National Compliment Day
January 24, 2010
The skies are cloudy along the shores of Seneca and over the vineyards of Glenora. Our temperature is 31 degrees with the wind coming from the south at 14 miles per hour. The weather gurus tell us that we probably should be carrying an umbrella today.
In the vineyards—Vineyard Manager Chris continues to unroll the large bales of hay (for mulch) in the vineyards along with watching over the trimming crew. While it seems like the middle of winter (and it is) it only 6-7 weeks before we could possible start some early trellis work and vine tying—all weather dependent.
Cellar Report—the Production teams at both Glenora and Knapp had their bottling lines running this past week. The Glenora Team bottled 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2008 Meritage. The Knapp Team bottled George’s Peach. Both teams continue their cold stabilization, filtering and barrel work projects. The Glenora Cellar Team is on the “Going Green Bandwagon” as they are moving our wines to the tanks that are outside for cold stabilization (we chill the wines to cause the tartaric acid to crystallize thus reducing the acid level naturally). By doing this we do not have to operate the huge compressors (read electricity eaters) that run our tank cooling system.
Getting Married!!??—if you are, and were considering holding your reception at Glenora on a Saturday this summer you are going to going to be disappointed as our Events Coordinator Sherry tells us the every Saturday for the summer of 2010 is booked—of course she will try to accommodate you on a Friday or a Sunday—and you will still be married.
Winemaker Steve hosted the first of his 2010 Wine Chats this past Tuesday evening with about 15 people in attendance. The next “Chat” titled “Riesling and other German varieties” will be held on February 16th. The classes start at 6 PM and are held at Veraisons—everyone is welcome.
There was lots of “on the road” activities this past week. Greg worked the mid-state market place traveling for the Pennsylvania border to almost the Canadian border call on accounts. He is promoting our Winter Olympics wine pack—6 bottles of Alpine White and 6 bottles of Bobsled Red. Yesterday Greg was in Albany conducting staff training for the Outback Steakhouse. And speaking of Albany, Leslie our Inn Manager was in the Albany area, the headquarters of many state wine associations, on Wednesday and Thursday making sales calls to promote the Inn and our conference package programs. While there are many places to hold conferences and retreats to best of the editor’s knowledge there is only one place in New York State that is located in a vineyard overlooking a beautiful lake with a working winery behind it –The Inn at Glenora!!
The trigger has been pulled—on the remodeling the lounge and wine bar at Veraisons. After weeks, perhaps years, of contemplation we will be starting the project on February 15th. If all goes well, and it has to, we will be having a soft “uncorking” two weeks later.
Last week’s Seneca Lake Wine Trail Past & Wine event was great for Team Glenora. We greeted 498 event attendees and in addition had 311 “regular” visitors on Saturday and Sunday. This weekend both Team Knapp and Team Glenora were at the Wine on Ice event that was held at the First Arena on Friday and Saturday. Ice Team Captain Barb reported in early this morning noting that the crowd was a bit younger and that our sales numbers were the same as last year—excellent!
Congratulations to Winemaker Steve, Cellar master Rich and the Cellar Team at Knapp as the Knapp Vidal Ice wine received the only USA gold medal at the World Wine Championships held recently. The wine scored a resounding 90 points!!
Thought for the Week: Friend - At every crisis in one's life, it is absolute salvation to have some sympathetic friend to whom you can think aloud without restraint or misgiving.
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