Leaves & Lobsters Weekend 2009
September 20, 2009
From the looks of the eastern skyline we are going to have another beautiful sunrise over the vineyards of Glenora and along the shores of Seneca. It is a chilly morning (very Fall like) with a temperature reading of 39.5 degrees and the wind is out of the south southwest at 2 miles per hour—and a beautiful fog rising from Seneca--perfect weather for the second day of Leaves and Lobsters.
Vineyard Report—Harvest officially started for us on Wednesday as the “Purple Monster” (our 1972 Vintage harvester) rolled into the Cobblestone Vineyards to harvest the seedless grapes there—we picked almost 10 tons which will be used for distillate. Thanks to a lot of pre-harvest maintenance by Vineyard Manger Chris the day went by without a glitch (meaning no break downs and everything worked as it was supposed to). If you visit the Knapp website www.knappwine.com you can see a video clip of the harvest. In order to give our press deck equipment a trial run we brought the grapes to Glenora for pressing—again no glitches!! On Monday we will be harvesting Baco that we be part of our Pasta Red blend. Those grapes will be sent to Pleasant Valley so that they can be “hot pressed” (the grapes are warmed to about 140 degrees before pressing which give us lots of color).
On the road: Barb Crosby, our festival coordinator and implementer, brought the big white Ryder truck back to Glenora on Monday after attending the Hudson Valley Wine Festival. It (the truck) was followed closely by a Brink’s van which was needed as a result of the stellar sales efforts by Barb and her team—record sales for both Glenora and Knapp. Even with an increased amount of wine taken to the event we ran out of several types—Barb will need to get her license for an 18-wheeler.
More on the road: Greg, our wholesale brand manager, gets the award for the most miles traveled this week as he worked with our distributor in the Virginia and District of Columbia marketplaces. Greg reported that there was a lot of interest and placements with our sparkling wines, as well as in our Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc. He also noted that there seemed to be a fair amount of interest in Finger Lakes wines and that many of the store managers had visited the Finger Lakes and Glenora. As it currently stands Greg has plans to visit that marketplace again early next year.
Leaves & Lobsters 2009—The editor is going to have to do another Glenora history search to determine when this event first started—it had to be in the early to mid 80’s. In any event the 2009 festival which took place yesterday and continues on today is another great event put on by Team Glenora. In our early years we hired someone to prepare and serve the food for the event. That changed several years ago with Team Glenora now doing everything (well we do not set up the tents and perform the music). At the end of today over 800 lobsters will have been steamed.
Sports Page: Stephanie Johnson reporting (Shane’s wife)--Glenora has two teams in the Dundee bowling leagues, one for men and one for women (it is the bowling alley that is segregating the teams, not Glenora). Currently the Women’s team has a won-loss ratio of 6 to 2 (75%) while the Men’s won-loss ratio is 3-1 (again 75%). If our sports reporter continues sending in information we will keep you posted occasionally.
Chef John and the Knapp restaurant team presented the 5th in their series of their 2009 wine dinners last evening—it was titled “Harvest in the Finger Lakes” and featured many local products—squash, apples, beets, maple, cheese, duck, pork, pears, and berries—also local wine ice cream. The meal was accompanied by wines from Glenora, Knapp and Zugibe vineyards. A great presentation by John and his team.
On Thursday the editor was pleased to be able to attend a luncheon honoring our housekeeping team. While there he was reminded that Head Housekeeper Shelly had been part of the Glenora Team in the early 80’s working on the bottling line—she just sort of bumped Tracey into the number three spot in terms of seniority (length of service at Glenora—Tracey is still #2 in terms of continuous service).
Question of the week: Thanks to Phil Torango, Eileen Holgate and Susie Barbee for responding—especially to Phil who gave the editor the honor of being Glenora’s second winemaker—unfortunately all answers were incorrect. Mike Hin was the second winemaker at Glenora although he was only on board a few weeks before returning to CA, and it had not even snowed yet!
The autumnal equinox will take place on Tuesday, the 22nd at 5:18 PM. Rumor has it that you can stand an egg on its end at that time---So—a bottle of Glenora Brut will be awarded the first 3 people who submit a bona fide picture of an egg that they “have stood on end”.
On the road: Barb Crosby, our festival coordinator and implementer, brought the big white Ryder truck back to Glenora on Monday after attending the Hudson Valley Wine Festival. It (the truck) was followed closely by a Brink’s van which was needed as a result of the stellar sales efforts by Barb and her team—record sales for both Glenora and Knapp. Even with an increased amount of wine taken to the event we ran out of several types—Barb will need to get her license for an 18-wheeler.
More on the road: Greg, our wholesale brand manager, gets the award for the most miles traveled this week as he worked with our distributor in the Virginia and District of Columbia marketplaces. Greg reported that there was a lot of interest and placements with our sparkling wines, as well as in our Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc. He also noted that there seemed to be a fair amount of interest in Finger Lakes wines and that many of the store managers had visited the Finger Lakes and Glenora. As it currently stands Greg has plans to visit that marketplace again early next year.
Leaves & Lobsters 2009—The editor is going to have to do another Glenora history search to determine when this event first started—it had to be in the early to mid 80’s. In any event the 2009 festival which took place yesterday and continues on today is another great event put on by Team Glenora. In our early years we hired someone to prepare and serve the food for the event. That changed several years ago with Team Glenora now doing everything (well we do not set up the tents and perform the music). At the end of today over 800 lobsters will have been steamed.
Sports Page: Stephanie Johnson reporting (Shane’s wife)--Glenora has two teams in the Dundee bowling leagues, one for men and one for women (it is the bowling alley that is segregating the teams, not Glenora). Currently the Women’s team has a won-loss ratio of 6 to 2 (75%) while the Men’s won-loss ratio is 3-1 (again 75%). If our sports reporter continues sending in information we will keep you posted occasionally.
Chef John and the Knapp restaurant team presented the 5th in their series of their 2009 wine dinners last evening—it was titled “Harvest in the Finger Lakes” and featured many local products—squash, apples, beets, maple, cheese, duck, pork, pears, and berries—also local wine ice cream. The meal was accompanied by wines from Glenora, Knapp and Zugibe vineyards. A great presentation by John and his team.
On Thursday the editor was pleased to be able to attend a luncheon honoring our housekeeping team. While there he was reminded that Head Housekeeper Shelly had been part of the Glenora Team in the early 80’s working on the bottling line—she just sort of bumped Tracey into the number three spot in terms of seniority (length of service at Glenora—Tracey is still #2 in terms of continuous service).
Question of the week: Thanks to Phil Torango, Eileen Holgate and Susie Barbee for responding—especially to Phil who gave the editor the honor of being Glenora’s second winemaker—unfortunately all answers were incorrect. Mike Hin was the second winemaker at Glenora although he was only on board a few weeks before returning to CA, and it had not even snowed yet!
The autumnal equinox will take place on Tuesday, the 22nd at 5:18 PM. Rumor has it that you can stand an egg on its end at that time---So—a bottle of Glenora Brut will be awarded the first 3 people who submit a bona fide picture of an egg that they “have stood on end”.
Thought for the week: Demeanor - A person’s behavior is the mirror in which they show their portrait.
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