Solitary Trees surrounding Cassel Vineyards

Large solitary trees are another piece of the natural artistry in the landscape surrounding Cassel Vineyards of Hershey. These large trees are symbolic in many ways, they symbolize strength, determination, perseverance and wisdom. These natural landmarks hold so many stories and years of historical information. The four solitary trees in these photos are located on Cassel Vineyards and pastures. These trees hold the stories of our Great, Great Grandfather when he began farming this land in 1903. Every season of the year, I look forward to walking around the farm to see the changes that have taken place over the past year. Below are the pictures of these solitary trees in December, 2010.

The first tree is a large Ash tree located in the center of our vineyard, just between our Cabernet Franc and Concord vines.

The second tree has always been one of my favorite places on our farm. This large Sycamore Tree is at the end of our vineyard in what we call the South pasture.

The third tree is a large Tulip Poplar tree that my son Colton has named "The Tree of Perseverance" . This old tree is located in the front pasture just below our block of Cabernet Franc vines.

The Fourth tree is located where we would like to hold weddings and musical events in the near future. The view from this location is beautiful with the Hershey Corporate building and the Hershey Hotel in the background. This large Pin Oak Tree has been named "The Thinking Tree" by our neighbors.

See you in the Spring of 2011

Closing for the season... http://news.thesunontheweb.com/ROP/large/CasselVineyardsofHershey.htm

Cassel Vineyards Article

Check out the article in The Sun about the vineyard.

http://news.thesunontheweb.com/news/2010-10-14/Living_Articles/From_Teaching_to_Planting.html

Cabernet Franc 2009 Release

Here we are showing off our newest vintage. This week we bottled and released our 2009 Cab Franc. It is just a beautiful, young wine. Although it is the same age as our 2009 Chambourcin, it is still going to be a few months in the bottle before it reaches the peak of it's flavorful potential. Don't misunderstand me, drinking it now is just fine. I had a bottle with a big plate of pasta and fresh tomatoe sauce on Friday night and it was exceptional. The wine has a nice light body with a lot of fresh berry and subtle tannins with a nice french-oak barrel finish. As the tannins mellow, this wine will be one of our most memorable drinking experiences. Get a bottle while you can because the supply is going to be very limited with only 18 cases available for purchase this fall. Enjoy a bottle as soon as you can.

The Science Behind the Wines of Cassel Vineyards

This picture shows Chris and Greg testing the Chambourcin juice for total acidity. It is important to pick the grapes at the right time but it is often only possible to get the grape juice close to what winemakers consider perfect. Our titrations show the acidity and our refractometer and hydrometer readings give us the amount of sugar available for fermentation. We have found that keeping accurate records and relying on the scientific measurements and calculations are helping us to achieve solid and consistent results. We owe part of the success to the fact that Chris and I are both science teachers and Greg is a perfectionist. We know how to take the readings and make the calculations and Greg reminds us almost daily how important it is to pay attention to the small details. We like to think that our combination of science and art will continues to produce excellent wine.

Farmer's Market of Hershey

We are really enjoying the people at the new Farmer's Market of Hershey. It is located at the Cocoa Beanery Coffee Shop off of Bullfrog Valley Road. We set up each Thursday at 3:00 and stay until 7:00. The weather and the people have been wonderful. This Thursday, October 23, 2010 will be our 4th week at the market. As you can see, there are quite a few people that shop for their local produce and farm fresh supplies at the market. If you have not been able to make it, this Thursday will be an excellent day because we are having a Fall Harvest Festival. Cassel Vineyards will be serving a Spiced Holiday Wine and we will also have our newly bottled Cabernet Franc on sale along with our other 4 selections which include: Chambourcin, Blush, Concord and Niagara. Unfortunately, all our Strawberry is sold out until we bottle our 2010 vintage in early 2011. Stop by and give us a try.

Harvesting 2010 Cabernet Franc

Here we are picking inspecting and crushing/destemming our 2010 crop of Cabernet Franc grapes. We got help from everyone in the neighborhood and the grapes were exceptionally sweet which means next years wines should be great. These pictures show, from left to right, a basket of the Cab Franc grapes before going into the crusher/destemmer. Rick, Jody's brother, inspecting the grapes as they go into the hopper of the new crusher destemmer. And Chris and Dad (Cleon) inspecting clusters while everyone else does the heavy lifting. It is very labor intensive work but nobody seems to notice because the work is fun and there is always something to talk about. Our harvest was extremely early this year and that means a lot of very ripe, sweet grapes which means another excellent year of wines at Cassel Vineyards of Hershey.

August Evening in the Vines

What a beautiful day! We spent the evening in the vineyard picking concord grapes. The whole family was involved. The kids had a great time! Afterwards, they used an old hand press and made grape juice. Spending time like this with the family is so wonderful… I wouldn’t trade it for anything!

We are truly blessed!

The Long History of Cassel Vineyards and Pavone's Restaurant

(The picture on the left shows the family of Squire Cassel who is seated in the front row on the right. His son, Calvin is seated beside him second from right and directly behind him is Christian Cassel. Christian bought Cassel's Brookside Farms and also bought the schoolhouse where Pavone's Restaurant is now located. He sold the schoolhouse to the Sleva family who turned it into the original Cracker Barrel who then sold it to the Pavone family.)

Cassel Vineyards of Hershey’s Wines have found a new home at Pavone’s Restaurant. It’s not actually a new home because the wines from Cassel Vineyard are essentially coming home. To understand what I mean one has to know the history of Pavone’s Restaurant. Pavones was originally built by Squire Calvin Cassel who owned the adjacent land and farm bordered by Route 22 to the north which contained the Cassel Mansion. Squire Cassel raised Christian E. Cassel who was the owner and founder of Cassel’s Brookside Farms one mile South of Pavone’s along Old Hershey Road (present day Rt.39). Presently, the 5^th generation of Cassels are now working the same farm and have brought the fruits of their land full circle by establishing their vineyard and bringing the wines of Cassel Vineyards of Hershey back to the school where their Great, grandfather once lived, worked and played.

Various Pruning Techniques

The three pictures above show the various pruning techniques which we are employing at Cassel Vineyards of Hershey in order to find the best technique to suite each variety. On the left is our High Wire technique which we are using on our Chambourcin and Concord varieties. This technique employs one wire at 5 feet on which we train two canes from each grapevine. The vines then cascade down and bear their fruit on the top wire. The center photo shows our VSP or Vertical Shoot Placement method which is we are using for both the Chardonnay and the Vidal Blanc. VSP allows the plants to branch to the left and right on a 3 foot high fruiting wire. As the canes send out shoots, we then tuck each shoot up between two catch wires located at the 4 foot and 5.5 foot level. this keeps the grapes from being covered by foliage but allows the plants to grow vigorously upward to produce plenty of sugar to store in the grapes. The final picture on the right shows our Scott Henry pruning technique which provides two fruiting wires at 3 and 4 feet and catch wires below and above the fruiting wires. In this way we train our Cabernet Franc vines both upward and downward away from the grape clusters and drain excess vigor from the plants to avoid a vegetative taste in the fruit. The pruning takes a good deal of time and labor but we think it makes a difference in the quality of the wine. We hope you agree.

Upcoming Events

We will be at the Farmers Market in Hershey. This is a wellness-focused farmers market with locally sourced foods in Derry Twp. The Farmers Market in Hershey is on the grounds near the Cocoa Beanery Cafe and Englewood barn, off Bullfrog Valley Road next to Hershey Center for Applied Research. It is open 3-7 p.m. on Thursdays through October.

We will also be at the "Car, Truck and Motorcycle Show" at Saunderosa Park in Mercersburg on Saturday, August 14 from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. There will be a chicken BBQ, craft vendors, food vendors, and of course, Cassel Vineyards of Hershey. It will be fun for all!

Grape update.

Our Chambourcin grapes are beginning to turn red. This is a process called Veraision.

Another Restaurant is carrying our wine.

The "Wick" (Warwick Hotel) of Hummelstown joins our list of restaurants that are carrying our wine. Don't forget to ask for it!

Look who is serving our wine!

We have two restaurants so far who are offering Cassel Vineyards of Hershey wine on their menus. Pavone's restaurant off of Rt. 39, and The Penn Hotel in Hershey. See their pictures below. We are working on a few more in the Hershey/Hummelstown area. We'll keep you posted.

Kids in the Vineyard

As we vacation in the UP and visit other wineries and vineyards, I get a chance to talk to other people who opened their businesses for different reasons. Some just wanted another line of work, some were educated in winery and vineyard management and still others have a romantic affair with their dream of making beautiful wines. To be quite honest, I think everyone has their own reason. One of my main reasons appears in pictures like the one above and in my mind's eye. Our children LOVE the family farm. They do so many of the same things that I did as a child that it is hard to not live through them as they run, ride, swim and even work on the same land that we share with them. For 5 generations, each new set of parents have appreciated the satisfaction of watching their children grow up with the freedom to roam, play and work freely. There is something to be said for the Native American philosophy that the land is not ours to inherit but rather we are only stewards of the land our children enjoy. That, I think is why we are working so hard to grow the best grapes and make the best wine. Is there any better place to be a child?

Label

These are the two styles of wine labels with two different colors.

The "Taste of Hummelstown" event

Our first wine-tasting event was a great success. We were the most crowded table and we had a great time talking to people and letting them sample our wines. It was great fun educating people about our wines and talking to many people we knew or at least knew the local "Cassel" name.

Our first wine sale

Our first two bottles of wine were sold to the oldest "living" resident of the Cassel farm. Mr. Staver rented a room in the basement from my Father-in-law's grandfather before my Father-in-law was born.

Our Label

Bottling the Wine

Last night was our second time bottling with all our new equipment. It went pretty smoothly. We are only missing the labeling machine and labels, but that should be up and running the next time we bottle. It is quite an assembly line, with the necessary "sampling" done to determine quality.

Spring 2008

This picture is of us after we finished planting our first 600 vines. It was a long day but satisfying day.

The First Blog Entry!

This is the beginning of our "Cassel Vineyards of Hershey" Blog site. We are preparing to have our first wine-tasting event at the "Taste of Hummelstown". The event occurs on Monday, 7/19/10, from 6 - 8pm on the square in Hummelstown, PA. The tickets are $20/person which allows you to wander from table to table tasting delicious treats as well as sample our wines. It should be a lot of fun! Come join us!