The Event Grapevine, Nov. 21-23

I wanted to get the word out on this promotion at Chaddsford Winery that appeared in their November e-letter.

During November, up through the Thanksgiving holiday, Chaddsford Winery will be organizing a food drive to benefit Philabundance and those in need in the Philadelphia region. To encourage generous giving during this season of abundance, we are offering our customers a free tasting anytime you bring in 3 canned or boxed goods . So get involved in the fight against hunger -- invite your friends and family, gather some canned goods to share with those less fortunate, and enjoy a complimentary tour & tasting at the winery! For more information on Philabundance, the region’s largest hunger relief organization, see www.philabundance.org.
Otherwise, here’s what’s happening this weekend and beyond.

PENNSYLVANIA WINERIES

Blue Mountain Vineyards, New Tripoli: Fall Foliage Tasting ($$), Sunday, 2 to 5 p.m.; Nouveau Weekend, Saturday (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and Sunday (noon to 5 p.m.); German Night ($$), Saturday, 5 to 9 p.m., http://www.bluemountainwine.com

Chaddsford Winery, Chaddsford: Reserve tastings ($$), Saturday, sittings at 1, 2:30 and 4 p.m.; Frequent Buyers “Virgin Red” Tasting, Friday and Saturday, 7 to 9 p.m., by invitation only, call the winery for more on their Frequent Buyer program; holiday open house, Dec. 6-7 and 13-14, noon to 6 p.m., includes free wine tastings; Dessert Wines for the Holidays ($$), Thursday, Dec. 11, 7 to 9 p.m., http://www.chaddsford.com

Clover Hill, Breinigsville: Wine Country Style Holiday Open House, Saturday, Dec. 6, and Sunday, Dec. 7, Breinigsville and Robesonia, noon to 5 p.m., with music from 1 to 5 p.m., www.cloverhillwinery.com

Clover Mill Farm Vineyards & Winery, Chester Springs: Open again, Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m., through December, http://www.clovermillfarm.com/

Crossing Vineyards & Winery, Washington Crossing: Bucks County Nouveau Wine Festival, Saturday and Sunday; Wine Tasting in Riedel Crystal ($$), Saturday, Nov. 23, 2 p.m.; candlelight holiday concert ($$), Thursday, Dec. 11, 7:30 p.m., includes dessert and champagne, http://www.crossingvineyards.com

Hauser Estate Winery, Biglerville: New winery open, Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.; Candle Light Friday/Happy Hour, the last Friday of every month, 5 to 7 p.m. in November, 5 to 8 p.m. thereafter; satellite shop opened at 17 Lincoln Square, Gettysburg, http://www.hauserestate.com/

Galen Glen Vineyard & Winery, Andreas: Black Friday sale, Nov. 28, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Dickens Holiday open house, Saturday, Dec. 6, and Sunday, Dec. 7, http://www.galenglen.com

Kreutz Creek Vineyards, West Grove: Music at West Chester tasting room, 44 E. Gay St., Fridays and Saturdays, 6 to 9 p.m.; holiday open house, Saturday, Dec. 6, and Sunday, Dec. 7, noon to 6 p.m., includes wassail, chocolate fondue and Christmas cookies, http://www.kreutzcreekvineyards.com/

Moon Dancer Vineyards & Winery, Wrightsville: Music every Friday (6 to 9 p.m.), Saturday (2 to 5 p.m.) and Sunday (2 to 5 p.m.), http://www.moondancerwinery.com
Naylor Winery, Stewartstown: December Weekends, Friday through Sunday, cookies, cheeses, fruits and hot spiced wine, www.naylorwine.com

North Wales Winery and Tasting Room, Montgomeryville: Piano music, Friday, 6 to 9 p.m.; at St. Rose of Lima holiday bazaar, Sunday; holiday hours, Monday through Wednesday of next week, Nov. 24-26, noon to 8 p.m., http://www.cardinalhollowwinery.com/

Paradocx Vineyard, Landenberg: Paradocx at Chadds Ford Christmas Candleight Tour ($$), Saturday, Dec. 6, 1 to 6 p.m., Pennsbury Township; Candlelight Christmas at the winery, Saturday, Dec. 6, noon to 8 p.m., http://www.paradocx.com/index.php

Penns Woods Winery, Chadds Ford: Tasting room hours, Wednesdays-Fridays, noon until dark, Saturdays, 11 a.m. until dark, Sundays, noon until dark, http://www.pennswoodswinery.com/

Pinnacle Ridge Winery, Kutztown: Customer Appreciation Weekend, Saturday, Dec. 6, and Sunday, Dec. 7, www.pinridge.com

Va La Vineyards, Avondale: New holiday hours starting Dec. 1, weekdays, 12:01 to 5:27 p.m., Saturday and Sundays, 12:02 to 5:48 p.m., http://www.valavineyards.com/


MARYLAND WINERIES

Black Ankle Winery, Mt. Airy: Open for business, winner of Maryland Governor’s Cup in 2008; hours: Wednesday - Friday: noon to 5 p.m., Saturday: noon to 6 p.m., Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.; Festive Afternoon in the Vineyard, Saturday, Dec. 6, 3 to 5 p.m., information on winery at this link

Berrywine Plantations / Linganore Winecellars, My. Airy: Nouveau “Summer in a Glass,” weekdays, 10 to 5 p.m., Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sundays, noon to 5 p.m., information at this link

Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard, Dickerson: Friday, Nov. 28, special offers include
hot soup,1/2 glass of wine and 10% to 20% discounts on all wines including Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Stomp. Mulled wine and cider will also be served. Other merchandise will also be available for sale, information at this link

Other MARYLAND winery events can be found at this link, VIRGINIA events at this link and New York events at this link


FESTIVALS

Pennsylvania Food and Beverage Show, Toyota Arena, York Expo Center, sponsored by www.thepeak985.com, Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. ($$), 13 wineries to be represented, the most ever at this event, information at this link

$$ – Admission charge

Sugarloaf plans Black Friday sale

These scheduling announcements come from the folks at Sugarloaf Mountain Winery in Montgomery County, one of Maryland’s newest wineries.

They will be open the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday), Nov. 28, with special offers. The winery plans to offer hot soup, a half-glass of wine, and 10 percent to 20 percent discounts on all wines, including Stomp. That's a light, off-dry red that is best served chilled. Mulled wine and cider will also be served. Other merchandise will also be available for sale.
The wines for sales will be the 2007 Cabernet Franc, 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, 2006 Chardonnay, 2006 Chardonnay Reserve, 2007 Circe, 2007 Comus, 2006 Comus Reserve, 2006 Merlot, 2007 Rose and 2007 Stomp.

It also plans to participate in a couple of events this weekend. One will be the Argyle Country Club's "Fall Festival," which will run from 7 to 11 this evening. The festival is open to the public. Sugarloaf will offer tastings of its wine. And the other will be the Sugarloaf Crafts Festival at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds, 16 Chestnut St., in Gaithersburg, Md. The hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. tomorrow, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. More than 500 craft designers and fine artists will be there. Sugarloaf will offer tastings of its wine, glasses of wine and bottles of wine for sale. Tickets for Sugarloaf Crafts Festival may be purchased online. For more information, visit the winery Web site.

The winery is planning to close at 3 p.m. Wednesday and, of course, will be closed Thanksgiving Day. That’s a similar schedule to what will happen on Christmas Eve (3 o’clock close) and Christmas (nothing will be stirring).

Finally, Sugarloaf Mountain will begin offering wine “flights” on Fridays from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. A “flight” will consist of 3 half glasses of wine, each paired with an appropriate cheese, fruit or chocolate. The cost is $10.

Big crowd anticipated for 'Virgin Red' Tasting

Some wineries spent parts of the past week celebrating Nouveau, the release of the first wine from grapes that only a couple months ago hung on the vine. Chaddsford Winery puts its own spin on the occasion with a by invitation only “Virgin Red” Tasting for Frequent Buyer members.

This will be held 7 to 9 p.m. today and tomorrow (Friday and Saturday) at the winery and is sponsored by Lane Exteriors. At these events, guests will sample wine from the barrel and other current releases, and will balance that out with cheeses and other snacks.

Here’s how their Frequent Buyer club works, according to the Web site.

1, When you purchase your first case of wine, you receive a 10% discount and a Chaddsford FREQUENT BUYERS card. As you purchase additional cases, your discount will increase.

2, When you buy cases 2-7, your case discount amount increases to 15%. At your 8th case purchase, you will receive a new VINTNERS CLUB card which entitles you to a 25% discount on all case purchases thereafter (at any Chaddsford location).

3, Your discounts will apply to shipped case orders as long as they are called in. We are not able to deduct discounts from on-line orders at this time.

4, Gift shop merchandise, wine & food baskets, café items and wine by the glass are not discounted.

5, Throughout the year, we will post various "specials" and "bottle discounts" for our FREQUENT BUYERS & VINTNERS CLUB members only; such sale items will not require a case purchase.

Co-owner Lee Miller wrote in an e-mail that they expect to welcome around 400 people to the winery this weekend for the special event.

The Frequent Buyer program is essentially their case purchase club, she wrote. “Since it's not feasible for us to have a regular wine club (that ships out selections several times a year) because of the state's shipping laws, we do the Frequent Buyers thing to give our best customers (up to) 25% discounts on their purchases. As just another benefit, all Frequent Buyers get invited to our "No Nouveau" Virgin Red party - at which we show some of the new "virgin" reds from the current (2008) vintage ... and lots of other wines. It's a big fun party all throughout the cellars ... finishing in an outdoor tent with hot mulled wines & sweets! We do another event for our "second tier" Vintner's Club members, which is a vineyard picnic/pig roast in June.

P.S. this year we are showing barrel/tank samples of a new vineyard designated Pinot Noir from the Philip Roth Vineyard, plus '08 Cabernet and Merlot.

'Two-stop' wine dinner draws 55

Regional wineries have their own shares of war stories about getting local restaurants to carry their wines. Then you have the opposite end of the spectrum, where Brandywine Prime in Chadds Ford, Pa., not only carries a number of local wines but operates in concert with a few of them on events.

One occurred last Saturday with the third annual Barrel Tasting and Dinner that Brandywine Prime sponsored along with Chaddsford Winery. Restaurant GM Michael Majewski told me by phone that 55 attended. “That’s awesome," he said. "That's a great turnout for a wine dinner."

Costing $65 per person, the event started with hors d’oeuvres and wine out of the winery, then moved to the restaurant for dinner paired with Chadds Ford’s wines. Majewski said this is the second time they’ve followed the same “two-stop” script, and it’s not one they’re likely to change. “It seems to be a real popular thing, Majewski said, adding he’s planning to maintain a schedule where these are held twice a year.

“I think we’ll do it again in the spring and probably in the fall,” he said. “The fall works out well because they get to taste fermenting wine, and then the spring works out because the fermented wine is finished and racked off, and you get to taste it in a little bit different stage. If you come both times, you get to see a little bit of then and now. But even if you don’t, to taste fermenting wine, that’s pretty cool.

They go to the winery, taste out of the barrel . . . then we they come back to the restaurant and we finish the dinner there. This dinner. I made warm cider with apple spice wine that [Eric Miller] makes [at Chadds Ford]. Then I splashed it with a little bit of Wild Turkey. We had a little bourbon pumpkin pie and that was a big hit.”

What helps the Brandywine Prime-Chaddsford Winery pairing is their proximity; they’re only a couple of miles away. Majewski wouldn’t rule out trying the same idea with another winery, say, when Brad Galer reopens Folly Hill in another year or so. Otherwise, the distance from winery to restaurant eliminates many of the others on the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail.

“We could do it at Penns Woods, but he doesn’t have that winery up and running yet,” Majewski said. “It’s gotta be someplace close, because if you’re in the car for more than 10 of 15 minutes, it kind of loses something.”

Three Beaujolais tastings set for tomorrow

I had mentioned in a previous post about the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board and its release Thursday of the 2008 Beaujolais Nouveau. The significance of tomorrow is that Beaujolais Nouveau Day is celebrated internationally the third Thursday in November, marking the debut of the first wine made from the annual harvest of Gamay grapes produced in the Beaujolais region of France. It will sell for $13.99 in stores across the state.

As part of the release, public tastings of the Beaujolais along with hors d'oeuvres will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. tomorrow will be held at the following locations:

East region of Pennsylvania:
Sofitel, 120 South 17th Street, Philadelphia

Central region of Pennsylvania:
Harrisburg Hilton
One North Second Street
Harrisburg

West region of Pennsylvania:
The Renaissance Hotel
107 Sixth Street
Pittsburgh

Fall Tour: Blue Mountain Vineyards/Winery

Caught up to Vickie Greff of Blue Mountain Vineyards & Winery in New Tripoli, Pa., yesterday and she was coming up for air after what’s becoming one of the busiest weekends on the winery’s calendar.

For one, they were welcoming visitors for Nouveau Weekend, one of a number of events that members of the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail hold throughout the year. Not only did they release their first new wine from the 2008 crop0, but they paired it Saturday with Cranberry Glazed Chicken. In addition, March Madness 2009 Passports went on sale at all nine wine trail wineries. Those cost $30 apiece and are limited in quantity. The trail uses the holidays as a pitch to visitors to buy them and give them away as stocking stuffers. Those passports can be used any weekend in March to sample wine and food pairings at any of the nine wineries on the trail and also receive a complimentary wine trail gift, which this year is a Prodyne Vino Gondola two-bottle wine bucket. This black wine bucket is embossed in gold with the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail logo and the names of all the wineries. These can be picked up in March at the winery where folks buy their passports.

On top of all that, Greff said that they held their fifth annual German Night celebration on Saturday night. For $18.50 a person, attendees get to dine on authentic German food, music and dancing, and leave with a souvenir glass.

Otherwise, they are reveling at what has been up to now a good business year. Sales have been steady, she said, and the events have been well-attended. The designation of the Lehigh Valley trail as an American Viticulture Area in April enhanced the reputation of all the wineries. That has helped Blue Mountain and others forge new relationships with restaurants that have in the past only carried wines from outside the region. Now, the official AVA designation has turned some heads. Still, she admitted, it’s a fight for recognition and respect that hasn’t ended. Trying to pitch Blue Mountain in particular and local wines in general remains a challenge, something they are forced to squeeze into their schedules amid a number of other priorities.

Still, with the winery 23 years old and going strong, and with a wine trail that gives added support, she and husband Joe are counting their blessings and looking ahead to 2009 with a great deal of expectation.

Oh, what’s on the horizon? Two more Sundays of the Fall Foliage Tastings, from 2 to 5 p.m., and then the ninth annual Christmas Wine Tasting, from 5 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 6.

Fall Tour: Mount Felix Winery

Mary and Peter Ianniello only have had Mount Felix Vineyard & Winery open for less than two months. Located in Havre de Grace, Md., in what they term on their site as the Birthplace of American Viticulture, the couple just sent out the winery’s first e-letter a few days ago.

That included the link to their new Web site, which is a dramatic improvement on what they used before. With the vineyards and winery as part of a bigger estate, the new site features photos of the rooms in the manor house, loads of info on the vineyards and the wines, a link to John Adlum, the Father of American Viticulture, and key words to other pertinent information.

Peter had written by e-mail a few weeks ago that they’ve been quite satisfied with their volume and the interest in their winery. They also feature a link to retail outlets around them, more than 15 strong, which are carrying their wines. I always preferred the wineries that included the price on the wine list, but certainly in this region those are in the minority.

Still, nice to see progress, evidenced by the correspondence and the upgraded site. One thing that always adds some flavor is the background of the family and the winery. In this case, Peter explains that this idea took root as he was growing up, listening to grandfathers Luigi and Giulio talk about wine and how it became such an important aspect of their family. “I recall fond memories,” he writes, “of passionate debates filed with laughter when arguments ensued over what tasted better, Grandpa’s jug wine or Uncle’s vintage Barolo.

What will I try when I eventually swing by? Well, there’s neither the jug wine nor the Barolo. But the Chambourcin, called Adlum’s First, would work just as well for me. A full-bodied red, they describe it as possessing complex flavors of dark cherries, spices and smoke.

Pretty much open full time, the winery welcomes visitors from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, and Fridays to Sundays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.