National Cheese Fondue Day
April 11, 2010
It is an overcast morning along the shores of Seneca and over the vineyards of Glenora. The temperature is 51 degrees with the winds coming from the south southwest at 4 miles per hour—after the temperature readings of the mid 80’s this past week it feels like Spring again—not summer, and for some reason the morning doves are cooing in high gear.
In the vineyard—a ton of activity taking place there—trellis work, and tying, all made even more hectic by the very warm temperatures of this past week. While the grape buds have not really started to push, many of our neighbors with cherry and apricot trees have come into bloom this past week—one day the trees seem to be asleep and the next day they are decked out in white and pink flowers. The weather gurus are predicting more seasonal temperatures for the upcoming week. It appears that if we can get past tonight and Monday night, early Tuesday morning that we are frost free for at least the balance of the upcoming week.
The production teams at both Glenora and Knapp had their bottling lines running this past week. The Glenora Team bottled 2008 Sangiovese and 2008 Riesling and the Knapp Team bottled Pasta Red, Lemoncello and Limoncello. While the Glenora Team is bottling its wines it is not labeling all of them at this point, the reason being that we are preparing to introduce new packaging (labels and capsules) when our new bottling line arrives (or at least the labeler). So it becomes a balancing act of how much to label using the current label with the understanding that we would like to have that inventory “sold” at the time the new labels are introduced—if you have not noticed Winemaker Steve and Production Manager Tracey have added a few gray hairs recently!
This coming Tuesday, 13 April 2010 The Glenora Gazette will mark its 16th birthday. What started out as weekly news letter for the Glenora Team has grown over the years to become something subscribed to by people through the United States (actually it is free). To the best of the editor’s knowledge it is the oldest continuous weekly winery newsletter in the United States—if not the world!! Not only has The Glenora Gazette provided weekly news about Glenora but often time it noted the happenings of the industry, along with an occasional comment/editorial about issues impacting the industry—those usually got a few comments and “please cancel my subscription requests”. It is really quite interesting to look at past issues to watch the growth of Glenora and the changes that have taken place in the industry. The first issue featured an article about the opening of The Wine Garden Café at Glenora which was operated by Team members Jeff and Kathy Bates. The April 11, 1999 issue noted that work had been completed on the newly remodeled Glenora retail shop (part of the Inn construction project), and the April 4, 2004 issue noted that on the previous day Winemaker Steve D and his bride Laurie were united in marriage at the Inn—it was also noted the “Wolf” went out in style.
We, the Knapp Team, received a call from a reporter from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle this past week noting that Knapp was the only New York Winery to win two Double Gold awards at the recent Finger Lakes International Wine Competition. The award winning wines 2008 Estate Vidal Blanc and the 2008 Estate Block 4 Vidal Ice Wine. Congratulations to the Knapp Winemaking Team (and to the crew who picked and pressed the frozen grapes that were harvested for the ice wine).
It is happening again—in 1972 the editor purchased a Hobie Cat sailboat, it was not long after that, that Scott Welliver who was soon to become a very good friend and future partner at Glenora did the same—now some 38 years later he is still trying to keep up—this past week he bought a chicken coop and 12 chickens (actually the editor had to get them for him)—raising chicken is something that the editor has been doing for several years—along with that Scott is now planting rhubarb and horseradish, again something editor was or has been doing for at least 30 years—and while we are at it, he also is getting in to race cars—the editor was racing, and winning, at the Dundee Speedway in the late 60’s. If he gets a pilot’s license (airplanes) he will have completed the circuit—or at least to this point.
Thought for the week: Friends—from the 11 April 99 edition - There are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally.
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