When Naomi named our Roussanne “marry me?” she always hoped to receive a letter like this…

Dear Naomi and Roshambo Winery team,

I want to thank you for your creative spirit and creating a wine named “marry me?”

My boyfriend Patrick and I recently went out to dinner for a lovely evening since he was going to be moving. After we finished the fine dining cuisine the waitress brought a second bottle of wine. I looked quizzically at Patrick because I didn’t recall ordering a second bottle of wine. The waitress presented the bottle of wine to me and required that I read the entire label, with a dramatic gesture of her hands. I got to the bottom of your Roshambo Roussanne 2005 label and it had written on the label “marry me?” At that same time I was reading and trying to figure out what I was reading Patrick was getting down on his knee and that’s when he asked me to marry him. I said an enthusiastic yes and we are planning to get married this coming April.

It was so special for Patrick to propose with your bottle of wine because he is a huge fan of your wines and is a part of your wine club. That is in fact how he received this wine marry me? last year.

Patrick, now my fiance’, and I are planning to turn the bottle he used to propose to me into a lamp to keep on our bed stand table when we get married.

It was really special and I just wanted to share how you were a part of our proposal story.
Thank you very much for your time.

All my best to you and your company,

Emily Cable

If you or someone you know needs a little help popping the question, follow Patrick’s lead and ask over a bottle of “marry me?” Roussanne.

“All You Need Is One Hand and a Dream” was the title of yesterday’s blog post on Jaunted.com about our forthcoming Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament. The pop culture/travel blog is owned by the internet division of Conde Nast and sees about 550k unique visitors a month. Not to be too nitpicky, but given the size and budget of such a blog, I’m surprised that hotshot writer Dan Ricciato didn’t do a little fact checking. For if he did, he’d surely know that all you really need are (three fingers on) one hand. And a dream. But who’s counting?

That said, I’d like to take this space to STRENUOUSLY suggest you sign up asap for Saturday’s $1600 RPS Throw Down. Tickets are going fast and with the plugs we’re getting on Alice Radio tomorrow morning, 7×7 magazine, Press Democrat, Bohemian and in the Chronicle’s 96 Hours section, we expect to fill our competitor brackets. Besides, for all you seasoned vets to our sport, this year brings added interest as it’s being held at our splendid new home at Cornerstone Place in Sonoma. Think of it as our Welcome Back bash. (Which is ironic, since we never really went away.)

Do you remember pulling “all-nighters” in college? Well, if you were anything like me you would have found yourself dicking around all semester long, frittering your time away until you were frantically calling around for Ritalin because a 24-page paper was due in a handful of hours. And while you might hate yourself for a good 24 hours or so, you’d find a way to distract yourself and take the edge off until the next deadline, right? Sound familiar? (Just so you know, I totally understand and envy you if it doesn’t.) Well, I always assumed that this procrastisease was something that naturally passed after school. I hung onto this assumption throughout college and grad school.

However, I didn’t shake it. In fact, every time a Party Army newsletter is due, despite the fact I know months in advance when the next wine club shipment is slated, I find myself frantically calling around. Not for Ritalin anymore, but for Richard Miller of Calyx Design. I ring him up in hopes that he can drop everything he’s doing to whip up the design and layout of our newsletter.

“When do you need it to the printer?” he’ll ask.

“Yesterday.”

“Naturally.”

This scenario unfolded yet again yesterday as I scrambled for content and a theme for next week’s Party Army Package. For those of you who aren’t in our Wine Club (you can click here and fix that), each shipment brings a unique newsletter. While I’m not sure if anyone actually reads them, in the past I’ve sent themed ones with roshambo-related word games, fake news stories, pirate maps or a mock sommelier exam. They are nowhere near as cool as the wine that comes in the box, but let’s face it, our grapestuff is a tough act to follow.

For this one, I’ve decided to write a “blog post” about the near disaster Steve and Naomi had on the Roshambus’ maiden voyage to San Francisco. But I won’t be posting this story online. I want to save something special for that growing band of loyalists in our Party Army. I want to show our appreciation to them in some small way. Not that I would ever try luring you (non-members click here) to the Disco Side of the Wine World with this cheap ploy. I mean, witholding stories about the “Roshambus and the Redwood Tree” would be cruel and unusual and probably rather ineffective given the accessibility of our back issues on eBay and Amazon and in your nearest Barnes & Noble, right?

So, what are you waiting for? Join the Party Army! And tell them Scott Keneally sent you!

(You may not get any kind of discount, buuuut you might win me some points with Naomi!! And who couldn’t use a few extra points with their lovers?)

Ciao, for now.

We’ve always kind of feared that if we set foot in a church our skin would immediately bubble and fall off in sheets, but this morning, our worst fears were confirmed. At 9:14 a.m. we received an email from one of our fire-and-brimstone Wine Club members. Perhaps he has read Sinners at the Hands of an Angry God a few too many times, but after seeing the Tattoo Art Show on our walls he flat out canceled his membership to our Party Army Wine Club.

“I was fairly disgusted by the art on your walls,” he said. “It was as if hell had advanced to Westside Road.” Oh God. How did he know! But everyone, calm down. Don’t worry. Stan is gonna pray for us. Yup. We are in Stan the Man’s prayers. “I pray that God will show you the truth in your lost pursuit of zeal in 2006.” Phew! Anyways, I’m not sure why our irreverent approach to wine would have appealed to a guy like this in the first place, but Stan, thanks for showing us the light. You will be missed!

I can only wonder what he would have done if he saw our Naomi Brilliant’s series of twisted food photographs.

(Yes, before our Wine Hero created Roshambo from her grandfather’s vineyards and her own warped sensibilities, she was a budding photographer and artist in Portland. Perhaps this “Hamster Hoagie” is what led DETAILS magazine to say that “With a feather tattoo on the back of her left leg and a dragonfly on the back of her right, Naomi Brilliant is blessed with the graceful kind of morbidity of a Tim Burton movie princess.”)