 The Wine Walk is almost here! The 5th annual Pella Wine Walk is Friday, October 4th from 4-8pm, and we don't like to brag .... but it's going to the best wine walk of all time! Last years event was an unprecedented success, so much so that we ran out of souvenir glasses. To put it in perspective, we expected no more than 200 people and had ordered 300 glasses in preparation. The event unfortunately was the same night as the Pella/Osky football game (in Oskaloosa) AND it was raining cats and dogs. Everything pointed to a slow night and poor turnout - but over 400 people showed up! We were a little overwhelmed, but in a good way and everyone had a great night dodging raindrops. We will be limiting tickets this year to the first 400 people. Please get your tickets beforehand by purchasing in person at The Wijn House or online here. We do expect this event to sellout again prior to October. This year's Pella Wine Walk will feature 20 stops all over and around the Pella square with samples from 16 Iowa wineries, 2 Iowa breweries and even an Iowa cidery. We've also continued to expand the food samples available and have a couple surprises ready for you as well. As always The Wijn House will be offering 10% ALL purchases that night so you can take home some of your favorites. Don't miss the 2019 Pella Wine Walk! 
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 Winerday Night: 2002 Style Back in 2002, I was the lone Midwest college kid among my Southern friends in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Despite being a former athlete, my “crew” consisted mostly of theater and music majors during my stint at USC Upstate. Amidst the last weeks of my senior semester, my boyfriend and his roommates randomly went out and purchased a large amount of wine one Saturday evening from the local grocery store. Instead of our usual cheap beer parties, they wanted a different approach to the night’s theme. Winerday, they called it. I honestly couldn't have cared less. The idea didn’t excite me one bit. The only experience I had with wine prior to that night was taking small sips from a four month old bottle of Boone’s Farm my roommate had forgotten about in the back of our frig. But as everyone else poured themselves small samples of fancy wine into their cheap plastic cups, I eventually followed along, sure to have my beer nearby to wash the bad taste of wine away. I had no idea how to pronounce what I was drinking. Cabernet (I pronounced it Cabe r`nett) which tasted like I was licking an ashtray with a trace of old cranberry juice left in it. A Merlot (Mer`lot). No thank you, easily confused with beets and gasoline. A Sauv...Sauving..oh who cares. It was gross. Then a Riesling (Rise`ling.) “Oh hey, I can choke this one down,” I remember thinking. It was cold and fruity. That would be mine. The blue bottle. Mental note: “Remember the blue bottle.” I kept that one close to me that night. Did anyone else enjoy those wines made from the majestical California vineyards they bought for $10 at Ingles? I really don’t think so. All I remember was there less dancing than usual that night and everyone seemed to have gone home early. But for some reason, when the next weekend came around, they were up for more wine once again. That Saturday, I mean, Winerday, I requested the same bottle (it’s gotta be that blue one, dammit) and something similar in taste but a different color. Oh I don’t know, maybe red. I hoped to finish both bottles before heading out to the bar for the night. But surprise! One and ¾ bottles in, I was done. Sick and sleeping before 8:30. Turns out there’s a lot more alcohol in wine than beer. My friends were up for more wine nights to round out the school year. Each time I asked for the same bottle of Riesling (I learned to say it correctly.) I wasn’t sure how long this whole deal would last, both this new found wine interest, since the habit was expensive and my boyfriend could barely afford paying his rent and our relationship, in general, as I was fearing having to tell him that I'd made plans to move back to Iowa after graduation. Fast forward to 2007. I’m living back in Iowa and married to a swell guy I met at the gym (he needed a spotter during his bench press). We got a house, a dog, and tried to do all things grown up and mature-like waking up before ten on weekends, eating healthy, and sometimes drinking wine instead of beer. Yet, my husband disliked wine more than me. Give the man a beer or a mixed drink and he was the life of the party. But make him try a sip of that red wine you brought and it almost killed him. I, on the other hand, searched the blue bottles at the wine store. By the age of 28, I narrowed my selection down. It needed to be a blue bottle with a sun on it. The Schmitt Sohne Riesling. Look at me, I started to know wine. I enjoyed a glass of wine here and there, while my husband drank “the stuff” if there was no other form of alcohol in the vicinity. But the man needed it SWEET. Nothing wrong with sweet wine, but can you visualize my husband, a former football and rugby player standing at 6’3”, sipping on the sweetest fruit wine he could find-with ice cubes in his glass-nonetheless (thank you Ackerman Winery). Now, twelve years later, I find myself writing this blog from the bar of our own wine shop. How, you ask? Well, if you ask my husband he’d tell you that I started liking wine so much that he bought me a whole wine store. That’s a wee-bit far fetched. We opened The Wijn House in the Fall of 2016. That seems so long ago, especially since, just the other night, I watched a video of my daughter, at age 7, giving me a tour of the building amidst our renovations. She told us how she'd turn the place into a pet store should our wine store idea fail. She’s just the cutest. Now at 10, she’s still on board with those plans. Wijn, is a Dutch word for wine. Our wine bar sits in the heart of Pella, Iowa. We wanted to pay homage to our Dutch community in the heart of the Midwest. Can you say Tulip Time-first weekend in May? You should come. Bring cash. Our business’ focus is solely on Iowa Wine. With the huge push to shop local, especially here in the Midwest, our community sees thousands of tourists each year. And while Iowa has close to 100 wineries throughout the state, we felt the idea to focus on our in-state wineries was there and needed a voice. But would it be easy? Actually, it wasn't too bad. After pulling up old carpet, a fair share of painting mishaps, and a few anxiety attacks here and there, we found ourselves blessed that it all came together the way it did. Is it aged in oak barrels or with oak staves? Should they add RS (residual sugar)? If so, how much? What did last year’s winter do to this years crop? Hello Polar Vortex. We’ll soon find out, for better or worse. Winemaking is like a marriage. Some years are good. Others, not so much. But each year, winemakers here in the Midwest are learning more and more about what they can do with the forty-yes forty-different varietals of grapes that can be grown in this region. At The Wijn House, we get to showcase the finish products. So here we are running an All-Iowa Wine shop, showing people that the Midwest makes good wine and different wines compared to the rest of the world. We've received the Retailer of the Year Award both in 2018 and 2019 through the Iowa Wine Growers Association and continue to seek out good quality wines in the state. When we first opened our shop, we had seven Iowa Wineries on our shelves. Today we have thirty eight. My husband and I are proof that your palates may change over time. It’s correct to say, I’ve tried 99.9% of all the wines on our shelves. I enjoy wines across the board, but can always go for a Frontenac or LaCrescent. I am not a sommelier by any means. BY ANY MEANS. I drink what I like and want our customers to do the same. Sometimes, I chuckle to myself when I hear Jeremy talk to customers. He's in his glory now, talking about the dry red wines on our weekly wine list. At times, he has to refrain himself from giving a customer a high five when he feels they’ve made a great purchase. Pretty good for a guy who couldn’t stand the taste of it and a girl who just looked for a blue bottle. -Tara
Our 2018 t-shirts are here! Last year our local Pella shoppers snagged most of the shirts intended for the annual Tulip Time crowds before the festival even started, so this year we've ordered more and ordered early. This year's shirts are made with the same super-soft material, the same poly/cotton/rayon blend doesn't shrink much, if at all. We spend a little more dollars on the shirt quality to ensure the shirt you buy in the store is the same shirt after it comes of the the dryer. We've kept our mega-popular: "I Got Tipsy in the Tulips" design. "I Got Tipsy in the Tulips" was easily our best-selling design last year, so we haven't messed much with what works. The only small change we did make was adding the much-requested "Pella, Iowa" to the bottom of the artwork. Enjoy two new color options this year: Red Frost & Navy Frost. This shirt features a tastefully small "The Wijn House" logo on the back of the neck.
New for 2018 is the: "Windmill Windmill ROCK YOU" design. Sing it with us! The "Windmill Windmill ROCK YOU" tee is for those that can appreciate and admire the beauty of Dutch architecture, but are also the life of the party! This tee has a small "Pella, Iowa" at the bottom of the artwork accompanied by a little traditional Dutch windmill. This shirt also features a tastefully small "The Wijn House" logo on the back of the neck and is available in colors: Purple Frost & Black Frost
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