Crazy Busy

Just a quick update to inform readers that I will begin writing again later this week.  Unfortunately, I have no new pictures to upload because I have been so busy pruning, filtering and bottling along with Chris, Greg and all our wonderful volunteers.  More tomorrow when we finish our last bottling and have our 17,000 bottles completed.

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.