Farmers Day in Ghana

December 06, 2009

It is the coldest morning of Fall 2009, 24.5 degrees, as we await the arrival of the sun over the vineyards of Glenora and along the shores of Seneca. Sunrise is “scheduled” for 7:23 and sunset today is supposed to happen at 4:35 giving us 9 hours and 18 minutes of sun—hopefully. Adding to what seems like a very cold morning is the wind coming from the west at 2 miles per hour.

In the vineyards—almost all of the vineyard teams in Finger Lakes Wine county now have their pruning shears and saws in hand on a daily basis, and for most this will be the “name of the tune” (what they are doing) for the next  three to four months. Some would say pruning is long and tedious but in reality it is quite interesting as each vine provides a different canvas for the pruners to work on as they take into consideration the type of vine, the age of the vine, the trellis system that is being utilized, and the previous year’s growth. Without careful attention to all of those details it would be very easy to over or under prune a vine which could significantly impact the health of the vine and the size of next year’s harvest.

In the cellar—In addition to keeping the still going (not an oxymoron—think about it) the Knapp production team bottled Riesling and Vidal this past week, along with putting together orders for our distributor. The Glenora team bottled more Lake Series Riesling, at Pleasant Valley, along with disgorging more of our 2002 Brut sparkling wine. Shawn was “filter-man” extraordinaire this week as he filtered over 1000 gallons of Concord that will become Superstition in a few weeks. The sale of this wine has exceeded our expectations so consequently we have move our bottling/filtering schedule forward a bit. The Glenora production team is in the development mode as they are working on some small lots of wine that maybe part of our ice wine program in the future. They currently have a Vincent Ice wine and Tasha is making a Riesling Sparkling Ice wine—lots of exciting things in preparation for the 2010 harvest.

While the Glenora retail shop has been decorated for the holiday for almost two weeks (for Deck the Halls) the decorating at the Inn and Restaurant started in earnest this past week. By week’s end both were “fully dressed’ for the holidays. It is said that “many hands make light work” and that was truly the case with the decorating and it seemed everyone a part in the decorating—it is beautiful!!

On Wednesday, Margaret, Greg and the editor traveled to Syracuse to visit with our distributor. Much of the meeting time was spend giving consideration to the type of programs that we might consider in 2010, along with discussing the many factors that are impacting the wine market—price, supply, economy, and the continued loss of the smaller wine shops. We also discussed the amount of products that both Knapp and Glenora have in the marketplace—between both wineries we have over 80 sku’s (labels) that are in distribution. Consequently in order to give more attention to our core brands we are giving consideration to reducing the number of wines that will be available through the three tier system. Each wine’s sales will be evaluated to determine if the sales volume warrants continued production as well as where is the best marketplace for it.

It is another Wine Trail event weekend in Finger Lakes Wine Country with both the Seneca and Cayuga Lake wine trails having holiday events—Deck the Halls and Holiday Shopping Spree. Ticket sales for the events totaled over 4000—lot of visitors to wine country and too many of the other attractions (lodging, restaurants, gift shops) in the area.  So far we have seen 2042 ticket holders at Glenora and 860 at Knapp.

Last evening Chef John and the restaurant team at Knapp hosted their annual Snowflake Soiree – a four course dinner featuring Chef John’s culinary creations and Knapp’s fine wines—while the attendance was a bit light (perhaps because there were no snowflakes to soiree) the dinner and wines were great.

Thought for the week:   Life (or live)  -  In the book of life's questions, the answers are not in the back.

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