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).

 

 

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!

In the Vineyard 

 

 

 

 

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!