Early Spring in the Vineyards

What a strange start to this year’s growing season.  Not exactly your normal March in the Midwest - nineteen days over 70 degrees (nine over 80) plus enough rain to replenish the unusually low irrigation ponds.  With that combination, the vines got off to an early start while the native grasses and our ground cover started growing like crazy also.  This is the earliest we’ve needed to be out moving and shoot thinning since we started the vineyard!

In spite of our quick & early immersion into the vineyard routine, this will always remain our favorite time of the year.  Watching the vines awake with the growth that will create this year’s vintage and help define each vine’s ultimate, long term form and structure. Every vine has a unique character that we try to help shape each successive year.  We realize more and more that wine growing is an art and not a science subject to fixed rules and formulas.  Perhaps the process changes as a grower expands their vineyards or starts using mechanization but it is our belief that the completely hands-on approach is the only way to go….

On the winery side of things, we released the NorCyana last weekend - we are glad we waited and hope you have a chance to enjoy our embodiment of Missouri State's viticultural treasure.

NorCyana Release

When to release a wine is not always an easy decision.  Such is the case with our new NorCyana.  As many of you know, we aged five barrels of Norton in three different toasts and then carefully blended some contents of each to create our signature blend.  The wine was then finished and laid to rest for the usual four weeks before its release date.  When we tasted the wine recently, however, we decided it needs to rest a while longer before we release it to you.

California vintner Paul Masson once declared - “We shall sell no wine before its time”. We wholeheartedly agree with that philosophy.  The quality of our wine at Fence Stile has always been a primary focus and unfortunately the NorCyana is not quite ready for you yet.  In the meantime, we hope you’ll continue to enjoy Fire Pit Red and Chambourcin – our other dry red wines.
Thank you for your patience. 

Winter... Really?

Well, it’s been roughly six years since my migration from California to Missouri….. and I still can NOT figure out the weather! Seems I’m not alone though – the vines are unsure exactly what they are supposed to be doing also.  Memories of the 2007 Easter freeze still haunt winegrowers in this region and we are therefore, reluctantly, still delaying the start of pruning.  Does a watched Winter ever freeze?

With pruning on hold, our attention has turned to the nectars of past year’s harvests.  The Chambourcin we released a week ago has been well received and welcomed by those who had to do without for far too many months.  Our first Norton has matured in a collection of barrels and we plan to bottle it towards the end of the month – look for a release party in late February.  The Vignoles, Seyval and Vidal are awaiting their turn….
Stay tuned.

Beginnings

And a new year has started… Not just on the calendar but in the vineyards as well. Soon we’ll start pruning the vines and making the thousands of decisions that will affect the quality and quantity of this year’s crop. In the meantime, the mild temperatures have allowed us to get caught up on maintenance and projects around the winery.

Our new Chambourcin is in the bottle - the release party is this Saturday – and soon we’ll be blending five barrels of Norton and bottling it also.  It’s an exciting time of the year – finishing up the wines from last years harvest and preparing the vineyards for this years crop – and I wouldn’t trade it for anything…

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving has historically been, for me, an occasion to gather with family or friends to enjoy good food (accompanied by an excellent bottle of wine, of course), conversation and a friendly game of cards or Scrabble.  Occasionally something I read or saw would remind of the holiday’s origin and its true meaning but I rarely took the time to appreciate what I had to be thankful for.  But life has a way of giving wake up calls to those of us who take our many blessings for granted.  So this year I humbly give thanks for the life I have been handed and especially for:

My incredible wife Shriti who has fiercely fought for me, my health and our future together.  Her unmatched fortitude is responsible for my being here today.  She is tough and there is no one I would rather have in my corner.  I owe her my life and so much more….

My son Amrish who has sacrificed many things while my medical issues were being addressed.  He has always been the first in line to cheer me up or offer a seemingly mindless distraction.

The many friends and even acquaintances who have offered their support and prayers over the past several months.  I never imagined our building a winery would result in a gathering of such wonderful people who care so much about our wellbeing.

I am blessed and will be forever thankful.

Fall means Fire Pit Fridays & Football

Frimly in the grip of fall now sliding into early winter, we are enjoying the fire pit, the mulled wine and the football frenzie.  We have also switched to more indoor events (Pinot Noir tasting coming up) but we have one more harvest on the calendar.   This will be new for us - the grapes should have been harvested a month ago but we bird netted them and let them hang.  This will be our first late harvest.  For those joining us for the harvest, be patient with us - we haven't done this before so we are figuring it out.

We also revised our wine club for 2012 and have included pick-up parties now.  Started with a Friday night pickup and quickly got feedback (hello e-mail) that one day isn't enough.  So - we switched it to a pick-up weekend this time around and we'll see how it goes.

We have been barrel tasting the Chamborcin and Norton - the Chambourcin will be bottled in the next month and Norton soon after that.  Considering throwing out a Norton barrel tasting night - thoughts??

Glad it's fall and we are able to enjoy all the fall things we love! 

Hello Autumn

It had to happen - the weather had to turn cooler at some point!  Haven't we had the best weather for the last few weeks but it is now getting nippy!  We are still holding out for sitting outside as much as we can so have continued with movies on the patio (often posting last minute) to make it happen, one more time!  The movies have been great fun because people share a new experience, together, over a bottle of wine.  Even folks that have seen the movies before say it was a new experience for them.

The Autumn chill has reawakened our taste for mulled wine and because we could never keep up with the demand, we have switched from the campfire kettle to the 50 cup urn!!  In fact, the mulled wine is perfect for the movie night as well.

Many of you have asked (and thank you), how we did with the harvest (given the heart surgery).  We harvested the Seyval and the Vignoles and fermented it before the surgery.  We also harvested the Chambourcin but sold those grapes as we didn't have time to ferment those.  The Concords are being used for our Grape Stomp weekend and the Vidal Blanc are netted with the hope that we will harvest them in November for a late harvest wine.  Yummy!

Looking ahead?  We are back and are excited to get folks back to the winery so we are planning blending workshops, barrel tastings and wine education classes over the winter.  We are back.  :)