Tim and Melissa Jobe
In sports, at least these days, teams hire new coaches or bring in new players with the idea that they will bring about a rapid improvement quickly. If not, heads roll.
Tim Jobe, general manager and head winemaker at Twin Brook Winery in Gap, Pa., knows there’s no such thing as making an instant turnaround in his business. He’s back five years now, he said during a lengthy interview a couple of weeks ago in an area behind the tasting room. He and wife Melissa were frying some treats for a birthday party that one of their kids was going to have at school. It was Monday morning, but already visitors have come into the tasting room. Twin Brook, with its 30 acres of vines not even covering half of the 70-acre tract, is one of the few wineries in the region open seven days a week.
Jobe said he was there when the first grapes were planted in the mid-1980s. Richard and the late Cheryl Kaplan were the original owners, and Sheryl took over as GM after Tim left. When Cheryl died of cancer, the Jobes returned in 2003 to work again for Richard. Unfortunately, all that had happened the previous few years there had robbed the product of its original quality.
“When we got here the wines were in bad shape,” he said. “What was in tank was in bad shape, what was in barrel was in bad shape. What was dry in the bottle was in bad shape -- it had been in the bottle for awhile -- so we pretty much had to start over, and we’re rebuilding the brand, and I think we’ve done a fairly good job of it. It’s taken five years to do it, but we’re finally getting back to where we were.”
Is there a wine that supports those feelings? Not one, he responded, but the vinifera reds and whites.
“[Those were the] ones I was mainly concerned about when we got back here,” he said, “because you can make the sweet hybrids fast; you can make those fast and get them out on the shelf but, I mean, 2003 when I first got back here and 2004 both went into the record books as two of the top-five wettest years in Pennsylvania history, so my reds were really light in ’03 and ’04, in fact we didn’t even make any in ’03. We had dumped every thing from ’02 back to 2000. ’04 wasn’t a great year because it was rainy, too, so ’05 was really the first year I really got a good red crop, and then of course it needs time. So it wasn’t until late 2006 early 2007 before I finally got some reds on the shelf, so it was a struggle. You know, when you got people coming in for that and they know you’ve made it in the past and you don’t have it, and it take a couple of years on the shelf, it . . . can hurt business.”
Twin Brook is producing 12 wines, a champagne and a cooking wine, generating an annual average of 12,000 gallons. Jobe said, overall, he’s happy with the quality of the brand. If anything, he’d like to make a heavier red, and those plans are in the works this year. “I think there are some other things we could do to improve quality with some different equipment, but the wines are good. We do a little experimentation here and there, changing the stuff up a little bit, but we don’t change it up so much that it’s completely different. So were just kind of tweaking things now.”
In sports, at least these days, teams hire new coaches or bring in new players with the idea that they will bring about a rapid improvement quickly. If not, heads roll.
Tim Jobe, general manager and head winemaker at Twin Brook Winery in Gap, Pa., knows there’s no such thing as making an instant turnaround in his business. He’s back five years now, he said during a lengthy interview a couple of weeks ago in an area behind the tasting room. He and wife Melissa were frying some treats for a birthday party that one of their kids was going to have at school. It was Monday morning, but already visitors have come into the tasting room. Twin Brook, with its 30 acres of vines not even covering half of the 70-acre tract, is one of the few wineries in the region open seven days a week.
Jobe said he was there when the first grapes were planted in the mid-1980s. Richard and the late Cheryl Kaplan were the original owners, and Sheryl took over as GM after Tim left. When Cheryl died of cancer, the Jobes returned in 2003 to work again for Richard. Unfortunately, all that had happened the previous few years there had robbed the product of its original quality.
“When we got here the wines were in bad shape,” he said. “What was in tank was in bad shape, what was in barrel was in bad shape. What was dry in the bottle was in bad shape -- it had been in the bottle for awhile -- so we pretty much had to start over, and we’re rebuilding the brand, and I think we’ve done a fairly good job of it. It’s taken five years to do it, but we’re finally getting back to where we were.”
Is there a wine that supports those feelings? Not one, he responded, but the vinifera reds and whites.
“[Those were the] ones I was mainly concerned about when we got back here,” he said, “because you can make the sweet hybrids fast; you can make those fast and get them out on the shelf but, I mean, 2003 when I first got back here and 2004 both went into the record books as two of the top-five wettest years in Pennsylvania history, so my reds were really light in ’03 and ’04, in fact we didn’t even make any in ’03. We had dumped every thing from ’02 back to 2000. ’04 wasn’t a great year because it was rainy, too, so ’05 was really the first year I really got a good red crop, and then of course it needs time. So it wasn’t until late 2006 early 2007 before I finally got some reds on the shelf, so it was a struggle. You know, when you got people coming in for that and they know you’ve made it in the past and you don’t have it, and it take a couple of years on the shelf, it . . . can hurt business.”
Twin Brook is producing 12 wines, a champagne and a cooking wine, generating an annual average of 12,000 gallons. Jobe said, overall, he’s happy with the quality of the brand. If anything, he’d like to make a heavier red, and those plans are in the works this year. “I think there are some other things we could do to improve quality with some different equipment, but the wines are good. We do a little experimentation here and there, changing the stuff up a little bit, but we don’t change it up so much that it’s completely different. So were just kind of tweaking things now.”
1 comment:
Consiglieri- leave your taste buds at home and open yourself up to a smooth new taste. Smooth on the tough, light enough to remind you that it's a red, Please don't make a 'heavier Red" gas prices might make me chooose between "wine or gas" Hmmmmmmmmm.
Hugs and kisses,
Ramon Robert James Monroe
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