Waltz Vineyards' next release will be the first for a new semi-dry white blend called Fusion

A couple of things out of Waltz Vineyards in Manheim, a new Pennsylvania winery that I haven't been bashful about calling one of my favorites since it opened earlier this year.

One, they're able to ship UPS now, so anyone ordering wine can have it on their table in a day or two. Meanwhile, the winery is expanding its hours beginning Monday, opening its doors six days a week through the end of the year except for Thanksgiving day, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. They'll be open noon to 5 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and noon to 6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Co-owner Kim Waltz said Friday that they have been maintaining a schedule of being open three days a week, but "if there's any month we should probably be more available, it's December. So, we're going to give that a shot."

Waltz noted she and husband Jan have bottled a number of wines, but none have been released as yet. They offer a line of six dry wines -- two whites, three reds and a rose, ranging in price from $18 (Baron Steigel Rose) to $36 (their Cherry Hill Merlot, really what I'd consider their signature wine) to $42 (Crow Woods Cabernet). The first one they plan to release, as early as this weekend, will be the seventh wine in their line. It's a semi-dry white called Fusion that will sell for $18.

"It's three whites blended together and a little more sweetness than we normally do on our other wines," Kim said. The blend is 50 percent Semillon and 25 percent each of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. "It's really nice. It's got a little punch to it; it's about 13 percent [alcohol]. It's interesting, you know, there are still a lot of people that really like a lot of sweetness in their line. So we stayed with the semi-dry and didn't get too, too sweet, but for us it tastes sweet. . . . But I think it will be a nice one here, especially going into the holidays, because it's capturing the audience that really would rather have a little sweetness."

Expect the others to be released right around the start of the new year.

Waltz Vineyards looking forward to excellent yield as vineyard manages to evade severe storms

The next five weeks holds the key to the quality of the 2009 vintage. A dry, warm September and all that rain from the spring and summer becomes a distant memory. Well, except for all the aches and pains that still linger from the extra work that the rain necessitates.

One winemaker who says he's been fortunate enough to dodge most of the intense storms is Jan Waltz, at Waltz Vineyards in Manheim, Pa., a new winery and already one of my favorites. They've built a lovely tasting room and the wines (from the Chardonnay through their signature Merlot to their high-end Cabernet Sauvignon) are all worth a taste.

Stopped Monday to grab a bottle for a shoot we're planning at the Harrisburg Patriot-News, and while there had a chance to barrel taste the 2008 Merlot and 2008 Cab. Both are rounding nicely into shape.

Waltz said that even a rainstorm last Friday that dumped more than 2 inches of rain didn't set back the vineyard because it had enough dryness to absorb what fell. "We could see it all [heavier rain and haul that fell in Lancaster and surrounding communities] from here, but we missed it," he said. "The rain either follows the valley or follows the mountain, so most of the time it goes around us. We're on track for a good year."

Waltz said he expects an exceptional yield out of his Cabernet Sauvignon. "I think this is going to be a great Cab year, because [it's] further ahead than what we normally are."

Business, he said, has been picking up steadily since the spring opening, even on Thursdays and Fridays. The tasting room is open noon to 5 p.m. those two days and Saturdays. To handle the crowds and the parties, they've added a hire, and could add another once they expand their hours to Wednesday and perhaps Tuesday. They are planning to be open holidays, including Labor Day in another couple of weeks.

Though not part of a wine trail per se, Waltz said he's seeing visitors who are making up their own wine trail, doing a circuit that includes Nissley, Tamanend and Mt. Hope along with Waltz Vineyards. And other wineries in the Harrisburg area and north and east along the Berks County Wine Trail are within an hour's drive.

Perfecto: Blog guy heads to Waltz's for afternoon

Shots from the outside of the tasting room, inside the tasting room, and the Waltz family (minus their three younger daughters), from left: Kim, Jan and business manager Zach.

Have just a couple of minutes tonight to post, but wanted to mention that the trip to Waltz Vineyards' tasting room should be put on your to-do list sooner rather than later.

Workman are putting the finishing touches on the back area of the tasting room, and some work remains on the exterior. But inside is as colorful and Tuscan as promised on the Web site, with gorgeous paintings by, among others, nationally known and Mount Gretna-based Fred Swarr.

Kimberly and Jan Waltz have been in the business of making wine since the late 1990s, so they open their business ahead of their brethren who have opened their doors this year or last. Waltz's grapes are known statewide for their quality; in fact, something like six of the wines recognized by the Pennsylvania Wine Society used grapes from the Waltz's vineyards.

With 16 acres planted, they are planning to put in another 4 acres this spring. Everything from the rose to the Sauvignon Blanc to the Merlot and the other in between were delicious. Currently they are open noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays through the end of March, and expect to see those hours tweaked somewhat later this spring.

Visitors are served two complimentary wines; the fee for tasting the complete line is $8. In this case, well worth it, although your might need your GPS or mapquest.com to find your way to the place. It took around 20 minutes from Middletown on Saturday to get there; the ride from there to Lancaster didn't take much longer than that.

Again, between the view and the tasting room and the wines, put this one on your list of places to stop by this summer. Don't expect to be drawn by any special events. They'll hold some private parties there, accommodating maybe 16 to 20 people. Otherwise, as Jan said yesterday, they're in the business of making wine. And they do it quite well.

Couple find it difficult to bottle up excitement

One of the wineries that I can’t wait to try is actually fairly close to my house, not always the case for someone handling a beat that spans from Bangor to Orrtanna, Pa., and south to Dickerson, Md. Sometime between now and the middle of the month, Jan and Kimberly Waltz officially will open the doors on Waltz Vineyards,

As was obvious by my last post, the couple have earned a reputation as one of the best grape growers in this region, supplying the yummiest fruit to a number of vineyards in Pennsylvania. That part of their business isn’t about to end, but now visitors will be able to head to Kim and Jan’s tasting room at 1599 Old Line Road, about 2 miles outside Manheim and around 10 miles north of Lancaster City. The phone number there will be 717.664.WINE.

Jan said in a phone interview the middle of last week (sorry, Jan, for not being more vigilant about getting this post up) that they were content for the eight or so previous years just serving as the supplier. At some point, they chose to do more than that and start selling at least some of their grapes in a bottle with their own label slapped onto it.

“Over the past eight years of making wine, we were researching and working on methods and equipment,” he said, talking about how the transition began to unfold. “We did meet some key people, finally we took some trips to some other countries and found equipment that we wanted to work with. We started construction in July of last year, and now we’re . . . fully licensed to sell wine, so it’s just a matter of opening a tasting room. As soon as we have our occupancy complete in about two weeks, we’ll be open for business, at least by appointment to start and probably have hours later on this year. We just want to kind of see the clientele that comes in and come up with the best days [to serve them].”

That they’ve pretty much sailed through the process says something about how prepared they are; perhaps you could look at it as a sign that this is indeed the right time and place to start selling Waltz Vineyards wines. “We had a good experience with all the municipalities,” he said. “It wasn’t easy, but we got through it on our own in a rather quick manner. My wife did all of that work and got that accomplished [quickly] . . . got label approval within nine days, and that doesn’t happen too often.”

They plan to sell six wines, including Merlot (“our largest varity planted, so we will make quite a bit of Merlot”), Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. “We’re working on bottling,” he continued. We don’t have a lot of wine bottled yet because obviously, the reds are not bottled. We’re waiting to bottle some of that wine. But we will have limited product here to sell and hopefully as the year goes on we’ll bottle more as it’s ready.”

Some of that wine also will be served soon at several area restaurants, although Jan didn’t disclose which ones those would be. All in all, Jan said they’re eager to get through this final week or two and welcome visitors to their winery. For years, the primary visitors have been other winemakers and proprietors, along with the crowd that has stopped by for a clinic or two that statewide wine grape educator Mark Chien has put together and held there. Soon it will be cxustomers filling in, sitting and tasting the wine from the grapes that so many winemakers have lauded throughout this decade.

“It’s exciting,” he admitted. “Like I said, we’ve been thinking over it, trying to come up with different scenarios over the years of how we would open up and where we’d do it, and finally all came together in the last two years plan-wise, so it was worth putting the time and through into it. Being in the business for a dozen years now, we’ve seen a lot of people who have never grown grapes and never made wine just jump into everything at one shot. I think that can compromise the quality of your product going out the door.

“It’s a stressful enough business because it’s an ag commodity. When you’re also at the mercy of the weather and you have no idea what your site is going to produce, I think that would even make it no fun at all,” he said, laughing. “But we’ve taken this over a decade to figure out what our site produces well with, and messing with the wine in the garage we figured out that hey, this stuff turns out pretty good without even having a whole lot of knowledge initially when we started. And then the more that we applied and the more help we brought in, the more we can fine tune things. We figured out that it’s definitely worth pursuing.”

Brandywine trail posts info on wine camp

Have some interviews to get posted the next couple days. One is with winemaker Chris Kent of Woodhall Wine Cellars of Parkton, Md., who talks highly about their 2008 vintage. And the other is with Jan Waltz of Waltz Vineyards in Manheim, Pa., who expects to open his tasting room for business (by appointment only for a bit) sometime over the next couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, let me mention the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail and its plans for this summer, including its second wine camp in mid-June (click on the ad above to see the details or go to the Web site). You can also find two other events scheduled for summer on the Chester County Conference and Visitors Bureau: a culinary camp in mid-July and Harley-Davidson camp i mid-August.