Cassel Vineyards of Hershey's Swedish Meatballs

What a weekend!  Thanks to all the friends and fans who came out and gave us such wonderful compliments.  With the help of some great friends and the family our inaugural Hershey/Harrisburg wine trail event was a HUGE success.  Our friends both new and old made our harvest festival a great time shared with great people.  One of the biggest hits was the Swedish Meatballs in our own Cassel Vineyards Vidal Blanc Cream Sauce.  So many people asked us for the recipe I promised to put it out here on the Cassel Vineyards of Hershey Blogspot.  The recipe comes from my old school friend Kisa who now lives in Minnesota with all her Swedish friends.  Thanks to Kisa, Dave, Greg, Anne and everyone who spent\ their time helping us for this event and the many to come.

Swedish Meatballs in Vidal Blanc Cream Sauce

1 Bag Frozen Meatballs (Swedish style if possible)

Cream Sauce
2 Tbs. melted butter
2 Tbs. flour
1 1/4 c. Beef Bullion
 1/2 c. Cassel Vineyards Vidal Blanc
dash of nutmeg
dash of ground ginger
dash of white pepper
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 quart 1/2 and 1/2

Melt butter, stir in flour and make a roux, slowly mix in beef bullion and H20 and heat while thickening.  Add 1/2 and 1/2 and slowly increase the heat.  When mixture is warm and thick add ginger, nutmeg and pepper.
Meanwhile, heat meatballs in the microwave and cover them with the sauce.  Heat the mixture in a crock pot and serve.  Enjoy with Cassel Vineyards Finish Line White or the remaining Vidal Blanc or both. 

Fall Harvest Celebration at Cassel Vineyards (Italian Meatballs)

     Today we had 500 people pass through our winery.  Everyone seemed to have a great time sampling wine,  talking about the harvest and eating different foods we prepared to pair with our wines.  The wine received some great reviews.  Our Vidal Blanc Semi Sweet nearly sold itself out and we turned many friends on to our new Warm Spiced Holiday Wine.  We switched it up a little bit and Becky ended up in the production facility giving tours to several of our interested guests.  She did a great job and got several compliments.  As promised, I will also give my secret recipe for my meatballs in the next several days.  The Meatballs in Italian Concord Wine Sauce was a big hit served with our Finish Line Red.  Tomorrow, Sunday October 28th from 11 - 5:00, will be the last chance for everyone to try these and other delicious wine paired treats.

Italian Meatballs in Italian Concord Wine Sauce
1 jar of your favorite Italian Tomato Sauce (I use Rague)
1/4 cup Cassel Vineyards Concord Wine
1 bag Moma LaRossa precooked meatballs (or your favorite brand)
Warm sauce and wine in a pot.  Add the meatballs and warm until meatballs are completely heated through.  Enjoy over spaghetti with a glass of Cassel Vineyards Finish Line Red.

Fall in the Vineyard

    The Fall colors in the vineyard are beautiful right now!  In the last week, the sunshine has given us the chance to clean up the vineyard and enjoy the fall colors.  This weekend is our wine trail final event of the season.  Come out and enjoy the beautiful weather on Saturday.  Tickets for Hershey Harrisburg Wine Trail's Fall Event http://www.hersheyharrisburgwinecountry.com/signature-events/fall-festival/ are available at our winery beginning on Saturday at 11:00.  On Saturday and Sunday from 11 - 5:00, we will have free wine tasting, 10% off of all purchases, samples of fresh grape juice, a souvenir glass and a ticket that will allow you to visit all the other area wineries for a similar offer on Saturday and Sunday.  For $10 each or $15 per couple, this is a great deal.  The weather forecast on Saturday still looks great so start early and we will see you at Cassel vineyards.

Everybody Plays a Part

  The final weekend of picking and everyone steps up to contribute to the final product.  In this case it is the Cabernet Franc our premium red.  We waited until all the numbers were perfect.  The night before we picked was the first freeze of the season.  The temperature went down to 27 degrees and as we picked the frost was melted off of the green leaves.  It was not difficult to convince anyone to put on a pair of gloves to begin picking the grapes.  We worked through the morning amidst the friendly banter and stimulating conversation that seemed to warm us up.  The sun began to warm us on the outside, and the sunshine melted the frost from the vines and grapes.  By the time we were done, the frost had melted and the leaves were drying up.  The grape clusters were hanging on the vines and our picking rate increased.  The kids were getting hungry so we decided to finish the job before we adjourned for lunch.  We hope everyone had as much fun picking as they seemed to throughout the day.  The lunch was great and we can't say thank you enough to everyone who contributed to the success of this years harvest.

Celebrating the end of Harvest

Here are pictures of our picking crew at 1:00 when we were all finished and enjoying our  lunch.  We worked until all of the Cabernet Franc were harvested.  Unfortunately, because the bird pressure was so bad this summer, we had only 2 tons of fruit.  The weather this Saturday was stellar.  We ate chili to warm up after a cold start in the vineyards.  It was a great day to do work and finish with our harvest.  Many o four workers were second and third time volunteers and since they work for free all we have to say is thank you and give them a free lunch.What a season, what a harvest.  We are grateful to everyone who has supported our effort in any way.  We couldn't have done it without you.

Caught Working

I was getting wet and dirty on the back crush pad after picking and crushing Chambourcin last weekend when someone picked up my camera and took this picture.  It doesn't happen very often but I got caught getting dirty.  I am cleaning up the crusher de-stemmer in anticipation for this upcoming week.  We hope that Saturday, October 13th will be our final day of picking as we pick the Cabernet Franc.  At this point we have an incredible harvest of exceptional quality fruit.  The weather has taken a turn and the temperatures are getting cool.  We hope the sunshine later in the week can dry off the fruit and give us a nice warm window of opportunity.  If you are free this Saturday, stop out to help us.  You will be rewarded with a great time with a great group of people and an awesome lunch.  You might even catch a glimpse of me working .... maybe.

Curse the Birds

Sometime you just have to hate the birds.  We have been visited by many flocks of starlings, cowbirds and blackbirds.  Back in August, we put our bird nets up to keep the birds from eating all of our Chardonnay, Cab Franc and Chambourcin.  We were very fortunate with the Chardonnay and Chambourcin.  It is amazing how hungry and tenacious the little birds can be.  The only way we could keep the birds off of the Cabernet Franc was to place double side nets on the vines.  At first, we thought the 4' side nets would keep the birds away, but they figured out how to get through to the fruit.  Next we put 18 ' nets over the top to double net the Cabernet Franc.  That worked wherever we had both nets.  However, the pictures above show how we overlooked the double netting on 2 of the  rows.  On these grapes we only put only the 18' nets.  This would have been enough in most places but not with our friends the birds.  They have actually learned how to push the nets in and sit on the 18' nets while picking the vines clean.  So, we are left with 2 rows of grapes with nothing but stripped vines.  Next year we will be ready for the birds.

Chambourcin in Primary Fermentor

     We picked 4 tons of Chambourcin today in a Cassel Vineyard record time of 3 hours!  What a beautiful day!  It all started last night at the Friday night Jazz in the Vines Party.  We had a beautiful evening and around 300 people showed up to enjoy the friends, music and wines.  We knew we had to pick Chambourcin this afternoon so I took the opportunity to ask friends in the crowd if anyone would like to help pick today.  I never imagined that 30 people would show up and help us pick today.  The weather cooperated and the clouds blew through as we picked each row clean.  By 3:00 we were done and ready to eat.  The sun came out and we carved up a beautiful pork roast smothered in homemade sauerkraut and topped with fresh ground horseradish.  The roast tasted great with the Chambourcin we picked in 2010.  When we were done, the grapes were picked, the food was gone and everyone had experienced one of the best days they could remember.  That's the funny thing about our harvest parties, its work but it always seems like we shouldn't be able to have such a good time doing our work.  To everyone who helped and made the picking so much fun, we want to thank you.  Next week we will pick our final varietal of the season.  Hopefully it will be as successful as it was this weekend.