Father’s Day

June 15, 2008

It is a bit of a haze (weather related in most cases) along the shores of Seneca and over the vineyards of Glenora on this Father’s Day morning. Our temperature is a cool 59.8 degrees with the wind coming from the west northwest at 4 miles per hour. The weather guru is predicting another dry week with temperatures a bit cooler than this past week.

In the vineyards—Dry, Dry, Dry—at our Knapp location we received .03 inches this past week; at Glenora it was a bit better with approximately .75 inches (there was a rain gage issue—the editor--so we are not absolutely sure of the accuracy of the report). In any event the vines are beginning to struggle, especially the younger ones that have yet to develop the larger and deeper root structure. Most of the grape varieties are at some stage of the bloom process—all most finished, full bloom, just starting—all in all it appears that we are going to have a good “set” (pollination). We applied our third protective spray of the season this past week, along with hand fertilizing some of the baby/younger vines, and completed the last part of the vineyard removal project—old vines are picked up, anchors pulled and the fields have been disked.

The Glenora production team bottled ‘07 Chardonnay this past week along with disgorging, dosaging, corking and wire-hooding more of our 2007 Brut. The Knapp Production Team traded their “cellar hats” for “vineyard hats” (straw) as they spend most of the week helping out in the vineyards.

It was a meeting week for Team Glenora/Knapp as we attended meetings of the Seneca Lake Wine Trail, Cayuga Wine Trail, and the Yates Chamber of Commerce. At all of the meetings there was discussion on “the state of visitation” due to the increased price gas/oil and its consequent impact on the economy. The discussions were varied as to the impact at this point with most agreeing that although visitation (number of people) may be down slightly, sales are solid and in some cases higher—however we did notice that some noses began to extend!!

Finally—the answer to the question of two weeks ago—“Who was Glenora’s second winemaker”?. The gentleman who was to be our second winemaker (John Williams was the first Glenora Winemaker) spent approximately 6 weeks in that role. With a background in winemaking and family ties in NY we felt that we had a candidate who would be a part of the Glenora team for an extended period—However—being grape growers and budding winemakers we apparently did not understand Karma (still don’t)—long story short, our Karma did not click, or whatever it is supposed to do and we went in search of our third winemaker who was Steve Reeder, who was accompanied by his dog Devon. So while there were no correct answers –the following did answer with Steve Reeder’s name—Susie Barbee, Bill Holgate and Sue Long (aka-000019) and will each be given a bottle of Glenora’s Brut. Joel, of the Maintenance Team did get the dog’s name correct but named our fourth winemaker, Mike Elliot, who also had a dog—what is it with winemakers and dogs?

Festival Reports—Festival Teams, The Windmill and The Keuka Lake Arts and Crafts, report there is apparently a lot of activities taking place in Finger Lakes Wine Country with none of it being concentrated in one spot!

Glenora History—it was during this past week in the year 1995 that the “New Wine Garden Café” (located where the south tasting room currently is) opened. The café served lunch 7 days a week, and dinner on Thursday thru Sunday. A ribbon cutting was also held, and we introduced our new Extra Dry Sparkling wine, a 1992 vintage—during the first week of June 1995.

Thought for the week:    Wine Education  -  How is education supposed to make me feel smarter?  Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home winemaking course, and I forgot how to drive? --- Homer Simpson

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