In celebration of the contributions made by our entire theatre community, Southern Oregon Impact Theatre will be hosting the First Ever Impact Awards Ceremony in Grants Pass at the Palace Building on G Street on Friday, February 6th at 6:00PM. You're invited to attend this first-ever, very exciting event. $6 entry fee. Madeline DeCourcey and Shane Skinner have been nominated for their fearless work in the Summer Jo production of Wait Until Dark: Madeline for Most Loveable Character, Shane for Innovative Direction. Congratulations to Madeline and Shane!

"Wander this pretty farm in Oregon's Rogue Valley before sitting down to a plate of its fruits, vegetables, and herbs grown to the specifications of Chef Joy Cyr for her seasonal menu. Wheat from the fields becomes artisanal bread, and the tables are prettied up with flowers from the grounds. Whether you eat on the porch, in the garden, or in the wine room, it's hard to better than dishes like nicoise salad with just-picked lettuces, tomatoes, and haricots verts."

Back in January, us wine fans here at the restaurant put together a belated Christmas list that catalogued what we thought would be the best wine list in town. We wanted it to be a list that was interesting, regionally comprehensive, affordable, and complementary to our cuisine.

What we ended up with was an eight-page mini opus that we truly believed was the best in town. From Chilean Carmenere to Greek Makedonikos to just a nice Merlot, we thought that we had made it easy to find the perfect wine for the occasion. While putting this thing together, it was of equal importance to us that there be a high quality-to-price ratio. It's easy to find an exceptional wine for $100. We were much more interested in finding wines that exhibited the quality of a Charles Heidsieck with the price of a Charles Shaw.

So even though it's a dirty job, we strive to taste every wine we put on our list. Between the two of us, that can add up to some 30 new wines in a good week. But before I start seeing e-clamourings to let you’all ease our burden by getting in on these tasteathons, I'll outline the procedures that you’ll be adhering to.

First and foremost, you must spit! It can be a pretty challenging rule to follow, especially when sampling an exceptional $100 wine, but in order to maintain a degree of continuity, you always spit.

Second, take copious notes. Describe the nose, the flavors, the mid-palate sensation, and the finish. Then, decide if it’s good!

Keep in mind the difference between quality and personal preference. While it’s true that we dislike being shackled to the whims of the wine press, we have to trust their judgments (for the most part) when it comes to evaluating wine quality. But, we still use the various entities’ scores as a starting point rather than an absolute, and make our own call. So it’s really the two-edged sword love/non-love relationship with these magazines.

What I'm really getting at is that along with thousands of other restaurants worldwide, we submitted our list to Wine Spectator Magazine, and for the seventh consecutive year, we’ve been awarded the Award of Excellence, showing that our Christmas wish list has matured into a year-round gift to all of you.

Cheers!

Thomas King, Summer Jo's Wine Curator