one continue to stay passionate about our wines. We love to hear their stories of sharing with friends and family.

These are Club Members who we have special relationships with, and who visit us from near and far! Once a month we feature Amista Friends of the Month in our monthly newsletter. In accepting this invitation, they receive additional benefits... such as extra savings on wine, food pairings, and other treats during the month. We do this every month, and reach out to Club Members asking if they would like to participate. Keep an eye out in your inbox to see if you have been nominated by our Wine Club Coordinator!

For the month of September, we are featuring Amy who lives in Oakley, CA and has been visiting us since 2012! She is a member of our Circle of Friends - Sparkling club, but she loves our still wines, too!

We appreciate her continued passion and loyalty to our wines. Below is her story!

Becoming a Member:

It seems like a lifetime ago since I walked in those doors with my friends and decided to become a member. I had been introduced to Amista from my friend Judianne that had been there during a Passport weekend and thought it was great. Driving down the gravel road with the vines on either side, sun shining, blue skies, couldn't ask for a better picture-perfect day. When we walked in, we were greeted warmly and made to feel like we were right where we were supposed to be. I was still quite new to the whole wine tasting experience and had only joined one other wine club at the time. Still we were treated like family and everything was explained to us in simple terms and made us feel right at home. The wines were just the icing on the cake! Everything we tasted was delicious. I loved every red wine I tasted and decided it was absolutely worth it to become a member! Over the years I have tasted at lots of wineries all over California, several states across the nation as well as cruise ships and even in Germany, no place makes me like home more than Amista.

Favorite Amista Memory:

In 2013, I was looking at places to celebrate my 40th birthday. I knew I wanted it to spend it with my family and friends drinking wine and enjoying the day. My birthday is March 17th and that year I was lucky enough to have it fall on a weekend. I approached Amista with the possibility of letting me end my day there and having a dinner catered by Zin's in Healdsburg. I was over the moon excited when Vicky and Mike agreed to let me have part of my day there. At the time I was told I was the guinea pig, they had never let a member have a party there after hours. I rented a hummer limo and brought 14 of my friends with me. We had gone to 3 other wineries that day, starting in the Carneros region and ending up in Healdsburg. I couldn't have imagined a more perfect day. When we arrived at Amista around 5pm, Zin's was there setting up for the dinner outside on the patio and Amista staff were pouring the wines. We took pictures on the old oversized tricycle and they had hoola hoops there was for us to play with while we waited. After dinner, we had a dance party in the tasting room, which I am sure there is a video of that could be used as blackmail! lol Everyone had a great time and it is still often talked about when we get together.

Favorite Wine and Food Pairing:

I love to have sparkling Syrah with my waffles/pancakes, sausage, bacon and eggs.
Rockpile Cabernet Sauvignon is my wine of choice when I make a grilled steak marinated with basil olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and Greek seasoning cooked to medium. with a side of baked red potatoes and asparagus.

Amista Vineyards
3320 Dry Creek Road
Healdsburg, CA 95448
707.431.9200

Amista ~ making friends