National Volunteer Appreciation Week

April 18, 2010

It feels like late winter in the vineyards of Glenora and along the shores of Seneca. With overcast skies and rain,  the temperature is 33 degrees with the wind out of the west at 4 miles per hour—a wind chill of 27 degrees.

In the vineyards—again another one of those more of the same weeks—weed spraying, trellis work, tying and praying—so far it all seems to be working. We did see some frost on the ground on  Tuesday and Wednesday morning (depending on location) but nothing that has impacted the grape buds which depending on variety and location are ranging from bud swell to buds that are almost an inch in length at this time—we do not need temperatures below 32. The forecast for this coming week is showing highs in the 50’s and lows in the 30’s – the knees still need to be bent!

More bottling again this week as the Knapp team bottled Pasta Red and the Glenora Team bottled Cabernet Sauvignon and Port. We also did a tasting of our Sunrise Hill Gewurztraminer at Knapp. The Sunrise Hill vineyards are located on Cayuga Lake and are owned by Bob and Kathy R. This will be Knapp’s first Gewurztraminer and it will carry the Cayuga Lake appellation and the Sunrise Hill Vineyard designation. Perhaps will we be able to bottle both a dry and semi-dry version of the wine.

More dark clouds on the horizon!! We learned on Friday that on Thursday (April 15th—ironic) that a bill, H.R 5034 had been introduced in Congress. Briefly, as we understand it, the bill would give individual states more control over the sale of alcoholic beverages which has the potential to overturn some of the interstate regulations that are currently in place, or in other words it could either inhibit or end interstate shipping by the wineries. The bill has strong support by the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America as they do not like the fact that customers can purchase wines directly from the wineries, and not through the three tier system.

On the road—both Christine and Ed were traveling about the state this past week. Christine was in the Albany market getting ready for the upcoming wine month there and Ed was in the western part of the state. Yesterday we conducted a tasting at Moyers Corners, a wine shop, in Baldwinsville and also took part in a Wine and Chocolate Event that was held in Utica.

A note from Sherry at 1:23 this morning saying that the wedding held at the Inn (130 guests) yesterday afternoon and evening was a huge success—lot of dancers in the group, Thanks to all for making the event special for the bride and groom in spite of the weather!

If you have not visited the retail shop recently you should make the trip—lots of new items and lots of new displays. Bridget and Ashley and the retail team have done a great job of “updating” the retail items and the displays—the crates are disappearing.

And speaking of great jobs—the maintenance team has done a yeoman’s job of transforming the ground from the winter doldrums – the trees and shrubs are trimmed, the flower beds have been cleaned and the lawn has been mowed—it all looks great. As well they did some painting on the terrace in preparation for the awning installation which took place on Wednesday.

Last evening Chef John and his team at the Vineyard Restaurant at Knapp presented another of their monthly wine dinners. The dinner titled Les Diner en Blanc was a five course dinner that was accompanied by two white wines from either Knapp, Glenora or Zugibe vineyards. As always the dinner was very well prepared and served, and the foods and wines matched perfectly. To add to the enjoyment of the evening many of those attending came dressed in white (blanc). Thanks to Brendan, from Zugibe Vineyards and Anna Marie (JJ) from the retail shop for their help as well

Finally Lucky, the duck at Knapp, has been transferred to a new pond as this past week he/she went into a peafowl attack mode. We had let the peafowl out of their winter quarters on Wednesday and apparently Lucky did not like that and start chasing the peafowl. So at this point the bird family at Knapp is in turmoil. The Duck does not like the Peafowl, and the chickens are afraid of the Peafowl—is there a bird psychic in the house (a job for Richie?).

Thought for the week:  Persistence  -  When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself.

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