Winners and winners???

Ok, we had 19 amateur entries in the contest this past weekend and now the Cheesecake winners are known: TOP PRIZE goes to CHERYL YOUNG for her Pina Colada, yum!

First runner up was MARK SILER’s Pecan & Carmel creation;
Second runner-up - MARLA LINES for her New York Style with Red Raspberry Sauce.

I tell you folks, I did not taste a bad one in the bunch and how you can say one is better then another. THANK YOU to all the entrants, we had a very busy day at the winery for the Cheesecake Festival and I believe a good time was had by all!

The COMMERCIAL division was won by SAM’s CLUB, but I forgot to see whose cheesecake they entered on their behalf, so I’ll get you the who and what of the winner very soon!

With our biggest event of the year over, what’s do we have to look forward to in the months to come? As mentioned previously, on October 2 we will release two new versions of our apple wine. First is the ever popular KOKOMO CIDER and we will have it hot & spiced for you to try, as well as chilled. What we are all excited about is the new INDIANA APPLE, an off-dry apple wine that several people have said is the best apple wine they have ever tasted. I felt that’s a bit strong to say about a barrel sample, but we were sipping some of this at the Festival, nicely chilled, and I will say its better then I expected.

We have a little of the 2008 Indiana Apple left, just a few cases. We are blowing it out at $5 a bottle while its lasts!!! A good dry apple wine that is excellent for cooking, sipping, or makes an fabulous spritzer (add 1/3 ginger ale).

In an upcoming blog, I will review our visit to the Pioneer Wine Trail near Jackson, Michigan, where we found some very good wines, well worth the drive up there for.