Tuesday, October 6, 2009
New Pa. wine blog checks in, flavored by hands-on knowledge of the tasting room
Can I have your attention, everyone. Mind a bit of applause for C.J., who recently gave birth to the Girlfriend's Guide to Vinification blog. OK, maybe giving birth is a little strong. She knows about giving birth, with three boys who sound like they're into a million activities. But you can tell in a couple of postings that she has just the right touch: a blend of education and humor that puts the reader at ease and slowly brings him/her up to speed on understanding many of the basics of the winery and wines.
She's using her experience gleaned from working the past four years at Twin Brook Winery in Gap, Pa., where I've visited numerous times and treated like a friend at every turn. Assistant winemaker Jason Price has been a huge supporter, so have Melissa and Tim Jobe, who have their hands in a number of tasks at the winery. So, I'm delighted to see C.J. venturing into the blogosphere and wish her all the best . . . and recommend you follow along hers as you check in occasionally with mine.
Here's a sample from her newest post, made on Oct. 4. I just copied and pasted this, explaining the reason for the change in the color of the type.
So, getting back on track here - in the grand scheme of things, an evening out at your favorite eatery you will pay on average $8 for a 5oz. glass of wine from a member of the waitstaff who doesn't even remotely like wine and has absolutely no clue of what you should have with your chicken parmesan. At your local winery, you can pay an average of $1 per ounce (at Twin Brook, you will get a one ounce pour each of 7 different wines for $5) and some even pair wines with a cheese, chocolate, or specialty bread. Currently, we have released our Chardonnay Reserve, and are pairing it with a raspberry ale infused cheese. Mmmmm, heavenly! Also, some wineries offer tours for free! Just ask. Locally, about half of the tasting rooms are located on the growing and production premesis. As I said before, we love wine, and we LOVE to tell you about it!
Sunday News story highlights Logan's View
Logan's View Winery has to appreciate the spread it received in the pages of the York Sunday News. I've blogged several times on the new winery that opened at Brown's Orchards & Farm Market, with its mix of dry and sweet white wines and fruit wines. Expect to be able to sample its red wines by next year. It's no more than five minutes off I-83 in Loganville, Pa., right on the Susquehanna Trail.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Ribbon-cutting at new building to kick off 6th anniversary celebration at Crossing Vineyards
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This is one where I'll post the release and then connect with the folks over at Crossing Vineyards & Winery in Washington Crossing, Pa., sometime over the next couple of days. This is a winery with as busy a calendar as any in the region, and while Christine Carroll always has been helpful to me whenever I have called, it's far enough away from where I live that I've yet to try any of their wines. On my list, for sure.
Anyway, happy sixth birthday, Crossing Vineyards. Here's the release, thanks to Rebecca Felton.
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In 2009, Crossing added 14 more medals to its trophy case, bringing the total in six years to 82.
The most recent wins came at the debut of the Sommelier Challenge International Wine Competition Sept. 26-27 inSan Diego
For additional information about Crossing Vineyards and Winery, its events and activities, visit www.crossingvineyards.com or call 215-493-6500.
This is one where I'll post the release and then connect with the folks over at Crossing Vineyards & Winery in Washington Crossing, Pa., sometime over the next couple of days. This is a winery with as busy a calendar as any in the region, and while Christine Carroll always has been helpful to me whenever I have called, it's far enough away from where I live that I've yet to try any of their wines. On my list, for sure.
Anyway, happy sixth birthday, Crossing Vineyards. Here's the release, thanks to Rebecca Felton.
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A native American proverb says, “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” The owners of Crossing Vineyards and Winery in Washington Crossing,
Crossing Vineyards will launch a weekend celebration of its 6th birthday at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 17 with a VIP ribbon-cutting and dedication of a new energy efficient building on the grounds of the winery,
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State and local lawmakers, as well as representatives from
From the beginning, Crossing’s owners - Tom and Christine Carroll and their son, Tom. Jr. – sought to preserve as open space a 20-acre parcel in
The new, 3,000-foot utility building features a high-efficiency geothermal heating and cooling system and is designed to accommodate the future installation of solar panels. It also includes a water recharging well that collects and recycles groundwater instead of allowing erosive runoff.
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In addition to the geothermal heating system, Crossing also has installed energy efficient lighting, including timers and sensors. The lights are working only when the building is in use, therefore avoiding waste, said Christine Carroll.-
“The new building will allow Crossing to better serve its custormers, while conserving natural resources, protecting the environment and reducing the company’s carbon footprint,” she said.
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With the help of State Rep. Steve Santarsiero’s office, Crossing has applied for a $25,000 energy efficiency grant through the commonwealth’s Office of Energy Technology Deployment. “The initial cost to install a geothermal HVAC system is extremely high,” said Carroll. “The grant will help to defray the cost.”
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Carroll reports that due to the building’s design, with no windows and super-insulated doors and walls, the first electric bill was only $49. The public is invited to the official opening of the building, and to the weekend birthday celebration from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17 and Sunday, Oct. 18 at the winery. The Eric Mintel Quartet will perform jazz from 1 to 5 p.m. Oct. 17 and the Upper Princeton Swing Collective will offer its version of jazz and swing from 1 to 5 p.m. Oct. 18.
-Guests will get a free gift with the purchase of a case of wine and can enter a drawing for two tickets to a Food & Wine Pairing Nov. 14.
Crossing has a lot to celebrate. Aside from the successful launch of its “green” initiatives this past year, the winery was featured in an article in the on-line magazine “Keystone Edge” as one of the state’s leading wineries, and one that is helping to create the perception of
In 2009, Crossing added 14 more medals to its trophy case, bringing the total in six years to 82.
The most recent wins came at the debut of the Sommelier Challenge International Wine Competition Sept. 26-27 in
For additional information about Crossing Vineyards and Winery, its events and activities, visit www.crossingvineyards.com or call 215-493-6500.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Another Christmas: Harvest at Basignani
Dust covers some more than 100-year-old bottles in the winery (right); the harvesters sit down to food and plenty of drink, including wine, beer and water; the table laden with homemade goods.
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I can remember going to pick down at Basignani Vineyards five or six years ago and we'd pretty much have the vines to ourselves; maybe eight to 10 of us would show up as volunteers to pick and then we'd retire to the Basignani patio for lunch.
Those were the days. This morning's harvest, which lasted fewer than three hours because of the turnout, drew 50 people. Fifty, all thanks to word of mouth and the Internet. And they capped it at 50, as they they did next week's pick, which is expected to be the final one for this season. We filled the lugs with Chancellor and Chambourcin, working under a clear sky and amid more bees than I've seen in that vineyard in my last couple of harvests. They didn't really bother anyone, but their buzzing and the conversation of all those people served as the audio backdrop.
Once we were finished, Lynne prepared the kind of lunch one happily travels 40 minutes to sample: lasagne, sweet and hot sausage, lunch meat, bread, peppers, olives and I believe an apple/nut cake for dessert. Finally had a chance to taste (OK, more than taste, since I had several glasses) the 2007 Piccolo, a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Delicious, and priced right at $11.75; this was an excellent companion with what we had for lunch. It's neither overly oaked high in alcohol content (12.6 percent), so you could take this along to your favorite BYOB and try anything from burgers to pizza to pasta. And that 2007 vintage is the key. You see any '07 vintages in Maryland or Pennsylvania, buy them. That was this decade's best vintage across the region and one worth stocking up on.
As for this vintage, it might be the toughest to tame since 2003 or '04 because of all the rain. Someone I talked to at the winery noted most of those 2004 wines came up short, except for the Cabernet Sauvignon. Maybe that's what's ahead here, but I'm getting ahead of things. Still plenty of work to be done in the fields yet.
Friday, October 2, 2009
A year in, Black Ankle owner reflects
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Sarah O'Herron and Ed Boyce tonight invited friends and family and case club members to a party. It has been a good year, a very good year for Black Ankle Vineyards in Mt. Airy, Md., which it's fair to say has risen in prominence far faster than any other winery in the Mid-Atlantic. It won a Maryland Governor's Cup for its 2006 Bordeaux blend called Crumbling Rock last September, even before the winery opened. Last month the winery made it two straight with its 2007 vintage of Crumbling Rock. That highlights but doesn't list all the awards that this winery has won in its first year, setting the bar very high for other wineries that follow.
They've made the investment in time and money and it has showed, from the quality of their wines to the quality of their Web site. Even the page with simple facts about the couple, their five children and the vineyard is smartly written.
Feeling sort of squeezed with the late hour and a busy weekend ahead, I don't want to give the 10-minute interview on Wednesday with Boyce short shrift, but I don't want the post to linger into Monday, as can sometimes happen. So with the answers transcribed, let me put the rest into a Q&A format. Let me also mention that the party will continue at the winery all weekend, with music and hors d'oeuvres and wine being served up from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m Sunday. Maybe they'll even blow out one candle on a birthday cake, who knows? But it's well worth the visit, along with a reminder than several other wineries are located close by if you're looking to spend one of the two afternoons navigating the Frederick County countryside.
Q: So was this first year beyond expectations?
A: "I mean, you know, to win the Governor's Cup once is great, to go 2 for 2 . . . that's been great. And we’ve had just a tremendous response to what we’re trying to do. What I didn't realize, I guess, out of the gate before we even started this was how the world of . . sommeliers, distributors, reps, the people whose life revolve around wine, have sort of adopted us. You know, those people wanting to discover [a winery] close to home was a huge pent-up demand, I guess, and that’s really helped us. Even more so than the consumers, those people are out there, the high-end store owners [he laughs] . . . I know you don't have high-end wine stores in Pennsylvania, but we do have a few in Maryland. They’re out there touting our product, they're sending people to our vineyard. We keep hostng restaurant and wine store staff days. Often it’s a Monday they’ll take the whole staff to do something; it might be white-water rafting or whatever, and we must have done eight or 10 of these so far, where they'll come out to the vineyard. It’s interesting, so it's nice to have captured the imagination of people."
Q: Allow me to let you toot your own horn. You two did something right before you opened. What was it?
A: "I think we did a lot of things right, I think we did a lot of things wrong [laughing] I suspect we’ve done some things wrong, I don't know exactly which ones they are yet. The very first thing we did is, we spent a year, and I mean full time, a year looking for a site, and there aren’t even maybe three or four winery/vineyards on the East Coast that have done that. We looked it up. If you go to France, supposedly the best wine-growing plac in the world, of the farmland there, only 2 percent is wine, and wine is the most lucrative thing to grow. Everyone would grow it if they could, but . . . the other 98 percent of the land just grows lousy wine. And so grandma leaves you a farm in Pennsylvania or Maryland or wherever, at best you have a 1 in 50 chance of being something you can get into a bottle, never mind being good. So we took that knowledge to heart. We are going to find a place that we think looks good. I know by doing that we were able to find a low-fertility site and that allowed us to pack the vines in, you know, 2,000 vines per acre instead of the usual 600, 700, 800, 900. And then we’re growing at a lower yield than most, so we end up making one bottle of wine per vine . . . so that one big decision snowballed into all sort of things that we can do in the vineyard. And in a year like 2009 when it has rained while lot, I'm thinking, our whole vineyard is built for a year like this. It’s on low vigor soil, which drains really fast. So that was our idea. We said, out of 10 years, you know, you’re going to get a couple of lousy vintages, you’re going to get three or four mediocre vintages, a couple of good ones, and one or two great ones. If we can turn those lousy ones to decent ones, and we can turn those mediocre ones into good ones and those good ones into great ones, then we have the Bordeaux model. That's really what the French have done the last 20 years. That’s how they’ve raised their quality by doing exacvtly that. Other than that it’s a lot of hard work. This business is 10 percent thinking and 90 percent doing. You just have to stay on it and do it."
Q: You did a lot of visiting where you were planning this site. Now you're getting visited a lot, aren't you?
A: "Yes, constantly. And I'm now head of research and education [for] Maryland wineries, so I'm bringing in speakers and doing all kinds of things to see if we can really [raise] the quality of wine in Maryland."
Q: Are you planning to plant any more vines?
A: "We not going to plant next year. We still have to build our business a little bit, although it’s starting to really take off. The thing we wish we had planted the most of right now is Albarino. We sold out of our Albarino. We only make 60, 70 cases a year, but we sold out in probably four weeks this year. It’s gone. And we have a waiting list. It might be futures next year, and that's just with customers. There are stores and wine bars that would buy the entire thing because they love it. I think the grape’s well-adapted here, but the wine works for where we are. It's a beautiful summer wine, it goes great with seafood, it’s nice in hot weather, all those things that go with a muggy, humid mid-Atlantic where we love seafood. But we’ll see. We got to make sure we can get an economic yield out of it. It’s small grapes and small bunches [He said they have vines growing on 22 acres, the Albarino on a plot that's a little more than a half-acre, what he called a little experiment, 1200 vines in all].
"And we have to decide with our red program where we go next. It's interesting. We have the five Bordeaux reds planted and we've learned, for instance, that Malbec for us makes a nice fruity wine, but it’s never going to make the Crumbling Rock. It's going to go beautifully in the second wine. We do a declassification system where the Crumbling Rock is made out of our best barrels of the five Bordeaux grapes. So we just sort made the best wine we can, and then we take what's left and we make the best wine out of that, and then we take what's left and away it goes. We don't sell that. So like Malbec is something I don't think we’ll plant more of. But beyond that, all the other ones have done really well for us. So I think our formula on the Bordeaux side is working real well.
"On the Syrah side, we made a normal, a regular Syrah in '06, in '07 we made our first reserve Syrah and called it Leaftone Syrah. Unoffically it came in second in the Governor's Cup. I guess, unofficially, I would have reversed the two actually, I think. You ought to taste it. Personally I prefer the Syrah, it’s just a great wine. But Syrah is a conundrum. It likes a very particular type of weather, and this is a good test this year [because] it likes dry, warm Septembers. So we’ll have to see what we can get out of it this year. But that’s a really nice grape, so I don’t know whether we want to plant more of it or not.
Sarah O'Herron and Ed Boyce tonight invited friends and family and case club members to a party. It has been a good year, a very good year for Black Ankle Vineyards in Mt. Airy, Md., which it's fair to say has risen in prominence far faster than any other winery in the Mid-Atlantic. It won a Maryland Governor's Cup for its 2006 Bordeaux blend called Crumbling Rock last September, even before the winery opened. Last month the winery made it two straight with its 2007 vintage of Crumbling Rock. That highlights but doesn't list all the awards that this winery has won in its first year, setting the bar very high for other wineries that follow.
They've made the investment in time and money and it has showed, from the quality of their wines to the quality of their Web site. Even the page with simple facts about the couple, their five children and the vineyard is smartly written.
Feeling sort of squeezed with the late hour and a busy weekend ahead, I don't want to give the 10-minute interview on Wednesday with Boyce short shrift, but I don't want the post to linger into Monday, as can sometimes happen. So with the answers transcribed, let me put the rest into a Q&A format. Let me also mention that the party will continue at the winery all weekend, with music and hors d'oeuvres and wine being served up from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m Sunday. Maybe they'll even blow out one candle on a birthday cake, who knows? But it's well worth the visit, along with a reminder than several other wineries are located close by if you're looking to spend one of the two afternoons navigating the Frederick County countryside.
Q: So was this first year beyond expectations?
A: "I mean, you know, to win the Governor's Cup once is great, to go 2 for 2 . . . that's been great. And we’ve had just a tremendous response to what we’re trying to do. What I didn't realize, I guess, out of the gate before we even started this was how the world of . . sommeliers, distributors, reps, the people whose life revolve around wine, have sort of adopted us. You know, those people wanting to discover [a winery] close to home was a huge pent-up demand, I guess, and that’s really helped us. Even more so than the consumers, those people are out there, the high-end store owners [he laughs] . . . I know you don't have high-end wine stores in Pennsylvania, but we do have a few in Maryland. They’re out there touting our product, they're sending people to our vineyard. We keep hostng restaurant and wine store staff days. Often it’s a Monday they’ll take the whole staff to do something; it might be white-water rafting or whatever, and we must have done eight or 10 of these so far, where they'll come out to the vineyard. It’s interesting, so it's nice to have captured the imagination of people."
Q: Allow me to let you toot your own horn. You two did something right before you opened. What was it?
A: "I think we did a lot of things right, I think we did a lot of things wrong [laughing] I suspect we’ve done some things wrong, I don't know exactly which ones they are yet. The very first thing we did is, we spent a year, and I mean full time, a year looking for a site, and there aren’t even maybe three or four winery/vineyards on the East Coast that have done that. We looked it up. If you go to France, supposedly the best wine-growing plac in the world, of the farmland there, only 2 percent is wine, and wine is the most lucrative thing to grow. Everyone would grow it if they could, but . . . the other 98 percent of the land just grows lousy wine. And so grandma leaves you a farm in Pennsylvania or Maryland or wherever, at best you have a 1 in 50 chance of being something you can get into a bottle, never mind being good. So we took that knowledge to heart. We are going to find a place that we think looks good. I know by doing that we were able to find a low-fertility site and that allowed us to pack the vines in, you know, 2,000 vines per acre instead of the usual 600, 700, 800, 900. And then we’re growing at a lower yield than most, so we end up making one bottle of wine per vine . . . so that one big decision snowballed into all sort of things that we can do in the vineyard. And in a year like 2009 when it has rained while lot, I'm thinking, our whole vineyard is built for a year like this. It’s on low vigor soil, which drains really fast. So that was our idea. We said, out of 10 years, you know, you’re going to get a couple of lousy vintages, you’re going to get three or four mediocre vintages, a couple of good ones, and one or two great ones. If we can turn those lousy ones to decent ones, and we can turn those mediocre ones into good ones and those good ones into great ones, then we have the Bordeaux model. That's really what the French have done the last 20 years. That’s how they’ve raised their quality by doing exacvtly that. Other than that it’s a lot of hard work. This business is 10 percent thinking and 90 percent doing. You just have to stay on it and do it."
Q: You did a lot of visiting where you were planning this site. Now you're getting visited a lot, aren't you?
A: "Yes, constantly. And I'm now head of research and education [for] Maryland wineries, so I'm bringing in speakers and doing all kinds of things to see if we can really [raise] the quality of wine in Maryland."
Q: Are you planning to plant any more vines?
A: "We not going to plant next year. We still have to build our business a little bit, although it’s starting to really take off. The thing we wish we had planted the most of right now is Albarino. We sold out of our Albarino. We only make 60, 70 cases a year, but we sold out in probably four weeks this year. It’s gone. And we have a waiting list. It might be futures next year, and that's just with customers. There are stores and wine bars that would buy the entire thing because they love it. I think the grape’s well-adapted here, but the wine works for where we are. It's a beautiful summer wine, it goes great with seafood, it’s nice in hot weather, all those things that go with a muggy, humid mid-Atlantic where we love seafood. But we’ll see. We got to make sure we can get an economic yield out of it. It’s small grapes and small bunches [He said they have vines growing on 22 acres, the Albarino on a plot that's a little more than a half-acre, what he called a little experiment, 1200 vines in all].
"And we have to decide with our red program where we go next. It's interesting. We have the five Bordeaux reds planted and we've learned, for instance, that Malbec for us makes a nice fruity wine, but it’s never going to make the Crumbling Rock. It's going to go beautifully in the second wine. We do a declassification system where the Crumbling Rock is made out of our best barrels of the five Bordeaux grapes. So we just sort made the best wine we can, and then we take what's left and we make the best wine out of that, and then we take what's left and away it goes. We don't sell that. So like Malbec is something I don't think we’ll plant more of. But beyond that, all the other ones have done really well for us. So I think our formula on the Bordeaux side is working real well.
"On the Syrah side, we made a normal, a regular Syrah in '06, in '07 we made our first reserve Syrah and called it Leaftone Syrah. Unoffically it came in second in the Governor's Cup. I guess, unofficially, I would have reversed the two actually, I think. You ought to taste it. Personally I prefer the Syrah, it’s just a great wine. But Syrah is a conundrum. It likes a very particular type of weather, and this is a good test this year [because] it likes dry, warm Septembers. So we’ll have to see what we can get out of it this year. But that’s a really nice grape, so I don’t know whether we want to plant more of it or not.
"So it’s not even just demand-driven or money-driven, it's if we plant more, what would we plant? We’re just not sure yet."
Signs now point way to Mt. Felix off I-95
Still have two more posts I want to churn out today, this one on Mt. Felix Winery down by Chesapeake Bay and then one later on the thoughts of Black Ankle co-owner Ed Boyce, who will welcome in a "houseful" all weekend for the winery's first-year anniversary fete.
Mary and Peter Ianniello, the gracious hosts from the winery in Havre de Grace, noted in their October newsletter that signage for the winery has gone up on both sides of I-95 and also on Route 155, which passes by the entrance into the winery. And they touted an outdoor digital surround sound theatre that allows them to have DVD concerts, projected onto the side of their wine bar, as long as weather permits. The cost is $8/person. Attendees are asked to bring thier chairs, blankets, and cheese/crackers.
Noticed the Web site has been upgraded, including the page listing the wines. We stopped down there a more than a month ago and sampled the wine, then brought home bottles of Matilda's Devotion (a dry white) and Lafayette's Reserve (a medium-bodied red containing the Chambourcin grape).
This is another winery where the scenery makes you stop and stare, with the vines in the distance and the bay off on the horizon.
Blind tasting account worth looking at
I haven't had the pleasure yet of meeting Tyler Coleman, but I am an avid reader of his Dr. Vino wine blog. He's a journalist through and through, challenging the biggest names in the industry, and I love his passion both for wines and the business. His book, "Wine Politics, How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink," is simply a wonderful job of reporting.
That said, I wanted to link you to his blog for a piece he wrote today on a blind tasting of 2005 vintage Bordeaux wines that he attended in New York on Wednesday night, one that included Robert Parker. Pretty fascinating stuff.
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