25 Days and Counting Down

Another busy weekend in the winery getting our wine bottled and ready for the upcoming Spring Opening on Saturday, March 16th at 12:00!  This picture shows everyone gathered around our bottler as we form our assembly line to bottle our Chocolate Port.  As I said before, we couldn't do it without our friends and family.  Here Dave prepares the bottles for filling.  He passes them on to Rod who is working the corking machine.  He passes it to Liz who puts on the PVC shrink caps.  Liz gives the bottle to Becky to put the label on, and then Becky hands it to Jim who puts them in the cases and stacks them on the pallet.  I am in charge of quality control (sampling) and public relations.  The countdown continues as we are now done with strawberry, peaches and honey, Cabernet franc, Chambourcin, chocolate port, and our new sparkling Chambourcin. 6 more varieties to go!!

Wine Cheese and Chocolate

I am looking forward to seeing many of our friends at the first event of the year for Cassel Vineyards of Hershey.  

On April 7, we will be pairing wine with chocolate and cheese at the Hershey Country Club.  This is organized as a fun, social event and will also be interactive.  I will start with a brief overview of wine pairing and make some suggestions about how to enjoy the experience.  Then, using our cell phones, each taster will try 4 wines, 4 cheeses and 4 chocolates and text their results to the poll center where our votes will be tabulated and results will be displayed.  It is guaranteed to be a very enjoyable time for everyone who comes and participates.  I hope to see you there but you will have to drop me an e-mail in advance in order to purchase your ticket.  See the poster above for more information and give me a call or drop me a not at casselvineyards@gmail.com

Friends

What would we do without friends here at Cassel Vineyards?  The last two weeks we have spent evenings and weekends bottling our fruit wines.  The work has been manageable and even fun thanks to all our friends who pitch in and help out.  We don't offer big paychecks or special entertainment but we do have fun.  After we finish work we also offer food and drink.  Last weekend we had a port taste test after we were done.  This Sunday we are going to work on some ideas for our new sparkling Chambourcin wine.  A big thanks to everyone who has come out to give us a hand.  We couldn't do it without our friends!

After the Work

We did a taste test of the new 2012 chocolate port last night just to make final adjustments before our bottling on Sunday.  The results this year seem even better than last year with a smoother blend that has more depth and complex flavor.  The vintage this year stands up with the chocolate and delivers a very nice, long finish that went great with the blue cheese and man jego cheeses.  We will bottle and then release this vintage on March 16th at noon with free tastings including samples of the port.  Looking forward to seeing you then.

Back Where We Began

After 2 very busy weekends we are back to where we began.  That is just one way of looking at the progress we have made in the past 4 years.  As Chris said yesterday, in the first 3 days of bottling this year we have made and bottled more wine than we made the entire first year.  The four bottles which I have photographed above are the 4 types which we began with.  We also had our Concord and Niagara but all of those wines combined didn't equal the amount of Strawberry, Peach & Honey, Cabernet Franc and Chambourcin that we just finished bottling.  Wow, we still have our biggest batches of Blush, Concord, Niagara, Vidal Blanc, Chardonnay, Finish Line Red, Chocolate Port and our new Sparkling Chambourcin to bottle.  It's just amazing to think of where we started and what lies ahead.  The upcoming year will be very interesting with all the challenges and satisfaction that comes from growing a business.  We hope you can be a part of it by stopping by and trying some of the new types of wine we will be offering .  But don't forget to try a couple of the old favorites.  They usually sell out first because of their loyal fans who look forward to Spring Strawberries and Summer  Peaches & Honey.  Mark your calendar for March 16 and stop by to try a sip of our past.

A Bottle and a Book

         Our friend and nationally recognized short story author Curtis Smith came by last week to celebrate the release of his latest short story collection Beasts and Men.  We were also celebrate the bottling of our Cabernet Franc which happened at the same time. Both of our works were excellent so we made an exchange.  Curt took the first bottle of wine to share with his publisher while I bought a book to read with my bottle of wine.  The exchange left us both mutually satisfied.  His book is excellent and you can order it at www.Press53.com.  The only catch is that you will have to wit until April to try our new Cabernet Franc.

God Made a Farmer

God Made A Farmer  (click to watch video)

And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer.God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the field, milk cows again, eat supper, then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board." So God made a farmer.God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt and watch it die, then dry his eyes and say,'Maybe next year,' I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from an ash tree, shoe a horse with hunk of car tire, who can make a harness out hay wire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. Who, during planting time and harvest season will finish his 40-hour week by Tuesday noon and then, paining from tractor back, put in another 72 hours." So God made the farmer.God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bales, yet gentle enough to yean lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-comb p...


I was sent this link by our PA Wine Growers representative in Harrisburg and the story goes that Dodge created the add for the Super Bowl and partnered with the National Future Farmers of America to raise 1 million dollars to combat world hunger.  Simply by watching this video and spreading the word for the American Farmer and Dodge Trucks.  You can never be sure if what you read on the Internet is true but even if it is not its still a great 3 minute video.  I hope you enjoy it and can pass it on to a friend or two.  Then stop by a farm and buy a Dodge Ram or a bottle of Cassel Vineyards Wine.

Bottling for 2013

The following pictures were taken this past weekend at the winery as we began preparing for our upcoming season.  We began at 7:30 as we planned to complete bottling of two of our varieties.  By 9 we were bottling our Cabernet Franc and finished 45 cases by 11:30.  We took a lunch break and enjoyed some of the new wine with pulled pork sandwiches.  By 12:30 we were back at it bottling a batch of this spring's strawberry wine.  The new wine tasted just like fresh strawberries straight from the garden.  Chris and Greg have once again created some of the best fruit wine I have ever tasted.  Next week we plan to bottle the Peaches and Honey and Chambourcin.  We are starting to look forward to what promises to be a very delicious vintage that we will begin sharing through several special events in the upcoming weeks.  I plan to post these events on this blog, Facebook at Cassel Vineyards, Twitter following craig@casselvineyards #casselvineyards and on my Instagram.  Thank you for following me however you get the information.