Happy Holidays

      Our Vineyard is resting as we celebrate all we are thankful for this holiday season.  We are thankful for our family, friends and customers who are helping to make our vineyard and winery a reality.  Today we signed the paperwork to finance our new tasting room. We hope the tasting room and winery construction will begin during this holiday season and look forward to sharing all of our new wines with you in the new year.  We will continue to keep everyone updated on the progress of the construction and wine in the final weeks of this year and the upcoming weeks of 2012.  As our list of things to be thankful for continues to grow, let us thank you and wish you a happy holiday season.
Oh yeah, the new wines are tasting fantastic and we have a few new surprises in store for you next year.

A Bad Week to get Free Press

In case you missed it, last week amidst all the news about Penn State, Cassel Vineyards was mentioned in the Patriot News.  There was a very nice article in the entertainment section about the success of new wineries in Central PA.  It's always good to be in the paper about positive things.  In fact, last week our article may have been the only bright spot in the weeks news.  Thank goodness for wine to bring a ray of happiness and a touch of sanity into this cold cruel world. 
As we prepare to close for the winter, we would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone for their support these past two years.  Our venture has been a lot of fun and very gratifying.  Hopefully next year we will have enough wine to keep our doors open so that friends can stop by throughout the holidays to buy wine and spread good cheer.  Keep in touch and watch our home page, facebook and blogspot for the date of our spring grand opening.  It should be a lot of fun when we actually have a nice wine bar to sit and sample wines.  Have a happy Thanksgiving.
http://blog.pennlive.com/life/2011/11/more_wineries_and_vineyards_ca.html

Cassel Vineyards Closing for the Season

We just wanted to thank all our customers and friend for your support this past 2011 season.  We are planning to close our winery next Sat. Nov. 19 th after our usual 1-4:00 hours.  We are sold out of many of our varieties and have only a few cases remaining in most of our others.  Keep in touch via our web site, blogspot and/or facebook pages.
Next Spring, we will reopen in our new wine tasting room.  Have a wonderful holiday season and we look forward to seeing everyone next Spring.

The Vines are Resting

Elliot and I worked in the vines this afternoon to prepare the vineyard for winter.  The weather is perfect and working in the vines gives us a great chance to reflect on the season that is coming to a close.  Lately,  I had several chances to reflect on the things that I have learned this past year.  The vines and the wines have taught us some amazing lessons.  I never thought about learning life lessons at my age.  However, Paul Vigna from the Patriot News called and asked what we had learned this past year as a result of our success.  It was an amazing discovery when I thought about it.  Please take the time to read about the entire interview and our self-discovery.
http://blog.pennlive.com/wine/2011/10/cassels_first_year_in_business_has_come_with_several_important_lessons.html

Cassel Vineyards in Fly Magazine

The Central Pennsylvania Fly Magazine just published a very nice article on Pennsylvania Vineyards and winemaking.  The Article entitled Is Pennsylvania the Next Napa was an excellent article on our winery and our industry in PA in general.  I want to thank Michael McMonagle for his visit and exceptional writing skills.  Perhapse in a later article he will share some of his pictures from the visit.http://www.flymagazine.net/lancaster/lanc_featurestory.htm

Analyzing the Harvest

Yesterday, we pressed and pumped the last of this year's harvest into tanks.  The smell and taste of the new vintage is so enticing (ripe fruits, figs and toffee).  The initial tests and barrel samples seem outstanding.  There are a lot of exceptional fruit flavors and colors coming out of our Chambourcin and Cabernet Franc.  The Vidal Blanc, Chardonnay and Blush all seem to be resting after their initial ferments and all indications are that they will have very nice flavors, aromas and a nice balance of acids.  Our tests in the field all indicated that these were some excellent grapes despite the cool, wet conditions.  Why?  Only the final wine will tell the story but I did stumble across an interesting article that verifies our initial analysis.  If you are interested in why the grapes were such good quality despite the poor weather, read the article paying special note to the section concerning Lancaster County.
http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=news&content=92983

The Final Harvest 2011

Here are some pictures of the final harvest of Chambourcin on Sat., October 14th.  The grapes were excellent, and we had a whole lot of friends who showed up to make the work go fast.  It was a beautiful day and the work went quickly.  On Sunday, October 15th we picked the Cabernet Franc and both the Chambourcin and the Cabernet Franc were crushed, destemmed and placed in primary fermentation before the day ended.  It was such a satisfying feeling.  The food, grape juice and wine at the end of each day were a perfect end to a great season.  Now, it is time to wait and see what the grapes that we have put into the fermenter will turn into in the upcoming year.  Our initial tank tasting of the Vidal Blanc and Chambourcin were excellent.  The Chambourcin and Cabernet Franc juices were exceptional with nice sugar and acid and the potential to be some excellent vintages.  We hope everyone is enjoying the past seasons vintage and expect to close around Thanksgiving.   If anyone is interested in ordering wine for the Holidays, we encourage you to contact us within the next month so that we can arrange payment and delivery. 

Thank you for another excellent year.

A Wine Tasting with The Hummelstown Women's Club

A fantastic group of ladies arranged to do a private wine tasting at our winery on Tuesday evening.  The ladies brought some exceptional snacks to share and pair with the wines.  We spent about 30 minutes doing a walk-through of the wine-making process as the ladies asked questions and gained an appreciation for the art and science of the winemaker and grape grower. 
After taking the time to learn and listen, the ladies found a sincere appreciation for the wines which were grown, picked and crafted here in our little corner of Pennsylvania.  Thanks for spending your time with us at Cassel Vineyards of Hershey Ladies!
( If you are interested in setting up a private, group tasting here a the winery, give us a call at 717-533-4301.)  And bring some of that delicious cheese the the Hummelstown Ladies Club brought, it goes great with our Blush!!!

Small Workers, Big Job

What  a perfect day in the Vineyard.  We picked a little more than a ton of Chambourcin and had a whole crew of incredible helpers.  Here is a shout out to Caleb, Bella, Yeni, Asher, Merci, Zimmi, and Noa who all came out to help us pick today.  Including the adults, we had 16 people and the 32 hands made light work of the picking.  After picking we enjoyed some exceptional fresh, squeezed grape juice.  The weahter could not have been more perfect.  We look forward to picking again next Saturday so if anyone has any interest in helping, watch our blogspot and facebook page for updated information on the time.  Thanks again to everyone who helped today.  It was a great time..

Wine Tasting at the Winery and Dinner Pairing at Dafnos

We just finished another busy week here at Cassel Vineyards.  The pictures above represent our latest wine pairing dinner at Dafnos on Tues. night and wine tasteres in the winery on Sat..  Everyone seemed to enjoy the wonderful food, fresh wine and good friends at both of the events.  Sharing our wine with friends is one of the most delightful things about this job.  We hope you can also stop by to taste and enjoy the fruits of our labor.  There are 3 more weeks left in the Farmer'[s Market of Hershey and then you will have to come to my house or meet us at the winery at 53 Shetland Dr.

Another Successful Harvest

Avery, Emma and Andy helped to havest the Vidal Blanc.The picking crew at quiting time!

We were blessed today in so many ways! Finally, a break in the weather allowed us to get our Vidal Blanc into the winery. We were also blessed with a wonderful group of family and friends who came to help us in a 9 hour day in which we picked 3 tons of grapes, crushing and pressing them all in one day. The juice was perfect and despite the bad weather for the past 5 weeks we are looking forward to some excellent vintage next year.

We took a break at 2:00 for lunch and almost everyone stayed around to finish the job until 5:00. Thank you to everyone who came and helped us. The friendly conversation and extra hands made for lighter, more enjoyable work. Next weekend we hope to once again work in the vineyard and harvest our Chambourcin and Cabernet Franc. The weather may actually begin to cooperate and if it does it will be an excellent chance to meet more friends and enjoy some more good food and conversation.

One More Try (Picking this Saturday, Oct.1)

We are going to cross our fingers and hope that this weekend's weather is more cooperative than it was last weekend. After suffering through 2 more inches of rain on Friday, which brought our Sept. and Annual totals to all-time records for rainfall, we decided to let the Vidal Blanc hang for another week. We are hopeing that the extra week of maturity and sunshine? will help to increase the sugars and

Vidal and Chambourcin Picking this Sat.

It looks like the fair weather is going to make it possible to pick our Vidal Blanc and Chambourcin grapes this Sat. and Sunday October 24 and 25th. We will begin picking at 9 AM and take a lunch break at noon before changing varieties and picking the Chambourcin in the afternoon. Hopefully, the crushing, destemming and pressing will go well and we can keep rolling right along through Sunday and have everything in stainless steel fermentors by Sunday night. Anyone who wishes to join in the harvest festivities can call or stop by the winery on Sat. It promises to be an eventful day!!! Let's hope the sun shines and the harvest is abundant.

The Struggle Between Rainstorms

It has been a week for the record books. Hershey/Hummelstown was the center of one of the worst storms ever experienced in Southcentral Pennsylvania. The rain from Hurricane Katia and Tropical Storm Lee met dead center over our hometown and vineyards this past week. The rain caused record flooding and destroyed millions of dollars in property as the Manada, Swatara and Susquehanna Rivers all reached record flood stages not seen in 40 years. We were fortunate in the respect that we only had a foot of rain in and around the farm. Our grapes were ready to pick last week when the rain began. Unfortunately for us the rain caused the Concord grapes to begin to take on a huge amount of water as they swelled up and began to split. Fortunately for us we had several days and lots of help. In the end all of the grapes are picked, crushed, pressed and into the primary fermentation . Next up will be the Vidal Blanc. Hopefully, there will not be a storm that complicates that weekend of picking. We are fortunate that it all ended as well as it did.

Harvest Time

Well, it looks like things may dry out for the weekend (September 10-11, 2011) and we are ready to begin harvesting this year's crop. If anyone is looking for a something to do and doesn't mind picking grapes, you are invited to join us on Sat. at 8-9:00 AM. we have to pick our first acre of Concord and expect 3-4 tons of fruit so it will require some time and effort. Hopefully, everything will go as planned and we will be done picking and ready to crush and de-stem by

Beating the Birds

Above and to the right are the Vidal Blanc and Chambourcin with the bird nets in place. Below is the Chardonnay that has been stripped clean by the birds in just 3 days.

In the past two weeks, just as our grapes are ripening, flocks of European Starlings and Cowbirds have been flying in to feast on our grapes. It began almost overnight as our Chardonnay grapes began to disappear at an alarming rate. I guess good news travels fast in the bird world and within 3 days our acre of Chardonnay that had such promise was stripped bare.

Thanks to the Orchard Valley Supply company for rushing our order of bird netting. Thanks to Jody, Lee and Colton who helped put the first day's nets over the Cab Franc and Vidal Blanc. Thanks to Chris, Greg, Becky and Elliot for helping to cover the Concord and Chambourcin. In just two days we have all our grapes covered from top to bottom and the birds have been forced to find food somewhere else. We learned another valuable lesson the hard way. Next year we will have our bird netting in place several weeks in advance of the grapes changing color. I have posted pictures of the vines that were stripped clean by the birds as well as several pictures of our netted vines hanging full of grapes.

The Grapes are Ripening

Here is a picture of our Chambourcin grapes as they begin to ripen on August 12th. They are looking exceptional thanks to the last two rains we had in the first week of August. The vines were struggling at the end of July in the hot, dry weather. However, they look excellent right now and all we have to do is keep the hungry animals and birds away so there are enough left for us to pick and make wine out of . We just completed an electric fence around the perimiter to keep the deer out and this week we plan to hang netting over the grapes to keep the birds from eating any more. It's always something.

Sounderosa Car Show Wine Tasting

We had a wonderful day today at the Bike, Car and Street rod Show at the Sounderosa Campground outside of Mercersburg, PA http://www.saunderosapark.com/. The festival was complete with 150 cars, hundreds of people and lots of good food, friends and fun. The wine was a big hit and we sold out of our Niagara and nearly sold out of our Peach and Honey and Concord as well. The weather was great, but several car owners said they did not take the chance of bringing their cars out to the show because of the threat of rain. Next year, we hope that everyone comes back to visit us again or stops by our winery to show us their very cool automobiles. Thanks for a great time to the friendly staff at the campground. They were exceptional and our day was outstanding.

250 Anniversary Wine Chosen

The Hummelstown 250th Anniversary Committee has selected Cassel Vineyard to provide the wine for next years celebration. Today we unveiled the White Niagara and the Red Concord that will make up the set. The wines (250 bottles of each) will be available for pre-order at $15/bottle or $25/set. The special labels will make a great gift while the wine tastes excellent too. Today at the unveiling of the the quilt, we had a very successful introduction. If you are interested in sampling or purchasing a bottle/set, please call the winery and provide your name, phone number and e-mail address so that we can arrange payment and pick-up. The committee will release the wines next summer on July 13 during the 250th anniversary celebration. We are looking forward to several other celebratory events in order to introduce our wines. Hope everyone can make it to try the wines and join in the celebration.

A Visit from the Red Hat Girls

I had the pleasure of hosting a group of ladies at the winery today who call themselves the "Dames of Wine and Roses". This group of 7 ladies set up a winery tasting/tour and stopped by to sample and hear about our wines. It was a very enjoyable visit and their enthusiasm and vitality was like a breath of fresh air. Each of these ladies said they love local wines and tasting events and knew a great deal about the wines and wineries of central Pennsylvania. Thank you for coming to visit Cassel Vineyards, and I hope you had as much fun tasting as I did hosting.
Anyone who is interested in a private, group tour/tasting just needs to call the winery at 533-4301 and arrange a time.

Pruning Cab Franc

Here is a picture of one of our Cabernet Franc Vines that is pruned and preparing to ripen it's fruit. The 4 canes run from the central trunk, 2 on the lower wire and 2 on the upper wire. This technique called Scott Henry pruning causes some of the energy to be used by the bottom canes as they are forced to grow downward. The upper canes are pruned to carry more fruit and together the top and bottom canes produce a balanced vine with optimal sugar content in the fruit. Unfortunately, this pruning technique takes almost twice as long as the traditional 2 cane VSP or High wire techniques. Hopefully, the yield and quality will make up for the extra hours of pruning and training.

Other Customers from the Farmer's Market

I just read a delightful blog today from a unique blogger who write for Central PA Parenting Magazine. Plain Jane did a very nice write-up on her experience at the Farmer's Market of Hershey last week. I wanted to share it with readers because it really sums up why we participate in the market and what we hope to accomplish. Hope you enjoy it.
http://www.centralpennparent.com/category/Community/Blogs/PlainJane(Blogginitmomstyle).aspx
I wanted to post some pictures and explanations about how much our grapes and grape vines are changing with the seasonal changes but there will be time for that next week.

Don't forget about the wine pairing dinner at Dafnos on August 8 from 6- 8:00. More information is available on Dafno's website.
http://dafnos.com/

Hot Times at the Hershey Farmer's Market

The official temperature today at the Hershey Farmer's Market was 100 degrees. Our white sangria and crisp white wines were a big hit as shoppers looked for a refreshing way to cool down and relax to escape the heat. With our stand next to the Lindendale Goat Cheese stand we are perfectly situated to provide a hot weather drink and next door you can find a wonderful cheese to pair with our crisp white wines. The market is doing well and next week we will again have a butcher providing fresh meats to our customers.
Also, starting next week we will be begin taking reservations for our Cassel Vineyards/Hershey Farmer's Market wine pairing dinner at Dafnos on August 8th. If you are interested stop by our table and sign up for tickets because they will go fast. Meanwhile, stay cool and relax.

Taking Care of our Help

Thanks for all the help!! It has truly been amazing that we have had so much help the past 8 weeks. Here are some pictures of the kids, their friends and the work that they have accomplished in the vineyard the last couple of months. If anyone says that young kids today don't want to work anymore, they have not met the young kids who are helping us every morning to prune, leaf pull, shoot thin and cluster thin our 5 acres of vines. With all the rain it was a lot of work to keep all the growth in check. Thanks to the last two weeks of dry, hot weather the vines have begun to slow their growth and we have actually gotten them under control. Here are our helpers and their jobs. Quentin is pulling excess leaves from the Cabernet Franc vines to improve air flow.

Cole is clipping off the excess clusters because the 4th year vines have produced 3 times more grapes than they can possibly ripen into quality fruit.

Blake aka "muck man" thins shoots in the fruiting zone to improve air flow and decrease the shading in the fruit zone.

Elliot looks through the canopy on the low wire where he is thinning the clusters.

Lee works to tuck the shoots under the upper catch wires, hedges the rogue shoots and shortens any of the long terminal shoots.

Avery pulls leaves in the fruit zone on the south side to improve light penetration.
Josh also pulls the leaves on the north side to improve light penetration and air flow.

Thank goodness we have such hard workers or our vineyard would be out of control. Thanks for all the hard work!!!

Taste of Hummelstown 1 Year Anniversary

It has been one year since we opened our doors to the community at the Taste of Hummelstown. We enjoyed our first year and hope that everyone who has tried our wine continues to stop by and offer their stories and encouragement. We heard from many people last night and I wanted to make sure that I included the recipe from our Red Sangria that we served last year because several people asked us for it.

Red Sangria

1 Bottle "Cassel Vineyards of Hershey" Strawberry Wine

1 Bottle " Cassel Vineyards of Hershey" Concord Wine

1/4 can of frozen lemonade concentrate

2 Tbs. of frozen orange juice concentrate

1/2 bag of frozen mixed fruit (optional)

ice cubes

Last night we offered samples of our White Sangria so if you are looking for that recipe as well, it is in the preceding blog post.

Once again, thank you for a wonderful first year of business. It is so much fun to live and work in a community like Hummelstown where everyone is so supportive.

Keeping our Little Feathered Friends Safe

Avery was pruning the Cabernet Franc vines yesterday when she came across this perfect little nest with it's eggs. She was very concerned for the family show she left the plant untouched and just took a picture for me to post. There are quite a few birds that make their home in the vineyard. We are serenaded by a mocking bird every day that sings from the top of the ash tree between the Concord and the Cabernet Franc vines. The family of kingbirds return every year and flit from post to post as we walk between the rows of the vines. Bluebirds search throughout the vineyard for insect pests while robins hop down the rows looking for grubs, caterpillars and worms. All-in-all there is a lot of entertainment in the vineyard just listening and watching the birds that make their home there.

White Sangria is a big Hit on a Hot Day

Cassel Vineyards has come up with a new Summer Sangria for this year's taste of Hummelstown. Hope you can come out and give it a try it tastes fantastic. If you can't make it on Monday, July 18 at 6:00, perhaps you can make it to the Warwick to sample our wines on Tuesday, July 19 from 6 - 8:00. If not we want to share the recipe so that you can try it yourself, all you need is several bottles of our wine and some friends.

White Sangria
1 Bottle Cassel Vineyards Niagara
1 Bottle Cassel Vineyards Vidal Blanc
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
2 cups lemon lime soda (7up)
1 lemon, 1 lime and 1 orange sliced or 1 bag frozen fruit
ice to chill
In a large bowl or pitcher mix the 2 wines orange juice and sugar and stir to dissolve the sugar. Add fruit and gently pour in the soda. Serve with ice to chill. Enjoy!

New Technology Looks Good and Works Fine

There is something to be said for new technology. Here Becky uses the tractor to trim the vineyard. With the air conditioned cab and trim mower, the job takes much less time than it used to. The tractor has power steering, power breaks and protects the driver from sun and noise. With Becky and Jody driving the tractor now, its easy to understand why Chris and I are happy to invest in new technology. However, we still enjoy using the old machinery too.

Old Technology vs. New

Some wineries like to dazzle their customers with pictures of their expensive, high-tech toys. Unfortunately we don't own any of those so I thought I would show you how we use less sophisticated equipment and spend more time actually working in the vines. Time and labor saving devices are nice but they don't always deliver the promised returns on their investment. Chris still enjoys using his old tractor which he got from our late Grandpa Herman Hess. He has overhauled it several times and it still does a great job when we need to get tools, workers or equipment somewhere in the vineyard. Sometimes it's not the newest, brightest or most expensive equipment but instead it's whatever gets the job done that is the best tool for the job.

Pruning the Vines

We have been very busy the last several weeks in the vineyard. When the rain stopped and the sun came out, the vines began to grow like crazy. In the pictures above Lee Cassel and his friend Quentin are working on the Cabernet Franc vines to control their growth and increase their production. They are training the vines using the Scott/Henry pruning technique which channels the vines growth both upward and downward simultaneously.

In the second photo, Becky and Jody Cassel prune the Vidal Blanc vines using a VSP (Vertical Shoot Placement) trellis technique. This system forces the fines to grow upward through a series of catch wires. Both techniques are being used to maximize production and improve the quality of the fruit. All we know is that it takes a lot of work to make a good bottle of wine.

Building for the Future

Paul Vigna conducted an interview yesterday over the phone and wrote a short but informative blog in yesterday's Patriot News PennLive Entertainment Column on-line
http://blog.pennlive.com/wine/2011/06/cassel_vineyards_of_hershey_readies_for_permanent_structure.html

End of School, Beginning of Summer

Well, the school year is just about over and it's time to begin work in the vineyard. The weather has finally improved and the sunshine is drying out the vines. As a result of all the rain the vines are growing at an amazing rate. The grapes began blooming last week and the final variety to bloom is the Cabernet Franc. Tonight as we were working to tuck the shoots up and under the catch wires and every time we moved the flowers clouds of pollen would fall on our arms, heads and backs. It looks like this year will be a good year for filling out the clusters with fruit.

Every evening treats us to a beautiful sunset as the sun's rays bathe the long rows of vines and the shadows lengthen. Becky took some very nice pictures but you don't get the full effect without the breeze and the sounds of the birds and insects. Trust me it's a beautiful experience. It makes the work so much more enjoyable than our day jobs. Hopefully, you can come out and visit and see what I mean.