National Win with Civility Month
August 23, 2009
It is a hazy Sunday morning along the shores of Seneca and in the vineyards of Glenora. Our temperature is 61 degrees and the wind is out of the northwest at 1.5 miles per hour. The weather guru must have a fixation on thunderstorms as more are forecasted for this afternoon.
In the vineyards—more rain with a spectacular thunder and lightning storm during the early hours of Friday morning which also brought along 1.14 inches of rain. The vineyard teams spent a good part of the week mowing along with a bit of protective spray application. Winemaker Steve has started his vineyard sampling for the 2009 harvest. Weekly he visits the various vineyard locations to collect grape samples which he then brings back to the winery to measure the sugar, acid and pH levels. By doing this we can monitor the ripening process and make estimates as to the date of harvest for each variety. While the numbers are important the ultimate picking date is usually determined by how the grapes taste—not the numbers. However using numbers it seems that we are 7-10 days behind last year. Another challenge that we have at our Knapp vineyards is the damage that was caused by the hail earlier this year. In a note to the vineyard and winemaking teams earlier this week the editor noted “that while the hail damage to the crop is significant there are some (very few) areas where there are some grapes. As a consequence the issues for us are several at this point—we do not want to run the harvester through the vineyards as it will damage the already weakened vines; the cost of bringing a hand harvest crew would be prohibitive; the condition of the fruit that is left is questionable; the insurance company (Federal) will most likely put pressure on us to harvest as that is how they are going to measure crop loss (tonnage, not quality).My thoughts, again at this point, are that if the Fed’s insist we harvest in order to collect the insurance that we forgo the insurance (which at best is going to be insignificant) as the short term gain would have long term negative consequences to the vineyards and wine quality”.
In the cellars—the bottling lines were running again this week. At Knapp a 400+ case run of Superstition, and at Glenora it was our holiday series Seyval Bells, Booberry Breeze and Grinchtraminer. In addition there was some custom bottling done at Glenora.
Both Team Glenora and Team Knapp were pleased to learn the wine competition results from the 2009 New York State Wine and Food Classic that were announced earlier this week. There were 805 wines entered and Glenora was honored by being named the best of class in the Cabernet Sauvignon division (read best) with its 2007 Mason Road Cabernet Sauvignon Knapp was honored by being named best of Class in the Seyval class with its Pasta White. Additionally Knapp received two double gold medals, 4 silver medals, and 5 bronze medals. Glenora received 2 gold medals, 6 silver medals, and 5 bronze medals. Congratulations go out to the winemaking teams and to the growers who produced the award winning grapes (wines). For a complete listing of all the awards wines/wineries you can visit www.newyorkwines.org
Lots of activities at both Glenora and Knapp this past week—Knapp hosted the annual picnic for the Seneca County Chamber of Commerce on Thursday evening and yesterday celebrated its 27th anniversary with a lamb BBQ. Glenora hosted another wedding on Saturday afternoon—lots more of those taking place in the coming weeks—including several back to back weddings (both weekend days).
Yesterday the visitor business at both Glenora and Knapp ratcheted up quite a bit. While not record days the sales numbers were far above those of the same day last year. Everyone (wineries) seems to feel that sales for the year are good, but there seems to be no “rhyme nor reason” for the traffic patterns.
On the road—Greg and Barb both reported that last weekend’s festivals were successful. Greg worked the central New York marketplace and Barb. Yesterday we were took part in in-store tastings at Liquor City, Tug Hill and Century.
Peafowl—On Monday afternoon our peahen and peacock arrived at Knapp. On Monday night they escaped with both being sighted on Wednesday at the neighbors farm (apparently they like cows). The hen was captured on Thursday by Rich and Chris. Rich had his hand on the male but let go when he though his was going to encounter some cow by-products.
Thought for the week: Success - You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.
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