Battle Plan for the Birds

I don't want to give our secret plans up to the enemy but I doubt any birds are reading my blog so I feel like I can reveal some of our battle preparation. I recently completed assembly of 8 perch towers that we will soon mount our 3 hawk and owl decoys on throughout the vineyard.  The idea is to move the decoys each day to make them look more realistic.  We also purchased an electronic bird repelling caller which emits the sounds of birds as they are being slowly tortured with sounds of hunting hawks also recorded so it sounds very realistic.  The starlings will have to be pretty bold to fly in under the watchful eyes of our decoys while the sounds of their tortured companions are being played for their entertainment and our pleasure!

Finally as our last line of defense we have erected our bird netting over 100 % of our grapes this year.  Instead of using just the nets as we have in the past.  This year we employed the use of plastic PVC spreaders and plastic twine to hold the nets away from the grapes and prevent the birds from landing on the net to peck through.  Thanks to our friend Clint Etnoyer who provided us with the PVC from old plumbing jobs.  If it were not for Chris and Clint we would have spent several $100 to purchase and install vineyard spreaders.  The spreaders and nets look great as you can see but don't tell the birds about our first 2 lines of defense.  This year we may finally win the battle of the birds.

Bird Netting Ready

      Well, we finished netting our grapes a little early this year.  It seems like we are always rushing at the last minute to get our netting done as the birds are devouring our grapes just before we pick them. So this year we put the nets on a week or two early.  I realize this creates a new set of problems like mowing and spraying between the rows and we will have plenty of tears as we remove the nets but with all the grapes we have lost in the last 3 years it is time to take action early this year.  Our crop looks fantastic and we are hoping that everything continues to develop right on schedule.  The pictures show our Chambourcin, Vidal Blanc and Chardonnay from top to bottom with the netting completely covering the vines from root to shoot.  Today I was getting the secret weapon ready to deploy at the first sign of bird damage.  It is an electronic bird repelling system that I will take some pictures of when I install it.  I can tell you that it certainly sounds awful.  Last night I tested it in the kitchen.  The sounds of dead and dying birds at in their final gasps (or should I say tweets) of life were horrific and if it sounds awful to me I think it will even sound worse to my feathered enemies.  We will keep you updated on our progress.  Meanwhile I am going inside to watch the Hitchcock Classic "The Birds"!

Cluster Close

     It has been a crazy hot, humid week here in central PA this last 7 days.  Temperatures have been up in the mid to upper 90's and humidity is off the charts.  After all the rain in June the vines have jumped up and continue to grow at an unbelievable rate. Likewise the grape clusters have surged and as the picture shows, are ready to close up which means the next step will be ripening or veraison, literally, the onset of ripening.  This is always an exciting time as you work and watch before your eyes the transformation of the fruit into their beautiful final stage.  The grapes in this picture are our Chardonnay and they will turn a beautiful golden/bronze color.  We have already thinned the clusters and pulled shoots and leaves to give all the grapes a chance to ripen evenly.  This week we will fix all the bird nets into place and secure them so that the hungry flocks are held at bay.  

      Everyone always asks how the grapes are developing this year and some people are actually interested enough to take the time to walk, look, listen and taste the answers that we try to use to explain this very complex question.  The fact is, so many factors come into play that it's really not until after the harvest and primary fermentation that we can finally asses the growing season.  The short answer is that this year is shaping up to be a fantastic year but we just don't know what nature has in store for the next 3 months.  Hopefully, it will continue to be the perfect season!

A Taste of Hummelstown

     

       It is really hard to believe that we began selling our wine at this event 4 years ago.  The taste of Hummelstown was the first time we were granted permission to sell our wine to the public b y a special permit back in 2009!  Now here we are in 2013 still offering our wine and sangria at this nice little community event.  The weather was very warm last night but the residents who came out enjoyed lots of great food and drink and had time to relax and enjoy.  We had a nice opportunity to talk with all the people who make our lives and job so much fun.  Thanks for coming out.

Preparing for the Birds

   July 14th and we are preparing for the onslaught of hungry birds in the next 3 or 4 weeks.  Talk about a steep learning curve, it seems like just yesterday we discussed the fact that we didn't need any bird nets because we hadn't seen any birds.  We were sitting around discussing our first year's harvest with eager anticipation in 2010.  The next week THEY came.  In no time our Chardonnay and cab franc were stripped of half their fruit and they were just starting to strip our Chambourcin when the netting arrived.  That year was a disaster so we learned a valuable lesson.  The next year we thought we were ready but despite our netting and shotguns the 4 foot nets just were not enough.  Last year we bought 18 foot nets and totally encased our vines and even used double nets 4 and 18 foot nets on some of our chardonnay and cab franc vines.  Despite our best efforts, we still lost about 40% of our most valuable grapes.  This year we are modifying our nets with spreaders made of PVC pipe and twine. Our nets are going up early and we are also going to try an electronic bird distress system that is guaranteed to keep the birds away.  We will see how that all works.  Each year our system improves and hopefully this year will be our best harvest so far.  We are keeping our fingers crossed and our shotguns loaded!

Customer Loyalty Cards @ Cassel Vineyards

    Well, here it is...  So many people have asked us for a frequent buyers/ case club / wine club card that we are releasing our version for membership as of this week.  We combined a whole lot of ideas from different wineries both locally and online to create something that we hope will work for our loyal customers and will not cause us to lose the shirts off our backs.  The way the card works is like this.... 

    If you are a regular customer you purchase the card for $10 and get your next 12 tastings free along with a 10% discount on each purchase.  The tastings have a value of $36 alone and the discounts can add up.  We have always offered a 10% discount on cases but with the loyalty card this discount applies to all purchases including bottles and glasses.  After you have filled your card and used 11 tastings and purchased countless bottles or glasses, you are entitled to a 20% case discount on your final loyalty card purchase.  We hope this will allow our local customers and friends to sample and purchase the wine for their everyday needs and special events and give everyone the flexibility to visit and purchase when they visit. 

   Thanks to all our loyal customers.  This one is for you.

A Beautiful Vineyard Prayer

We received this beautiful card from our friends Phyllis and Ted in Michigan.  It is such a peaceful and tranquil poem with visions of cool breezes, warm sunshine and relaxation among the vines.  I have read it each day, sometimes two times a day to remind myself that I am living the dream.  Sometimes it is just like the prayer says early in the morning with the fog and moisture still dripping from the vines.  However it is when the temperature is at 92 and the humidity makes it hard to breath that I need to remind myself that its all worth it in the fall. Once we have battled the birds, storms and insects and harvested our vineyard and the wine is in the tanks we can sit back and enjoy our accomplishments with our many friends and customers.  I guess that is kind of the way a lot of things are in life.  It takes a little work and discomfort to make the end result something worth sharing and being proud of.  Thanks for the prayer Phylis and Ted.

Dropping Fruit to Improve Wine Quality

It may not look like it from the picture but we spent last Tues, Wed and Thursday dropping almost half of the fruit from our Chambourcin vines.  This picture shows one of the vines after we had removed 10 shoots to improve airflow around the grapes and then removed about 20 clusters of grapes.  We have never been in the situation where are grapes are setting this much fruit and the conditions for growth have been so perfect.  The abundant rainfall in June has produced an over abundance of foliage in plants that already had perfect pollination conditions.  The idea is to thin the fruit to improve the overall quality of our product.  We had to thin the clusters on our Cabernet Franc last year as those vines reached 4 years of age.  This year our Chambourcin and Vidal Blanc followed the same course of overproduction.  Thankfully our Chardonnay were thinned early when we first pulled shoots to improve the disease control so we will not have to cluster thin the Chardonnay.  Our next task will be to put up bird netting to protect the grapes which we have now thinned.  I will follow up with some pictures of our new bird netting later this week as we install the nets.

Independence Day 2013

Happy Fourth of July from Cassel Vineyards of Hershey.  We celebrate our Nations Independence today and thank all the men and women who have served and continue to serve our country in the armed services.  We had a wonderful celebration last week with the U S Air National Guard Band of the Mid Atlantic playing at our vineyard.  For the 3d time this year a beautiful rainbow appeared above the vineyard to treat our visitors to a beautiful natural light show.  

Tonight we will celebrate while we watch the fireworks over Hershey Park from our vineyard.  The show begins at 10:14 so stop by and relax in the back yard if you are in the area.  It should be a fun and relaxing evening to gather with friends and family and reflect on just how fortunate we are here in the United States of America.