For The Love Of Port

I have nailed the past three months in getting the newsletter out on time which is due out by the first and with a proviso that given whence the 1st falls, it might not be released until the 3rd of the month.

So I must apologize for failing to meet that deadline this month. No excuses!
However, I will share the reason and let you know when you will finally get to see the August issue.

I am traveling 100 miles a day lately to get to work and back at the State Fair getting it ready for launch on September 5th. Today was a nice break in that action - my first and only - in quite awhile now, as I had an afternoon appointment tasting some Douro and Port wine with a local Douro wine broker. My workload has worn me down and although I am typically able to write into the early hours, it has not been possible this week. The newsletter is 85% complete with the rest of the work that will take about 15 more hours. That said, and with my work schedule at present, I expect the newsletter to be in your hands no later than Monday, Aug. 11th. I appreciate your patience.

There will be a September issue of the newsletter coming a few weeks thereafter, which will be significantly easier to produce than the current one. Then there will be a one month hiatus while I am fully immersed during the Fair and then off to Portugal, the UK and NYC for a week each. Upon return, there will be a November and December issue both of which will be back on schedule. As promised, there will be 10 full issues this year (up from 8 last year).

for understanding!

Roy

Considering that Wine Advocate and International Wine Cellar only put out 6 issues per year, I think you're doing a great job with 8 last year and 10 this year.

Finally and as promised, the newsletter went out today. 50 pages later, I hope you all have a good read and enjoy some of the features and great articles this month!

I appreciate your patience.

Looking forward to reading it Roy! :)

I noticed that the download on the homepage is still the July newsletter. Am I too eager?

Will the August newsletter be merged with September or we'll see an August and September one?

Frederick,

I believe I saw elsewhere that Roy is planning to release the next newsletter in October. He publishes 10 newsletters a year, and typically skips one spring month and one fall month. I think he skipped April earlier this year, for example. He's very busy with his state fair operation during the month of September, so it makes sense to me that he'd also skip September or October.

But there never was an August newsletter that I saw. I'm o.k. with that, but given ten issues, that means no other skipping.

If I'm not mistaken, September will be skipped and an October newsletter will replace it. Normally it is the other way around, with no newsletter in October. But I'm sure Roy will chime in shortly to let us know for sure. It's that time of year for him again...the annual State Fair, so he is super busy until just a couple of days before the Harvest Trip starts.

Roy Hersh wrote:Finally and as promised, the newsletter went out today. 50 pages later, I hope you all have a good read and enjoy some of the features and great articles this month!

I appreciate your patience.

Did I subscribe too late to get the August? I never saw it.

But there never was an August newsletter that I saw. I'm o.k. with that, but given ten issues, that means no other skipping.

I just got home 20 minutes ago. This is my last night of 135 mile round trip days (for the past 4 weeks) and will now work the next 20 days consecutively, 18-20 hours per day, running nearly 30 food and beverage operations, with 1.3 million visitors in a 17 day span. I've hired hundreds of employees, had my kitchen manager (responsible for purchasing/food safety/food distribution) not return ... just two days before their start date after years of working for me. All this takes place on hot cement and after my 10-12+ miles/day in small concentric circles ... I go back to my crap motel and will be using toothpicks to hold up my eyelids while working on the newsletter. Within 36 hours of my departing the Fair, I head to Portugal. I think I will need to drink heavily in Portugal.

So, no excuses!

That said, I am going to do my very best NOT to disappoint and keep to my 10 issues in 2009. August was skipped, so September is my goal. How I achieve that ... God give me strength. Tomorrow a.m. I depart from home and return for one night before Portugal. Crazy times.

Please be patient with me, I promise that the next newsletter will be worthy of the wait.

Sorry for the delay, as sometimes life gets in the way of my best laid plans.

Thanks on the update Roy, I was in need of reading as I was having a quiet day at the office yesterday, today will be more rock and roll. Good luck with the fair, and may Port bless you :)

Yeoman's work Roy!

Strange,
I never saw August either, nor can I find it for download in the download section...last one I have is July (62 pages) aka #44.

Hopefully my SPAM eater didn't get to it before I did..

cheers
Paul_B

Buried in Roy's reply:

Roy Hersh wrote:August was skipped, so September is my goal.

That's why you can't find August 2009.

good. i thought i had missed the forecast of the 59+ 2007 VPs...

not that even 1/5 of them will be available for sale in my area but it makes good reading...

/paul

I'm looking forward to that forecast as well! That and the next FTLOP importer-direct buying opPORTunity. :)

All that and more will be in the next newsletter. Having left at 6:45 this a.m. and having just got back to the hotel a few minutes ago (an early first night) I can actually sleep for almost 5 hours. Great stuff. I'd like to forget what took place since I left the hotel earlie Friday a.m.

At least you're going to have great weather for the first weekend of the fair!

On the down side, that means it's likely to be really crowded...