Here's a little insider news for those of you following us on Facebook and Twitter: We are in the process of updating our Website. It used to be that a tidbit like this would be accompanied by terms such as "the stone age" or "the 21st century." But nowadays it's all about Web 2.0, and that's where brownestate.com is heading.

As with many of our projects, brownestate.com 3.0 (because it will be the third incarnation of our Website since we've been online) has been slow coming. We are very deliberate about everything we do because as a small family-owned and -operated business whose survival depends entirely upon wine sales, we can't afford to make a lot of missteps.

One day while meeting with our "WebDev," as he calls himself (that's developer, not devil) we were discussing Brown Estate's presence on FB and Twitter. When we mentioned the tag line we use in both of these spaces - "The Coolest Winery in the Napa Valley" - he asked whether we put the word "Coolest" in quotes - as in, "The 'Coolest' Winery in the Napa Valley," a punctuated version of tongue in cheek. When we told him no we don't, that we just state it plainly, he remarked with a slight grin, "Wow. That's bold."

So how dare we anoint ourselves the coolest winery in the Napa Valley with no qualms or quotation marks? It's all about our customers.



Come to the winery any busy Saturday, or for one of our events, and you are bound to witness one of the most diverse groups of people you will ever see in a Napa Valley tasting room. That alone is pretty cool, but when total strangers from varied backgrounds and walks of life start interacting - talking, laughing, making toasts, shoulder-butting each other, exchanging contact info or, not infrequently, leaving the winery to have a late lunch or early dinner together - that's the height of cool in our book.

We have always been enchanted by our customers, and we've long been aware that our little off-the-beaten path, diamond-in-the-rough operation attracts a special brand of wine enthusiast. As the growing season for our 14th vintage gets under way in earnest - and as a new round of herculean farming and other operational efforts commence - we continue to marvel at the fact that the Brown Estate brand remains relatively esoteric. This is due largely to the fact that we rely entirely upon word of mouth to bring us potential customers. (Sidebar: FB and Twitter are like word of mouth on a rocket ship to the moon, which is why we love them both.)

All of which is to say there is a certain amount of work involved in discovering Brown Estate in the first place, and as those of you who have made the trek know, there is a whole other set of gyrations involved in actually getting to the winery.

Consequently, we do not take it lightly when you venture to visit us, and we do our best to make sure you have a completely unique Napa Valley experience. In turn, you reward us over and over again with a steady procession of the coolest customers in the Napa Valley - be they you, or your family, friends, or co-workers whom you refer to us.

There's a little preaching to the choir going on here, we know, but we thought it important for the uninitiated to understand that at Brown Estate, cool is as cool does.

You, dear customers, put the cool in Brown Estate. And for that, we love and thank you!