Ideally I'll get to the point with this blog where I reach out to wineries and receive a response within 24 hours. That would enhance my ability to get news out to you and give you a better feel of everyday life at the winery. Oh, well. That obviously will take some time.
So it makes me more appreciative when the turnaround does occur quickly. Carl Helrich, my first blog interviewee and a valued supporter of what I'm trying to do, chimed in with an answer to my question about how things were going at his Allegro Vineyards in The Brogue, in southcentral Pennsylvania.
Wrote Helrich:
Our vineyard is in the best shape it's ever been. Things are really moving along with the rain from two weeks ago and the subsequent heat. Crop levels look good. We're going through bloom right now, and we have more than enough clusters to work with. In a week or so we'll start pulling leaves. From there we'll assess the crop load and start to drop clusters.
In the winery, we're moving wines through, getting tanks empty before harvest. We'll start pulling wines from barrels in a couple weeks and start making blends. We have numerous barrels that are of a quality level that we can take them a second year in barrel. Sometime this summer, we'll bottle our 2006 Cadenza (our flagship reserve red). We'll also release our Dry Rose (from Cab Franc from Twin Brook). We already have our Riesling out. Later this fall we'll release our first Sangiovese and our second Pinot Noir.
We've opted out of the entertainment business as well. We used to run a hugely successful Chef Series (for about 15 years.) I found that it really interfered with my real raison d'etre, which is winemaking, from vine to glass. We are doing the Split Rock wine Festival this weekend. There'll be about 25 wineries there, I think.
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