Solitary Trees surrounding Cassel Vineyards

Large solitary trees are another piece of the natural artistry in the landscape surrounding Cassel Vineyards of Hershey. These large trees are symbolic in many ways, they symbolize strength, determination, perseverance and wisdom. These natural landmarks hold so many stories and years of historical information. The four solitary trees in these photos are located on Cassel Vineyards and pastures. These trees hold the stories of our Great, Great Grandfather when he began farming this land in 1903. Every season of the year, I look forward to walking around the farm to see the changes that have taken place over the past year. Below are the pictures of these solitary trees in December, 2010.

The first tree is a large Ash tree located in the center of our vineyard, just between our Cabernet Franc and Concord vines.

The second tree has always been one of my favorite places on our farm. This large Sycamore Tree is at the end of our vineyard in what we call the South pasture.

The third tree is a large Tulip Poplar tree that my son Colton has named "The Tree of Perseverance" . This old tree is located in the front pasture just below our block of Cabernet Franc vines.

The Fourth tree is located where we would like to hold weddings and musical events in the near future. The view from this location is beautiful with the Hershey Corporate building and the Hershey Hotel in the background. This large Pin Oak Tree has been named "The Thinking Tree" by our neighbors.

See you in the Spring of 2011

Closing for the season... http://news.thesunontheweb.com/ROP/large/CasselVineyardsofHershey.htm

Cassel Vineyards Article

Check out the article in The Sun about the vineyard.

http://news.thesunontheweb.com/news/2010-10-14/Living_Articles/From_Teaching_to_Planting.html

Cabernet Franc 2009 Release

Here we are showing off our newest vintage. This week we bottled and released our 2009 Cab Franc. It is just a beautiful, young wine. Although it is the same age as our 2009 Chambourcin, it is still going to be a few months in the bottle before it reaches the peak of it's flavorful potential. Don't misunderstand me, drinking it now is just fine. I had a bottle with a big plate of pasta and fresh tomatoe sauce on Friday night and it was exceptional. The wine has a nice light body with a lot of fresh berry and subtle tannins with a nice french-oak barrel finish. As the tannins mellow, this wine will be one of our most memorable drinking experiences. Get a bottle while you can because the supply is going to be very limited with only 18 cases available for purchase this fall. Enjoy a bottle as soon as you can.

The Science Behind the Wines of Cassel Vineyards

This picture shows Chris and Greg testing the Chambourcin juice for total acidity. It is important to pick the grapes at the right time but it is often only possible to get the grape juice close to what winemakers consider perfect. Our titrations show the acidity and our refractometer and hydrometer readings give us the amount of sugar available for fermentation. We have found that keeping accurate records and relying on the scientific measurements and calculations are helping us to achieve solid and consistent results. We owe part of the success to the fact that Chris and I are both science teachers and Greg is a perfectionist. We know how to take the readings and make the calculations and Greg reminds us almost daily how important it is to pay attention to the small details. We like to think that our combination of science and art will continues to produce excellent wine.

Farmer's Market of Hershey

We are really enjoying the people at the new Farmer's Market of Hershey. It is located at the Cocoa Beanery Coffee Shop off of Bullfrog Valley Road. We set up each Thursday at 3:00 and stay until 7:00. The weather and the people have been wonderful. This Thursday, October 23, 2010 will be our 4th week at the market. As you can see, there are quite a few people that shop for their local produce and farm fresh supplies at the market. If you have not been able to make it, this Thursday will be an excellent day because we are having a Fall Harvest Festival. Cassel Vineyards will be serving a Spiced Holiday Wine and we will also have our newly bottled Cabernet Franc on sale along with our other 4 selections which include: Chambourcin, Blush, Concord and Niagara. Unfortunately, all our Strawberry is sold out until we bottle our 2010 vintage in early 2011. Stop by and give us a try.

Harvesting 2010 Cabernet Franc

Here we are picking inspecting and crushing/destemming our 2010 crop of Cabernet Franc grapes. We got help from everyone in the neighborhood and the grapes were exceptionally sweet which means next years wines should be great. These pictures show, from left to right, a basket of the Cab Franc grapes before going into the crusher/destemmer. Rick, Jody's brother, inspecting the grapes as they go into the hopper of the new crusher destemmer. And Chris and Dad (Cleon) inspecting clusters while everyone else does the heavy lifting. It is very labor intensive work but nobody seems to notice because the work is fun and there is always something to talk about. Our harvest was extremely early this year and that means a lot of very ripe, sweet grapes which means another excellent year of wines at Cassel Vineyards of Hershey.