Renovations Continued...

We're making lots of progress on the new tasting room and it will be all buttoned up by the second week of February. We have finished enough to allow us to re-open, so we are now back in action and the door is open 7 days a week. Come check out the progress and share our excitement.

Click here for a few pictures of the progress so far.

Happy New Year!

Thanks to everyone for being a part of the winery for another wonderful year. We are now looking forward to a great 2010 unfolding in front of us. We will be closed for winter break until January 9th 23rd, at which time we will re-open for normal business hours. During this time we will be working hard on the renovation of our tasting room and hope that it will be ready in time (oh my!). We'll keep you posted on the progress... Until then, Have a safe and happy New Year!!

Update: Although our renovations are progressing, they are taking a little longer than anticipated. Because of this we will remain closed tentatively until the 23rd.

Post-Harvest Report

The harvest season has reached its end. All the grapes have been picked, crushed, and pressed. Fermentations are complete and the vines have begun dropping their leaves. The 2009 season was an interesting one. We had an abundance of wet cloudy weather that delayed ripening, so we decided to let the grapes hang on the vine. The additional time with a little bit of sun allowed the fruit to reach maturity.

The fermentations proceeded nicely this year. We kept the whites nice and cool (they ferment best at between 60 and 65 degrees.) This allows them to retain their fruity characteristics. We also tried a relatively new technique with the reds called “cold soaking”. This means we crushed the grapes to a tank as usual, but instead of adding yeast immediately we kept the temperature at about 50 degrees (too low for native yeasts to multiply) for 4-10 days. This extracts flavors and color from the skins that we wouldn’t normally obtain in the fermentation. We are quite happy with the results.

The whites are now resting, their flavors changing from fizzy and yeasty to floral and fruity. The reds (plus Chardonnay) are undergoing a secondary fermentation in barrels called malolactic fermentation that will give them more complexity and reduce their tartness. After about 2 weeks to a month the bacteria will have converted all of the malic acid (found mainly in green apples) to lactic acid (found in butter). When it is finished, the wine will come out of the barrels, which will be washed to remove sediment, and return to the clean barrels to age.

While the wines are aging, I’ll get a chance to catch up on testing. The pH, total acidity, alcohol, sulfites and volatile acidity all have to be checked and recorded. In addition, there is a lot of equipment (harvester, pumps, crusher and press) that needs to be checked over so we can have it ready for the next harvest. We’ve still got a lot of work to do, but as you can see, with 20 varieties of grapes we’ve already got a lot of work done!

-David G

Mid-Harvest Report

This growing season has been a challenge and as always a great learning experience. Too many rainy days, which meant less sunshine, and cooler temperatures slow up the ripening process. We were fortunate that we did not receive an excessive amount of rainfall but still enough to extend the vegetative growth period longer then we like. With that said, I am very pleased with the quality and flavors of our grapes.

Harvest started the first week of September with the American varieties, Niagara, Ives and Fredonia. Then we moved on to the Cayuga, Muscat Ottonel and Pinot Grigio. With the next stretch of good weather we will harvest the balance of the Whites, Traminette, Viognier and Chardonnay. We have tested all the Reds for sugar(brix), pH, Total Acidity(TA), which is done with lab instruments and also flavor and maturity which is done by tasting. Honestly, I was hesitant to do this fearing poor fruit quality, but instead I was very satisfied with the results.

The rest of the harvest will, as always, depend on the weather. I am happy with where we are at this point and have learned not to try and predict the future. The Vineyard Manager has done what he needed to and now it is time for the Winemaker to do his part. I am fortunate to be both and thanks to the people around me that keep me straight, we will hopefully bring you another great vintage.

-Jim Q

Gearing up for Harvest

Almost time to start picking grapes! It has been a wet season, but we've managed to keep the vines healthy and the fruit is now ripening nicely.

For those of you who aren't fully up on modern grape growing practices (and by modern, I mean the way grapes have been ripening for a few thousand years), harvest is always in the fall. Here in the Outer Coastal Plain the earliest varieties of grape are ready to harvest right around Labor Day, and there are plenty of years where they are stubborn enough to need picking ON Labor Day. These early varieties are those native to North America (Ives, Fredonia, Niagara). From there it is on to mostly the Vinifera Whites (Viognier, Pinot Grigio). Then into the middle of October for the final varieties, big reds like Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Harvest times can vary in different parts of the world. Some regions need to pick a few weeks earlier than we do here, while others will wait and pick a few weeks later. These times depend largely on the type of fall and winter the region has. There are even some oddities like Hawaii, where they pick in the fall and then knock all the leaves off in order to allow more growth during the winter. This leads them to a second harvest in the Spring.

In the next week or so we will have the head vintner's (that's Jim) take on everything, so stay tuned!

-Lee Q