A Beautiful Sight - Vines Pruned and Tied

The beautiful weather has allowed us to work in the vines and prepare the vineyard for the upcoming growing season. Compare these pictures of the neat clean rows with all the vines trimmed and taped to the wires to the ones that were posted early in the year. The vines look so nice and now we are ready for the warm Spring temperatures. I will post some pictures of all the help that we have gotten over the last several days in the upcoming photos. Keep checking on our progress.

Easter Wine Conference in Lancaster

Cassel Vineyards of Hershey entered its Niagara wine in the Pennsylvania Wine Association wine show and competition held this past week in Lancaster, PA. Our wine won another Bronze medal making it the 3d award winning wine already this year. The Niagara joins the Blush (Bronze 2012, Silver 2011) and the Vidal Blanc (Bronze 2012) in our portfolio of award winning wines! We are proud of the wines we make and serve and invite you to come and try all of our offerings.

First Look at Interior of Winery

Yesterday they finished pouring the concrete floor in the interior of the winery and tasting room. At this point it is just one big room with four walls. This picture is taken from the side patio facing the vineyard. It shows the tasting room at the far end and the area directly in front is the production area. There will be a partition wall dividing the two areas and we hope to erect the walls and finish some of the wiring this weekend. Progress is moving along quickly and will continue to show big changes over the next several months. However, with spring pruning and preparation for bottling in full swing we are gearing up for a lot of long evenings in the vineyard and winery. In the end it will all be worth the work.

The Workers Behind the Scene

These are the men who are doing the work behind the scenes on our new winery. Chris made friends with the guys on the second day of the job by giving them each a bottle of our award winning Blush. The crew has been working extra hours and Saturdays and we are exremely impressed with the quality of their work as well. We hope to have floors tomorrow and I will make a new entry with updated pictures as soon as possible.

Big Ben Visits Cassel Vineyards of Hershey

Ben Roethlisberger stopped by Cassel Vineyards last weekend on his way home from a goose hunting trip on Cassel's Brookside Farm. The geese weren't flying so he called it a day after several hours and stopped by the house and winery to thank us and enjoy a taste of our Award Winning Blush Wine. His entourage enjoyed the Strawberry Wine and promised to come back the next time they were in the area. This picture shows how big "Big" Ben really is when measured up against a Cassel. Jody (Lifelong Steeler's Fan) could not resist having her picture taken beside her idol. Becky tried to made it home in time to have her picture taken with Ben. She was wearing her Miami University (Ben's Alma Matter) sweatshirt but he was gone before she arrived. You too can taste the wines that Ben and his hunting buddies drank when we re-open on June 2nd. Cheers!

Nice Weather = Progress

The nice weather this week has given Chad Weaver and his crew a chance to make a lot of progress on the completion of our new Cassel Vineyards Winery and tasting room. The weather has also been very helpful in preparing our wine for cold stabilization and fining this week. As soon as the new building is completed (and we pass PDA inspection) we will be able to begin bottling and production for the upcoming year. It will be great to be in our new building with some room to work. Currently we are shoe-horned into our old winery with stacks of bottles and stainless steel vats. The work will really begin for us when the outside of the vineyard is finally complete. The plans for the tasting bar are coming along very well and that is something else we are really looking forward to. Hopefully, we can open the tasting bar the first Sat. and June. Hope you can join us for a tour of the new building and a tasting of our new wines.

Update on Construction (Feb. 12)

Here are the latest pictures of the construction of our winery and tasting room. In the first picture you can see Becky standing in the tasting room while I am taking the picture from our production area. The second picture shows a side view so the new winery from the side looking out over the vineyard. The weather has turned a bit too cold to continue working on the exterior. In the next week as the weather moderates, the contractor plans to have the building under room and complete the walls. After the walls and roof are completed, they will then put in the drains, plumbing and pour the foundation. We are expecting most of the exterior work to be completed by the second week of March if we continue to have good weather. It will be great if we can stay on schedule and open by June 2nd. Keep up with the construction on our blog.