Mother’s Day 2010
May 09, 2010
It is a cold, 36 degrees, morning along the shores of Seneca and in the vineyards of Glenora. The wind, much calmer than yesterday —11 miles per hour coming from the west—a wind chill factor of 27 degrees. Weather more suitable for Presidents Day rather than Mother’s Day. And, there is a freeze warning for late tonight.
Weather—historical note: Today’s weather is very similar to Mother’s Day 1989 when we had just opened the Wine Garden Café under an awning located where the south tasting room is now. It was not long before the north tasting room had been transposed into a restaurant—much to the chagrin of the tasting room manage at the time—some things never change do they Bridget?
In the vineyards—another mixed weather week: lots of temperature variation, rain, wind, sun, lightening, thunder and a bit of hail at the Cobblestone vineyards (no damage that Vineyard Manager Chris could spot). Depending on the variety the bud growth ranges from ½ to ¾ of an inch to vines with canes that are now over 4 inches long. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the early Spring there are still a few vineyards in wine country that are not yet tied. Perhaps this is a reflection upon our (upstate agriculture in general) dependence on documented workers (some call them migrants—but they are far from that). If they were not available to work with us most agriculture as we know it in upstate New York would come to a standstill. Even with their help when the work time frame is concentrated because of factors like the weather it is easy to get behind because not enough help is available—and we keep reading about high unemployment rates.
Both the Glenora and Knapp bottling lines were running this week on Tuesday and Thursday. The Glenora Team bottled 2009 Riesling and 2009 Chardonnay while the Knapp Team bottled Pasta Red Reserve and Superstition.
On the road—another busy week! On Tuesday and Wednesday we participated in portfolio tasting held in Rochester and Buffalo that were hosted by our distributor Empire North. Friday we conducted in store tastings at Liberty Liquor, Liberty, NY; Plaza Discount Liquor in Cortland, NY; and took part in a tasting benefitting Catholic Charities in Binghamton, NY. Yesterday we did an in-store tasting at Premier Wine and Spirits in Williamsville, NY and last evening we participated in a tasting benefitting the SPCA that was hosted by the Corning Museum of Glass. This benefit tasting was especially important because as you may know some of the key ingredients in the “oil booms” that are being used to contain the recent oil spills are cat and dog hair which consequently has created a lot of bald cats in dogs who are in need of coats.
Yesterday and today Winemaker Steve D is participating in Wine Camp East-2010. These events, organized by Lenn Thompson, editor and chief of The New York Cork Report are bringing several bloggers and writers into Finger Lakes Wine Country to taste wines. There were/are three different camps: Keuka Lake held at Heron Hill, Seneca Lake held at Fox Run, and Cayuga Lake held at Sheldrake Point.
The second weekend of the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail’s Wine and Herb event held last weekend was a huge success for Team Knapp as they saw a 1565 Wine and Herb visitors and 1962 visitors in total.
This is a busy weekend for both the Restaurant Teams at Glenora and Knapp. At Glenora it was a wedding/reception yesterday afternoon/evening which was interrupted by Mother Nature twice—no electric because of the high winds, and a Mother Day Brunch today—150 plus reservations at last count. Knapp’s Mother’s Day Brunch is a sold out event—120 reservations.
Lucky, the Knapp “Running Duck”, now has company as on Wednesday we received our order of 15 baby running ducks—with only a couple of hic-cups all is well with them and they are running around their pen. They will be introduced to Lucky in a few weeks. We also plan to bring in another peacock (Clyde the 3rd) to replace Clyde 2/also who ran away a couple of weeks ago. This will be the last attempt!! However we will be clipping his wings so if he decides to leave he will be walking not flying.
Thought for the week: Truth - Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it's not going to go away.
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