Palm Sunday—National Cleaning Week
March 28, 2010
It is a chilly and windy morning along the shores of Seneca and in the vineyards of Glenora. Out temperature is 34.3 degrees and the wind is from the south at 12 miles per hour. With partly cloudy skies we may have another great sunrise.
In the vineyards—while most people were probably a bit disappointed to see (feel) the lower temperatures of the past few mornings Vineyard Manage Chris and other Finger Lakes wine grape growers were almost ecstatic as the run of warm weather that negatively impacted the maple syrup season was looking like it could create some issues for grape and fruit growers as well. However things have cooled down and the next week looks fairly promising with cool nights which will keep our buds dorman (sleeping)t.
It should be noted that the warm weather did create some Spring fever for the editor and the maintainence team as we went on a pansy planting spree on Wednesday, only to find them coated with a dusting of snow on Thursday morning, and the 14 degree temperature of Friday morning stiffened them up as well—but some far they seem to have survived—if they don’t get blown away today..
In the Cellar—lots of back slapping and high fives in the cellar at Glenora on Thursday as Production Manager Tracey Miller headed out the door with a check for will “seal the order” for a new bottling line at Glenora. While the current line has served us well for over 25 years the time had come (about 5 years ago) when it was time to update. The new line will give us lots of options in terms of closures and most importantly allow us to apply pressure sensitive labels which will give us much more versatility with our labeling. And, along those lines we are in the extreme final stages of new packaging (labels) for many of our wines. The last step is getting government approval which has been started. It is our plan at this point to be introducing the new packaging in June.
Bottling—At Knapp it was more of our Avanic products this past week—Cellar Master Rich found time to do this in addition to carving donuts in the lawn with the fork-lift!! The Glenora Team bottled Jamming Red and plan to bottle more Riesling this next week as our Riesling sales are exceeding our 2010 projections.
On the road—Special Events Coordinator Barb reported that the Wine Festival held in Buffalo last weekend was a great success for both Team Glenora and Team Knapp. Our in store tasting program continues with tastings yesterday at Prestige in Buffalo, Century in Pittsford and at the Starlight room(????) last evening in Elmira. Today we are at tasting event, Bombace/Legacy at the Fairways in Victor, NY.
Chef Orlando has introduced his new Spring lunch, dinner and lounge menus, He also is pleased to note that the highly successful couple’s menu program is continuing. You can view all of these at www.glenora.com.
Yesterday marked the opening of the Vineyard Restaurant at Knapp—44 lunches. Chef John has created new menus for the season with lots of daily specialties. Again this year he is working with lots of local suppliers who are creating some unique products using Knapp’s wine. We have several wine flavored Ice Creams and also will have a Riesling Cheese which will be introduced during New York wine month—we are celebrating it along with the folks in the Albany market.
Everyone is invited to attend the Easter Sunrise Service that will be taking place at Veraisons starting at 6:30 AM. The event coordinated by the Dundee Area Council of Churches has been held at Glenora for at least 25 years. If the weather cooperates the service will be on the patio at Verasions, if it is cold or damp it will be inside at Verasions. After the service the Dundee Area Boy Scout Troops will be making and serving a pancake breakfast—two great ways to start your Easter Sunday celebrations.
The Seneca Lake Wine Trail’s Crusin the Tropics event is taking place this weekend and as always Bridget and the retail team have done a great job of decorating for the occasion. As well Chef Orlando created a Jicama Strawberry Salsa which is accompanied with a specially prepared plantain chips and Ancho Crusted Pork Loin. While do not have a firm count on the number of tickets sold we saw 62 Cruisers on Friday afternoon and 624 yesterday, along with 432 non cruisers—1056 visitors yesterday—congratulations to the retail team on some great sales numbers!
Thought for the Week: Success - The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year.
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