The event grapevine: July 18-20

FEATURED EVENT
Music in the Vineyards 2008
Nissley Vineyards & Winery Estate, Bainbridge, Pa.
Saturday, 7:30 to 10 p.m.
The Jazzberries, Big Band Swing
http://www.nissleywine.com/lawn_concerts.htm

Judy Nissley of Nissley Vineyards & Winery Estate covered a lot of the present and the past of her Music in the Vineyards series, which is breezing through its 26th season with the third of eight Saturday night concerts tonight.

This is a special year for the winery, reaching the big 3-0. Nissley spent a few minutes explaining how several venues she used to visit long before the winery came to fruition led to this highly successful concert series, which has drawn as many as 2,800 people on a single night.

“One of the inspirations for the concert series,” she said last week in an phone interview, “we started out with dancing, because years ago in Hershey they used to have something called the Starlight Ballroom, and when I was in college we would go there for a Saturday night date. They would get big bands that would come in and so that was my introduction to big bands, and it was always very nice. They didn’t serve anything alcoholic though, which is why we could go in underage. We were not 21, we were still in college.

“Years later, when I worked in Chicago, there is a place north of Chicago that has a music venue which is called Ravinia, and it’s big stage, that has a roof on it and is partially enclosed, and you could pay two different admission prices, one would be to sit in a seat inside and the other you could put a blanket on the ground outside. So friends of mine and I would get together and we would take a picnic . . . these elaborate things. In fact, one of my friends would write up a menu, really elaborate things, and she always put cardamom in the coffee. So every time I have cardamom now I think of this event.

“In any event when we started the winery, it wasn’t long before I looked at the situation and said that I would really like to do something similar to that in this area. We started just with the dancing concept, but it’s amazing that not that many people related to the dancing, they really related though to the concert concept, with dancing on the side. So if we don’t have dancing -- say we take away all the patios -- that would affect the way in which people would enjoy the event. But if we strictly built it as a dance, we would not get nearly as many people.”

PENNSYLVANIA WINERIES

Adams County Farm Winery, Ortanna: Free summer concert, Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m., bring a blanket, lawn chair or go early to get a seat at one of the picnic tables; http://www.adamscountywinery.com/events.htm

Blue Mountain Vineyards & Cellars, Lehigh Valley: Sangria Sunday wine tasting ($$), 2 to 5 p.m., http://www.bluemountainwine.com/

Chaddsford Winery, Chaddsford: Sangria Sunday ($$), noon to 5 p.m.; concert, Sunday, 2 to 5 p.m.; July Barrel Tastings and Sale of 2007 Futures ($$), Saturday, 7 p.m., with light supper to follow, http://www.chaddsford.com

Crossing Vineyards & Winery, Washington Crossing: “Summer Under the Stars” Outdoor Concert Series ($$), Friday, 7 p.m.; Wine Tasting for Singles ($$), Friday, 7 p.m., wine, cheese and music; Summerfest: Caribbean Jam ($$), Saturday, 5 to 9 p.m.; How Sweet It Is: Pairing Wine and Chocolate ($$), Sunday, 2 p.m., http://www.crossingvineyards.com/

Galen Glen Vineyard & Winery, Andreas: Sixth annual Winter Mountain Red Snow Cone Tour, Saturday and Sunday; the tractor and wagon tours leave at 1, 2, 3 and 4 p.m., http://www.galenglen.com/

Moon Dancer Vineyards & Winery, Wrightsville: Music Friday night and Saturday and Sunday afternoons; Summer Concert series Saturday night ($$); Paddle Dine Music & Wine ($$), co-sponsored by Moon Dancer and Shank’s Mare, includes kayak tour, light fare dinner and concert, http://www.moondancerwinery.com

Naylor Wine Cellars, Stewartstown: “Summer Sounds” outdoor concert series ($$), Saturday, 7 to 10 p.m., http://www.naylorwine.com

Paradocz Vineyards, Landenberg: Free concert, 5 to 9 p.m., http://www.paradocx.com/

Twin Brook Winery, Gap: Gazebo Concert series ($$), Saturday, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., http://www.twinbrookwinery.com/

MARYLAND WINERIES

You can find events for this weekend at this link.

VIRGINIA WINERIES

You can find all the events for this weekend at this link.

($$) – Admission charge

A stop at Maryland's Sugarloaf Mountain

It was in passing that someone I was chatting with mentioned Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard, in Dickerson, as one new Maryland winery that was getting it right. Jim McKenna, one of the partners involved in the winery that’s located in the northwest corner of Montgomery County, said in an interview last night that it was a visit to Col. John Buehler Sr. out in Napa Valley after a wedding in 2002 that served as their inspiration. According to the Buehler Vineyards Web site, it was in 1971 that Buehler, a 1934 West Point graduate who served 20 years in the Army Corps of Engineers and another 20 years as a Bechtel Corporation executive, decided to entire retirement with his wife Helen by buying a remote Napa Valley hillside property that had been the site of a "ghost winery" before prohibition. Like everything else he touched, it wound up as a wildly successful venture. McKenna explained the connection by noting that his wife had gone to school with Buehler’s daughter. One tour of the vineyard was enough to sell McKenna and partner Mike McGarry on doing the same in Maryland.

They broke ground in 2002 and three years later were up and running. Already they are touting a number of awards, including a double gold for their 2005 Cabernet Franc, Maryland, given out at the 2007 International Eastern Wine Competition.

“I think we’ve done pretty much everything right so far,” McKenna said. “You never know. But we’re plugging away.” He said they have planted 19,000 vines over 10 acres, which sits at 600 feet above sea level and is blessed by what he calls a “little gift from God,” a breeze from Sugarloaf Mountain that he said blows constantly, largely deterring pests and disease alike. They do about 4,500 cases annually; with aspirations of increasing that as they grow the vineyard to 20 or 25 acres. Their recent tie-in with the Kennedy Center Roof Terrace Restaurant, where they have become the first Maryland or local wineries to have their wines included on the wine list, should provide more momentum.

McKenna said that their Cab Franc, the double gold winner, has become their signature. “Ours is really unbelievably good,” he said, then sharing a story. “This is just small potatoes. A guy came out and bought a bunch of the Franc at one point . . . he was a member of the wine club, and he had a blind wine tasting over the Christmas holidays. He had our Cab Franc, and also contained in that tasting was an Opus One. That’s pretty big cheese. Robert Mondavi started it with the Rothschilds in 1979. They wanted to make it the definitive red from California. Whether they made it or not is an open question, but they sell it for a heckuva lot of money, and our little ol’ Cabernet Franc in that one little tasting beat it out. So it’s one little anecdote; it’s not definitive of anything, but it certainly made me feel pretty good when the guy came back and told me about it.”

Among the winery’s other reds are Cab Sauvignon, Merlot, and a couple of blends, one called Circe that’s named after the sorcerer from Greek mythology, and Comus, named after … well … some old farmer who used to live down the road. It’s a road that’s named after that farmer, and has since been used on one of Sugarloaf Mountain’s red blends. “We started with five, six, maybe seven wines,” McKenna said. “I don’t think we exactly landed on a number. We know we wanted two whites, a Chardonnay and a Pinot Grigio, and we weren’t interested in . . . well, I suppose we would be interested in a Sauvignon Blanc, but it doesn’t grow very well here, and so we weren’t going to try and fight the elements. I think what happened is that the Cab franc is a little like, in a very miniature sort of a way, it’s a little bit like Malbec when Malbec was taken from France and plunked down in the ground in Argentina. It took off like wild fire. And, I mean, a lot of people think it’s an Argentinian wine by origin -- which it isn’t -- but there’s so much of it and it does so well coming from there that you hardly ever see Malbec from anyplace else but Argentina.

“And so a similar thing has happened with us and Cab Franc. I mean, it just adores it here,” he added. “I don’t know why, but it does, and so, that’s going to be our flagship. And the Pinot Grigio has been super. We sold out in the first year; we sold out in six weeks. We had really misunderstood what the market was going to bring. It was gone in a heartbeat. People would come back and say, ‘I really like that Grigio, can I have another bottle of it?’ And I’d say ‘No, it’s gone.’ And that was in no time at all. And the second year we made a lot more and that sold out in advance. So we’re going to make more this year; and the Chardonnay has been doing well and winning competitions. So we’ve been doing very well.”

.

Business drying up? Not at these wineries

After the New York Wine & Grape Foundation reported in its most recent e-newsletter that it was seeing a trend toward an overall drop in business because of the economy, I posed the question to several owners of wineries in my coverage area. Two owners who have been good friends to this blog, Lee Miller of Chaddsford Winery in chaddsford, Pa., and Carl Helrich of Allegro Vineyards in The Brogue, Pa., chimed in with what they've seen.

Miller: "We have actually seen INCREASES in traffic and sales this summer. Seems people coming to the Brandywine Valley are going the "staycation" route -- instead of going to Europe where the gas is $14 a gallon (and I know it firsthand as we just returned from 3 weeks in Spain) AND the Euro is worth $1.65 -- they are staying home, traveling less and doing more local things - which is really to our benefit. Our Memorial Day Weekend Brandywine River Blues Fest was the best ever in terms of both attendees and sales, and our recent Fourth of July Big Bang BBQ Weekend was also jam-packed and broke last year's sales record. Another thing I've heard people talking about around here is the "one tank trip" -- and again that's in our favor when people look around their own area instead of driving to further away areas. They are discovering the local wines and regional wine touring!"

Helrich: "Here's what I've seen. Even though our December sales were down over our projections, we've set records for sales on four of he past six months. This doesn't make any sense, because our winery (one of our main slaes locations) is in the middle of nowhere and requires driving a pretty good distance. I do think our sales per customer are up as well, which could explain us at least keeping even with years past, but not the growth in sales I have seen. I attribute it to the fact that in bad economies people stop going out for their entertainment. They don't stop their alcohol consumption -- it just moves closer to home. It would be interesting to see if DUIs are down these months . . . that might be an indicator of changing behaviors.That's all I've got. Cheers!"

New York wineries noticing a drop in visits

This note from the weekly New York Wine & Grape Foundation newsletter. It's a topic I'll try to explore throughout the week in our neck of the vineyards:

GAS PRICES got you down? Then go to Europe where gas is about $9 a gallon, and that’s not including the extra you’d pay if you first have to exchange dollars for Euros, which would bring it to $14. (Fortunately, I took the tube and didn’t have to drive anywhere.) So $4 sounds pretty cheap, but unfortunately it still seems to be taking a toll on wine country tourism, both in number of visitors and purchases. About a month ago, visitor counts seemed pretty even with last year, and purchases actually up—so the people who came intended to buy—but more recently that seems to have eroded, just like the economy in general. We don’t have any formal survey or statistics, just anecdotal information from conversations, but it seems pretty consistent.

The event grapevine: July 9-10

On the eve of what will be the 30th anniversary celebration at Nissley Vineyards & Estate, in Bainbridge, Pa., just off Route 441, owner Judy Nissley spent some time on the phone reminiscing about how their signature concert series began and how it has since evolved. The gates tonight will open at 6, with the concert running from 7:30 to 10 p.m., interrupted by just one intermission. Big Band Nostalgia is the headliner, and the winery also will unveil its 2007 Seyval Blanc, the feature wine for tis 30th birthday.

“When we first started . . . this is our 26th season, so it was 1982,” Nissley said, “and we started with something we called Moonlight and Melodies, and we supplied the tents and put tables under the tents and we had only one dance area, but we get small bands and they’d play at one end of the dance patio, the one with the lights on it, and some of the people would dance there, and then they could reserve box suppers and we only did that format one year, because when it rained we had to eat a lot of box suppers [plus] all the time and effort it took to put the tables in place, the chairs, the covering for the tables.

“So we went the next year to bring-your-own-picnic format. One of our problems here, we can’t really do anything during the daytime because there’s not enough shade. We have to wait for the sun to go behind the trees. So the next year we did some on Sunday afternoon and some on Saturday evenings, and we realized Saturday evening were much better so the following year we did Saturday evenings and we gradually increased the number of concerts. And over the years then we finally settled on 10 concerts, which spanned July 4th weekend and Labor Day weekend. This year we backed off again; we’re only doing eight, primarily because it’s harder to get staff on the holiday weekend.

“And the thing that’s interesting about this series is I could see the audience, as soon as we would make an improvement, then the next year it would expand. Prior to doing an improvement, the audience didn’t know. They’d see it and say ‘This is nice,’ and then the next year bring more people the following year. So we did things to expand the audience. One of those things was we built regular restroom. That was one of the first things, and then we added dance patios and put the band under cover, in the barn, where it is now. Those 2 things really helped to increase attendance.

“When we first started, we started with jazz or big band, it was either big band swing or big band jazz, .and the audience at that time, which would have been now back 20 years ago, the audience was people in their 50s and 60s; those are the people who like that kind of music. As time went on, we realized there were fewer and fewer people to draw from in that group, so we started adding light rock, and so we started adding those. That means that now the people in the 50s and 60s, which is our target audience, those are the people who like the light rock, the classic rock, they like variety bands.

“Now we have mostly light rock and variety bands, and we have this year only big bands, and we keep those big bands because there is still some of the audience that likes to hear that, and I personally really like that music. I think big band music is really nice.

“We did try and experimented with some bands that were sort of esoteric, because they don’t play music that’s really melodic; it’s more experimental. Different, but our audience didn’t react well to that because they want to be able to dance and even if they’re not dancing they want to be able to hear the music that people like to dance to.”

Nissley said they even tried classical one year, but “we soon realized that’s done better in other places. In a theater the classical sounds better than it does outdoors, and the orchestra was too big for our bandstand. So we said, ‘OK, well now we’re not going to do that anymore.’

“So we pretty well have stayed with the format we’ve got; we’ve been doing that for a lot of years. Interestingly there are certain bands that really draw a lot of people. They don’t the first time they come here, but by the second or third time they tell their friends, and instead of just coming as a couple, the second year they bring two more couples and the next year they’re up to 20 people. So those are really, some of those bands really draw heavily, and we try to discourage large groups on those nights. Other nights we sell group vouchers for 20 or more, but on those nights we don’t.”

Two of those most popular bands are the SilverHawks (set for July 26) and Headliners (scheduled for Aug.16). “[For those] we try not to do too much promotion. I mean, people seem to have a good time, even when there’s a horde here. But, you know what, 2,600 people is really a lot of people. We’ve had 2,800, so the people are all the way out to the fence and the parking is really difficult, and then the people have to stumble around to find their cars.

"What’s really ideal, we think, is 1,800 to 2,000. If it gets too much over that [it’s too much]. We had [the 2,800] for the band [Nightwind] that played here last Saturday, and because of that there are people who come two hours early for that band because they want to make sure they get in.”

Among the improvements they’ve made on site, Nissley said, is expand the parking lot and streamline admission with the entrance through a tent at the back of the grounds. “The year we had that 2,800 we were taking admission on the roadway. We did a hopscotch thing, going from car to car, but it took too long. They just sat on the roadway too long, and then they got in and we said, “Oh, I’m sorry, we’re full.’ Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, that was terrible.

“I don’t book groups that specifically appeal to 30somethings, and its not for any other reason than the people who are most likely not to have young children -- we don’t admit children in
-- so those most likely not to have young children are people in their 50s or 60s. I know that young people come. In fact, there was a 30 something guy on Saturday night that said to me, he looked at me, and said, ‘You now what. In a three-county area this is still the best place to be on a Saturday night. And I looked at his age and I thought, you know, that’s really nice that he would say that. That’s really nice.”

MARYLAND winery events can be found at this link and
VIRGINIA events at this link. You can find events at the wineries of the BRANDYWINE VALLEY WINE TRAIL at this link, and details on the 11th anniversary celebration amng the wineries of the LEHIGH VALLEY WINE TRAIL at this link.

Seyval featured at Nissley's 30th fete tonight

A glimpse of the crowd at a recent Nissley evening concert.

Judy Nissley admits that she’s more a Vidal Blanc fan when it comes to that or the Seyval Blanc that Nissley Vineyards & Winery Estate in Bainbridge, Pa., produces. But this year’s Seyval is a special blend with a significant role: It will take a spot tonight as the feature wine for the winery’s 30th anniversary celebration when Music in the Vineyards 2008 rolls out its second show of the season. Big Band Nostalgia is the headliner.

Nissley said the anniversary designation fell to Naughty Marietta when the winery celebrated its 25th birthday in 2003.

“When we started years ago, in 1978, at the very first opening, we had seven wines on our list, and of those seven there are still two. And the list itself has expanded to 26 wines. Now, those two are the only ones we have. So five years ago for our 25th anniversary we featured the 25th vintage of Naughty Marietta,” she said Thursday night. “This year, we didn’t want to repeat that . . . [instead] we wanted to use a dry wine instead of a semi-dry or sweet, so we selected Seyval Blanc.

“So the Seyval Blanc this year now has a the label that says 30th vintage on it, and we were very particular how we made this blend. And we think we came up with a really super wine. I said, if we are going to really highlight it with a special label, it needs to taste really good, so we went through three or four trials on it to come up with the best wine we thought we could get. I think it’s really good.”

One of the reasons Nissley generally leans toward the Vidal, she said, is that it features less oak characteristics. But that wasn’t the case with the 2007 harvest, which found the wines come in with decreased acidity. “And so automatically it’s going to probably be a little more appealing to people because it doesn’t have that mouth-puckering characteristic that you get from the higher acids years. Some people really like that in a drier wine, other people want something that doesn’t have quite so much punch, something more in the California style. I’d say. This one doesn’t [have that mouth-puckering characteristic]. It’s smoother.”

That probably won’t put much of a dent in what’s typically the winery’s biggest seller at these concerts, which are among the region's longest running, now in their 26th season. They generally go through 60 to 90 cases a concert of Rhapsody in Blue, Nissley said. “That’s part of the reason we named it that way. Basically [it was] in honor of the concert series, and it’s a semi-dry white wine that’s very drinkable and is far and way our most popular wine.”

Birthday weekend becoming a gift for others

Anniversary weekend for the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail generally has leaned more toward the wine than the food, different from the March Madness tradition that’s laden with good things to eat and the proper pairings. But this is the second year that the anniversary has benefited someone besides those selling and drinking the many wines produced by the nine members of the trail.

What is called “Drink Pink Weekend” donates $1 to the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition (PBCC) for every bottle of pink purchased. Vickie Greff, of Blue Mountain Vineyards & Cellars, said earlier tonight that members of the trail got together before the 10th anniversary and decided they’d like to use the event to support a cause. The debut was a hit. “Now it’s a good thing, a very good thing,” she said, noting that this time of the year “the pink stuff is your popular stuff anyway. So it kind of goes hand and hand. Like blushes, thing like that go over well. I mean we have a range of wines; our other wines sell, too. But sometimes people will buy that wine just because they are supporting something. Or even if they don’t like blush they might buy it for their daughter or their brother or whoever they know likes blush.”

The wineries, Greff said, agreed this year to do “different kinds of fun stuff as far as wines.” With that in mind, Blue Mountain will be offering a Riesling punch. You can see what five other wineries are planning at this link to the trail’s Web site. Wine trail glasses are $1 a glass at all nine of the wineries, which will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Blue Mountain is one of the charter members of the wine trail, which was formed in 1997. Greff said the winery grows 13 varieties of grapes on 50 acres, producing about 30,000 gallons or 15,000 cases.

Asked what’s new there, Greff noted that it just released its ice wine and put its sangria back out on the shelf. But they’re not just sweet. “We’ve very known for our red wines,” she said. “Our Merlot in particular has taken a lot of international medals, and that’s kind of our [signature]. You have to have everything in the area we live in. You have to have the sweet wines, you have to have the dry wines, you have to have a little bit of everything; but I would say we like to feel that we go toward the red palate.”