Late Harvest Vidal

     

      We spent the weekend pressing the late harvest Vidal Blanc.  The resulting juice was amazing.  The final product was almost identical to the juice from last season so hopefully the yeast and wine can decide on another amazing set of flavores that they would like to reveal.  Last year we brought out the bourbon and French oak to finish the late harvest.  This year may be more of the same, but it is also possible to pull other amazing flavores and smells to the forefront in these sweet, dessert wines.  One of my favorites was a French Late Harvest Sauternes with the smell of honeysuckle and flavores of honeyed peaches.  Hopefully, some of these flavores will decide to manifest themselves so that we can get a better idea of how to finish this next batch.  Stay tuned to hear more as this wine progresses.

Beaujolais Nouvea

     A great party tonight as usual at the Hotel Hershey sampling the B & G 2014 Beaujolais nouveau.

We enjoyed the wine and the beautiful surroundings.  The food was great, the wine was amazing and the friends were the highlight of our night.  Comparing our present tasting to last year's tasting is interesting.  We have a very different wine that looks like it is going to be very fresh and flavorful.  Come out to the winery this weekend for a sample.  

Our Biggest Fans

     Last night we had a great time at our wine tasting dinner at Dafnos in Hershey. Although the dinner and wine pairing were spectacular, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank some of our biggest fans.  Their faces and names always show up around the winery.  First, thanks to John and Melissa at Dafnos.  For the past 5 years their restaurant has served our wine and tirelessly introduced their friends and customers to our wines and paired them with our foods. 

  A second fan at our table last night was Jody Dimpsey who has introduced our wine to more Hummelstonians than i knew existed.  Jody has featured our wine at every Hummelstown Arts Festival Event and Meeting and several fire house fund raisers and raffles.  Everyone she knows receives Cassel Vineyards wine for Christmas from Jody and she loves to support us by spreading our name and our wine.

    Thanks to all our fans.  I will continue to try to recognize all of you at some point along the way.

A Wine Tasting Dinner With Our Friends at Dafno's in Hershey

    Tonight, 20 of our guests enjoyed an amazing Italian dinner at Dafno's Italian Grille in Hershey.  Melissa lovingly prepared this 5 course meal to pair with 5 of our new 2013 vintages.  Everyone loved every course and wine pairing as we ate and drank and talked with friends.  The new 2013 Blush, Chardonnay, Chambourcin and Late Harvest Vidal Blanc earned rave reviews from all our guests and several of the cooks as well.  Thanks to all our friends and guests as well as John and Melissa at Dafno's for a perfect evening.

Menu

Appetizer-Avocado Pomegranate Crostini
w/ Award winning Cassel Vineyards Blush

Soup-Creamy Tomato Soup
w/ New Release Sparkling Chambourcin

Salad-Candied Almond Citrus Salad
w/ Finish Line White

Entrees-Beef Yiouvesti or Grilled Salmon
w/Cab. Franc or Chardonnay
Beef-Slowly cooked in a sweet tomato sauce served over top of rice.
Salmon-Grilled And served with linguini in a creamy pink sauce.

Dessert-Salted Caramel Apple Crisp
w/ Bourbon Barrel Aged Vidal Late Harvest

Crushing Late Harvest

  These are pictures of our Late Harvest Vidal Blanc.  As we start the primary ferment, the temperature is plunging.  If a slow fermentation is beneficial, then this is going to be our best Vidal ever.  I placed the must outside and hope the cold doesn't stop the process.  I will keep you posted.

   In other news, we will participate in Small business Saturday two bays after Thanksgiving and accept American Express on that day.  We will also give free tastings and 20% off case purchases so you can stock up for the holidays and winter.  Once again, we plan to close from Dec. to March to prepare our new vintage!

Our Late Harvest Vidal is Picked!

 

      On this cold Friday, Nov. 14 we came straight home from school and set about picking our final batch of grapes in the vineyard.  It is the same weekend that we picked the grapes last year but as is always the case with wine, this year's late harvest is a completely different batch.  

      The weather moving forecast for next week is very similar to last year when we began fermenting the Late Harvest.  The forecast is for lots of cold weather and I hope the fermentation of this year's Late Harvest  will be as long and slow as it was last year.  It was such a blessing to have so many helpers again today despite the cold weather.  Thanks to everyone who lent us a hand.  Your help is always appreciated.

      

Cornucopia Quest Wine Trail Event

     This week found us entertaining 300 guests a day at Cassel Vineyards.  We had a great time introducing our guests to our wine selections and tasting room.  The fun lasted for two weekends from 12 - 5:00.  

  At times our tasting room was so full that we could not fit anyone inside and I was forced to give tours of the vineyard and production facility to buy more time for our tasting room staff.  Everyone seemed to enjoy actually hearing the story of how grapes get from vineyard to glass.  Some even tried to do the magical job of winemaking themselves!

    In the end, we also crowned one more pumpkin painting champion to join the other three.