Flag Day—International World Sea Turtle Day
June 14, 2009
It is a cool morning along the shores of Seneca and in the vineyards of Glenora. We have partly cloudy skies, a temperature reading of 52 degrees and the wind is coming from the west southwest at 3 miles per hour.
It was another more of the same this week in the vineyards— In between the rainy days--.93 inches this week—no need to irrigate the gardens for a while--protective sprays and some herbicide applications were made along with more suckering and a limited amount of mowing. To that end (the mowing) “Ronne V” (Ron Stowell), our “jack of all trades” and chief mechanic sadly informed us that he will not be able to rejoin the Knapp Team this year—which leaves a huge void—so if anyone knows of a person who would like some part time work doing a “little bit of everything” we have a great opportunity for them as a member of Team Knapp.
The Cellar Teams had a busy week. The Knapp Team bottled on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (note that Tash returned from her wedding trip on Tuesday). On Wednesday—George’s Peach; Thursday—Pasta Red Reserve; and Friday it was Limoncello (Lemon) and Limeoncello (Lime). For the Glenora Team it was a Riesling Week with the 2008 Dry Riesling being bottled on Tuesday and the 2008 Riesling bottled on Thursday.
Lots of “on the road” activities this week: Monday found Team Glenora at a fund raiser sponsored by the Yates County Chamber of Commerce at the Ezperanza mansion. Chef Orlando and Barb C presented and poured Glenora’s finest. On Tuesday evening it was a Taste the Nation event in Ithaca with both Team Glenora and Team Knapp participating. There were several reports that Chef John’s asparagus soup (I am sure he had another name for it—long and descriptive) was the “hit of the evening. Sidebar—while returning from Ithaca that evening Barb encountered some deer—she missed them but a cash register almost got her—we now are installing a cage in the van. Friday evening Team Glenora (Sarah, Doug, Rob and Barb) were on Market Street in Corning taking part at an event held on Market Street—they sold out!! And, this weekend we are hosting several members of GFFWC (Glenora’s Forbidden Fruit Wine Club). Yesterday Winemaker Steve and Barb took them into the vineyards where they spent some time learning about how we care for the vines at different times of the year. There are people who actually believe is that all we have to do is “pick the grapes”. The editor traveled to Albany on Thursday to take part in meeting of the NYFarms board of directors of which he is the chair. These meetings are always interesting as they bring those with different interests in agriculture and food distribution together from all parts of the State—the challenge is one of getting the NY consumer (in the cities) to understand that New York does have a large agricultural component and that there are a lot of products NY that are available to them on a year around basis – wine for an example. Another concern is one of connecting the farmer (his/her produce) to the consumer. In general farmers are great producers but they find promotional and marketing activities to be a bit more challenging.
We are preparing for our upcoming growers meeting as each year we invite those people who supply us with the fruit with which we create Glenora’s finest to a gathering where we review (read sample) last year’s harvest, discuss the upcoming harvest, and share our perspective of current market conditions. The meeting provides a great opportunity for dialog so that we all understand the issues and opportunities that each of us have. After the meeting we retire to the Inn for libations. Normally the meeting is held in “late winter” however we decided to hold in this year at the end of June so that our growers can more accurately forecast the crop size (bloom will be over and the clusters should be fairly well set) and we will have almost 6 months of the 2009 sales/marketing year “under our belts” thus giving us an idea of our grape needs from the 2009 harvest—everything is looking good at this point!
Wind Mill Larry reported in last evening with some great numbers. While the number of visitors to his booth at “The Mill” increased by 45% (great) his wine sales increased by a 100% (fantastic). Top sellers the Peach Orchard Series and Niagara. Out hats are off to Larry as a day at “The Mill” can at times be a very long one not only in time 7:30 AM (be there) to 5 PM (close and leave) but some days—but listening to most people say at 10 AM that “it is too early to drink” (they live a boring life) and I can’t drink wine because I am allegoric to “them sul”fate” things (as a side bar there has yet to be one medically proven case where a sulfite reaction has been caused by wine).
Thought for the Week: Patience/Understanding - You take people as far as they will go, not as far as you would like them to go.
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