America's Kids Day
June 28, 2009
It is a chilly morning (for summer) along the shores of Seneca and in the vineyards of Glenora. Our temperature is 55 degrees and the wind is out of the southwest at 4 miles per hour. While the skies are relatively clear now the weather gurus are telling us that the rains are heading our way later today and tomorrow and Tuesday.
Cellar report—The Knapp Team had a two day bottling week as they bottled Port on Tuesday and Limoncello on Friday. They also spent time in helping prepare for the Seneca County Chamber of Commerce Business afterhours which was held on Wednesday evening. The Glenora team did the usual filtering and racking along with a lot of special label projects including label the Port that we recently bottled. We have to hand label our Glenora Port due to its unique packaging—bottle and label sizes and shapes.
Vineyard report—it was starting out to be another week of “more of the same” until Thursday afternoon when a huge storm featuring high winds, lots of rain (an inch and a half in 45 minutes), and 30 minutes of nickel-sized hail came traveling down Ernsberger Road. The consequence of that visit caused significant damage to all of our vineyards. While it is too early to tell, it is likely that we will not need to pull the “Purple Monster” (the mechanical grape harvester) out of the machinery shed this fall. However as the editor told the team at Knapp “I have experienced this before—things will work out”. While our 2009 vintage may not be able to wear the label “Estate Bottled” there will be a high quality wines produced at Knapp in 2009. The storm also eradicated our vegetable gardens—so there will not be any “Knapp Estate Tomato Sauce” produced by the editor this Fall—I guess that makes the 2008 production even more valuable!!
On the road—lots of activity in this area this past week. Both Team Glenora and Team Knapp were at the Medley of Tastes Event that was held in Geneva this past Monday. For the second year in a row Chef John and his team of Tash, Sarah, and Doug garnered the award/plaque for the Best Presentation. On Wednesday Barb C was at something called Harry’s Night and this weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) she and her “travel team” are at the “Taste of Rochester” in Buffalo. Not to be outdone Greg, our wholesale brand manager started his week on Monday in the Hudson Valley working across the state traveling through the Albany and Syracuse marketplaces and ending the week in the southern tier. Greg has been introducing a new marketing program that we have put in place. While not new in the marketplace it is unique to New York wineries of our size. To the best of our knowledge we are the first New York winery (again of our size—not talking about the “corporate giants”) to introduce a rebate coupon program on a statewide basis. The program offers a $3.00 per bottle mail in rebate for those who purchase a bottle of our Lake Series Riesling—the program “kicks off” on Wednesday. We have printed several stacks of $3.00 bills.
On Friday we said “bon voyage” to Missy Cady who has been with us since before the opening of the Inn in June of 1999. During that time she has taken on several roles, all very successfully—from helping open the Inn, to overseeing the front desk, to ultimately taking on the role of Inn Manager. Unfortunately some health concerns have caused her to consider some time away. We certainly hope that some R&R time will allow her to return in the future—soon!!
Graduation and Scholastic honors—It was noted in the latest edition of A S.I.P. of Glenora (special interest publication which is shared monthly at Glenora) that four of our team members had been inducted into the National Honor Society at Dundee Central School—Jordan Cady, Andrea Champlin, Kyle Dillon and Brandy Miller. We also have some proud parents of graduating seniors as well, that information will be in next week’s edition as the Gazette’s investigative team was on another assignment this week, consequently that report is incomplete.
As was noted earlier in this edition Team Knapp hosted the Seneca County Business after Hours on Wednesday evening. Everyone there enjoys hosting the event as it gives them an opportunity to showcase their skills and talents—and they have many!!
Thought for the Week: Challenges (somewhat appropriate for this past week) - "Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...it's about learning how to dance in the rain."
« Back