Oh no! A major snowstorm is bearing down on the winery on a Friday on a weekend that is already marked by The Big Game. I mention this because snowstorms are a business killer, people seem to hunker down during and after a snowstorm and our business slows way down.
This weekend the Big Game will also slow business, wine does not seem to be a “football drink” for most people. Maybe we need the Gallo Bowl to compete with the Bud Bowl? It has been good to see the growth of wine appreciation in general over the past ten years. One publication claims wine sales have gone up every year for the past ten on a national basis.
So, one thought would be if you need something to do this weekend, stop by and see us, we’ll be happy to see you and we’ll have a good bit of time to give you more then the usual amount of attention.
On a side note, I had been asked several months ago to speak at a fund-raiser in Gas City being held tonight and now the snow is a-coming. I hope we do not get too much to botch up the fund raiser, I support a few not-for-profit events, but this is about historical preservation, one of my hot buttons and we are glad to help out.
Another hot button of mine is how many times we get asked to donate stuff every week! The first year we did pitch in a good bit for local stuff as advertising, to let people know we are here. But we get letters from anybody and everybody now and even other states asking us to donate! Now most of these are non-profits and many are charitable institutions, but we have got to be a bit selective as to who we give to and when.
Thanks, I needed to say that, just got a call from a Union in Indy wanting three gift baskets for a meeting they were having, Arragh!
Friday, February 5, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
rested and ready for The Big Game
This week is a busy one in the winery, because I have not been busy doing much for the last month! As previously mentioned, January is our slow-down, de-stress time after the rush of the gift-giving season. I must admit I have accomplished a bit in both the actual de-stressing and fixing-a-few-problems arena.
We finally found a good cooler for the tasting room. We have wanted to stock locally-made cheese and a larger number of chilled wine bottles for our customers, now we can! This will allows us to have our small wine coolers just for tasting bottles.
I have had a number of requests for a Super Bowl party at the winery, especially for wine club members. I think this happened after I set up my old 25” color TV in the tasting room so we could watch the AFC Playoffs. We knew from prior experience our business would be down due to the game, so we decided we’d hang out in the winery and watch ourselves, keeping an eye on the TV and whatever customers who showed up. That amounted to less then ten people in the door from 3 pm to 6 pm and none of them cared about football. But what about the Big Game?
Now, a business cannot just turn on a TV and show the Super Bowl, the game is licensed to for-profits and even not-for-profits for a substantial fee. I heard of several churches that got in trouble for hosting Super Bowl parties without paying their fee, got to pay Caesar his tax!
I am amused by the fact the term “Super Bowl” cannot be used in an ad without paying for it. So you are hearing “the Big Game” and “Championship game” in place of the Real name of the event.
The game starts at 6 pm, we close at 6 pm, we are not having a party, so we are not worried about it. I expect most people have already made plans for where they will be to watch the Game. I hope they remember to pick up some wine to enjoy during the game, we will be open 1-6 pm day of “The Big Game”!
We finally found a good cooler for the tasting room. We have wanted to stock locally-made cheese and a larger number of chilled wine bottles for our customers, now we can! This will allows us to have our small wine coolers just for tasting bottles.
I have had a number of requests for a Super Bowl party at the winery, especially for wine club members. I think this happened after I set up my old 25” color TV in the tasting room so we could watch the AFC Playoffs. We knew from prior experience our business would be down due to the game, so we decided we’d hang out in the winery and watch ourselves, keeping an eye on the TV and whatever customers who showed up. That amounted to less then ten people in the door from 3 pm to 6 pm and none of them cared about football. But what about the Big Game?
Now, a business cannot just turn on a TV and show the Super Bowl, the game is licensed to for-profits and even not-for-profits for a substantial fee. I heard of several churches that got in trouble for hosting Super Bowl parties without paying their fee, got to pay Caesar his tax!
I am amused by the fact the term “Super Bowl” cannot be used in an ad without paying for it. So you are hearing “the Big Game” and “Championship game” in place of the Real name of the event.
The game starts at 6 pm, we close at 6 pm, we are not having a party, so we are not worried about it. I expect most people have already made plans for where they will be to watch the Game. I hope they remember to pick up some wine to enjoy during the game, we will be open 1-6 pm day of “The Big Game”!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
so it goes
I have told many people who visit the winery one of the winemaker’s challenges is following the progression of taste a wine goes through as it matures. I taste the wine every other week to see what progress has come about, check it for surface molds (yuck!), and check sugar and acid levels.
As an example, I have a wine we put into barrels this fall that I have decided is too sweet, we stopped the fermentation too soon. So I have the choice of re-fermenting all the wine again and trying to stop it at a better sugar level, or do one barrel and ferment it all the way to dryness and then blend it into the too-sweet remaining stock. Which method I choose has yet to be decided, but either should accomplish what we need here, a properly balanced wine.
Last weekend we moved a lot of wine around, “racking” or transferring wine from one container to another has a significant effect on the flavor and character. It is a little more work for us to rack then a typical winery since we have to minimize oxygen contact with the wine since we do not use sulfites as a preservative. The racking process also causes the wine to precipitate out many solids that might otherwise drop out in the bottle.
So the winemaking process goes on, and on, and on. It is what makes winemaking interesting and a constant challenge. But if you do not love it, you might as well get another job…
As an example, I have a wine we put into barrels this fall that I have decided is too sweet, we stopped the fermentation too soon. So I have the choice of re-fermenting all the wine again and trying to stop it at a better sugar level, or do one barrel and ferment it all the way to dryness and then blend it into the too-sweet remaining stock. Which method I choose has yet to be decided, but either should accomplish what we need here, a properly balanced wine.
Last weekend we moved a lot of wine around, “racking” or transferring wine from one container to another has a significant effect on the flavor and character. It is a little more work for us to rack then a typical winery since we have to minimize oxygen contact with the wine since we do not use sulfites as a preservative. The racking process also causes the wine to precipitate out many solids that might otherwise drop out in the bottle.
So the winemaking process goes on, and on, and on. It is what makes winemaking interesting and a constant challenge. But if you do not love it, you might as well get another job…
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
New & Improved?
So what is the new stuff in the new year? Well, we are going to upgrade the winery website, I have the first draft done, tried to upload it, but no go yet. So I have some homework to do on how to tear down the old site and replace it with the new.
New seating for the winery? We are considering replacing some seating we have know with some more of the theatre-style seats we already have some of in place. This will allow us to return the old folding seats to storage for use when needed, we often have private parties exceed 20 people.
Background music? One of the many little things about the winery that make me smile is our current “music system”. It’s a $39 Walmart boom box I picked up just before we opened the winery, seeing I was not going to have time install a proper music system before we opened. To think we are still using it six and a half years later is fairly funny, but what’s even funnier is the comments I’ve gotten about how good it sounds. In my day job I sell commercial audio, both fore- and back-ground systems. It’s the old story of the plumber whose wife has a leaky sink that never gets fixed. We have the equipment in-house now to get the right stuff hooked up and sounding good, including outdoors!
Will there be new wines coming out soon? Possibly, we have a blueberry and a Gewurztraminer that are getting close to drink-ability and we might just have those available in the next few months.
The biggest change at the winery is we have new hours since the first of the year. They really are not “new”, we’ve been following this policy since our third year. We are now open SATURDAY and SUNDAY ONLY until June. Still 1-6 PM, so you will find us there at the usual times. One small change is we are keeping the staff on throughout the year and we (Rick & Betty Jo) will be in the winery from time-to-time. We had a very busy 2009 winter season and we thought the extra help would be useful, plus allow us to do more things besides work in the winery every weekend.
Ahh the (almost) Good Life…
New seating for the winery? We are considering replacing some seating we have know with some more of the theatre-style seats we already have some of in place. This will allow us to return the old folding seats to storage for use when needed, we often have private parties exceed 20 people.
Background music? One of the many little things about the winery that make me smile is our current “music system”. It’s a $39 Walmart boom box I picked up just before we opened the winery, seeing I was not going to have time install a proper music system before we opened. To think we are still using it six and a half years later is fairly funny, but what’s even funnier is the comments I’ve gotten about how good it sounds. In my day job I sell commercial audio, both fore- and back-ground systems. It’s the old story of the plumber whose wife has a leaky sink that never gets fixed. We have the equipment in-house now to get the right stuff hooked up and sounding good, including outdoors!
Will there be new wines coming out soon? Possibly, we have a blueberry and a Gewurztraminer that are getting close to drink-ability and we might just have those available in the next few months.
The biggest change at the winery is we have new hours since the first of the year. They really are not “new”, we’ve been following this policy since our third year. We are now open SATURDAY and SUNDAY ONLY until June. Still 1-6 PM, so you will find us there at the usual times. One small change is we are keeping the staff on throughout the year and we (Rick & Betty Jo) will be in the winery from time-to-time. We had a very busy 2009 winter season and we thought the extra help would be useful, plus allow us to do more things besides work in the winery every weekend.
Ahh the (almost) Good Life…
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
In With the New...
As we begin our eighth year in business, we look forward to new things and old things alike, with enthusiasm. Any business must constantly evolve to survive, it must remake itself every so often to progress and mature its market. Yet we also want to keep that which has made us a success, the tone and tenor of our business, along with the familiar products our customers have come to like and buy again and again.
New things include our wines made with vinifera, or European heritage grapes. For years we have concentrated on native grapes because of their lower cost. The poor economy and a “grape glut” have depressed prices to the point we have been able to buy some of these premium quality grapes at reasonable prices. We hope to be able to continue to offer these, but who knows what the future holds for grape prices?
Other new things include our widening of our wine selection, at present over 20 different wines both sweet and dry. We tried a honey wine in 2009 and expanded our fruit wines as well. One point is that we have seen dry wine sales increase markedly in 2009 and this is a good thing. Dry wines are healthier and pair better with food then the sweet wines. I also think this represents our core customers’ tastes maturing and moving into a greater amount of dry wine purchases.
We are considering the possibility of expand our facility in 2010, its at the “how much will it cost” stage at this point, but our increasing sales volume is making it hard for us to squeeze the wine we need to stock into the space we have now. We thought about a move to another building in Converse quite seriously, but it seems the dollars and cents for adding on to the carriage house just makes more sense, if you see the pun there.
New wine labels debuted in 2009, the first that did not feature 19th century artwork. The one you might have seen is OLD BEN, which honors the stuffed steer that has been displayed in Kokomo for many years. The other label features a picture of the 1930-era water tower that had been a Converse landmark and trademark. We like labels with a local connection and when we introduce WATERTOWER in 2010 as a semi-sweet Gewurztraminer wine , we think both locals and visitor will like it.
What else will 2010 bring? Keep your eye here and we will do our best to keep you up to date. Keep in mind that starting January 1, we will be open only SATURDAY and SUNDAY until June 1, 1-6pm as always. See you in the tasting room!
New things include our wines made with vinifera, or European heritage grapes. For years we have concentrated on native grapes because of their lower cost. The poor economy and a “grape glut” have depressed prices to the point we have been able to buy some of these premium quality grapes at reasonable prices. We hope to be able to continue to offer these, but who knows what the future holds for grape prices?
Other new things include our widening of our wine selection, at present over 20 different wines both sweet and dry. We tried a honey wine in 2009 and expanded our fruit wines as well. One point is that we have seen dry wine sales increase markedly in 2009 and this is a good thing. Dry wines are healthier and pair better with food then the sweet wines. I also think this represents our core customers’ tastes maturing and moving into a greater amount of dry wine purchases.
We are considering the possibility of expand our facility in 2010, its at the “how much will it cost” stage at this point, but our increasing sales volume is making it hard for us to squeeze the wine we need to stock into the space we have now. We thought about a move to another building in Converse quite seriously, but it seems the dollars and cents for adding on to the carriage house just makes more sense, if you see the pun there.
New wine labels debuted in 2009, the first that did not feature 19th century artwork. The one you might have seen is OLD BEN, which honors the stuffed steer that has been displayed in Kokomo for many years. The other label features a picture of the 1930-era water tower that had been a Converse landmark and trademark. We like labels with a local connection and when we introduce WATERTOWER in 2010 as a semi-sweet Gewurztraminer wine , we think both locals and visitor will like it.
What else will 2010 bring? Keep your eye here and we will do our best to keep you up to date. Keep in mind that starting January 1, we will be open only SATURDAY and SUNDAY until June 1, 1-6pm as always. See you in the tasting room!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
News & Views?
I just had a nice email from a customer who has some time off over the next week or so and asked about spending some time in the winery. I pointed out we are fairly busy during the Dec 26 to Jan 3 time frame, but there is always a few seats open in our sitting area. We offer wine by the glass plus our hot spiced cider (10% alcohol) and cheeses with salami and crackers. We allow snacks to be brought in as well, often there is a pretty good spread from table to table, I have been known to graze through myself from time-to-time, saves my wife making me lunch.
Business continues to be good, as expected. There seems to be a strong motivation to give gifts from local sources this year in particular. One customer said she always buys her friend a nice Merlot wine, but this year she is buying one of our red wines because there is a “story” she can tell about the wine. I appreciate customer who get-it that way, our naturally made wines are different and be made locally does make the unique.
I can recall vividly the moment, before we were open, we were discussing wine names and the thought of naming a few wines for local places of interest blossomed into naming all the wines for Hoosier towns and landmarks. I truly believe that is the a key part of our success, making a local winery truly local through the wines’ names.
I should mention the emails regarding blueberry have been mostly positive and we expect to have such a wine fairly soon, probably post-holiday-time. I have been able to just keep up with our present wine list, keeping enough bottled of what we have in stock.
I am sorry to say we have run out of MEAD MARION, our sweet honey wine, and it will be awhile before we have any more. We use local honey and make it naturally (of course) so it takes a long time to mature. I see we are almost out of an old favorite, PERU PEACH, which is over seven years old and the last of the start-up stock of wines we had when we opened. It took the wine three years to mature and I hesitate to start any wine that takes such a long time to become drinkable again. I have thought about a peach juice and white grape blend though, so we’ll see how that turns out next year.
I want to mention how much I appreciate the emails and public comments here on the blog over the past six months. I was told its takes about two years to firmly establish a blog’s readership, but I look at the blog simply as an extension of our website. A place for more information and insight into our business and winemaking philosophy. I do not imagine our blog will ever be what is called a “Big Read” in the world of blogging, bit we hope it does give you some more useful information and background on us.
See you in the winery!
Business continues to be good, as expected. There seems to be a strong motivation to give gifts from local sources this year in particular. One customer said she always buys her friend a nice Merlot wine, but this year she is buying one of our red wines because there is a “story” she can tell about the wine. I appreciate customer who get-it that way, our naturally made wines are different and be made locally does make the unique.
I can recall vividly the moment, before we were open, we were discussing wine names and the thought of naming a few wines for local places of interest blossomed into naming all the wines for Hoosier towns and landmarks. I truly believe that is the a key part of our success, making a local winery truly local through the wines’ names.
I should mention the emails regarding blueberry have been mostly positive and we expect to have such a wine fairly soon, probably post-holiday-time. I have been able to just keep up with our present wine list, keeping enough bottled of what we have in stock.
I am sorry to say we have run out of MEAD MARION, our sweet honey wine, and it will be awhile before we have any more. We use local honey and make it naturally (of course) so it takes a long time to mature. I see we are almost out of an old favorite, PERU PEACH, which is over seven years old and the last of the start-up stock of wines we had when we opened. It took the wine three years to mature and I hesitate to start any wine that takes such a long time to become drinkable again. I have thought about a peach juice and white grape blend though, so we’ll see how that turns out next year.
I want to mention how much I appreciate the emails and public comments here on the blog over the past six months. I was told its takes about two years to firmly establish a blog’s readership, but I look at the blog simply as an extension of our website. A place for more information and insight into our business and winemaking philosophy. I do not imagine our blog will ever be what is called a “Big Read” in the world of blogging, bit we hope it does give you some more useful information and background on us.
See you in the winery!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Let it snow, a little? -Nah!
The Guy does not like wine. The question is, then, “What is he doing in a winery?” You can’t really ask that though, so we all just smiled and said, “Would you like to taste some?” Oddly he said “Yes!” Then he leaves with a case of wine for himself and as gifts. The question still hangs in front of me, why did he stop in a winery if he does not like wine?
Actually we get a lot of “Guys” who walk in the door, usually being towed by a wife or girlfriend,,who explain they do not like wine then end up liking at least one they try of our 20+ choices. I wonder why they start out saying they do not like wine?
I suspect what they mean is, “I have never tasted a wine I liked very much” which makes good sense. I also have the person who afterwards admits they were intimidated by the whole “wine experience” thing.
I know what they mean. I went to a fancy dinner a number of years ago and there were four forks, three knives, and two spoons next to my plate. I first thought there had been a mistake, but then I saw everyone had that many. Clearly I was out of my depth, so I watched a gentleman across the table from me and followed his lead on what to eat with which utensil. I never did use the fourth fork though, I understood the salad and dessert fork concept OK, but did they want me to use one fork for my meat and another for veggies? I am still a little lost, but how many fancy dinners do I eat at, huh?
Here we are, two-thirds the way through December and I have not keeled over yet, but we are working hard. The blueberry is still not ready and our new semi-sweet WATERTOWER has not made an appearance yet. Keep in mind after January 1 we go back to being open WEEKENDS ONLY until June 1. We are open Dec 24 and Dec 31 until 6 pm if you need anything!
Actually we get a lot of “Guys” who walk in the door, usually being towed by a wife or girlfriend,,who explain they do not like wine then end up liking at least one they try of our 20+ choices. I wonder why they start out saying they do not like wine?
I suspect what they mean is, “I have never tasted a wine I liked very much” which makes good sense. I also have the person who afterwards admits they were intimidated by the whole “wine experience” thing.
I know what they mean. I went to a fancy dinner a number of years ago and there were four forks, three knives, and two spoons next to my plate. I first thought there had been a mistake, but then I saw everyone had that many. Clearly I was out of my depth, so I watched a gentleman across the table from me and followed his lead on what to eat with which utensil. I never did use the fourth fork though, I understood the salad and dessert fork concept OK, but did they want me to use one fork for my meat and another for veggies? I am still a little lost, but how many fancy dinners do I eat at, huh?
Here we are, two-thirds the way through December and I have not keeled over yet, but we are working hard. The blueberry is still not ready and our new semi-sweet WATERTOWER has not made an appearance yet. Keep in mind after January 1 we go back to being open WEEKENDS ONLY until June 1. We are open Dec 24 and Dec 31 until 6 pm if you need anything!
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