Regional Wine Week, Day 3: Vynecrest Winery

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The winery and the Landis family: John, Jan and Sam.

The Lehigh Valley Wine Trail spreads out over a big chunk of hilly terrain, fanning out north and west of Allentown and Bethlehem and northeast of Reading. All told, there are nine family-owned wineries that make up the trail, as a group largely sitting north of Route 78 and on either side of the Northeast Extension and Route 33.

It’s a trail that has made some significant noise the past five years, celebrating over the fact that a different member of the “trail family” (Cherry Valley, Clover Hill, Pinnacle Ridge, Galen Glen and Vynecrest) has won the Governor’s Cup for best wine in the state and then reveling in the official designation as an American Viticultural Area (AVA) earlier this year.

Among the southernmost wineries that make up the Lehigh Valley trail is Vynecrest Vineyards & Winery, owned and operated by the Landis family. It’s always fun to read about how folks got into the business; John and Jan credit a job editing a book called “Homesteading” in 1972 for getting them thinking about making wine. A year later, they bought a five-acre farm. Since then, they’ve added 79 acres to the dimensions of the farm and had 16 of those planted with grapes. They produce 12,000 gallons annually, and are expecting that to increase to 20,000 gallons as they continue to add more stock to their vineyard. Son Sam has returned from a stint working for E&J Gallo in California to take over more of the business, and mom and dad have been active in both trail activities and the Pennsylvania Wine Association.

What isn’t new is how John feels after a full day of harvesting, “sore” as he described it by phone earlier tonight. But, after today, they’re seeing the end of the harvest in sight; he had no complaint about that. Hey, all that work today means one thing: He can squeeze out some time sitting in front of his TV and watching the Phillies play the Dodgers in Game 1 of the baseball playoffs tomorrow night.

While an outsider talks to various people connected with the wine trail and gets the feeling that there’s genuine harmony among the group, there’s no question differences exist. Vynecrest, for instance, is the only member of the trail and one of only two or three wineries in the state that produces Lemberger, a full-bodied dry red wine that’s far better known out in the Great Northwest. One other distinctive quality of Vynecrest is its Web site; each wine on the list ins numbers according to its sweetness (dry, semi-sweet, sweet).

So what else sets his winery apart? “I think I would say 2 things,” John said. “One is we are not afraid to experiment with new varieties of grapes. I made a quote in Vines & Wines which basically said the best grape has yet to be invented, and I believe that that’s true. What we know about genetics is going to make a difference in the future; there’s going to be new varieties. Traminette is one of the ones that I talked about. It’s only 20 years old, but it’s a fantastic grape, makes great wine, and we have another hybrid in our vineyard that we’re making our first wine this year from, and so far it’s fantastic.

“So I think, one thing that distinguishes us is that we’re not afraid to try new varieties. And the thing we focus on is getting the best grape for our location. Not on name, but best grape, best location. And I think the other thing is, I have very strong background in chemical engineering and I know about fermentation and I think we do a great job; we make 19 wines, we use 10 different yeasts and so I think the other thing that sets us apart is that we know what we’re doing in the wine cellar and we also use 90 percent of our own grapes. So we control the whole process, from March when we start pruning to August when we harvest; the grapes, fermentation, the whole process, is under our control, and I think that’s important to making a quality wines.”

As for two you should taste when you stop in.

2007 TRAMINETTE
Winemaker’s notes: Dry, Alsace-style Gewürztraminer varietal, this wine is flowery with a hint of spice. (750ml)

John Landis: “We do grow some of the name varieties -- Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Cabernet Franc -- a lot of the vinifera we do grow. But I do think, the Traminette, it’s about a 20-year-old grape. It’s a hybrid of Gewurztraminer and it makes a great white wine. We’re known for that; we’ve won awards all over the United States for that. {When we planted it] in 1991 it had a number and not a name. And we’ve learned when to pick it, what yeast to use, and so we’ve been experimenting with different yeasts. We try a little something different every year. It’s just a great grape. Got a great sugar-acid balance, it’s got no disease problems and it makes an outstanding wine.”

2007 CHARBOURCIN
Winemaker’s notes: The jewel of the Lehigh Valley, this grape has found a home in our climate. Hints of cherry and blackberry, its has soft velvety finish (750ml)

John Landis: “This one is very prominent in our AVA . . . because it grows very well here and makes an excellent wine. And it’s used in almost anything, from classic red table, to blush, to nouveau, to sparkling. It’s all over the map in terms of what oyu can do with that. Our tends to be … we don’t have a Merlot or something that I would call a light red, and [so] that’s our Chambourcin. It’s light red, it’s got a lot of fruit. It’s not a real heavy red, it’s medium tannin. Residual maybe point-4, point-5 percent, so it’s right in that middle category. You can almost have it with any kind of food. So that’s our focus, a Merlot kind of category.”

Regional Wine Week, Day 2: Va La Vineyards

Perhaps this snippet of information taken off the site of the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail says all you need to know about Anthony and Karen Vietri, who tend a small parcel of land in Avondale, Pa., oh, maybe a 10- to 15-minute drive west and then south from Chaddsford. This is the schedule posted for the recently completed Harvest Fest.

-- Actual tastings of beverages made from Avondale grapes and served in authentic glass containers

-- Live Jazz in the backyard with Mr. Glenn E. Williams, the pants‐less Trio, and special guest Mr. Miles Davis

-- Juicy grilled sandwiches by the one and only Fat Cat Bar B Q & his special animal friends
-- Art show in the Galleria featuring actual living artists Eileen Slifer (watercolors), and Ella Morris (watercolors, acrylic, oils, photography, corrective eye surgery )
-- Special nude interpretive dance salute to the 2008 Summer Olympics by the Olsen Twins – CANCELLED
-- Speaking in tongues, snake‐handling, raising of the dead, sting ray petting zoo, on-site pant alterations, etc.
All activities real and imagined are dependent on the stupid weather. Due to our frighteningly tiny size, parking may be limited or nonexistent; unfortunately that means no buses or ocean liners, but we can accommodate a limited number of groups of six or more before 1 PM by prior reservation.

You can find more comprehensive Web sites for wineries in eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland, although you can count those on one hand. But what you won’t find is one that exhibits more of a sense of humor nor a sharper reflection of the personalities of the individuals involved in this family venture.

It’s land that dates back to 1928, when Anthony’s grandparents became the owners and, in addition to making wine that was placed on the kitchen table, set a farm in motion that produced cheese, mushrooms, vegetables, poultry, eggs and fruits. The name? That comes from a small village in Italy called Guisvalla, where Anthony’s family used to live. Translated, Va La means to “go there.”

Or, in the case of the couple, go back there after living in California and Italy. He and Karen became the owners in 1998 and began refurbishing the place; what they call the Home Vineyard was planted in 1999. They’ll never forget the date the winery’s floor was poured: 9/11/2001. Today you can taste wine with local cheese and mushrooms downstairs or wander up to the loft to admire the work of local artists.

Among the things that make Va La distinctive is the winery’s vocabulary. Cabernet and Chardonnay and pretty much any other traditional grape name aren’t spoken here. Instead, the wine family runs from Silk to Cedar to Fioretti to Seed.

“The [wine’s] names, it’s just, um, I don’t know where they come from,” Anthony said a couple months ago during a previous interview, then breaking out into a laugh. “They just come out of the sky.”

As distinctive as the names are grapes used: Sarbono, Sagrantino, Nebbiolo, Carmine and Corvina, to name a few. Those produce anywhere from 1,200 to 1,500 cases a year, small compared to others in the region but a comfortable output for the lifestyle that Anthony and his family want.

“What we do is focus on trying to express just simply our lives on this piece of property,” he said yesterday. “That’s the way we look at the wines. That’s all we look to do, which is the reason behind our having wines that are unconventional blends or rare varieties mixed together or that sort of thing. That’s because we just kind of listen to what the grapes tell us here and we just do that and just go with it and just have faith in that and, you now, don’t ask questions and move on. That’s simply it.”

One wine definitely worth trying if you wander into the tasting room is La Prima Donna, which they have been making there since 2001.

Winemaker’s notes: The intent of La Prima Donna was to create a dry white wine of quality made from grapes grown in this region. Malvasia bianco, tocai fruiliano, viognier, pinot grigio, petit manseng, & others. 2,400 to 3,800 bottles are normally made available.

Anthony Vietri: “It is an aromatic white. It was inspired by the fact that I lived in a fishing village in Italy and I wanted to have a white wine that would go with fish. And that was where the idea came from; the grapes came out of what the vineyard pretty much said ‘this works here and this doesn’t.’ It whittled it down and that’s how we got there. We wanted to have a white wine that would be something completely original and something complex at the same time without any oak. It’s never had oak. We wanted it to be just the pure grapes you taste in there. A wine with good ability to age and we wanted this wine to go well with a variety of dishes, but starting with fish, and going into things like chicken and fowl, things like that, and cheeses that we have locally and mushrooms that we have locally, all those kind of things that I grew up on here. Just kind of wanted to go through that whole region of food and match to that the best we could. [It would be] something that would be the signature of just this 7 acres of ground here in Avondale.”

Prefer a red? Well, try Mahogany, which they first made in 2005 and recently released. The 2006 vintage is expected to be bottled in March 2009.

Winemaker’s notes: Our goal with Mahogany was to create a red wine of quality from grapes grown in this region. Barbera, petit verdot, carmineand other (Italian reds). Nine total barrels are produced. Available by sign up list. Pleasecontact us if you are interested.

Anthony Vietri: “We wanted to take this vineyard and if we could put it into one bottle and bring all the separate pieces together and layer them out and have this be an East Coast red that would have very good ability to age in the cellar, that would have good structure, and yet at the same time not be something that would be undrinkable in its youth. It would have good fruit and that sort of thing and be something unique to this spot also. That was important to us. And whatever those grapes turned out to be, that was not of any consequence to us. It was just what would work best for this vineyard.”

Regional Wine Week, Day 1: Chaddsford

Eric and Lee Miller, top right, and some scenes takes at Chaddsford during the just completed Brandywine Valley Wine Trail's Harvest Fest Celebration.

If there’s one recognizable winery outside Pennsylvania, chances are it’s Chaddsford. Located around 20 miles west of Philadelphia, it’s a member of the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail. That encompasses six working wineries and one that should have its doors open in the next month or two.

You’ll find them along the Route 1 corridor that runs west to east from the farm country of Chester County toward the western suburbs of Philly. It’s along that four-lane highway that Chaddsford Winery suddenly appears, a few miles west of the well-known Longwood Gardens. You can visit all of them in a weekend, if you’re really pushed. No more than 30 miles on the road will allow you to enter them all, and that number is probably on the high side.

When winemaking took root on this side of the state, in the shadow of the Philly skyline, the first seeds fell at Chaddsford. Co-owner Lee Miller said she remembers that there weren’t any nearby models to follow when they began making wine in 1982. “When we came here,” she said by phone on Friday, “we didn’t have any vineyards. Our goal was to develop winemaking in a region that really didn’t have any background or wasn’t known for anything. We’re talking 26 years ago in Pennsylvania, we were one of the first 10 [in the state]. I would say most of the wineries were up in the Erie region and they were doing Concord grapes. There was very little history of anybody really trying to try to do high quality vinifera.”

In that time she and husband Eric have won their share of awards, planted an estate vineyard a stone’s throw (OK, only if an NFL quarterback is doing the throwing) away, and developed an extraordinary Web site that provides as much personality as it does information. Take a few minutes and, if you do nothing else on there, check out the archived winemaker’s notes. Those offer a revealing peek at their thinking during this long journey.

As for two wines to introduce you to, there’s the 2006 Pinot Noir and the 2005 Due Rossi. They also sell a high-end Pinot, vintage 2005.

PINOT NOIR
Notes
Vintage: 2006
Size of Lot: 2655 cases
Components: 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chambourcin
from Southeastern Pennsylvania
Date Picked, Processed: September 11- October 19, 2006
Characteristics of Vintage: 2006 had a split personality.
On one hand the extremely dry spring caused very small
berries and chlorosis in vine leaves. On the other hand,
mid-season inundated us with ten days of rain that saturated
the ground 100%. During the early harvest, except in a
couple of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vineyards, flavors
were diluted and picking was a long slow process. So we
decided to wait it out. Until the ground was dry, berries
tasted lush and ripe, and seeds went from green to brown.
We were paid off by an outstanding end-of-the-season
comeback that delivered Merlot, Cabernet Franc,
Chambourcin and Cabernet Sauvignon we thought we
might have to die for.
Fermentation Temperature: 85° F peak, 68° F at finish
Residual Sugar: 0.4%
Total Acidity: 0.57
Alcohol: 13.8%
pH: 3.73
Finishing: In contact with toasted French oak chips in primary
fermentors and briefly during stainless tank storage.
Winemaker Notes: Light varietal nose showing brown sugar,
smoke, vanilla and a hint of cherry. A light delicate red.

Lee Miller: “Pinot Noir has just been incredibly good to us . . . . we are just absolutely delighted with it. It just has been kind of universally accepted across the board. People react to it, because even as a young wine it’s just got a big, lush fullness to it for a delicate wine. We just love the flavor, the softness.” Calling it accessible and user-friendly, she said that “a lot of time people think when they get into wines they have to drink Cabernet and some of the bigger wines; they just think that’s what they should drink, and when you then kind of take that next step and start exploring you find out that all wines don’t have to be big and tough and hard and flavorful as Cabernet. You can have these lighter, more delicate wines, but they can still be rich.”

DUE ROSSI
Notes
Vintage: 2005
Size of Lot: 688 cases
Components: 63% Barbera from the Miller Estate Vineyard
and Flowing Springs and 37% Sangiovese from Rohrer.
Date Picked, Processed: October 6-October 19, 2005
Characteristics of Vintage: Simply put, the 2005 season
was superb. We started the spring with a modest crop and
very invigorated vines, then things got dry and we had to
watch the vines suffer a bit. But as leaves began to wilt all
the energy went into the fruit. In the final month we had
perfect warm sunny days and cool dry nights (which
allowed for extended hang-time), translating into intense
flavors - something we have not seen for a couple of years.
I am very very excited about the 2005s!
Fermentation Temperature: 85° F, and finish at 68° F
Residual Sugar: 0.060%
Total Acidity: .62
Alcohol: 14.1%
pH: 3.53
Finishing: 10 months in French Oak, 100 malolactic
fermentation.
Winemaker Notes: In the nose there is slight smoke, violets,
blackberry, licorice and some red candy. This medium-full body
wine is laden with uncountable flavors and just bursts in the
mouth with sweet vanillans, a big bouquet of flowers, ripe
jammy fruit and licorice.

Lee Miller: She calls it their Italian blend, a mix of Barbera and Sangiovese. “They are the other grapes; Eric’s just in love with them right now. He has said that he thinks that [2005] wine is the best he has ever made. We’ve made interesting Cabernets and Merlots, and we like them, but there’s a lot out there . . . but the Due Rossi is so unique. There’s nothing quite like it, because people don’t typically blend those two grapes and nobody’s ever had them from this region. It’s really unique; it’s a powerhouse. People love it, fruity flavors, but not as over the top as a Zinfandel, not that kick-ass kind of high alcohol.”

My goals, motives for writing on regional wines

Welcome to those of you visiting this Web site and reading about Pennsylvania wines for the first time. Happy to have you poking around in here.

I started this site six months ago as a way to spotlight wines and wineries within driving distance of where I live in central Pennsylvania. It’s been a labor of love and an education to cover this diverse region that occupies the rolling terrain east of the Appalachian range. And I’ve met a number of proprietors, winemakers and those connected to the business who not only have been great instructors but become acquaintances whom I respect and admire for what they do and the passion with which they farm the land.

I consider this a beat, covering more than 50 wineries in parts of Pennsylvania and Maryland. But with a couple other folks covering Maryland wineries, it made no sense to overlap. So I’ll stick with Pennsylvania wineries, at least the ones I know in southcentral, southeastern and eastern parts of the states. Officially, they make up three Pennsylvania wine regions – Lower Susquehanna, Philadelphia countryside and Lehigh Valley/Berks – and four wine trails – Uncork York, Brandywine Valley, Bucks County and Lehigh Valley.

While the wineries in those three regions account for more than half of the wineries in the state, the other four are spread out across a much larger footprint of the state. Jennifer Eckinger is the spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Wine Association and has been a big help to me in getting my blog, if you will, off the ground.

Dave McIntyre, who helped create this ambitious project at www.drinklocalwine.com, didn’t give the group of us specific parameters on how to go about publicizing what’s in our state. He just laid out the mission: expose what’s out there to people who think that American wine begins with California and ends with . . . California and Oregon and Washington. To do that, I’ll write thumbnails on six wineries representing the four wine trails. All have got out of their way to field my calls and welcome me into their winery. Others have, too. But these guys and gals have gone above and beyond, perhaps no more so than now, sitting through interviews during the busiest weeks on their calendar, better known as harvest.

But while six wineries and two of their best wines will fall under the spotlight during the next six days, you can read bit and pieces on at least 25 to 30 others by just perusing my archive. All should give you a sense of who these people are and why they've chosen winemaking.

From the '46' to 26 acres of paradise

Among the images are Terry's wife Jennifer, a couple of views from the winery, and Terry and Jennifer strolling through their vineyard.

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Been delaying the post of this story on former Eagle-turned-wine-entrepreneur Terry Hoage until it first ran in the Philly Daily News. He’s part of a series of Where They Are Nows that is focusing on former defensive standouts for the NFL franchise.

Hoage and his wife Jennifer run Terry Hoage Vineyards out of Paso Robles, Calif., a Central Coast community that is increasingly luring the marketing folk’s from the state’s Liquor Control Board. His slight build as a player was deceptive; few players in the history of the franchise put more into giving a wide receiver or running back a licking than Hoage, who was among the team’s leading tacklers in 1986 and ’87 for Buddy Ryan and his famous “46” defense.

His vineyards spread out over 17 of the farm’s 26 acres, and Terry and his wife pretty much do it all: from the work in the vineyards to the label design to getting the word out on their eight wines. They produce between 2,000 and 3,000 cases a year, all of the names of the wines having some connection to his playing days. “The Hedge” refers to his time in college at the University of Georgia, “Skins” to his days with a Washington Redskins franchise that won the Super Bowl, and “46,” a Grenache-Syrah blend that recognizes what Hoage calls “one of the most complicated, dominant defenses I’ve ever played in.” Several you can find stores in Pennsylvania state stores. But not “46.” “I was kind of bummed that Pennsylvania didn’t pick up the ‘46,’” he said by phone. “I thought it would be a nice fit.”

What has turned out to be a nice fit is where they’ve wound up, Hoage said, coming out of his career in the NFL.

“We’ve very, very lucky that we landed unbeknownst to us when we came into a really wonderful wine region with a fantastic climate to produce really great wines of a different types of grapes. There’s a lot of Bordeaux grown here that does very well. It was originally known for Zinfandel. The Rhones were planted in the region , I’m guessing, for the first time in the ’80s maybe, in small plantings. Those have done well. We even have a couple of Pinot producers in the area, some of which do a nice job. So we kinda run the gamut with grape varietals. There’s Tempranillo, there’s all kinds of different varieties that do well here.”

Hoage called it probably the “fastest-growing region and getting the most acclaim. [Wine critic] Robert Parker kind of made the announcement a couple of years ago that this was the next biggest best wine region in the world and people have kinda started to jump on board with that. It’s nice to be in an area that even though it has been producing grapes for a long, long time and people never knew about it. Quality grapes have been coming out of this region for years. It’s kinda nice to be here doing this when there’s kind of a wave of recognition coming over the entire appellation.”

That, Hoage noted, is creating a bit of a dilemma for what has been always cultivated a laid-back personality. It’s not Napa -- and all the problems that brings – yet. “You know agri-tourism is definitely growing,” he said. “We’re not like Napa . . . our area is not to that point yet. We certainly we get a lot of tourism because of the wine industry. There’s a battle here in our county between pro growth and no growth and really kind of controlling the tourism, try to keep it sane. It’s really kind of the double-edged sword.. You want to invite people to certainly share in the experience that is the Central Coast, but in doing that not disrupt what makes this area quaint. I live on a dirt road. I’m a half mile from town but I live on a dirt road. I have wildlife all around me. I’ve got sweeping vistas and views from my property and I have a small tasting room. It’s just all kind of quaint and very agrarian, and if you were to pave everything and put in a bunch of stoplights, it kind of changes the atmosphere. So we’re trying to find a balance here. But, yeah, tourism is a very important aspect of making this a viable business. People enjoy coming to my winery, tasting my wines on-site, looking at the views and seeing the vineyard. It is a very pastoral setting.”

He talked some about his memories in Philly: the 1988 playoff game vs. the Bears that’s better known as the Fog Bowl; playing on one of the NFL’s best-ever defenses; looking up, he said, to see everyone in the stands watching a fight in the corner of the stadium and ignoring the game for the moment.

He’s has been back since; once, five years ago, his son came to Philly as a member of a wheelchair basketball team that was based in Los Angeles. The national tournament that year was being held at Saint Joseph’s. Hoage said he arranged a tour for the boys through the Eagles’ NovaCare Center – “which was really nice, it wasn’t quite like the dungeons of the Vet” -- and Lincoln Financial Field. Then they headed down to get a steak in South Philly.

“I was a little worried about taking these, probably 12 kids, in wheelchairs. These guys in the cheesesteak places are a little impatient sometimes. ‘Whaddya want, whaddya want?’ These [kids] had never even had cheesesteaks. But it was amazing. We pulled the vans up and we’re trying to unload these kids and people just started coming out and helping and stopping traffic. Lined them all up there and they all got their cheesesteaks and they all had a great time . . . It wasn’t necessarily the experience that I got everytime I was down there. But people went out of their way to make sure these guys have a good time.”

Wine Week to school you on regional labels

I wrote a month or so ago about the dream of two wine writers to bring recognition to wines and wineries outside the West Coast. That dream is about to be realized, as the site Drink Local Wine has been developed and activated. Regional Wine Week is officially under way.

Beginning this weekend and continuing through next week, around 30 writers will introduce you to wines you’ve probably never heard about. What all will have in common is that these wines are produced in the back yards of these writers and that none are made in what’s accepted as American wine country: California, Oregon and Washington.

Ome of the cofounders of tis project, Dave McIntyre, writes out of the Washington D.C./northern Virginia area. It’s his feeling that “local wines - broadly defined as any wines not from the West Coast - are getting better. This is especially true in New York and Virginia, but increasingly so in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and unheralded spots such as North Carolina's Yadkin Valley and the mountains of northern Georgia. The Ohio River Valley produces Pinot Blanc of surprising finesse, and Michigan's Old Mission and Leelanau peninsulas are increasingly known for their spritely Riesling and perfumed Gewürztraminer.”

All that said, his partner Jeff Siegel – a Texas wine columnist and blogger – insists that regional wines continue to get overshadowed by that monster that’s known as the West Coast. Not that they don’t deserve their due, but …

“It’s time,” he writes, “that regional wine got the respect it deserved. Yes some of its still tastes like it was made from grapes strained through sweaty socks, but much of its is as competently made as anything from California. I regularly do blind tastings with regional wine; the people who drink it think the stuff they’re drinking is from California or Australia.”

Wines from 16 states plus California will be featured, and there’s every reason to think this will be a successful harbinger of bigger things to come. I’ll be featuring a winery and two of its wines every day, from each of the major wine trails that fan out from Gettysburg east to Philly and north to the Lehigh Valley. And it will be fun to read how others handle their “beat” and what they unearth.

Enjoy. It should provide an eye-opening education.

Crossing Vineyards to celebrate fifth birthday

Once in awhile I'll let the public relations folks do their job. So I'll just post this release from Rebecca Feldman about an anniverary at Crossing Vineyards & Winery next week. This will be a winery featured during Regional Wine Week, which begins Monday. More on that to come.
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Crossing Vineyards and Winery in Washington Crossing, Pa. has a lot to celebrate when it marks its fifth birthday Oct. 11 and 12 with an open house, live music and a chance to win a private wine tasting for eight and a VIP tour.

The celebration, which will be held from 1 to 6 p.m. (live music 1-5 p.m.), both days at the winery, 1853 Wrightstown Road, will cap five years of achievement and growth for Crossing, which opened two new ventures this summer and, in the past year, expanded its summer concert series, added 18 medals to its trophy case, was listed in an international wine guide, featured in US Airways Magazine, and installed a solar energy system.

In June, Crossing opened a second retail location at the Marketplace at East Falls in Philadelphia and the following month launched “Crossing Vineyards Wine and Cheese Shop,” one of only six retail outlets selected for “Project Sunrise,” a $208 million, 300,000 square-foot gaming and entertainment complex at Pocono Downs in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Also this summer, the winery expanded its “Summer Under the Stars” outdoor concert series to 13 performances, adding newcomers like Opera New Jersey to old favorites which brought jazz, pop, classical music and Irish dance to the 200-year-old estate.

Awards in national and international wine competitions this past year brought Crossing’s five-year total to 68, including “Best of Class – Top Gold” in the 2006 Starwine International Wine Competition for its ’05 chardonnay. The reputation of Crossing’s award-winning wines and its setting on 20 acres situated less than a mile from where Washington crossed the Delaware, earned the winery a spot on The Style Network’s popular destination wedding series “Married Away” and in US Airways Magazine’s September edition as a “must see” attraction in Bucks County. Tom Stevenson's 2008 Annual Wine Report, a well-respected international guide to the wines of the world, ranked Crossing Vineyards and Winery number five on its top 10 list of new, up and coming East Coast producers.

The decision of winery owners Tom and Christine Carroll and their son, Tom Jr. to “Go Green” marked another milestone in Crossing’s brief history. Wanting to protect the environment by reducing fossil fuel consumption, the family installed phase one of a state-of-the-art solar energy system and hopes eventually to use solar power to
supply 100 percent of the vineyard’s energy needs.

Crossing continues to expand the offerings of its “Wine Institute,” which presents educational programs and workshops. In conjunction with a new series on “French Wine for Beginners,” the Carrolls in May hosted a private tour of The Rhône Valley and Provence. This fall, Philadelphia wine writer and blogger Collin Flatt joins the Wine Institute faculty, which includes Crossing’s French sommelier Eric Cavatore, and Marika Vida Arnold, sommelier at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Philadelphia.

For additional information about Crossing’s birthday celebration or its programs, visit www.crossingvineyards.com or call 215.493.6500, ext. 19.