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Friends of Zugibe
Vineyards,
Hello and welcome to the 3rd
edition of our newsletter! Please feel free to share
this with anyone you know, either by forwarding on
or by using the link provided on the bottom of
the newsletter. We have been getting quite a few
inquiries lately, asking things such as "when are
you opening" and "what wines will you be
selling"...hopefully this newsletter can answer some
of those burning questions!
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Tasting Room Set to Open! |
 By the time most of you open this email we will
officially be open for business! Beginning this
Thursday (November 5) we will be ready to introduce
all of you to our impressive lineup of wines, and
hopefully you decide to stay for a while to enjoy
the beautiful fall scenery and the spectacular lake
views over a relaxing glass of wine. The finishing
touches are being applied even during the editing of
this newsletter, although there are still several
little things that will need to be addressed over
the course of the next few months...or until we are
truly satisfied with the finished project (never).
The hours of operation for the tasting room will be
10am-6pm every day until the end of November. During
the slower months (December-April) the hours are
11am-5pm every day.
Although we missed out on a summer opening, we have
some beautiful fall days ahead before we head into winter.
Many of you have shared with us a great deal of
support over the past couple of years, and without you
we wouldn't be where we are today. So thank you from
the bottoms of our hearts and we look forward to
seeing you all out here (but not necessarily at the
same time).
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Winemaker's Corner |

Even though things are winding down in the vineyard
our workload in the winery hasn't slowed down yet!
Most of our white grapes have been brought in, with
the exception of some Riesling that we will be
picking this week and next. These wines are in
various stages of fermentation, with the Pinot Gris
and Chardonnay already through their fermentations
and awaiting the next steps. We pressed the Pinot
Noir which was the first red variety we took in to
the crushpad, and is now settling until Fred pumps
the wine into oak barrels. In barrels, the wine will
age for several months, some longer than a year,
until the wine expresses the desired texture,
flavors and tannins. Both Merlot and Blaufrankisch (Lemberger)
were crushed into open-top fermenters where they
will go through fermentation. As the wines ferment
in these vessels, carbon dioxide is released during
the process which forces the grape skins to rise to
the top leaving it's juice below. So three times a
day we (mostly Fred) have to "punch" these "caps"
down into the juice to allow for more color/flavor
extractions. Next week we will be taking in the
Cabernets to finish the harvest.
When you visit the tasting facility expect to see a
wide variety of wines with an exceptional range of
characteristics. We are pouring three styles of
Riesling, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer, a blend of
Chardonnay/Sauvignon Blanc, and Cayuga White for the
white wines. The reds consist of Cab Franc, Cab
Sauvignon, a barrel select Bordeaux blend, Pinot
Noir, a lighter Cabernet blend and a blend of four
red wines called 4 Freds Red (the winemaker is Fred
III, you get the idea!).
We have
already had a handful of friends and family asking
us to make a couple of sweeter wines for their
sweet-tooth. So we went back to the difficult task
of trial tasting some of our wines and came up with
two very nice easy-drinking wines, one white and one
red, called Firebird that will be available in the
next couple of weeks! It seems like the Firebirds are
going to fly off the shelves based on the responses
so far!
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We are passionately committed
to providing our guests with an unmatched experience
from our excellent premium wines to our breathtaking
setting. We look forward to seeing you soon!
The Zugibe Family
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Normally by this time of year we would
have all of the grapes harvested and Sean would
be "hilling up" mounds of dirt around the base
of the vines to help protect them from the
cooler winter temperatures. But that is not the
case this year due to the excessive periods of
rainfall and the lack of sunny days we had
during the growing season. Many of the grapes
needed extra hang time on the vine to bring the
fruit to within the optimal maturity parameters.
But we can say with confidence that despite the
many obstacles, all of our white grapes this
year were absolutely spectacular and we are very
excited to work with such amazing fruit! And the
reds that we have taken in so far (Pinot Noir,
Lemberger and Merlot) all look exceptional as
well, but since the Cabernets are still hanging
on the vine until next week, we can only be
hopefully optimistic that those come in just as
nice to close an uncommonly long growing season!
You would have to work some time in a vineyard
to truly appreciate the feeling a vineyard
worker gets when walking through the rows of
vines and knowing that all of the grapes have
been harvested and nothing could possibly go
wrong with the fruit... unless, of course, you
don't have much faith in your winemaker! Cheers
to another successful harvest!
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