Waltz extends its hours over next two weeks

Expect to start to see various wineries extending their hours, partly because of the business lost during this weekend and partly because of the proximity to the holidays.

Saw Waltz Vineyards in Manheim, Pa., did a shout-out overnight via e-mail to its customers on the extra hours it plans to be open the next two weeks. The schedule includes 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday through Wednesday of this weekend and next week, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. both Saturday.

Closed obviously on Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

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 adds expands tasting/events area at their site in Manheim

The French Oak Barrel Room: Where the wine
and its friends go to relax.

Touting wines from Waltz Vineyards in Manheim in an article in the November/December issue of In Central Pennsylvania that's put out by the Harrisburg Patriot-News. They have a good mix of mostly dry wines, so that alone merits my attention and interest. And while you cringe before tasting the juiced of some new wineries, you won't with this place. Interesting the strides they've made in terms of business, not a member of any wine trails yet pulling in a lot of folks from the surrounding community, including Mt. Gretna.

And they've found a clientele willing to pay more for a bottle than you'd expect to pay in this part of Pennsylvania with prices ranging from $18 (Rose) and $23 (a red that's an equal blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot) up to $36 (Merlot) and $42 (Cabernet Sauvignon). You might need mapquest or your GPS to find the place, but it's worth the trip just to see the Tuscan designed tasting room and what they are called their French Oak Barrel Room (as you see by the photos, called that for an obvious reason).

Fall hours are noon to 6 p.m. Thursda and Friday, including Thanksgiving Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Monday through Wednesday by appointment.

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.

On Easter, perfect pairings and LCB discounts

The kids are home. Company's headed over later. So it's time to open the best bottles laying in the racks in the cellar or chilling in the small upstairs refrigerator. Yesterday that meant uncorking a 2007 Naked Chardonnay from Chaddsford. Might duplicate that for starters today, perhaps opening one of the bottles we bought from Pinnacle Ridge. Or perhaps the Zafferano from Va La in Avon Grove. For our turkey dinner, we could uncork any number of Cabernet Franc bottles that we've bought from wineries around the region, including Stargazers in Pennsylvania and Woodhall in northern Maryland. Or we could add a little more color to the table with a bottle of Rose that we bought a few weeks ago during our visit to Waltz Vineyards in Manheim. The primary purpose of that trip was to catch a glimpse of the new tasting room and purchase a couple bottles of their signature, the Merlot. That's until we had a taste of the Rose and Chardonnay, which also found their way home with us.

Yesterday's match with steaks featured a bottle from the "state store," something I don't write about much on a blog that's focused on regional wines and wineries. But I had noticed during a couple of visits to premium collection stores around the region that some of the higher-priced bottles, those quoted at $60 or more, had been marked down to $19.99. Bought one last month outside Harrisburg, a 2000 Cims de Porrera Priorat, and several other wines quoted at $40 and $50 were marked down under $20.

Found a similar sale at the East York store on Friday, with bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon from the Miguel Torres vineyard in Spain dropped to $19.99. The 1996 Mas La Plana hit it off perfectly with the slabs of meat that made a quick trip to the charcoal grill.

I'm a sucker for the "old stuff," certainly anything that I know was in the ground prior to 2000. Gave this wine a couple hours to open up by uncorking and then decanting. It was one of those with such an aromatic bouquet that you just wanted to stand there and inhale. Eventually we did get around to polishing off the bottle.

Checked in with Tony Jones (the chief of product management and pricing division for the state’s Liquor Control Board) and Steve Pollack (the head of the Chairman's Selection program) to find out how often they were knocking the price of some of these premium wines and, if I bought them, how quickly I had to drink them.

Jones said the sales are just a matter of controlling inventory. "We’re a retail business and all of our investory equates to dollars," he said, "so we like to see a good sell-through time frame. We like to see a product sell through in six months, ideally 90 days, but when it comes around six months and we're still seeing a good deal of intentory left on a product hanging around, that’s what motivates us to sell it through and move on to other products."

You'll likely find these significant markdowns at the premium collection stores only, and the new price will be uniform across the Commonwealth. Jones and Pollack noted that this particular wine, and other premiums priced to move, don't necessarily have to be consumed quickly. Maybe buy a couple and drink one now, then cellar others to open in 2010 and 2011 or beyond. They figure to show well for the next few years, at least.

Jones noted that state residents have access to more of these discounts through online sales at the LCB's premium collection site. Generally, he said, they'll pull the wines they need to move off the shelves and promote them online to customers who have signed up for e-blasts. Anyone purchasing these can designate which store they want the wine shipped to. The wine cannot be received at someone's residence or business.

"We expect to have another sale coming up after the wine festivals [at the end of the month and the start of May]," Jones said. "The majority [of sales we've done in the past] have been online only. [This sale] is probably only the second time we’ve allowed the inventory to stay in stores. We don’t want to tarnish the Chairman’s program by having a bunch of discounted items out there, so we move [them] online."

Waltz extends hours starting this week

Wanted to mentioned that with the warmer weather and the fact that Waltz Vineyards in Manheim, Pa., has a month of operation completed in its new tasting room, it will be increasing its hours starting this weekend.

Open until now only on Saturdays, it will be open Thursdays through Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m. Kim Waltz adds that small, private dinners/wine club or evening appointments might also be available. The number is 717.664.WINE.

Vines to own wines takes 'only' 12 years

Waltz Vineyards in Manheim, Pa., last Saturday became the newest winery to open officially. Jan and Kim Waltz planted their vineyard in 1997 and began producing wine out of the garage three years later. Now they're known regionally for their outstanding fruit and, while remaining a producer, have begun to sell their wine with the Waltz Vineyards label adorning the bottles.

Asked Kim via e-mail how last week's grand opening went and received this reply.

"Last Saturday went very well. We had nearly fifty people through our little Tuscan style tasting room. Everyone was quite impressed with the quality of the wines we are producing and many commented that they would be back 'with friends.' Most customers were completely amazed at how much work goes into the whole process from vine to wine.

"It is with great pride that our entire project was completed by local businesses. It was exciting for the people to realize that all of the fruit came right from our farm. A tobacco lathe that Jan's family used for many generations adorns the bars and walls of our tasting room. And , at this time, three local artists have displayed their work on our walls.

"We closed the doors last Saturday feeling very encouraged and looking forward to the next time we could open those doors to the public. Currently, we are open from 12-5 on Saturdays through the end of March. We plan to extend the hours in late Spring and Summer 2009."

Waltz to open winery next Saturday

You've read much about the grapes from Waltz Vineyards in Manheim, Pa., on this blog. Those who had contracted to buy Kim and Jan's grapes through the years have raved about the quality of the fruit. Starting next Saturday, Feb. 28, you'll get a chance to see for yourself what all the fuss is about. The couple has put the finishing touches on its tasting room and will swing open its doors for business from noon to 5 p.m next Saturday.

Kim said the couple plan, are least through the end of March, to be open on Saturdays only, and also by appointment. Those hours that the winery will be open for visitors figure to increase as the weather warms.

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.”

No better ad for soon-to-open Waltz winery

I wanted to post this first, as a prelude to the news that Jan and Kim Waltz will be opening their Manheim, Pa., winery in a couple of weeks. Jan has established himself as a master in the vineyard, and a number of wineries that have bought his grapes during the past decade or so will vouch for that. I remember seeing an extremely positive reference to the Waltz vineyard and a review of his soon-to-be-sold in a recent newsletter by Mark Chien, the well-respected statewide Viticulture Extension Educator, and I thought it would be worth sharing before posting Jan's thoughts on the reasons for moving from supplier to more of a dual role in the wine community.

Chien wrote in his December e-letter:

"Many of you are familiar with the vineyard of Jan and Kim Waltz in Manheim, either having attended a viticulture workshop there or purchasing their outstanding grapes. Jan has always dabbled in wine making and he is one of those persons whose amateur wines are often better than many commercial wines. There is no surprise here since the vineyard is one of the most meticulously maintained anywhere. It is easy to connect the quality dots in this case … great fruit can yield great wines. There is a reason I use it as my default teaching vineyards so growers, especially new ones, can soak in the vision of what a fine vineyard looks like and get exposed to Jan’s knowledge. It was inevitable but Jan and Kim have built a beautiful winery and tasting room on the property. It’s not quite done yet but wine was made there this vintage.

"I had a chance to taste the 2007 and 2008 wines and they are remarkable. Jan had a vision of Sauvignon Blanc growing where Merlot also excelled and has planted it along with Semillon. The sauvy is a shining example of the versatility of what this variety can do, from the absolute fruit forward New Zealand version to the more restrained, creamier, nutty, barrel fermented white Bordeaux or California style. While I’m not a big chard fan in general I think we can do very fine Chardonnay in SE PA and I might have to change my tune. Jan’s blend of three Dijon clones, stainless steel and barrel fermented versions were both incredibly fruit-driven wines with pure flavors of honey, apple, citrus, full and rich in the mouth, these are truly reminiscent of Pouilly-Fuisse, especially the barrel wine with its toast and smoke. Sauvy and Chard both appear to be well suited for our region but they are both rot prone so they need great viticulture to succeed consistently. I guess we are just a white wine region.

"That is, until I taste his reds. The 2007 estate Merlot is deep in color and full in body with layers of dark fruit flavors, great structure and balance. Merlot is a fruity red that, I believe, needs blending to add complexity. That is a practice that I think we can improve upon, maybe by getting some help from outside. Jan’s could easily stand alone as a varietal but I think it could be even better with some Cabernet Sauvignon for structure, Cab Franc for that herbal note and Petit Verdot for rusticity, but I don’t know how to do it. His Cabernet Sauvignon is a surprise and delight. This block took it hard in the shins during the ‘04 freeze but they have brought it back and the 2008 is nice and ripe but with that savory quality that Jim Law describes in his reds and a character of Bordeaux. No one will mistake it for a cult Napa cab, but who would want to anyway? This is a foodie’s wine and it had me thinking of what to pair it with. Okay, well, by now you know I wear my palate on my sleeve when it comes to the Waltzes. These wines couldn’t happen to a nicer and more deserving family."

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.

Home winemaker Patone about to take plunge

If you haven’t heard of Mario Patone and you’re at all into regional wineries, you will soon. Off the conversation with Roger Morris last week I got ahold of Patone, a longtime home winemaker, late last week. With his roots in the Abruzzo region of Italy, Patone followed in the footsteps of a number of family members. Only now he has some grander ideas.

By fall, he hopes to have his winery operating in Chester County, no more than a comfortable walk on a pretty day between the Kreutz Creek and Paradocx wineries that will bookend his operation. So close, I joked with him, that visitors attending that Brandywine Valley Wine Trail’s Barrels on the Brandywine could walk to the three wineries rather than drive. “I’m in the middle of them by a mile each,” he said. “They could walk between them; they’d probably burn off a little wine during the walk.”

At the same time, he’ll look to build a combo boutique winery and house on Route 841 in Lancaster County, capping off these past few years in which he decided to become more serious about what has been a hobby up until now.

“I always wanted to be in an entrepreneurial business, “said Patone, a CPA, “and food and wine are an absolute passion of mine. I’ve been with big firms, traveled all over. At this point [I] turned 40 last year, and we’re just trying to head for something a little more simplistic, a little more back to basics. So we decided to try to take the plunge and try to head that way with the food and the wine.”

For now, Patone will continue to source grapes from wineries such as Paradocz, Penns Woods and Waltz Vineyards in Manheim, Lancaster County, until he can begin pulling them out of his own vineyards. He sees the glass half full in terms of whether this is a good time to open a new business.

“Quite honesty, we’re in some interesting economic times and I’m not sure what the recovery is going to b,e but I think regardless there’s going to be a stronger focus on local economies and local tourism,” he said. “I think people will kind of look a little more inward and enjoy the region where they live." And taste a quality of wine that will continue to improve.

"I belong to the [Brandywine Valley] wine trail and I spend time with all the other winemakers. Everybody is very, very motivated to really improve the quality, to really hit the books, so to speak, and crack down and really trying to study and understand what’s going on and really trying to make the region come alive," he said. "As we both know, California was laughed at when it came on line, Washington was laughed at, and people 10 years ago said, ‘Wine from Pennsylvania, you’re nuts.’ But I think that, I know Penns Woods is doing a real nice job and Va La is doing a nice job . . . and they’re making some wines that are starting to turn people’s heads, and they saying ‘Wow, they’re coming from Pennsylvania.’”