A Little Out of Order

       A picture of the loaded Chambourcin taken yesterday, Sept. 23, 2013.  The grapevines are healthy and loaded with fruit.  However, the acid, sugar and pH are not nearly as far along as the Cabernet Franc.  Last year we picked the Chambourcin this weekend and waited to pick the Cabernet Franc until The 3d weekend in October.  This year the two grapes have switched places.  We are looking at the right numbers on our Cabernet and preparing to pick this Saturday.  I wish we could ask the vines what the role reversal is all about?  Maybe it's the site location, the dry weather or maybe it was the fact that the birds never thinned the Cabernet this year.  Whatever it is, we'll take it.  The grapes taste great and the weather continues to cooperate. Come out and help us this Saturday at 9:00  we are going to have a great lunch and a great afternoon.  

What We Stand For At Cassel Vineyards

      Cassel Vineyards

   By Chris Cassel

Our goal at Cassel Vineyards is to provide our customers with a unique and truly complete winery experience.  The experience begins as you turn onto Shetland Drive which is named after our Great Grandfather who raised Shetland Ponies on this very site.  Shetland drive allows you to take a step into the rural country side of Hershey.  As you round the turn you will enjoy the site of horses, as mares and foals graze in the open pastures.  As you enter our tasting room you will understand our horse racing theme that you will see in our building design, label logos and the fanciful names of our wines.  As you taste our wines you can look out the windows and see acres of grape vines that produce the Cassel Estate wines.  The windows in the tasting room allow customers to see right into our production area.  Our wines are the fruit of our labor and we want to share the whole experience with our customers.  We hope you enjoy the life we live and love to share with you our customers.

 

Strawberry Wine Update

2013 Vintage is in full Swing

By Chris Cassel

July brought the start of the 2013 vintage as we started the next batch of strawberry wine.  This spring produced a very nice crop of strawberries with enough rain to produce very nice size fruit with just enough dry sunny days to build up sugars and flavor.  We were very pleased with the new strain of yeast that we selected for the 2012 strawberry wine, so we used the same strain of yeast to start the fermentation for this year’s batch.  The fermentation was a very controlled, slow, cold ferment which is aimed to enhance the fruit aroma of the wine.  We selected a new type of tannin to soften the wine and give a full soft mouth feel to the wine.  The tannin will also help to enhance the color preservation of the wine by reducing the oxidation.  As we transfer the first batch of wine for the 2013 season from the primary fermentation vats into the stainless steel tanks, I am certain we will be able to say the 2013 strawberry wine is going to be even better than the outstanding 2012.  We hope you enjoy all the time, thought and labor that goes into every bottle of wine we produce.

Happy to be a Vineyard Owner

      I took this picture this afternoon in the winery just prior to our upcoming harvest.  I'm not one for selfies but I wanted to record the joy I felt as I ran tests on our grapes and enjoyed the moments leading up to the insanity of picking, crushing and making wine.  The test numbers from the grapes this season indicate that it will be a tremendous harvest.  We made it through the early frost, navigated the wet, cool Summer with no problems and ended the season with every grape growers fantasy, a dry autumn.  It can hardly get any better leading up to harvest but now it's SHOWTIME!  For the next 6 weeks we will be burning the candle at both ends as we spend our days as parents, teachers and friends but hurry home to pick the grapes and make the wine each evening and night.

     I don't mean to sound like I am complaining because the satisfaction I receive from having so many wonderful people coming out to the Vineyard on Saturday mornings to help us pick and the way our families come together to accomplish this awesome task is amazing.  Maybe part of it is also the anticipation and anxiety that I know I will feel through November, December, January and February until all the wine is in a bottle or a barrel and I can really savor its quality.  This is one of those years where the pressure is on to make an excellent vintage because the fruit is just beautiful.  Soooo, I will remember this happy selfie and look at it often in the upcoming weeks.  Help me out by reminding me how happy I am to be the owner of a vineyard and winery when thing get crazy this coming weekend and next week.

Looking at the Harvest; Another Perspective

We just came back from visiting some family in Maine.  My brother-in-law Steve makes some of the best maple syrup that I have ever tasted. He and his wife Christy market it under the label Maine Sugarworks.  His small sugarbush is beautiful.  He takes care of his trees all year long just for the Spring harvest.  We are now looking forward to our fall harvest just as Steve looks forward to his Spring harvest.  I had never drawn a connection between  wine and maple syrup until I read my latest Wine Enthusiast magazine and saw this article.  It makes some very interesting points   Winemakers and maple producers are very similar indeed.

More Perfect Weather

     For the past 3 weeks we have had pretty nearly the perfect Fall weather for our grape harvest.  After a Summer with frequent rains the sky has cleared.  Storms and cold fronts are passing us by but leaving us dry.  This weekend we hope to take our final sugar readings of our Chardonnay and concord so that we can determine when we will pick and begin to crush our first grapes.  If the weather continues to cooperate we may end up with our best year yet.  Since 2008 we have been challenged by bugs, birds disease, too much rain, late frosts, early warm spells and a combination of several of these plagues at a time.  So far we have managed to make pretty decent wine despite the conditions.  This year we may have the opportunity to make our best vintage yet.  It is also exciting because we are considering the idea of adding 3 new wines to our list.  More on that plan after we see what the fruits of this years labor provide at harvest.  We are keeping our fingers crossed in the hopes that it will be something special.