Hummelstown Scarecrow

We finished our Hummelstown scarecrow today and placed it on the square with 23 other scarecrows.  Our entry is a zombie called the Carnivorous Connoisseur.  We tried to add a little humor to our depiction of wine snobbery.  People always ask questions about which wines will go best with which foods.  Our zombie has the same problem.  On his tray is a plate full of severed fingers, a hand, an eyeball and a brain and he is trying to decide if he should have a glass of red Chambourcin or white Vidal Blanc Semi-sweet with this delicious meal.  Personally, I think both wines would pair well but my experience does not include human flesh so I'll let our customers decide.
If  you get a chance to vote in Hummelstown, we are encouraging all our customer to fill their ballot our for the Carnivorous Connoisseur. 

Two More Generations (#3 & #4)

  This picture shows my father Cleon and mother Dottie with my sister Tina and brother Chris.  Myself along with my sister Lydee make up the 4th generation of Cassels who have worked the family farm.  My dad and mom have worked the fields and raised us to appreciated all the opportunities that a life on 200 acres of land has to offer.  As children we could hunt, play, fish and work all Summer while eating some of the best food anyone could ever hope for.  We always had a huge bountiful garden and raised, horses, ponies, cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, peacocks and guinea hens on the farm.  All of these things combined to make our lives very special.  Now, we have the opportunity to pass the life we grew to love and enjoy on to our children through the winery at Cassel Vineyards.  If you stop by to visit we can still show you the fields and farms where we grew up.  Chances are you will see our kids working in the fields, riding the horses, or playing with their cousins just like we did, and our parents did before us. 
    That's the thing about a family farm, it continues to cycle back around as long as the circle remains unbroken.  Unfortunately for many of the farms and families in this area, the sale of the family's farmland breaks this cycle.  Less opportunities remain for the next generation, and the circle becomes a road ending j\in a cul-de-sac.

Crush and Press in the Cool of the Night

After picking the grapes in the cool evening/night, the work is only half complete.  Above are the night shots of Chris, Luke, Colton and I working to crush the grapes and de-stem then.  From their the crush goes through the 2" flexible pipe into our 300 gallon press.  Luke is directing the must onto the rice hulls which Chris is sprinkling throughout the crush.  The hulls act as capillaries to allow the compressed grape skins to release all of their juice.  For those of you who have not witnessed the press, the grape juice is forced out through the mesh strainer as the crushed grapes are gently, evenly pressed using an expandable rubber bladder.  When the press is full, the stainless-steel lid is lowered into place and everything is secured.  The water hose is hooked up and the pump pushes water into the bladder which squeezes the grapes from the inside out.  Each press takes the better part of an hour as the bladder inflates and then continues to exert pressure on the skins for 30-45 minutes.  In the end our patience is rewarded with gallons and gallons of high quality Vidal Blanc juice. 
This year's harvest has been extremely bountiful with 300 gallons of Chardonnay, 500 gallons of Vidal Blanc and 650 gallons of Concord juice.  We still have to harvest the Chambourcin over Columbus Day weekend and then the Cabernet Franc sometime later in October.  The weather has been perfect and the juice is fermenting into next years wine.  If you want to come out and lend a hand, our next picking date will be Sat. October 6th starting at noon.  We will finish our picking of the Chambourcin that evening with a big harvest dinner of roasted pork, sauerkraut and dumplings washed down with fresh grape juice and wine. 

Night Harvest of Vidal Blanc

We worked all evening, took a break for dinner of slow roasted roast beef and parsley potatoes, then went back with our headlamps into the vines to finish up.  The weather was spectacular and everyone who joined our Night Frolic in the Vines had a great experience.  The Vidal Blanc are yielding exceptionally well.  We have pressed 4.5 tons and it has yielded nearly 500 gallons of exceptional quality juice.  If you have tasted our wines you know that the farmland produces great quality wines.  Now we know that a summer with great weather also produces huge quantities of excellent fruit.  We want to thank everyone who helped us with the picking and eating.   As you know here at Cassel Vineyards we take our work and fun seriously.  If you missed out we will have two more opportunities to pick in the month of October so watch our Facebook page for details.

One Generation to the Next

  Cassels Brookside Stables was begun by Christian Cassel in 1906 and passed down to his son R. Earl Cassel.  Both of their pictures were seen in last weeks post as I explained their love of the farm and family.  Today's post shows pictures of the the next generation of Cassels.  The top photo shows Grandpa Chris taking the oldest of Earl and Sylvia's boys Dick and Doug out for a ride.  The gravel lane they are standing on, is presently the paved driveway entry into the farm.  The picture in the middle shows Earl and Sylvia's son Cleon and his cousins Rose Ann and Phil Swarr astride their trusty mount Silver.  The Final picture shows the whole Cassel family including Dick, Doug, Kay and Cleon with cousins Jimmy, Gail and Phil.  This generation would be the next in line to inherit the farm and family and it's daily operations.  As Dick, Doug, Cleon and Kay grew up they each participated in the farm work in different ways.  Cleon assumed the role as general manager because he continued to live and work on the farm and at Lower Dauphin High School.  Eventually, he married Dorothy Hess and he and Dottie had 4 more children.  That is another story for another day.

A Brief History of Cassel Vineyards

Here are some pictures of our Great Grandpa Christian Cassel and his wife Stella (Swope) Cassel.   Grandpa was the one who bought and founded the farm at the turn of the century.  Back in 1906 he began Cassel's Brookside Farms of Hershey.  He had a love for his farming and his family.  Because of his passion for the land, Grandpa Chris was a master farmer and raised all types of livestock.  He sold Chester White Hogs, Turkeys and Golden Guernsey Milk Cattle and farmed the 200 acre farm.  He was recognized all over the county as one of the most knowledgeable farmers and received a Master Farmer award.  Working with his son R. Earl, he passed down his knowledge from one generation to the next.  Here at Cassel Vineyards, our farm is entering it's 5th generation of Cassels who live on and love the land.  In the next several entries, I will introduce you to several other members of the Cassel family.

Cassel Vineyards Sponsors Golf Tournament Hole #3

In our first sponsorship role, Cassel Vineyards of Hershey agreed to sponsor a hole at the Lower Dauphin Alumni Golf tournament at Manada Golf Course.  Our sponsored hole was the 3d hole which was a par 3 at 196 yards.  We enjoyed some beautiful weather and a great group of players, coaches and fans.  The winning team was from Penn National Race Course at Hollywood Casino in Grantville.  The team posted a score of 14 under par and had a great time.  Instead of a trophy the team got a bottle of Cassel Vineyards Blush Wine.  After the 18 holes of golf everyone enjoyed a wonderful pulled pork dinner roasted by the Whiston brothers.  It was a great day beginning to end.  A wonderful way to start our sponsorship.  Thanks for the opportunity. 

Vidal Blanc

  We are preparing to harvest our Vidal Blanc grapes next weekend.  All the numbers look right and the grapes are tasting sweeter than they have ever tasted in the past 3 years.  This fall has dried out dramatically and it is translating into much higher sugar content in the grapes.  These higher sugar numbers could mean higher alcohol if that were the route we chose.  However, alcohol in white wines tend to upset their balance so one needs to exercise extreme caution.  Our Vidal Blanc has the potential to produce a wine with an alcohol content of 13% or more if it were fermented to 0% residual sugar.  However, last year proved that drinkers in Central Pa liked our Vidal with a Semi-sweet finish.  As a result, we plan to replicate our Vidal with enough residual sugar to balance out the fruit and melon tastes which our vineyard seems to produce so well.  If you want to pick these grapes with us, we will begin picking next weekend if the weather continues to cooperate.

Final Press of Concord

  Last night as the weather took a turn towards Fall, we made our final press of Concord juice.  The grapes were sitting in crush tubs while the pectic enzymes removed the colors and tannins from the skins.  After waiting the correct length of time, we bucket the must into the press and force the remaining juice from the skins and seeds.  This year's harvest produced 600 gallons of delicious juice.  The bountiful harvest has us thinking very optimistic thoughts about the rest of the 2012 harvest.  We still have Vidal Blanc, Chambourcin and Cabernet Franc yet to pick and if the weather continues to cooperate, it looks like the juice is going to be exceptionally abundant and of very high quality.  We can only hope that conditions remain favorable and we get our harvest in before any long stretches of adverse weather strike.

Sunday Triple Header

Today we worked through a double header at Cassel Vineyards.  First on the ticket was Greg and  Chris and Clint starting the press at 8:00AM and extracting 375 gallons of juice from the Concord we picked yesterday. Next Jody, Anne, Elliot, Avery, Colton, Lee, Hunter, Dominic,Quentin and a whole host of other laborers who I can't begin to thank enough finished the last 3 1/2 rows of Concord picking.  The grapes yielded incredibly well this year so they had quite a picking job and they stuck at it all until 5:30 when everything (5 tons) was picked.  A huge THANK YOU to everyone who helped out both yesterday and today.

Finally, from 1:30 - 8:00 tonight our wine was featured at the Dauphin County Jazz and Wine Festival where 5,000 guests enjoyed samples and bought their favorite bottles of wine from 12 area vineyards in Hershey, Harrisburg and surrounding areas.  The music was great and we heard so many wonderful compliments about our wines it made our night extra special.  Thank you to everyone who stopped by and tried our wine and support our efforts through purchasing our product.  We wouldn't and couldn't do it without you.  It's time to go to sleep now so that we can get up and work our real jobs this week.  See you next week at the winery.

Picking Concord Again

     From the field to the crush pad, we had so much help today picking the Concord it was magnificent.  That is, until the strong storms came across the valley.  The weather was nice up until lunchtime today.  After lunch, the skies began to darken and we had to call it a day at 2:00.  Of course the weather passed quickly and by 3:30 we were able to get back into the field.  Unfortunately our friend had scattered to the wind and we were left with just a few helpers.  We worked until 6:00 and finished with 2 and 1/2 rows of grapes to pick tomorrow.  We plan to begin picking tomorrow in the morning and hope to finish by 2:00.  We are hoping that a few worker will be able to make it out to help tomorrow.  It will be another long day with both Concord harvest and the Jazz festival in Harrisburg.  This is the time of the year when we feel like we are always on the go.  Thanks to everyone who has and is helping us out.  We really appreciate it.

Picking Concord Grapes Sept. 8, 2012

    Well, it was one year ago today that we were sent home from school as a result of flash flooding caused by Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee.  We had no idea that those two storms were going to cause the worst flooding in this area since Hurricane Agnes in 1972.  The vineyard received about 12 inches of rain last year and it caused many of our Concord grapes to absorb so much water that they split open.  What could have been a disaster, actually turned out happily for us because school was canceled and we had the opportunity to pick our grapes before they rotted.  It was a very memorable occasion as we worked together in the rain and tropical humidity to bring in a huge crop of Concord grapes and make some of the best wine we have ever made.  This year we are not looking at quite the same urgency but it is interesting to note that it is the same weekend that we are going to pick the Concord grapes.  All the numbers are showing that the results from this year's wine are stacking up to provide us with an even better vintage than last year.
     Last year we used words like challenging and okay when we were asked how the wine making was going at the vineyard.  This year without 12" of rain and widespread flooding we are much more optimistic.  If you are available this weekend, stop by and taste the sweetness in this year's grapes.  They are going to make some excellent wines. 

Cassel Vineyards Upcoming Jazz Weekend

    The upcoming weekend involves a lot of Wine and Jazz for Cassel Vineyards of Hershey.   
  
      Friday, Sept. 7th will see the return of Cassel Vineyards Jazz in the Vines as we bring back Dave Knott Jazz Trio for the First Fridays of Fall Jazz Concert series.  Come and see us on Friday from 6-8:00 PM and enjoy our wine and live jazz on the back patio.  (October 5th will be our next First Friday of Fall Jazz Concert)

     Saturday, Sept. 8 and Sunday Sept. 9th we will be at the Hershey/Harrisburg Wine Trail's Jazz and Wine at Fort Hunter Park in Harrisburg.
http://www.hersheyharrisburgwinecountry.com/signature-events/jazz-wine-festival/

    Come and enjoy our wines and music all weekend.

Another Way to Enjoy Cassel Vineyards Wine

    As you can see our wine is not just for wine snobs.  We visited some of our friends in Allentown for the Annual Family Cycling weekend.  After the Saturday ride, we enjoyed our traditional Sparkle hour complete with Cassel Vineyard Wines and cheese from Keswick Creamery.  Everyone enjoyed the combination of wine and cheese some of us more than others.  In this picture, Kreg enjoys the last sip of a bottle of Cassel Vineyards Niagara.  Good to the last drop!  Our hostess Anne was just glad she got the last glass before Kreg finished the bottle.  We are glad you both enjoyed the wine and look forward to sharing another bottle next year.